A little over a year ago, I started painting my BL minis. It's been slow going, especially the blue guys. I swear there's a freaking million of them, and I'm still not done...
Anyway, I now have the majority of the humans done, and as you can see it's almost enough to field the first scenario. There's an unpainted blue cavalry unit on the far right hand edge. The blue cavalry have so far escaped the brush, but they're next, then I'll finish those endless blue infantry.
If you look at the larger image (should be click-able), you can see the bases I made for each unit, too. At Steve's suggestion, I glued a steel washer to each figure, and then put a magnetic sheet on each base. At first I cut the bases out of foam core board. Recently, I got out the table saw and cut wooden bases, but I haven't yet gotten around to painting them and cutting the magnetic sheet. Most of the cavalry have the unpainted wooden bases.
The basing has several advantages. First, all the stuff (base+washer+magnet) gives each unit a pleasant heft. Second, I'm able to store the units together, and this dramatically speeds up the set-up process. Third, it makes them a bit easier to move, IMO, since you can grab the base. Fourth, it keeps the figures in "formation" so they look sharp. Finally, the magnetic sheet helps keep them in place inside their Plano-box home, providing a little protection.
Once I get the human army finished, I'm not sure what I'll tackle next. Each expansion is a reasonable chunk, a bit more than a weekend for the smaller expansions at my painting pace. OTOH, I've been mightily impressed with some of the amazing terrain I've seen on-line. I'm considering getting a larger hex mat so that I can make some cool terrain to go w/ the figures.
I've also got my own copy of Hordes of the Things on the way. The BL minis would make a decent looking army, though they might look like hobbits if I ever face off against Steve's 25mm guys. I'll be interested to see the differences between the ways BL and HotT handle different rules situations. I like the attrition from BL (each unit gets worn down slowly), but I like some of the things I'm hearing about in HotT. I might try my hand at Ted's Battle Hordes.
You might notice that I added some marsh terrain to the Agincourt battle. Steve mentioned to me that the ground was hard going for the French, and later research confirmed this. Based on the reading I've done (mostly wikipedia), I'm actually a bit surprised there's not some kind of terrain in the middle, not even in the epic version w/ the 100 years war expansion.
Labels: battlelore, insanity, painting
