Expanding the Library, not the Lead Pile - the Challenge Economics.

Curt has recently posted some interesting statistics about the economic impetus of the recently completed I've been pretty good about restraining my purchase impulse during the Challenge. The only figures I purchased were a set of Foundry Darkest Africa European Ladies Two off ebay, rebranded as Roses of the Empire - DA018:

 

Terrain and base purchases were a bit more extravagant. I bought 60 2mmx25mm diameter and 20 3mmx30mm diameter slotted bases from Warbases, along with a bunch of their counters to use for missile salvo markers in Silent Death and Full Thrust. I also bought one of their Long Walls from the Middle Eastern range. It's a bit thin for anything but a building wall, but it's inexpensive, ships well, fit together nicely and with a textured spray paint, wash and dry brush will look splendid.

I also purchased a 28mm domed Middle Eastern building off ebay. It's roughly three stories, with two balconies/verandahs, and the option of either a dome or a flat roof. I am setting up to do mostly skirmishish (1 snuffy figure represents roughly two real snuffies, and "heroes" are 1:1), so buildings that allow figure placement inside them are essential. 

 I also purchased two Ziterdes Desert Sanctuaries (for about half retail) off Amazon. Unfortunately, they're one piece castings, so they'll have to serve as towers and impenetrable areas. I'm thinking of making a compound with four of them, connected by some Warbases walls.

But the main expenditures have been in books (and paying off that pesky library fine, because they expect the damn things back). The following recently arrived from Amazon:

• Beyond the Khyber Pass: The Road to British Disaster in the First Afghan War ~ John H. Waller
• Donald Featherstone's Wargaming Campaigns ~ John Curry
• Donald Featherstone's Solo Wargaming ~ John Curry

The following are also on order:

• Richard Simkin's Uniforms of the British Army: The Cavalry Regiments ~ W. Y. Carman
• The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns (Cambridge Classical Studies) ~ Bezalel Bar-Kochva

Half-Price Books also made the mistake of issuing a 50% off coupon, and it was promptly pillaged. I think the building is still standing, but don't hold me to it. The haul:

• Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire ~ Robin Waterfield
• The Victor's Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium ~ David Potter
• That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present ~ Robert and Isabelle Tombs
• Fusiliers: Eight Years with the Redcoats in America ~ Mark Urban
• Napoleon's Immortals: The Imperial Guard and its Battles, 1804-1815 ~ Andrew Uffindell
• Blue-Water Empire: The British in the Mediterranean Since 1800 ~ Robert Holland
• The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another ~ W. Travis Hanes III and Frank Sanello
• The Afghan Way of War: How and Why They Fight ~ Robert Johnson
• Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, The West and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War ~ Stephen Platt
• Invading Mexico: America's Continental Dream and the Mexican War, 1846-1848 ~ Joseph Wheelan
• Hero of Beecher Island: The Life and Military Career of George A. Forsyth ~ David Dixon
• The Wilderness Campaign ~ Gary W. Gallagher, Ed
• Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918 ~ James Barr
• Operation Kronstadt: The True Story of Honor, Espionage, and the Rescue of Britain's Greatest Spy, The Man with the Hundred Faces ~ Harry Ferguson

I also passed on a few books about the Victorians and Dickensian London. In retrospect, they were both possibly worthy purchases, and I may snap them up later. Generally, I prefer hardbacks to paperbacks - they last better, and travel better.

So that's my contributions to the wargaming economy during Challenge-Time. Anything picked up at the SYW convention this weekend will be counted separately.

Painting Table Saturday - #1

Well, I caved to the current wargaming blogger fad: Paint Table Saturday.

Sophie's Paint Blog came up with this graphic. I stole it from Dave, but Tasmin, Loki and others participate.

It's a good filler post as the Challenge winds down. My painting counter (the apartment is small, so instead of a dedicated gaming room or basement, I have a dedicated slice of counter) is quite a bit of a mess. It's got the Mahdists I'm struggling to finish, a reaper Zulu War British colonel, some spaceships, some Foundry African civilians I need the right village for later, and lots of minis I have purchased that I have held-off rebasing or reworking since they don't count for the Challenge.

I've done a few other revamps of the blog. Creating the new header image in Photoshop was fun, once I figured out how to get perspective to work.

Tomorrow should have a post about Comanche, the Second Commanding Officer of the 7th Cavalry, and then I'm off for a week's vacation, and the Seven Years War Convention games the 28th/29th.

Fortnight Theme Bonus Round 2: January 5 - Villains

Well, my original plan was to submit some Mahdists for the Villain Theme. Then again, my plan was also to finish up the Safari into Danger! for the Non-Combatants round, and yet they still need finishing and submitting.

Anyway, I was scrambling for a submission Thursday/Friday, and I chanced on the pack of Reaper lion and lionesses I picked up a year and change ago:

 

When searching for a villain idea, I decided upon Scar, from The Lion King. Looking at the mini, you can see the rocks sculpted on the base, suitable for many of the positions Scar would take, up on high ledges. A quick bit of Googling gave me the necessary colorations:

 And here's the result:

I went with a more generic coloring for the lioness. I painted a lighter skin tone, the same as Scar's paws and muzzle. 

There was a small bit of flash on the lioness' muzzle that I didn't catch until she was almost completely painted. I tried making it into a scar, with some pink and white paint, but I'm not sure how well that turned out. You can see it best in the side by side.

Well, that's the first official entry in, for a net 60 points (5 each for the figures, and 50 for the Villain theme). Onward!