Republican Roman Italian Allies. Progress at last.

Firstly, Merry Christmas one & all. I'm not a great fan of the festive season myself, but after a very tough year at work I was actually ready for a few days of enforced inactivity this time round. Christmas eve was spent drinking ill advised cocktails; yesterday was much the same but with the addition of a vast beef dinner & today has been spent drinking Welsh gin & tonic whilst painting miniatures. All in all a fine few days that I have really enjoyed. Its back to work tomorrow to catch up on paperwork, though I can see this going by the by & spending the day instead driving round dropping invoices off & drinking tea with customers instead. The joys of running your own company!

Anyway, I digress. Pictured below is the current state of progress with the Roman project:

These are the hastati/ princeps from the Victrix boxed set, the velites are already under way with the Triarii to follow soon, at this rate I will have a viable army by Christmas 2016 & maybe even get to game with it within the next decade.

Second Roman Cohort. Scant Progress.

Don't ask me where the last month has gone because I don't know. Wherever it has gone, it has left me with very little time to pursue anything vaguely war-game based. I did think I might get a bit done when I had a week working down in Devon, but after 12-14 hour days working alone the local pub 200 yards down the road proved a greater draw than sitting in a cold farmhouse trying to paint miniatures in inadequate light.

A lovely spot, not as lovely as The Ashill Inn round the corner though.

I did get some painting done, but it was mostly windowsills & doors. The rest of my week consisted of carpentry work & cutting back what my temporary neighbour described as, Le Jardin Sauvage! He wasn't kidding either, it was quite frankly, a jungle. I spent one entire afternoon balls deep in the pond cutting out bullrush with a billhook. Still took my mind off the fact it was pissing with rain!
The rest of November has been similarly busy despite the shortening hours of daylight, just means I have less excuse to ignore the burgeoning stack of paperwork on my desk.

Anyhoo, here are a couple of shots of the latest recruits:

As I say, scant progress; a situation unlikely to change this side of new year. Back down to Devon at the end of next week & then helping out re-furbishing a kitchen over the festive period, at least I have plenty of variety in my work.