Current wip

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Apologies for the lack of post of late. Work and Hugo have both intervened heavily to prevent painting, and whilst I do have some photos of recent stuff I am not satisfied with them and need to take some more. Here are a couple of pics of what I am working on - Carlist infantry and French 1815 infantry. I find that sometimes I suddenly experience a burning desire to do something and last weekend I decided I wanted to paint more Napoleonic infantry. I have no idea where this came from, but when this sort of thing happens you just have to go with it....Perhaps at the back of my mind was the realisation that now there is a plastics pile alongside my leadpile and that I need to begin to seriously grapple with both. Perhaps I just fancied a change of scene. Production has certainly picked up as I painted the 6 French figures above in 5 days and should have the grenadier company finished by the end of the weekend - this will be the first time since Hugo was born that I have returned to my old 12 figures a week pace! I'm sure that much of the reason for that is the quality of the Perry plastic figures; as I've said before, they almost paint themselves. As the Carlists and Frenchies are in quite large units I will not have them finished for another week or so. I'm tempted to mount another Fourth of July parade tomorrow if I can find some time in the garden - perhaps early war Americans or even a review of my Isabelino force for the First Carlist War.


Other bloggers have noted the sad death of Paddy Griffith a couple of weeks ago. I met Paddy a few times because he was my brother's godfather. Our families lost regular touch over the years, but I have fond memories of Paddy visiting us with his family when my brother and I were young. His gifts to my brother and I were always of a military nature, and I recall him umpiring a chariot race game on the living room carpet using some plastic Roman chariots that he had given us. I was fortunate that Paddy's realisation that I was far more interested in military history than my brother led to the occasional gift of a signed book. From what others have written, such generosity was very typical of Paddy. My schooling also benefited from his perceptive analysis of military history. I once asked him why the French lost at Waterloo. Expecting (and hoping for) a detailed exposition of the battle he said "it's simple - our men were better than theirs". I used that line when asked the same question at my secondary school interview a year or so later; it prompted a laugh and I like to think helped me secure my place. He was a lovely man and will be much missed.