Dead in the Water.

We all start ambitious projects whether it be that long cherished slow burning idea finally coming to fruition  or the shiny new range of miniatures that we snap up magpie fashion only to quickly discard.
Here are the pewter swords of Damocles and venom dripping leaden snakes that hang above me.

A paltry collection of Hussites courtesy of kingmaker miniatures. Lovely figures to be sure but the thought of adding so many more wagons at twenty odd quid a throw plus infantry & cavalry was just too alarming. A definite magpie moment. At least I didn't invest in any expensive literature for this one.

The ruined town of Iach Celduin for an abortive attempt at Middle Earth Roleplaying. Try as I might and mind I have tried very hard over the years, I just cannot get a handle on making Prof Tolkiens world work in a roleplaying context. Despite all the efforts of Iron Crown et al over the years to make this setting accessible my tiny simian brain just can't convey my sense of wonder to my long suffering players. Nevertheless like a latter day Sissiphus I will try again.

Seven Years War. I just don't know what possessed me to start collecting and painting these, for heavens sake there isn't a pike in sight. On reflection it may have been watching Barry Lyndon too often but its more likely to be Mark Sims fault for starting his Crusader range for this period ( I've always rather liked his sculpting style).
Anyhow the whole idea stalled for several reasons:
1. Despite an heroic effort I couldn't bring myself to like Marks hussar horse sculpts. I am a little fussy about horses, working around them makes you a bit odd like that.
2. The intense snowblindness arising from painting so much white. To counter this I moved over to collecting and painting Foundry's Freikorps von Kleist. But...
3. Foundry's release schedule for the above went all to buggery.
4. Trying to wargame the interesting engagements like Leuthen, Rossbach or Minden at this scale is really difficult. The rest of the big battles are just linear slaughterhouses.

In addition to the above I've twice completed Roman armies, a Foundry early imperial number and latterly a Renegade republican effort ( inspired by the WAB Hannibal supplement) both of which were sold on in short order. Why? I just don't like them. I like to paint them but I can't for some reason summon any affection for them, it must be a visceral celtic thing. The Republican incarnation even featured Thureophoroi and Tarentines to add a little Hellenistic goodness but even that didn't work. On theplus side at least they don't either hang or drip above me.