New figures and preparing for San Antonio Muster on 25 July

I mentioned two painting services in my last post. The one that had the problem with my order has been quite understanding and is working to fix it. People make mistakes and they are even implementing an idea I gave them to prevent it happening again.

I said I would name the other painting service after I received some figures. I am VERY happy to introduce you to Nigel Billington's Paintedsolider.net. You may have seen Nigel's work on TheMiniaturesPage.com, where he posts as "de Ligne."

Nigel is working on my Eureka, Minden and Fife & Drum figures. Here are pictures of his work on Eureka Arquebusiers de Grassin and Minden Legion de Hainaut. He did not base them at my request, as I have found that different painters' work can be tied together in my collection by having the same basing style. I think you will agree that he has done a terrific job! I'm looking forward to the Saxons, Prussians, and Austrians he has now.

Sorry for the photography. I’m crap at it.

Legion de Hainaut:

Mounted Arquebusiers de Grassin:

These figures from Nigel are filling some holes in my SYW collection, namely light troops and Prussian cavalry. I have some ideas for a new campaign and hope to post about them later.

Reduction of the lead pile has been a goal of mine. No, I’m not painting them. I find painting to be an increasingly frustrating and unfulfilling endeavor. So I shipped off a truly enormous number of figures to Nigel and other services. I still have an embarrassingly large supply, but feel I am finally accomplishing something with figures that have been around for years.

Meanwhile I have been preparing for the LPE game that I will put on at our club’s mini-convention, San Antonio Muster, on 25 July. I have placed a number of orders for bases and basing material, but they will probably not arrive in time, so I will be using the figures as is. I should at least have the primered bases seen below painted to match Ray’s British bases. Here are a couple pictures of a game that Ray and I played while he was in town last week:

We played two quick games. I routed him as the French, then he ground me down and destroyed every last one of my units when I played British. But he only had a couple left himself. It reminded us both of how much fun we have playing it.

It will be fun to introduce new players to this game next Saturday.