Project Update

I thought I would give an update on the progress (or otherwise) of the various projects for this year:

28mm Winter War
The Soviets are now complete and I finished the second Bolt Action Miniatures building for Lenin's last visit but I still have the Snapdragon revetments to paint up, mainly due to running out of suitable undercoat - something I hope to remedy this week.

28mm Spanish Civil War
I have the Assaltos, Carlists, Moroccan Regulares, the Falange and a few Republicans on the workbench at the moment and hope to make some progress on finishing their basing today. I also have the armoured truck to finish painting, although I'm not entirely happy with progress to date. The Grand Manner church is still on the wish list!

28mm WW1
With virtually all the figures now complete and based - I only have to finish off a couple of HMGs and the German field artillery piece (which is proving more difficult to assemble than its British counterpart) - its clear that putting on a game does provide the impetus to getting this stuff done.

The new Lardies supplement, Stout Hearts & Iron Troopers, has prompted me to review the figures I have and, as usual when you get a new supplement, I've found I need a few more figures. This is mainly for my late war ranges, which is a shame as they are all Brigade figures and the exchange rates is somewhat less favourable than it was. But I can sense an order coming on...

28mm Irish War of Independence
I still have the Sloppy Jalopy armoured car to assemble as it is needs a lot more work than the other vehicles I have made up recently. The resin is a pretty coarse moulding and lacks anything in the way of holes or marks for the white metal parts to be fixed to. Plus the white metal wheels simply don't fit onto the axles and so they will require drilling out. I'm hoping it will be worth the effort.

I do now have my Musketeer BEF, which just need basing, which can be used for regulars as well as for the 1938 project. I won't be able to mix them with the Renegade early war figures though as they are markedly different in size. The Lancia armoured truck is going together pretty well and I hope to have that finished soon - although the steering wheel doesn't have any mounting point and a couple of the smaller parts are a bit fiddly.

28mm Tudor Irish
No real progress here again. I have had some ideas about the rules - some prompted by the Lardies new sets, Sharp Practice in particular. But, being honest, I can see this not really progressing until later in the year.

28mm Early WW2
The Foundry and Crusader British and German figures are back now and I have started the basing process, although they are now in the queue behind the SCW stuff. I am hoping to get the French figures back shortly too and I can see a game in the offing. Although I'm not sure whether it will be France or Sealion - the latter being the most probable since I am reading a book on the subject!

28mm 1938 A Very British Civil War
I am hoping to get the Musketeer BUF and Police back shortly and am slowly amassing a militia force as they make new releases. I think I will probably put a game on with these figures for Lenin's next visit using a combination of the Crusader WW2 (as regulars), BEF (as Territorials) and some IRA plus SCW figures as the opposition. With the possibility I may throw a few suitable Pulp figures in too. Rules and the current question as to whether to go with Chain Reaction 3.0 or to go for a larger game and use Through the Mud & the Blood given the content of the Triumphant Standards supplement.

28mm Wild West
Having put on a game for Lenin's last visit I think I've really got this where I wanted for this year. Six Gun Sound worked well as the rule set - even though I did get a pasting in both the games we played! My next task is to review the Dixons figures I have and see which ones will fit with the new Brigade ones and whether any rebasing is necessary.

28mm Polar Bear Expedition
This really hasn't advanced since I got the HLBS figures - although I see Tiger have bought the range now so they won't be going away. I'm thinking this will become a wider RCW project using the Musketeer WW1 Russian figures for whites and probably getting some Copplestone figures to add to Lenin's for the Reds. I'm waiting for Musketeer to release the Russians in greatcoats before pushing this one forward too much. TTM&TB is likely to be the preferred ruleset which will dictate the figure numbers needed

28mm Greek Myth
Still no real progress here as Lenin is snowed under with other stuff and so they'll be a little while yet.

28mm Napoleonics
I am currently packing up the Front Rank figures for dispatch to the painter having cleaned them up a little. After having had another go with Sharp Practice recently I'm keen to get these ones to the table.

Other Ideas
I am having my usual problem of spotting new projects before I have finished the current ones. I have been good and haven't yet bought any new figures but the time will come. The new ideas include:

WW1 Italian Front: Using the new Brigade Games figures (Paul Hicks again!) which look superb. I understand that North Star may be stocking these later in the year so I am using that as an excuse not to progress this at the moment. My only investment here so far has been in a book.

WW2 Eastern Front: This has been an idea since I picked up my winter Germans and so far I have a couple of figures and a T34 but have been holding off until I decided which range of Soviets to go with as each of BAM and Artizan have their advantages; however, only Black Tree seems to do figures with specific winter coveralls - other than scouts. I would like to plan this out so it will provide me an other opportunity to use my Brigade Gebirgsjaegers too.

Freikorps: Having some late WW1 Germans gives me some of the figures for this but I would need more appropriate civilians and also have to make up some suitable urban terrain too. I have spotted some potential figures from Copplestone and Artizan but the urban terrain is likely to hold this one back for a little while anyway.

WW2 Normandy: I have a couple of books on the US troops which have provided plenty of inspiration and I do have some suitable vehicles already but this could be an expensive project as I will need some more appropriate opposition as the Germans I do have a really focussed on early war.

WW2 Poland: I would love to get some Poles as I already have the appropriate SkimishCampaigns book, albeit that no one really does the suitable figures for the Black Brigade. The BAM Poles are nice but without some anti-tank support they're not quite complete enough for me to start this yet (well that's the excuse I using at the moment!)

WW2 Norway: I may try to do this with my existing figures but it would be nice to get some more suitable ones to mix in and I'm not entirely happy about using Finns as Norwegians but since no-one seems to do the figures in 28mm...