From NoelW: No painting, no points

My painting over the last ten days has stalled somewhat. I have to report that, effectively, I've completed nothing. I'm not sure this is the first time that someone has posted no painting to an Analogue Challenge - why would they? - but I'm still going to be able to write quite a bit about it! Try and stop me.

Firstly, I've been doing a fair bit of writing, which means a fair bit of research, too, hence a fair bit of time. I'm writing something for Black Seas (ssh! secret - can't say more) including another scenario for one of the magazines - but to illustrate it, I need a couple of painted merchant ships. Which I didn't have. So, that's one new priority on the painting desk.

Secondly, I've been stalled by that curse of the wargamer: too many distracting projects. When I set my personal targets for this Challenge, I knew there were a lot, but my hope was that I'd be able to make small advances on each, and the variety each week would keep me going.

In fact, that's worked too well. Having strayed towards the Afghans, which I hadn't planned on doing, I was lured further into the Second Afghan War, which wasn't in my list, unearthed the Perrys Brits-for-the-Sudan box, and, hey presto! yet another task was added to the list.

Then, rebasing my wife's Union army reminded me I'd Berdan's sharpshooters in the drawer, and these are irresistible figures. They just had to be undercoated. Then base colour...and so on

At the same time, my good friend Jon emailed to say that his therapy for lockdown has been to compile a Perrys' World War 2 order, to be fired off as soon as they re-open - so have I finished his Afrika Korps or Italians yet? I haven't, of course, so that's new priority three.

The upshot: I've started four unplanned pieces of work, each interfering with the other and with my original plans, and finished none of them.

But, thirdly and lastly, the killer. Although at least it's an excuse for a little eye-candy: having been really pleased with rebasing the Union army last week, I realised that my Zulu collection needed similar treatment. My zulus are a mix of all sorts of manufacturers gathered over maybe as many as 100 years: Redoubt, Minifigs, some ranges which no longer exist, Warlord and, mainly, Foundry and Perry, and based in at least five different ways. The smallest zulu in the collection is a Minifig, 22mm high. The tallest is a Redoubt figure at 35mm. Yes, they look daft next to each other. But, in the mass of zulus, now I've taken the time to base them in the same style, you really don't notice.

So, as a small reward for reading a post quite literally about nothing, here's my Isandlwana-In-Progress - not too accurate yet, but still beginning to look pretty good:

The unsuspecting camp:

The oncoming tide:

Overwhelmed:

I promise some actual painting next week!