Progress

 Hi all,

The semester is over, grades are in, I have several months to look forward to in which I can focus on revamping courses and writing . . . and we've gone into lockdown.  The main impact in Monkeyland is likely to be a few weeks without the Cub, as he's at his mom's, and we're not bringing him up into the lockdown zone.  Skype and email will serve for now..  He's shifted well into teenager mode at this point, which means we generally have to lure him out of the basement with food, but still, I'll miss him.

In hobby news, I finished up the bases for my first unit of Scots cavalry.  Cav units in Pikeman's Lament are six strong, so that's where I started.  I figure as the collection grows, I can either supplement existing units, or combine them into larger 12+ bunches.

Pics are a little dark, I'm afraid - I struggle to get decent ones in the office, despite my best efforts.  Next time I get them on the table, I'll see about some glamour shots.

I've based them on the Pike and Shotte standard of 25x50mm per figure.  Double basing for some, single for others (and casualty removal).

In addition to finishing off the cavalry, I made a start on a few opponents for them, and broke open the warlord box I received at Christmas.  A couple of stands of shot and one of pike were enough to get a feel for the figures, and how they compare to the Old Glory figures that make up the Covenanter force.

Generally speaking, the warlord figs (all plastic) are a little taller and slimmer than the Old Glory.  Not enough of a difference to matter on the table, certainly, and the varying height seems well within the kind of range you'd normally see among humans.

The Warlord plastics seem to fall somewhere between "old school" GW, and their newer plastics.  They're more refined than the old plastic kits (I'm talking about the old multi-part, mix-and match), with fine details generally well picked out.  They do require a bit of fiddling, however (I've found arms especially so), and there's a limited amount of mixing and matching you can do without breaking out the hobby knife.

You get quite a bit of variation in head-gear, and my sense is that's one's greatest option for customization.  I'm sticking to a majority of floppy hats, and some Montereo and stocking caps for variety for the Royalists I'll put together.

While I'm generally a fan of plastics, for reasons of durability, storage, etc., I'm finding that the figs are already getting a bit "same-y" to paint.  While metal figs can be a paint, I found the OGs to have a ton of character, and like most of their range, they "take paint well".

That said, they'll do just fine as opponents for the Covenanters in Pikeman's Lament.  The nefarious plan is to get a couple of forces together by summer.  That will give me the opportunity (weather, plague, etc. permitting) to have some folks over for games in the backyard, and perhaps spur some local interest in the period.  I'm reliably informed there's at least some folks out there with the makings of 28mm ECW armies, so anything to get folks out and interested would be great.

FMB