Next off the painting table are 24 x 54mm Velites made by HAT.

These are the first figures ready for my Command and Colours Ancients project.  The idea is to use a 5" hex mat and replace each block with a 54mm figure.  I have been collecting the figures for this for a while but was stuck for a year or so as I couldn't get all the figures I needed.

Then Rupert from Drum and Flag (excellent service if you are looking for plastic figures, by the way) sold off a lot of his collection of 54mm and I was able to pick up things like the HAT Slingers that were a limited metal release as well as elephants and some of the missing cavalry.

Now these are done I will probably work through rebasing some of the painted figure next before starting on more Roman Infantry.

Ogres

 Finally got 2 more "Figures" off the painting table  - 2 Ogre tanks for the Blue force.

The Red force is all painted so I can now play a game - just need some scenery.  I have started 3d printing craters and made some test piles of rubble for the classic Ogre style maps.

The Painting Desk

 I just had a bit of a tidy up of my painting table, which is actually my parents' old bureau.  Means I have an area to paint on and can put the part painted / ready to paint stuff out of sight in the cupboard below.  This was useful when I was painting 54mm figures for a living and could put my own stuff away and concentrate on customers orders.

Except that seems to have got out of hand as does my butterflying between periods.  I currently have the following on the table or in the waiting cupboard:
(28mm unless otherwise stated)

24 x 54mm Velites
2 x Ogres (tanks)
10 x FPW command figures
7 x D&D Figures
3 x alien plants
10 x Redoubt 3 Musketeer figures
12 x 54mm British Napoleonics awaiting new heads
6 x gaslands Sentry Guns
24 British AWI 40mm
60 American AWI 40mm
60 x 20mm Sudan Egyptians
12 x 54mm French Old Guard
12 x 54mm British Highlanders
10 x Batman figures
36 x Vikings

All of these have been undercoated and had at least one colour of paint on them.  Some are a couple of colours and a tidy up away from being finished...

I might have a problem with concentrating on finishing stuff!

The 9 Star Trek Away Team posted last time are the first things to be cleared off the painting desk and finished for a few months.

I can see a New Years Resolution coming up to clear this lot.

Change of Tack

 I started this blog full of intentions of writing more about wargaming and documenting every game I played.

But I came to realise after the first few posts that I was turning my hobby back into work (again) and wasn't really what I wanted to do with my time (and gaming).

It is a year since I stopped running Imperial Miniatures and have dropped down to just a small business selling Coat D'arms paints.  I have a lot more time as I am effectively semi-retired now.

So, I have been writing Science Fiction and Fantasy again (I have sold a dozen short stories over the years but haven't written much in recent years).  I want to get back to working on novels and exploring other things.

Hence the 3 month break away from "social media" and relentlessly blogging about what I have been playing.  I have managed quite a few games including an all day game of War Room -  a WW2 game based on a 3' across world map!

I am back to painting again as well, after a lapse of a few months and a loss of enthusiasm.  I have just completed some 3d printed Star Trek figures.

The first picture are the two quickly painted samples and the  bottom one the rest of the Away Team who were completed this evening.

I am intending building forces for Xenos Rampant.

This blog will probably be more of a method of keeping track of my painting, projects and some games that I get around to photographing.