Back to painting

I've not painted anything for a long time, but after a friend mentioned DBA, I decided to have a look in my unpainted DBA box.  

First the box, and in here are Indians, Persians, Greeks and Gauls/Galatians. I decided to start the Indians. 

Here the first flesh paint has been applied. In the centre are two stands of Hordes where I tried the GW Contrast paints. I was pleasantly surprised by the result and I will use them again, selectively.  The other figures were painted with my usual thin semi-wash of flesh with an umber wash on top.  

And this is the stage I've reached. I've tidied up the sarong with a pale flesh colour that looks like unbleached cloth and then added some white. In the bottom picture, I've applied the colours to the horses; again a thin semi-wash so that the paint flows easily in to folds and muscles. Next for the horses will be to add a black or dark wash to the fetlocks, mane and tail.

And that's it for now.  Though one other thing I've found is that my back was starting to ache after a while. I am a bit older, but I think I will have to look at my painting setup and my posture, and try to make sure that painting remains a relaxing and enjoyable part of the hobby for me. 

Games review of the year 2020

Usually about this time I'd do a review of the games I played in the previous year.  This year it's a short list. 

So here are the games I played at our club in January and February 2020, before everything closed down.  

Lion Rampant - 2 

Hail Caesar - 1 

Black Powder - 1

ADG - 1

Maurice - 1 

Xenos Rampant - 1 

And that's it. Seven games. But they were good games.   

In the rest of 2020 I did very little game-wise or painting, though I have read a lot of books; a lot of books.  A recent focus has been World War 2. 

I read a biography of Eisenhower during the war and got a good understanding of the problems he had in leading an allied force.  

I read Patton's War As I Knew It (a sanitised version), then read The Patton Papers (an unsanitised version). The latter had some really interesting snippets, including his perceptions of other commanders.  But two main bits stood out for me; first, an almost throwaway comment that an unknown senior British officer admitted that, after Patton won the 'race to Messina', the British high command tried to restrict his activities and opportunities, so as he would not outshine Montgomery.  

The second comment was that in Normandy, the 21st Army Group commanded by Montgomery, required all armies, corps and divisions to submit a daily report showing the locations of each battalion.  This seems incredible and an example of the pedantic nature of British command. 

There is a command doctrine I understand was used by Americans and other non-British forces, and now standard in NATO, was that officers issued orders to the level below them and knew the location of units one level below that. But that was it, and senior commanders did not get involved in lower levels of command. So, an army commander like Patton would issue orders to his Corps and know the locations of his divisions, and that would be it. This pattern would be repeated down the chain of command to allow each of the lower levels of command to do their job. And orders would be what to do and not tell subordinates how to do it.  

I'm currently reading Nemesis by Max Hastings on the last two years of World War 2 in the Pacific. Interesting bits I've picked up on this time are McArthur's invasion of the Phillipines, and indeed the British retaking Burma, were actually unnecessary as the war was being won by the American amphibious forces closing in on the Japanese home islands.  Also of interest was the level of corruption and incompetence in the Chinese high command. 

None of this is directly related to painting or gaming, but I find it interesting.