Vive l'Empereur

Finally finished up my command stand for the French.  This is Napoleon and some of his staff.

And from the back.  I took the extra time to add all the extra gold lace to the uniform for the Marshals of the Empire.

The individual figures of course would start with Napoleon.

He's giving orders to a Hussar Aide-de-camp.  For this fellow I picked the uniform of the 5th Hussars.

Leaning over the map table is Marshal Ney.

Also reviewing the map and discussing strategy is Marshal Soult.  You can definitely see some of the extra gold finery I added to his uniform.  You might guess I'm quite proud of that little extra work. Ha!

Reviewing the placement of his artillery is Marshal Drouot.

Observing events and making mental notes is the Chief Ordnance Officer Colonel Gourgaud.

This was really fun to paint.  Next up will be some lancers.  Not sure what's next in the queue after that, as my birthday will be this Friday and my wife said she got me some stuff from my wish list... and some things I didn't ask for!  We'll see on Friday!

Have a great week.

New Project and a Personal Accomplishment

Hey everyone!  Wow, I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post.  I have been painting, but I have nothing completed to show off just yet.  Last year I wrapped up my Mexican Revolution project to the point where I feel safe to say it is done!  I may add a unit here and there but that would only be to add some flavor to specific scenarios.

So what I plan to be my MAIN project this year will be Napoleonics.  When I was a young man (15 or 16) I walked into a game store one day and saw a miniature game being played.  This was new to me!  I walked over and saw all these uniformed soldiers being marched around and fighting a big battle.  It was Napoleonic armies in 15mm!  From that point on I knew I wanted to play miniatures.  But as you all know, that's an expensive hobby so it is difficult to start until you become an adult and have a real job.  Years later when I finally got into miniature gaming, Napoleonics seemed over-whelming so instead I started with smaller stuff.  Now many years later I have finally decided to take the plunge!

Here's my work in progress picture of the lovely vignette of Napoleon and his staff from Perry Miniatures.

And now for my major lack of productivity in painting this month.  My other "hobby" is that of being a martial artist, specifically Praying Mantis Kung Fu.  I study a specific style called Seven Star Praying Mantis.  It's a lot of hard work but it has been really rewarding.  I had a test on Saturday and now get to move on to my next phase of training.  The test covered a year and 3 months worth of study! So this month I spent a lot of extra time training in preparation (10-12 hours a week).  It really cut into my painting time, but it was really worth it.  Here's a picture of me receiving my new gray sash.

I hope February has been treating you well friends.

Rod

Captain Z

Time travel.  Very cool.  Very dangerous.  First time we tampered with time travel we inadvertently created a parallel universe.  Soon more mistakes were made and we’d created a host of parallel worlds.  It was time to get things under control and establish some rules.  That’s when the Paratime Cops came to be. Their mission was two-fold; prevent the other universes from discovering time-travel, and monitoring time-travel activity from UTL-Prime.  “UTL” stands for universal time line, and prime? Well that’s us, the original.

My name is Jay.  Most folks call me Captain Z.  I’m considered one of the best time cops there is.  Or was.  I’ve just decided to retire.  Shocked everyone.  At 120 years old I probably had another decade or two of work left in me.  But, sometimes you just have to pick a spot and enjoy the ebb and flow of life around you.  “There’s no time like the present," they say.  I figured it was time to find out.

One of the benefits of being a time cop is you are allowed to retire and setup on one of the alternate time lines if you so choose.  You will occasionally send in reports to UTL-Prime HQ to help watch for anomalies and host a cop or two when they need to visit your timeline.  A few years back I found this little backwater colony on a desolate planet called Oizys.  Yeah, Oizys, that’s the Greek goddess of misery.  You’d believe it if you saw the planet.  The whole planet has one little “civilized” colony named Lively.  Population 24.  I think the name was meant to be optimistic, but sounds more like a joke now.  Anyway, that’s where I’m headed.  I think this little town needs a bar and grill…

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Last year I had the thrill of being "miniaturized" by Jay over at Jay's Miniature Enterprises and the miniature "me" got inserted in one of his adventures.  Jay's web site is one of my favorite blogs on the web.  Always entertaining and always inspiring me to be more creative with my toys.  So I have been wanting to return the favor.  My sci-fi gaming seems to have split into two paths.  One is a space colony on the fringe with rugged adventurers.  It's basically a setting like the TV series "Firefly".  The other is the Ion Age.  Space Opera with knights and lasers.  Then I thought it would need to be able to link them all together in parallel universes.  Reading some short stories by H. Beam Piper fed me the Time Cops.  Jay and his bar became the link to tie it all together.

Finding a 15mm bartender was not easy.  I had some civilians from GZG sitting in the lead pile.  Each pack comes with a pair of each figure.  I found one I liked for Jay, but he had a rifle.  That seemed fine if he gets in a scrap, but doesn't look right for a bartender.  So, I chopped off the gun and his arm and sculpted a new arm on the extra figure.  He's also carrying a cup now.  Here's some work in progress shots below.