Reinforcements by Post

Too many projects, and a receding desire to paint 15mm infantry led me to turn to painting services.  I discovered Reinforcements by Post in Bangladesh.  They have a running special for WW2 infantry.  So I ordered a few bags in the hope of finishing a U.S. infantry division while maintaining the necessary figures for an armored infantry regiment for my U.S. armor division.

The service was very speedy and the figures were individually wrapped to protect them from the rough and tumble of a cross pacific journey.  I promptly based some up:


The square stand to the left in the top photo are some of my own painted figures serving as a heavy weapons (HW) support marker.  The order came with quite a few guys in long coats which are not shown here, but I will use as I need every soldier.  I may be a couple of companies (two stands) shy of the number I would need for a full roster.  I will cogitate upon this.

I bought some Plastic Soldier Company later war German Grenadiers.  These I feel obligated to paint up - at least two regiments worth.  The first battalion along with HW support is finished.


I'm very happy with these, but my splinter camo paint job needs some work.  Oh well, "Paint and Play" is what I live by.  It keeps me from giving up on the painting, and thus I get to keep playing.

Finally, I'm standardizing the basing on all of my War of Spanish Succession to either 60mm x 120 mm (infantry and cavalry) or 100 x 100mm for artillery.  Now the muskets don't extend beyond the base.  In order to avoid a complete rebasing I am gluing the metal stands to the Litko stands I purchased.  I used some wall patching compound to fill in the line and I think it came out pretty good.

This and That

Running
On Thanksgiving I ran in a local "Turkey Trot."  I think the idea is to run on the day you are about to over indulge on this annual feast in order to ease any guilt you may be feeling about all them calories.  I like supporting local running events.  It is difficult because they don't advertise them very well.  Apparently they had a run on Mother's day again and I missed it.  On a whim I did a search for "Turkey Trots," slightly worried what it might turn up, and was relieved to find this race advertised in the online version of the local newspaper.

These runs aren't chipped.  Time is kept by a clock in the stadium, and they almost never post the times online.  I took my Garmin so I know I ran faster than a 25minute 5k, but it wasn't a PR.  I placed 14th out of a field of about 60.  I'm good with that, and that is the last race for the year.  I generally like to squeeze 5k's into the schedule between training for half-marathons.  I just wish I had had more time to train for this one.

Miniatures

Finished painting this unit (regiment/combat effective) of French Dragoons modeled after the La Reine Dragoons.   I have dismounted figures for them also, not sure when I'll paint those as I'm swinging back to do some World War 2 figures.  I bought these guy many years ago from Imperialist.  The flag may be a bit large, but I painted it by hand and I like how it turned out.


Made some arrow markers for my ancients stuff.  The plan is to have them on when they are "loaded" and to take them off when "unloaded" as opposed to the put some marker on them or in front of them when unloaded.




I really need to stop rebasing.  I feel like it is all I am getting done these days, and I am slowing down.  Still, I like the new look to the right above.






I've been hankering a bit for the old style Piquet army characterization decks.  Its all part of my tweeking/modding of Pulse of Battle and Field of Battle.  The  cards with numbers are for morale chips, the other cards the players can put in their "hand" and play once during the game whenever they want.  It offers some interesting twists, surprises, and choices to the games.  I got rid of the Tactical Advantage cards in the play decks as that was too predictable.






Under the hill, or over the hill?  Up to this point I have always placed my hills on top of the game mat as you can see below.  But in the above picture I tried putting them below.  I kind of like it.

You might notice the new fields.  I purchased these from Hotz ArtWorks





Culinary
I brewed an Oatmeal Stout over the long Thanksgiving weekend.  I toasted 4 ounces of steel cut oats to add to the mash.  It smelled fabulous.  It finished at a 1.075 gravity, should make for a stout beer ~7% alcohol.  I used California Ale yeast.

I found this web page.  I am a microbiologist.  How hard can it be to capture my own yeast for brewing?  It is absolutely amazing, and a little frightening what you can find on Amazon.  I ordered in some agar along with some other cool toys for doing pure culture.  I've always wanted a pressure cooker.  Every thing I need should be arriving today, so hopefully I will be posting my adventures in this direction in the near future.