Update

The past few weeks have flown past - too much work, lots of family birthdays, trying to manage without a kitchen (as it's being replaced), rushing the boys around to rugby games, cricket practice, martial arts (Hugo's trying for his black belt this summer); client dinners etc.  Hence the lack of posts, for which I'm sorry - I certainly hadn't intended the blog to go "dark" again. Happily, I have been painting in the meantime, and some wip shots are below.  But I wanted to add that for Christmas I treated myself to the newish "Two Thin Coats" paints designed by former GW "'Eaevy Metal" painting supremo.  I'm not quite sure when they came out - certainly in three "waves", funded by Kickstarters (which had all kinds of cool freebies, like a MDF holder for your mobile phone, presumably so you can watch Duncan's "how to" videos while you paint).  I love playing around with new paints, but gave into temptation when I saw that Sarissa sold the complete sets with a bespoke paint rack for each wave - see here).  

So above is a photo of my re-vamped painting set up.  I also invested in a couple of other MDF paint racks that I found on ebay, which has created a lot more space on my desk and helped me re-introduce a few paints that had been festering in drawers.  My paints are arranged by manufacturer, so: Citadel paints are on the racks at the back of my desk; Foundry paints are largely in drawers but also in the rack to the right of my desk (which also contains my small number of Vallejo paints); Army Painter are in their own small rack to the right and on the side table); and Two Thin Coats take up the rest of the side table.

To try out the Two Thin Coats range, I turned my attention some the Perry Napoleonic Ottomans that I was given for Christmas, as they didn't tie me to repetitive uniforms.  For the same reason, when I got bored of the Ottomans I turned to some North Star "Frostgrave" plastic figures.  Thoughts on the paints?  I'm not really used to dropper bottles and find that I am wasting a fair amount of paint once it's out on the palette.  But so far I've only had one of those "squeeze too hard and half the bottle pours out" moments.  The paints have two small ball bearings in them, which I guess helps keep the paint together.  Certainly the texture of the paint is excellent, and the coverage is very good - the reds and yellows usually provide full coverage in one go.  It's a triad-based system and I've found the 3 colours go well together - none of the extreme contracts that you can find in some Foundry palettes.  I haven't tried the washes, glazes, metals or "brights" yet.  Overall, I really like these paints.  Some of the names are a bit weird (e.g. what is "fury green") and other too easily reveal their GW/Citadel alternative (e.g. "warmaster green").  Buying these was a bit of an indulgence, but hey - you can never have too many paints.     

Below are some wip shots.  Since my return to AWI with the Hessian command figures last year, I've been building up my Napoleonic Ottoman force with infantry, a heavy artillery battery, and a first Mameluke unit.  I've also started on more AWI British infantry (and revisited an AWI loyalist "commission" for Bill Nevins); painted a pack of 20 Eureka Miniatures Maori warriors; and then a number of "Frostgrave" figures, both metal and plastics.  All these will have their own posts very shortly.  Finally, I've very sad to say that there will be no Salute report this year - I haven't missed the show for a good run of years (I reckon since this blog started), but this weekend I'm in sunny Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast for the boys' Chelmsford RFC annual tour - two days of rugby, silly games and the humiliation of parents.  I'd much rather be at Salute!       

And here are some "Frostgrave" wizards and knights, together with some Eureka Maori: