Down at the Workbench

A brief interlude to mention what I'm up to at the moment on my workbench - not that I actually have a permanent place like a 'workbench' or anything, but well, you get the idea.

The first thing driving me to madness is the ongoing painting epic with the Perry Wars of the Roses figures. I decided that painting en masse was the only way to avoid a complete nervous breakdown, so what you see snapped above is a full half (yes, just half - I need to do this all over again!) of the miniatures. Specifically, this is my 'Retinue' box, where all figures contained are getting a liveried coat. I am painting the figures step by step, and uniformly bringing them up to the same condition. First it was shoes, for about 80 figures (160 bloody boots!) and then it was skin-tone on the face & hands; then steel on helmets, mail & blades; now livery colours, as per the plan I had worked out. Hard going, for the time being at least, but there is undeniable progress to compensate for the present tedium. Once this is done, it's legs, then belts & equipment, then grass highlights on the bases.

So, what else? Well, the state of the other army at the moment is:

Well, let's be honest about it: it's awful. This is the embryonic stage of the army coming up shortly. It's the other half of my WW2 Desert Army pair: the Afrika Korps! The models are on order from Pendraken, but I have made a start by cutting the plastic bases for them all in advance. Here they are, stacked up, and pretty much all I have to look at until the postman does his thing!