Watching paint dry!

I seem to have been doing rather a lot of that of late, gazing into the middle distance vacantly rather than getting on with paint, brush and figures. I think that it must be that the onset of Autumn, with the nights closing in, has brought on the annual S.A.D. rather earlier than usual! Or perhaps I need a new period interest to spur me on? No? Well, at least I do have something new to show at last, and for different games that we play here in GHQ. So, no more waffle, here we go ~
For the 1940's Operation Zeelowe/Blandings games, some new aerial power for Lord Emsworth, the Empress III ~

This lovely little model is the Ironclad steam gyro-copter. Matt suggested it might be fun, so I bought it at Claymore in August. Hardly any flash on the metal parts, cleanly cast resin body, nice pilot with three extra heads for conversion affectionados, goes together easily, what's not to like? One quibble though, the hole for the flight stand, included with the kit, is in the wrong place for balance. Easily solved with the trusty pin vice!
Next, for the Wars of the French Revolution project, from Trent Miniatures, a rather corpulent Tyrolean officer who appears to be singing an operatic aria! I've nicknamed him Biccarotti, rather unoriginally, and plan to use him as a marker in a game for a once only Morale reroll, in the spirit of "Its not over until the fat officer sings!"

More sensibly for the same game genre, the final pack of Front Rank Napoleonic civilians, augmented by The Other Partizan free figure ~

While on the subject of free figures, Dan of Wargames Illustrated fame gave me a Lord Kitchener figure. I can use him in the 1914 games I'm sure but I see no reason why he should n't figure also in my VBCW games set around Wolverhampton in 1938 ~

So, neatly and finally, on to the VBCW genre. I have added two new units; the Chillington Rifle Company and the Tettenhall College Cadets. The former are mainly the weaselly folk ,by Paul Hicks I believe, which Phil kindly gifted to me, the latter the Woodbine Designs armed schoolboys and staff groups, with a Footsore standard bearer ~

In the case of both these units Pete Barfield very generously made me the flags, making use of some ideas I researched on the internet and sent to him to work with. Needless to say, his wonderful creations owe little to my work and really lift the units on the tabletop! I also have flags made by him for the Chillington Light Horse and for the Tettenhall Militia. I hope to pick up the figures for them at Derby Worlds in October, so keep an eye out for them later in the year! Toodle Pip!