Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

There wasn't a weekly update last week as I was away.  I returned on Saturday and got straight back into things. Painting/modelling   I finished the Newline Designs Sepoy regiment.  This is the last of three regiments of the first Anglo-Indian brigade.  For more on these click  here . I've been sorting out my Burrows  & Badgers collection and working on warband rosters.  I'm ashamed to say I started collecting these lovely figures in 2016 and they've never had an outing.  Cruelty to animals is what it is, keeping them in a box all this time.  I shall atone for this soon if all goes to plan. Research & Reading While on holiday I spent a very pleasant 1/2 day at the  Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton .  A quite amazing place with a bewildering array of exhibits.  It's one of those incredible places built up and run by the dedication of volunteers and well worth a visit.  I'll try to do a report on i...

This week I finished off another regiment of East India Company Sepoys for the First Anglo-Sikh War. As usual all figures are 20mm Newline Designs.  This is the third regiment (two EIC Sepoy, one Sikh) that I've completed this year.  I've noticed a pattern: when I start slapping the paint on a unit I'm enthused; then about half way in I get a bit overawed by the effort involved and the repetitive painting; and then by the time I'm doing the last details I get a second wind and go back and do a fair few refinements.  This was the last large unit left out of the lead pile and I'm quite relieved by that.   As with all the Newline figures I've done they paint up very well.  When I placed the order I asked Sean for an extra standard bearer which he duly sent.  The first Sepoy regiment only has the one.  I'm not sure whether I'll bother buying a command pack just to get the one figure.  As it is I still need to sort out the standards, those shown ...

Here's the first batch of painting of the year, a regiment of East India Company Sepoys for the First Anglo-Sikh War. As usual all figures are 20mm Newline Designs.  I hadn't painted any miniatures since October when I did a Sikh regiment.  When I started these I was full of enthusiasm but when I got to the beginning of the third week working on these they were pissing me right off.  I tend to do production line painting in blocks of no more than 12 and I decided to do all 24 of these in one go, so perhaps that was it.  Or possibly the weather has been dull and there's been little natural light.  Whatever it was by the time I was painting the 24th pair of backpack straps I was wondering how the hell do Napoleonic collectors keep at it unit after unit?  Better men than me. Moaning aside I'm pleased with how they turned out but I can't see myself doing anymore for a little while now.  I believe that there should be two standard bearers as in a British re...