I guess I just got burned out. That's how it is with me and hobbies. I'm all in for five years or so and I then I need to take a break. I always seem to come back to them, however. I spent my time doing genealogy research, something I hadn't done in twenty years, reading and running. Then I started to feel the need to create. I got inspired by my daugther and her many crafting projects.
I explored many avenues before I settled on what exactly I wanted to paint. I like many areas of history so of course I've been tempted by many genres. I also flirted with 15mm figures. I looked into (added to my mountain of shame, bought books, etc.) 15mm American War of Independence, primarily the Battle of Bunker Hill as I have ancestors who fought there; 15mm Civil War, never been a big ACW nut, but I have always wanted to finish a Fire and Fury scenario; 20mm WWII, Eastern Front, a big interest of mine; 15mm Ancients, Romans vs. Dacians; 15mm WWII, Pacific War and finally 15mm Vietnam. What did I learn about myself during all this crazyness? 20mm is the scale for me. 28mm is too expensive, takes too long to paint and I don't feel confident enough to sculpt for it; 15mm, well, they take just as long to paint as 20mm if they're done right and I don't find them as much fun to paint ... just too small. I need variety. 15mm, painting, gaming involves too many figures of the same pose. I like clean, crisp models. I don't like spending too much time cleaning up models. A lot of 15mm figures I came across had indistinct faces and a lack of detail or casting faults. I need to really like the figures and don't like to mix figures from different makers. AB Figures have many pluses, but I was really disappointed to find that size difference among the range is huge - plus some of the casting isn't so great.
So I landed where I left off. I just really like RH Models' stuff so I'm sticking with them. I might not be able to get more of them, but I've got about 10 years worth of stuff to paint already. Rolf, if you're out there I've got a large order I desperately want to place. Please reach out. Everyone else, if you have some spare RH Models to unload please get in touch with me.
For starters I finished a set of ICW figures I was last working on. RH Models don't have leader figure so I made one with a head swap and some sculpted equipment, included a holstered pistol. They also don't produce a British Lewis gun team so I did a weapon swap with a such a weapon and a headswap with another to make a team.
My first new painting foray is going to be figures for the 2nd Indochina war (French vs. Viet Minh). I also have some 15mm Vietnam US Army and 20mm modern Australians to base. My recent research has included the civil wars of Nicaragua and El Salvador.
