Here’s one I made earlier

My grandson came over to stop for a bit in the Summer and after inspecting the first batch of WOTR troops I was painting he idly asked how long they took to do. 

To my surprise I had no real idea. Too long was my initial thought of course, but the lad had asked and I felt duty bound to give him an answer. 

Now until I get around to the detail heavy knights on horseback the massed ranks of archers seem to be the units requiring the most of my labour so I stuck five pre primed boys on a coffee stirrer, set up my iPad timer, and had at it.

I went through the process familiar to all of us of blocking in, a bit of shading, some highlights, tidying up mistakes and then varnishing. Bit of music on (The Levellers and then Muse if you must know) and time seemed to fly by. Finally happy with the result I consulted the stopwatch - and blanched. Erm...no way. Apparently it had taken me  31 minutes per figure, prior to basing. Aaaaaaargh!

Given that I’m a 105 miniatures in so far, that’s... bloody hell... 54 hours!

Of course quite apart from the miniatures there’s silly things like in game markers, which for my home brew WOTR rules means three ammo markers per ward with archers. 

I initially went with these chaps, cos I like them...

But then I defaulted to these arrow bundles from Donnigton because I’ve got short arms and deep pockets, lol.

Also, while on a (tight arse) do it yourself trip, I knocked out a couple of staked defences to place in front of my archers, lovingly crafted from some little nails and good old miliput. Needs must when the devil drives eh!

Since I may be called in for some emergency cheese making at the dairy this week (man it’s tough being a key worker...lol) this could end up as my last post before Christmas. 

I’ll close by wishing you all a merry Christmas, Festivus, Yule, Kwanzaa, whatever, and hope that all your lead piles are little ones!

JBM