Salute the Cavalry!

For once a couple of things have happened that are worth blogging about. Try not to be too shocked.

First of all, I've painted more things!

Not big things, admittedly, but still, here they are...

Some dismounted Union cavalry! These match to the mounted versions I already have painted, so now, should I ever keep my cavalry around long enough to allow them to dismount, I'll be able to represent that clearly. So that's nice.

Next, I went to Salute! We seem to instituted a weird system where someone chaperones Kieron on his birthday trip down to London, and this year it was my turn. We arrived after only a short delay due to an accident on the M1, and a shorter one as we drove somewhat randomly around residential streets to find the parking space I'd booked. 

It was worth the wait though! I picked up several things:

Stuff!

I got the Salute free mini (a Russian standard bearer that might work for VBCW at some point), a free Wild West Exodus thing (might work as a wizard for Kings of War), two free Mantic zombies (which will presumably work as zombies), a painting guide for multicam from Spectre (useful if I ever get around to painting my US army), a free die (for rolling things), and a free sweet (for eating).

I also spent some money, and got a pack of seven defensive cloches that I'll use for Bolt Action, an MDF fountain, some small scale flexible roads, and the pre-release Shaltari command cards for Dropfleet Commander.

So, more work for myself there. Still, I was more restrained than I might have been, so, just barely, I avoided increasing the lead pile more than my painting had reduced it - I painted 12 tiny models but acquired 11 of various sizes on the day.

So watch out for something happening with all of this stuff! And now, numbers.

Painted: 81

Acquired: 78

On the right track

I've been painting again! There's absolutely no way that anyone could find this to be less than entirely thrilling.

Admittedly, I haven't done a lot of painting. But I do at least have something to show for it, which is this...

Choo choo!

Train tracks! I got these a while ago when the trend in our group was for 6mm American Civil War, and we needed terrain. And, you know, "terrain" = "train", maybe, or something.

Wow, that was terrible. I feel bad for you having read it.

Anyway... last weekend, our ACW campaign led to the battle of Vicksburg. The campaign rules generated a battlefield based on the map, and that had a railway line running into it. Kieron casually mentioned a couple of days before the game that we could ignore the railroad, which for some reason made me incredibly determined to paint one before the game.

So, you know, I did that.

The best part, of course, is that the track comes as two dozen separate pieces. Therefore, I'm counting it as 24 models towards my tally of painting for the year. This might be a bit of a stretch, but the key thing is that it'll bother Pete, which is an excellent reason to do more or less anything.

Here's the tally, increased by 24 on the "painted" side...


Painted: 69

Aquired: 67

This puts me over the top! Choo choo!