After much lethargy, distractions and a lack of focus, I have attempted to get my wargaming mojo back by concentrating on part-completed projects. One of which, is of course the Soldier King project using plastic Spencer Smiths.
The completion of the army of Banst seems to have sapped a lot of the enthusiasm for the project; not sure why, but I couldn't seem to get the army finished. Plans for work over Christmas were scuppered by illness and work has been draining and sapping any energy at the weekends.
A visit to Hammerhead and an improvement in the weather has helped, as well as a refocus on work-life balance. Without going into details, developments at work have left me with a different perspective and I think I will be able to afford to retire at 65 after all; only another three years after April!
As such, I have returned to the SK project. There are three armies left to do for the non-Electoral states of Waldow (upper and lower amalgamated), Sinistria and Dupanen. In addition, I have started converting figures suitable for Rebels or Civilian militia. My original plans were disrupted by a couple of factors; the Kingdoms of the game each have armies of 24 units plus artillery and commanders. The game gives each 12 "income" points. The very first idea was to have 12 units, one for each income point. Part way through, after completing Bravance and Hrvatska, I realised the armies were too small, so doubled them.
Unfortunately, when I added Estavia and the Electoral and non-Electoral states, I did so in a rather haphazard way; The Electoral and non-Electoral states had army lists drawn up from the income points. Banst (as always) proved more difficult. To get the level of army I wanted, I increased the number of units which meant it was unbalanced compared to other Electoral states but in line with the kingdoms.....
I went down several rabbit holes trying to balance it all out, getting very confused with how many boxes I had to store the potentially increased armies as well as becoming disillusioned with the amount of increased painting and cleaning up this would entail....
I'm sure this all contributed to my flagging enthusiasm. A sudden lightbulb moment helped; if I took one income point as the cost to raise a unit and half a point to maintain it, I could reconcile the army sizes to the income in the game and scale back to amount of new units that would need painting...
One way to look at it was if all income was used, the states was on a "war footing". I also thought that the "Rebel" figures could also become a militia to boost some states armies. Looking at the map also produced some thoughts; the non-Electoral states are in the front line for any invasion by the four kingdoms, especially Waldow; the Empire may have to fight on more than one front and the various Electoral states may be pressed to form a single Electoral army without losing territory...
I have therefore decided to expand Estavia and create some "Imperial militia" that can be used to bolster the Electoral states in addition to any civilian militia they call out. The non-Electoral states will have to be on a war footing......
Sadly, the pictures that follow are not that exciting, but I have managed to clean-up a lot of Spencer Smith plastics (a job that entails carving away the flash that surrounds the figures) wash in detergent, glue standards and varnish (I coat the figures in a layer of acrylic varnish before undercoating and painting) the extension to Waldow. Just awaiting suitable weather for the black spray undercoat.
I have also just cleaned the excess plastic from the army of Sinistria; since the picture was taken I carved down the blanket roll on the blue figures - these will be light infantry modelled on the Russian copies of Austrian Grenzer. I also discovered that one of the replacement Grenadier heads had disappeared - there followed much cursing and swearing followed by a fruitless search and acceptance I would need another donor figure, which was dug out of the lead and plastic mountain in the garage....
I took this as a sign to put it all away in bags and back in the box.....
On a related note, my friend Eric Turner in the USA has been working on Imaginary Napoleonic forces from old school 25mm figures donated to him - see his blog:
https://brownspreadandyellowfruit.blogspot.com/
Eric was lacking artillery crew and generals so I dug out some old Hinchliffe destined for the melting pot; I also asked if he would like some "Grotesques" to act as generals....after some discussion Eric asked if he could have something "heroic" and something "reluctant" so some work with Sculpey produced:
Crude and ugly they may be but also 100% unique!
Interesting read about your thought process for the project and good news on the retirement front, I am pretty sure I will be done at 65, which for me is another year, should have enough coming in to make it happen. Is it only plastic SM figures you use or do you use metal ones?
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling pretty done now, but sadly can't afford to retire yet!
I only use plastic SSM. In fact I only use plastic for the rest; Fimo /Sculpy is in effect plastic and I mount on plastic horses. Things like carts will be balsa with plastic wheels. Buildings will be card / paper, trees Merit or Britain's.
Originally, I was going to use Willie figures for the characters, but was forced into making my own from Fimo. From then on it became a plastic only project....
Neil
Designing a whole game / campaign system is a huge task. Especially if you want it to make sense. 😝😀
ReplyDeleteHope your mojo continues to improve.
Thanks Stew. A challenge is always worthwhile!
ReplyDeleteNeil
Well done for coming up with a solution to managing Army sizes. Maintenance is/was a huge proportion of military spending, and it is a clever way of avoiding the problem of 'oh no this project is much bigger than I thought'. Glad your retirement plans are looking up, I had various milestones I passed through as it began to look more feasible and I was fortunate that work were very accommodating for the last 18 months.
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin.
ReplyDeleteThe danger of "project creep" is one that has put paid to many a project as it simply gets out of hand.
When finances were limited, armies grew with each purchase and generally got painted. Home casting produced the first lead mountain, then as finances increased, it became easy to buy but time poor to paint.....
The "easy to buy" route is a sure way to produce armies that are unlikely to ever get painted....
Even the SK project has crept from 4x 12 unit armies to 4x 24 units and a further 9 states. It's nice to put a cap on that.
With other projects, it's nice to start with a final aim - ancients the units needed for Commands and Colors scenarios - the IDF in 1967 one stand per battalion - F&IW the units available in a boardgame.
When you have a finite goal it makes achieving it easier.
Work, just hoping to slog through the remaining years without doing more than the minimum and leave ASAP.
Neil
The "Grotesques" are wonderful and full of character!
ReplyDeleteThanks MJT!
ReplyDeleteSome are better than others; all depends on how much practice you have had and whether you have made any recently....
Mine represent the rather disreputable characters I managed to dice up!
Neil
Neil;
ReplyDeleteI would have posted before this, but Blogger was being difficult. I have not abandoned my plans for a SK project. Merely doing something a bit different with the Napoleonic-ish period. The "grotesques" are avidly awaited for.
Eric
Eric,
DeleteBlogger is often erratic in allowing comments - no idea why - one of those mysteries!
I'm glad to hear you will still be developing your own version of SK - it's very adaptable. You can like David (of the Ragged Soldier blog) do a limited campaign or like me create a monster that's difficult to rein in.....
A few people have used it for an Imaginary Napoleonic setting for a wargames campaign.
I have toyed with using it for a different era, such as an Interbellum 1920s /1930s setting, but found it a lot of work to convert without it becoming too WW2-like.
Neil