The Imagi-Nation Army is Growing!

I admit, I got a little side-tracked on the Imagi-Nation army that I began with such promise at the start of 2021. Well, it wasn't my best year.

I have made some progress though. Recently I finished up my second, 16-man infantry unit. In celebration of this event, I decided to get the whole 'army' out for a little photo shoot. Okay, the army is just two infantry units and one artillery piece, but that represents a serious amount of painting time!

I've got a lot of choices for what to do next... cavalry? a skirmish unit? a command group? I haven't decided yet, and I'm not going to push it. At some point, I'll get a craving, and when I do, I'll go for it.

For now, I'm just going to revel in my little group of toy soldiers... and maybe get them fighting some zombies or something!

Facing the Dragon

I recently painted up the Oathmark dragon. In truth, it's not my best paint work, and the reason it looks so good has everything to do with the sculpt. As a bit of fun, I took this photo of me (in miniature form, painted by Kev Dallimore) facing the dragon.

The photo, combined with my post yesterday, got me thinking. Kindness, patience, and forgiveness for our fellow travellers in life is so crucial. We really don't know what dragons people are facing. People often look fine 'on the outside', and this is especially true in our modern Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, culture. But every life comes with its own unique challenges, fears, and pain. 

Being a force for good in this world often isn't about huge gestures, or devoting your life to a cause, often its just about offering a little bit of help, support, and understanding to those around us.

Wisdom from R. L. S.

'It may be argued again that dissatisfaction with our life's endeavour springs in some degree from dulness. We require higher tasks, because we do not recognise the height of those we have. Trying to be kind and honest seems an affair too simple and too inconsequential for gentleman of our heroic mould; we had rather set ourselves to something bold, arduous, and conclusive; we had rather found a schism or suppress a heresy, cut off a hand or mortify an appetite. But the task before us, which is to co-endure with our existence, is rather one of microscopic fineness, and the heroism required is that of patience. There is no cutting of the Gordian knots of life; each must be smilingly unravelled.'

- Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon

If You Go Down to the Woods Today…

Many years ago, early in my days at Osprey, Phil Smith handed me a bag of model railroad trees and suggested I do something with them. I took them and mounted them onto old CDs, which I then flocked. As it turned out, CDs were not a great choice as the trees didn’t like to remain glued to them, but otherwise the project was a huge success. Those trees featured in almost every battle we fought over the years. They looked great on the table and could be shifted to make very different layouts.

I left those trees when I left Osprey. The ownership was debatable, and I figured the guys there would get more use out of them than me. But recently, I have bene missing those trees, so I decided to create a new set.

I bought a £20 bag of model railroad trees from my local shop. I mounted the first few on some GW vehicle bases I had lying around, and then I ordered some big MDF ovals from Warbases for the rest of them. Both of these worked much better than CDs. I also filed down the bottoms of the trees to get a better adhesive surface. I added a few little patches of flower or tufts from army painter, but wanted to leave them relatively flat, so figures could be placed on the bases.

Anyway, less than £30 and a day of work and I’ve got a pretty substantial woods I can throw on the table. I also have a good number of individually-based trees of other designs I can use to add variety to the table.

I still think this is probably the best and easiest way to make a wilderness table look great!