Long Island prep (4)

Despite a horrendous spell at work last week, I managed to finish 16 figures and one artillery piece. I think this increase in production is a subconscious way of sticking two fingers up at the credit crunch: no matter how busy I am at work I'm not going to let current circumstances interfere with my painting. Or something like that. So von Lossberg is finished, with only basing and flags to do (full pics on Friday, I hope), and I have started on the Hessian artillery. The extra 4 figures I sneaked in are the command base of the British 3rd Light Infantry Battalion. This morning I fired off an order to Messrs Perry for the rest of the unit, together with another pack of highlander grenadiers and one or two other things. The aim is to have all the Hessian stuff finished by the end of the month, to be followed by the lightbobs and then the grenadiers. Finishing the Lossberg, at 24 figures the largest unit I have to do, is to jump the first major hurdle of the project; and completing the unit in 13 days isn't bad, really. Above are a photo of the finished regiment and other bits and a close-up of the Lossberg command stand's back row.

The Hessian artillery and British light infantry are not as complicated to paint as the Hessian fusiliers, which is good news now that my painting time is being squeezed at both ends of the day. Maestro Woodward will not be impressed to know that I have found myself starting at 7am rather than (the only marginally more impressive) 6.30am, now that rosy-fingered dawn takes longer to appear. I will lose next Saturday as I am on a stag do all day, and given that it's with a bunch of barristers I expect I won't be in a condition to paint much on Sunday. But 8 artillerymen and 1 gun should be do-able by next Monday. Once the Hessian brigade is finshed I will give a thought to the American brigades I need to put together, perhaps seeing if I might have time to get to work on Smallwood's Marylanders.