WWII Project, Month Three

Here we are, getting to the half-way mark of the half-way mark, month three, of my WWII Canadians project. It looks like excitement surrounding the release of Black Powder has distracted me from writing this. However, things are progressing well and although I’m starting to worry about finishing on time I am happy with the speed I am making.

I’ve fully painted eight riflemen so far, with the remaining twelve of this order needing some sculpting before I can start painting them. I really wish that Artizan made WWII Canadians. The only difference is that the aside from the 3rd Infantry Division the Canadians didn’t really adopt the Mk.III helmet and almost always wore netting on their Mk.IIs with a shell dressing tucked into the side or back. Since they don’t I am left sculpting.

This batch of four have since been fully painted, varnished and based.

While I had been getting burnt out painting large sixteen figure batches I am thinking that four per batch is a little small. Sure, they are quick to finish but they don’t make as satisfying a dent in my unpainted pile. I am going up to at least six miniatures per batch. The only question is whether I can handle twelve. That would bring me to the end of my first order. I also need to think about making my next order soon. The time it will take to arrive is what’s making me doubt that I’ll finish in time.

In order to make the batch of twelve a possibility I am thinking that I would paint all the flesh and helmets in one evening, but split the battle dress over two evenings. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to paint the webbing, boots, metal and wood of all twelve in an evening. Basing and varnishing will have to occur over a couple of evenings because of the drying time involved. This is why painting twelve may save me some time.

Hopefully this means six evenings of painting which I can probably squeeze in over two weeks. Let’s be conservative and say it takes me until December. That will give me two months to paint one and a half as many models as it took four months to paint. If I wait until I am finished painting my current order before making a new one it will likely be caught in the Christmas rush and further delay the project. I’ll have to find some room in the budget to order the final 28 soon. Looks like Republic to Empire will be pushed off again.

My first batch. I’m hoping that the Canadian battledress varied due to dye lot differences and fading due to use and washing. I’m having trouble finding a WWII Canadian Green I like.

One of my goals was to change the way I approached wargaming projects. Normally I would start to burn out on a project after a couple of weeks. There was so much that I wanted to do that I would lose interest in what I was currently painting. Not only did this make painting a chore, it also slowed it down to a crawl, compounding the problem. So, to combat this, I started breaking each project down into batches which would take a week or so of painting to complete. By rotating through projects I would keep my interest up. Each project would take longer, but once I got into the rhythm I planned to regularly be finishing projects and adding new ones.

Things didn’t really work out that way and I just had too much going and not enough finishing. It’s true that I finished more projects than before, but some games fell out of local favour before I had an army ready to play them. I also lacked a clear direction on my projects and would become dispirited about starting new projects I didn’t know when I would finish.

In addition to simply being realistic about what projects I really wanted to take on and which I could live without I also decided to try working a small project from start to finish, hence my WWII project. So far I am not burnt out and even the thought of my War of 1812 project eagerly awaiting the finish of the WWII project is giving me energy to keep working rather than wearing me down.

The bigger test will be when I actually start my War of 1812 project. I want to game with large battalions on specially made terrain. While I’m likely to break up painting units with making terrain I am considering the challenge of working exclusively on such a large project. If I do, I don’t want to burnt out but I also don’t want to go into it thinking about excuses to give up. Start as you mean to go on. On the other hand I would like to expand my WWII project. Perhaps planned intermissions as appropriate.

Ok, here’s the plan. Once I finish my WWII Canadian infantry platoon I will design my OOB for whichever War of 1812 battle I decide upon. From that OOB I will choose at least one infantry battalion and one gun from the American and British side and paint those to completion. These will get some skirmish gaming in while I expand my WWII force or another small project. We’ll see how that works.

Tyler