I've been working away on some painting commissions recently, which left me realizing that I haven't spent much time on my own figures. So I decided to open a few old boxes in the den and do an inventory of what I'd actually got. This proved to be surprising and mildly depressing.
First off was I discovered almost an entire 15mm colonial Sikh army for my Sudan project (I almost ordered more, thinking I had only a couple of units). Secondly it struck me how much time I spend buying and simply storing stuff "for future use".
So the last week I threw myself into painting as much as I could. I even avoided the usual complaints from my partner by moving my paint station downstairs (and hence spending time with her as she does her university work in the living room - the other bonus is that I can stick World at War on the TV, which is repeated endlessly on the Yesterday channel).
The above photo is a quick reflection of what I'm getting through. And what a mixture it is! You can see 15mm ACW, 10mm Franco Prussian, 10mm 1866 Austrian, 15mm ECW and even a Games Workshop Imperial Guardsman. Completely bonkers but great to finally get some of this finished and ready for some games.
Another solution to getting my armies completed more quickly, is looking for part-painted stuff cheap on ebay. The other day I managed to snag some base coated 15mm ACW confederates. Not very pretty and jammed onto some solid wood bases with what looked like bathroom sealant. Anyway, I removed them from the bases with a craft knife and ink washed them heavily. Next I gave them a few highlights then stuck them to my usual 20x25 MDF bases and flocked them with Kallistra Spring meadow flock (hiding any of the nasty sealant still clinging on). I think the end result looks spot on. I managed to do about three 36 man units within an afternoon, so it's definitely a time saver.
