Working From Home

In common parlance "working from home" is a euphemism for sitting around in your pyjamas (or "onesie" if you are young and hip). This week I was supposed to be in Sweden on business, but due to illness (upset stomach) I had to remain behind when the team departed.

Accordingly I have been dialling into video conferences using Skype all week. This has proved very successful as I've been able to see the presentations and white board discussions, as well as periodically being carried about and shown the view out of the window. This means that between sessions I have been able to sit at my painting desk, which is something I can't usually do during my tea break or lunch at work.

The consequence of this is that I've completed my first European Regiment for my Chinese collection. My massive order from Irregular Miniatures arrived last Saturday morning, as promised, and I was in danger of having to go a whole week without getting to start on them. Due to illness, however, they are all neatly sorted into units for painting.



Mr Irregular sent the figures in a box that's suitable for the pre-painting/post-sorting storage. Each ziplock bag is a regiment or battery of guns, together with (where necessary) organisation and painting notes, in case it takes me 6 months to get round to painting them and I forget what I meant to do. I sure love ziplock bags.

The Regiment I chose to paint was the 60th Rifles, as they seem to have a prominant role in the 1860 campaign, and make a nice contrast with my exisitng sikhs, who are in red. The Napoleonic rifle uniforms in dark green with black equipment always look very nice, and the 60th with their grey trousers and red facings add a dash of colour absent on the 95th. Furthermore I've painted them with white "Havelock" cap covers, so that adds a good contrast too. All in all I really like them.


I was also able to finish off my single unit of Taiping rebel spearsmen. In this order I focussed on Imperial Chinese and the British of the 1860 campaign, so they'll be on their own for a while. I hope by giving Ian at Irregular some heavy hints there may be French and Taipings available from him by the time I'm ready to paint them.



In addition to the Irregular delivery my Mongols from Museum Miniatures had also arrived. Bought in their "25% off everything January sale" these are a real bargain. It's a shame that the 25% off seems to include several of the horses not having tails.

The painting bench has some Mongols in progress at the moment, and the last figures to make up my "blue" Imperial units are currently waiting for the glue to dry on their bases. If I finish them this weekend that'll be a good week's work. I'll then have enough figures to set them up as an "army" for the next round of pictures.

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