An update on things and sidetracked by Spain

 As we approach the end of April, I thought I'd better post something to prove the blog is still going.

While I'd hoped to make progress painting the Estavian Imperial army, sadly nothing happened. The effort of completing Arcadia left me disinclined and somewhat discouraged (lots of little things went wrong for reasons that are unclear).

Then I got sidetracked (more on that later).

Things have resumed with cleaning up and converting two of the Electoral army contingents, Naervaron and Cleve (swapping Grenadier heads and shaving off copious amounts of flash). They are done, varnished and awaiting undercoating, so nothing picturesque. In addition, I also (on a whim) made some more Fimo personalities with the last of my plastic horses.

Turned out OK, but I wish I'd baked them longer as they turned out brittle; the problem is I've had some be left in too long and they almost melted!

As it is, I ploughed on and got them done with a PVA coat ready for the black undercoat. I had only a vague idea of what I would do; a realisation that Arcadia have an heir that probably needs a figure was the start, but the bug was on me and I ended up with 8 figures (including my 2nd female riding side saddle.

They fill some gaps - Banst, Sinistria and Cleve all have heirs or brothers and three are destined for the Imperial service and fit right in. Another example of the organic way the project has grown while having fun and indulging myself.

Diversions

It started with buying more books on the Spanish Civil War (SCW). Then on a whim I bought these:

https://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.com/p/for-whom-dice-rolls-description.html

Many (many) years ago I bought Peter Pig starter sets for both sides at one of the few Cornish war games shows (as did two other people). They languished. I had wanted to do the SCW since seeing the series in Military Modelling. It was only when I bought a copy of Command Decision that I thought about using the SCW figures with the guide in the Command Post Quarterly for the SCW.

I painted some forces and played a number of games, adding figures and vehicles to the unpainted pile. As happens, things moved on and they have not seen much use. However, the urge to restart grows now prompted by the rules above.

They will need adapting; my figures are two to a base representing a platoon, so will have to think about movement trays or similar. What I like, is that as per Command Decision, training and morale are separate, so it's possible to have untrained fanatics and well trained but nervous troops. The use of cards is interesting; especially since I managed to obtain some unique Nationalist and Italian sets in addition to the standard Spanish decks.

I feel I should take some pictures.....