Brush never sleeps

Work has been crazy lately but no matter how bad the day, once I sit down and paint, my problems and stress fade away. Or shrink to approximately 15mm in size!  I make it a point to try to paint almost every day and with that habit, I've managed to paint more than 578 figures year to date. On the rare occasion that painting doesn't lower my stress quickly enough, there's always a good craft beer to finish the job!

As a blogger, I worry that a week will come and I'll be too busy or too uninspired to come up with an article.  I  keep  a couple of posts "in the can" so to speak and on a tough week, I'm glad to have backup material.  With the oh so short Minnesota summer, I need to let my paintbrushes rest.  I need to get up from the table, go outside and do things like take a hike, go to the lake, go on summer vacation and make a trip to NY for work!  Not to worry as I have a large backlog of painted figures to post in the months ahead.

Lastly, I'd like to take a minute share an updated picture of my workspace.

December 2011:

May 2012: 

For my birthday, my wife bought me a lovely painting carousel that I've almost managed to fill. I keep my paints sorted based on color and shade so I can easily do 2 or 3-tone highlighting.  I also grabbed another 3 tray box to hide all my hobby stuff. I have a small red moleskin notebook for recording hobby and article ideas.  The trick for me is to take it everywhere, including work.  Leaving it on the nightstand next to my bed was not working.  Now it travels with me, I've been putting it to good use. Want proof?  I'll share one of my ideas.

Painting Scutarii last month made me think about the Roman silver mines in Hispania.  For Field of Glory, I need to make some impassible terrain and then I thought, what's more impassible than an open pit silver mine?  I haven't put down my paint brush long enough to make terrain but one day soon, right after I finish with the yard!  See you in the sunshine!

The Road to Revolution

My son is an interesting fellow.  He composes music most nights as it's his passion and what he hopes to do for a living one day. The other night, he had a friend over to work on his US History high school project.  He took a simple extra credit assignment on the American Revolution and blew it out until he'd written an original score, lyrics and recorded it with his friend. In short, it's a 4 minute musical about the Revolution, Broadway style!

After hearing the practice session, I knew I HAD to convince my son to let me share his performance.  His song is a sparkling number with witty lyrics, historical shout outs and a big Broadway finish. If you need something to put a smile on your face, look no further.  One listen and you'll be humming the tune "Represent!" Without further ado, I present the debut of "Represent." 

On a related note, my friend Brent told me he got his copy of the 18th century warfare rules,  Maurice. I put in an order for Maurice myself based on the reviews and AARs I'd read. I asked Brent what troops he was going to use and it turns out he has both sides of the American War of Independence in 28mm. Brent's copy of Maurice and his AWI armies, me ordering Maurice, my son's Road to Revolution show tune all in a single week. Coincidence?  I think not. My dear Watson, clearly what we're looking at is an example of synchronicity. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to powder my wig. 

Thureophoroi, now with more vowels!

Ok, that was a fib but I do like how the word just rolls off of the tongue...Thur-Re-o-Pho-Ronii. I'm pretty sure whenever I speak it out loud, I add, drop or mangle a vowel.  Luckily, I think I've gotten away with it.

Thureophoroi were an all-purpose troop armed with a long thrusting spear, javelins and a sword.  They could form up in loose or close formation and thus, operate in rough terrain.  According to Plutarch, they could fight as skirmishers and then fall back, assume spears and tighten the ranks.

In Impetus, their javelin missile fire is key as is their ability to go into rough terrain.  When pressed, they'll stand and fight in melee as well.  Is there anything these fellows cannot do?

You gotta love the the panache of soldiers who took to the battlefield and fought in capes. Were they the inspiration for a modern Superhero? You be the judge!  

At this point, you're probably asking yourself, when oh when will the Pontic Project end?  Or maybe I'm just projecting.  Well, I've finished the army but I'm taking my sweet time posting the last bits to my blog.  I've got Javelinmen, Roxolani and Xystophoroi queued up and ready to bring it home.  Then it's on to my Gallic army, V 2.0.