Getting started again

Hello everyone once again! 

As I mentioned last time, I'm still trying to reduce the lead pile, and so far 2018 is going better than 2017.

First of all, I'm incredibly generous, and overall just a great person, so I gave Kieron 23 models. Admittedly they were models that he'd already given to me, but I based some of them on pennies ages ago so he's made something like 14p out of the deal. See? I'm really something. I've decided that this counts as the opposite of "acquiring" models, so that's going to do the score some good.

Second, I received my order from Warlord, which had a much smaller model count than last year. This was going to be just five models, but Warlord made a bit of a boo-boo and sent me the wrong tank platoon - Japanese Chi-has instead of French Char 1 Bis. Because they have great customer service, once I contacted them they both sent the correct box very quickly but also let me keep the one they sent by mistake, so I've ended up with 8 new models on the pile. Can't really complain there!

Finally, but most importantly, I've done some painting!

These are Senegalese Tirailleurs that I got from Pete a couple of years ago as a secret santa gift. I've decided that my failure to paint several years' worth of Christmas presents has become embarrassing, so I've given myself a mini-project of working through it all. So keep an eye out for more of that going on.

I struggled a bit with painting these - black skin isn't something I have a good method for, and I think I also put too much ink on the uniforms. But overall I think these came out ok, and they didn't take a huge amount of time. In Bolt Action they count as tough fighters, gaining a bonus in close combat. So that's nice.

You might have noticed that I've given these guys slightly inconsistent headgear. This is because they're all wearing their fezzes (fezi?) despite carrying helmets and clearly being in combat. By rights, they should all have a khaki cover over the fez, since bright red isn't a great battlefield colour unless you're intending to be shot. I would therefore like them to be khaki-coloured, to preserve some amount of sense. However, I know for an absolute certainty that if I field this unit without anyone in bullet-magnet red I'll never hear the end of it, so I've compromised and done 6 out of 10 in red fezzes.

This is of course a complete waste of time, and I'll still never hear the end of it.

Right, that was short and sweet, let's get to the first scores of 2018...

Acquired: -15 (due to incredible generosity that I'm too modest to go on about)

Painted: 10

So I'm 25 up! Not a bad start at all.