On the Workbench: A touch of Chaos!

Do you ever get that feeling you are losing control of your projects? In my dash to get stuff prepared and figures painted my painting desk is starting to look a little chaotic:

A tour of the desk starting bottom left and working clockwise: 2 Spanish battalions part painted; 2 Spanish battalions painted and now being based; a Spanish artillery battery primed and ready for painting; several industrial type buildings prepped for painting destined for the battle of Grissburg; several pine trees being based; and two river sections covered in foliage.

The pine trees are from a large batch delivered from China. They are ok and hopefully will look effective on the tabletop. I removed the plastic bases which encased the trunk. Several needed a little paint to their branches but on the whole fairly quick to prepare and base. 

A note about the buildings. I prime mine white and then give them a black enamel wash. It has the dual purpose of highlighting detail and providing shade when I apply several coats of drybrushing.  

The rivers will not look like this when finished. Most of that foliage will be brushed off when the glue is dry. Finishing touches will then be applied.

Continued -

With the sale of my 15mm collection continuing, it has raised cash to replace my old lamp with this daylight lamp designed for the purpose. It bathes the whole desk in daylight from its numerous LEDs. Very useful especially when painting 6mm.

Selling my 15mm is proving cathartic and firing up my enthusiasm for replacing those collections in 6mm. I will be amending my 'collections & projects' page to reflect these changes. The largest being the ECW and Colonial. For the latter, rather than going straight into the Sudan, I am considering starting with my lifelong ambition to do Rorkes Drift. In 6mm this is feasible on a 1:1 representation. I would probably aim to acquire around 1,000 Zulus and feed in replacements as casualties mount.

An update on 2mm. I have ordered several samples from Irregular Miniatures and will paint up a few before making a final decision. Although my original intention was to maintain units at the battalion level and not base, the more I have read and researched, the more I am concluding that basing is the more practical way to go with each base representing a brigade. I have had a scan around the rules that would be suitable with 'Grande Armee' and 'Blucher' being at the forefront. Blucher is the successor to GA and from what I have seen I am yet to be convinced enough to pay out £35 for a copy of the rules. The criteria for this project was to have been cheap and quick so GA is looking favourite. Or at least my reworked version of it.