While the wife's away...

Mrs. Mad Doctor is away in Maryland this weekend, running a half-marathon in 90 degree heat.  As fun as that sounds, I stayed home with the kids, hit the playgrounds, and worked on reducing my pile of unpainted lead.  I bought these Old Glory 10mm Napoleonic British a few years ago to give my Austrians a break when they got tired of fighting the French.  In truth, it took about a week and a half to put together these three small brigades and their support.  I still have some Guards, Light Infantry, and Portuguese infantry to paint, as well as some Hussars.  I've said it before: 10mm gives good-looking results for a minimum investment in time, treasure, and talent.  I also took advantage of the weekend to sculpt some foam hills to capture some of that rugged Iberian terrain.

In the photo above, companies of the 60th American Rifles skirmish ahead of the main body of infantry.  The trousers in this photo look far bluer than they actually are.

Some Light Dragoons wonder if they can treat the infantry battalions as speed bumps as they rush into battle.

Massed British guns, realizing that even in a battery like this, they're still likely to lose a duel with the heavier French artillery.

Elvis has left the Shire!

Well, it took Frodo and Sam about thirty seconds of screen time to do it in the films, and it took the hobbits about three chapters to do it in the books, but I have finally left the Shire. Granted, I'm only running three miles at a time, and I don't run every day.  Looks like the next milestone is Bree, which is about fifty miles up the Great East Road.  See you at the sign of the Prancing Pony!

The Good, the Bad, and the Tacky: More 28mm Fantasy

 Some more fun with fantasy figures, painting up minis that I have had laying around for years.  It's a fun change from historicals, as I get to play with some crazy color combinations, like the Bad Taste Dude below.  I'm still improving at doing faces, and my shading is starting to look more natural.

Running Middle Earth

OK, I'll admit it. I could stand to lose a few pound.  And going to the gym is a chore rather than a pleasure for me.  I'm always searching for motivation.  So I decided to give up on the gym and  run across Middle-earth.  Well, I'll still be on the treadmill, but I'll be tracking my progress across Middle-earth, starting at Bag End and hopefully one day reaching Mount Doom.  I started with three miles yesterday.  That puts me over the Hill and across the Water, through Hobbiton and a ways down the Bywater Road.  Given that Bilbo ran this stretch as he hurried to catch up with the dwarves..well, all I can say is that Prof. Tolkien must have exaggerated how out-of-shape Bilbo was.  Or maybe the Shire is less hot and humid than my gym.

I'll give updates at major landmarks. But right now, Buckland is looking very far away.

Fantasy. Why not?

A colleague and I plan to offer a role-playing club (in addition to the simulation games club I currently offer) next year, so I decided to dig up some fantasy lead that was at the bottom of my pile and give it a go.  I started with two 28mm centaurs, because I like centaurs, and a 15mm balor who is there to give my Arthurian troops a fright.  He looks a little puny next to the centaurs.  That should teach him to lay off the potions of diminution.

While the photography is up to my usual crummy standard (gotta build a lightbox one of these days), I am quite pleased with how the centaurs turned out.  The faces in particular are the most lifelike I have ever painted.  I credit the snazzy new sable brush you can see in the background.