From NoelW: Post 1: Zulus, crusaders, civvies and Frank

So here we go again!

As the idea for this Challenge is to finish hobby projects, Curt’s ruling that we can submit figures that have already been started is great for me, as much of my lead pile is half-finished. I’ve this horrible habit of priming new figures, painting their flesh and a colour or two, then putting them in a drawer and moving on to another shiny prospect. As a result, I’ve probably hundreds of figures begun but sadly languishing, which couldn’t be used in the Painting Challenge. So I’m going to use this opportunity to complete some of these guilty secrets.

However, that also feels a bit like cheating. Some of the languishing figures only need shields, so they'll only take a couple of hours. In fact, I could probably spend the whole Quarantine Challenge just doing such things. But that feels like setting the bar too low. Curt, in his (what-might-perhaps-be-called-by-some,-especially-Curt), "infinite wisdom" suggested that I should set myself a personal challenge to make Quarantine more interesting for me and my posts potentially more interesting for you. What a sensible guy!

So I thought again about returning to Challenge Island, and travelling it for a third time, but there are four or five locations that I’d find very difficult to complete a third time, and several of them would shift me a long way from my work in progress, so that feels overall too much like hard work. So I thought again about returning to Challenge Island.

Instead I’ve decided on my own “Challenge Island”: a series of tasks that have to be executed by June 20th. My plan is not as interesting as Curt’s, but, as Curt’s did, it will both challenge and motivate me. It consists of one “location” for each of the projects I’d like to see progress. And, as with that fabulous Island now of legendary status alongside Ultima Thule and Atlantis, I aim to visit each location twice. 

When I listed them, I found I'd quite a lot of projects. What a surprise! 23, in fact. So my personal Quarantine Challenge is now to complete (at least) one “new” and one “old” task for one or more of these projects each week. And, as the Challenge lasts 12 weeks, and I'm challenging myself to complete 46 tasks altogether, that means ideally 4 tasks a week, leaving a couple to spare. An "old" task is one that I’ve already started, but never completed. A "new" task is one that has gone no further than the preparation stage, i.e. it follows the same rules as for the Painting Challenge.  I’ll aim to have both a new and an old task completed each week of the Challenge, at the very least, though not necessarily both from the same project. Ideally there'll be two of each, each week. Exceptionally, perhaps, more.

In this way, I hope that the variety will, like the Squirrel side challenge in Challenge IX, and Challenge Island in Challenge X, keep me on my toes and lead to at least some of the posts that will interest you. Most of the tasks have to be small, of course, just a few figures here and there, but in some cases I've quite a few figures just waiting for relatively simple work.

Some of the new tasks will also fit a couple of the side challenges: Benito’s “Infamy! Infamy!” ancients challenge and StuartL’s “Bolt Action Brush Battle” (is that happening, Stuart?). For these, of course, I’ll only be submitting new tasks, I’ve minis currently unbegun.

So here are my two old tasks for this week. Firstly, Frankie goes to Frostgrave:

He's a Wargames Foundry figure, whom I began for Challenge IX, but didn't quite finish. Now he's done:

He's intended for general fantasy use, though he's most likely to appear first in Frostgrave.

And here are three civilians for him to irritate, though I intend them for my Walmington-on-Sea/Sealion project.

These are Footsore Miniatures, from their inter-war VBCW range. I'd progressed these quite far during Challenge X, but failed to highlight, base, varnish etc  And the little girl doing her "we're off to see the wizard" act, I found particularly hard to get right, as her expression is quite peculiar. I repainted aspects of her three times before deciding enough was enough. I think she's probably simply possessed.

For my "new" work, here's six Natal Native Infantry for the Zulu Wars. Perry Figures, relatively simple painting, apart from shields with a life of their own. 

My main projects here are, of course, Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift. One of the things that interests me is the "what if"s of these battles. What if Chelmsford hadn't split his force, for example, or had returned to Isandlwana before the zulus had overrun the field?

And finally a command base for the Crusades. I'm sticking with my desire to create as many vignettes/command bases as I can, to enhance my battlefields because I love to see them, even if they have no game function, and they potentially make more interesting viewing for you, too.

They are manufactured by Crusader Miniatures but, perversely, are not intended for the Crusades but the Reconquista, being Pedro Bermudez and King Alfonso from their El Cid range. I'm using them as "generic" Frankish/Crusader leaders, so have not painted any particular livery and the flag, which is currently a Templar one (hand painted) is detachable, so I can have a range of different commanders. (I've documented the detachable flag mechanism in a previous challenge.)

I'm rather pleased with these figures, but I have to acknowledge the influence of DarellH's Reconquista project in Challenge X. Whilst I'm not able to replicate the stunning quality of his figures, I was definitely painting with them in mind, and consequently very happy with the results. Thanks, Darell.

So what are my 23 projects, I don’t hear you cry? Here you go, you not very curious people, you:

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI
Black Seas (1/700th)
British in Egypt: 1801
Cape Wars
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801
Frostgrave/fantasy			Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars
1860s British IF
1880s, the Sudan
Walmington/Sealion			Civvies	15
Waterloo
WW2 Desert
Zulu War	NNI	30

I'll update that table each week, as I'm going to keep a note of the notional points for my own gratification. I'm going to guess that most tasks will probably be under 50 points, so my target would be 2400 for the 12 weeks, 1200 each for "old" and "new" tasks. As always, I'd hope to exceed this, but we'll see. Only 70 pts this week, so already I'm slipping!

BTW: if anyone wants to adopt a similar approach so we can compare notes, it might be an interesting exercise. On the other hand, most people have more worthwhile things to do with their time!