Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Crazy Times




It's hard to believe it's been a week since my opening post, but things here have been a bit crazy, to say the least.

On the weekend of November 6-8, I served on a Kairos Torch team to a juvenile prison here in my state. Kairos Torch is a three-day Christian mission - if any of my readers have been on an Emmaus Walk, they'll get the picture. It was uplifting, depressing, frustrating and intriguing, in cycles, and I haven't really processed my impressions and sentiments about the mission project yet, primarily because I then spent yesterday and today serving on a vacation Bible school at a local nursing home. It's a really neat program that was begun by our lay leader at the church my wife pastors (and I attend). It provides a VBS experience that is geared toward elderly residents of nursing homes and assisted living centers, rather than children. Today, I performed as a clown in a skit, and gave a five-minute Gospel message. So, busy, busy, busy. The good news is that a man with whom I worked on the Kairos Torch mission is a chess player, and seems really interested to try a wargame, even though he knows nothing about it. So, I might have discovered both a friend and future wargaming partner.

Now, back to wargaming. I'm trying to decide what I'm going to be doing with my 28mm ancients project I started a few months ago - Caesarian Romans and Celts, in plastic, primarily from Wargames Factory. I like the figures, but I've noticed as I've gotten older (I'm now about to turn 39) that my patience and ability to paint has apparently waned. Rather than basing the figures for Warhammer Ancient Battles, I'm thinking about basing them for Basic Impetus, and cutting the project short. It may be Magpie Syndrome setting in, but we'll see. I purchased the WAB rules on eBay three weeks ago, but still haven't received them, so I'm eager to crack the book when it arrives and see what I might be looking at down the road.

As I count it up on the table, I have about 16 Roman legionaries, 12 Numidian javelinmen, 12 Numidian slingers, 55 Celtic warband infantry and 8 Celtic slingers finished. Still waiting to be built and painted is a box of Wargames Factory Celtic chariots and two boxes of Caesarian legionaries. I've been waiting for the German cavalry to be released before buying any horsemen.

I guess I just feel like I'm going to be painting plaid and checks for an eternity. I have a bad habit of not finishing projects, and at this point (especially with limited funds), I think it would do me some good to just finish something - anything - before getting tempted by something else. Basic Impetus would allow me to field a Celtic British army almost right away, with only the purchase of a box or two of horsemen withstanding. If I try to do this in WAB, I have boxes and boxes of Celts to come. The Romans are almost finished, save for the purchase of a box of Celtic or German horse. I need some Numidian light cavalry, too, but that's easy to come by, since Basic Impetus operates by stands, not by individual figures.

I will try to post some selected photos of my finished figures in the coming days. Thanks for your patience!

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