Bumper crop (and joy)

The US Postal Service was kind to me today, yielding much. It turns out that the package I had to sign for wasn't the second Bicorne order, it was an envelope containing some conquistador flags from Adolfo Ramos in Spain. However, while I was at the post office signing for the envelope, they handed me another package they had in the back for me. It didn't need a signature, it was just there. It turned out to be an order from The Assault Group I made in December for more conquistadors and Tlaxcalans for the Quetzalcoatl Rampant project. Kevin swears he won't order from TAG ever again after a bad experience. I've ordered from them several times to get WW2 figures for Bolt Action, figures for the 30 Years War (best range for that ever!), and Spanish, Tlaxcalans, and Aztecs. My experience is that from ordering online to holding the wee lead men in my hot little hands is about six weeks. Not as lighting fast as ordering from Timeline Miniatures, but it gets here. As long as you're not in a hurry, you'll be OK.

Later in the day, my second order from Bicorne showed up in my mail box. These figures are the cavalry and the regimental gun and crew for ECW. I'm now complete with horse, foot, and guns. Bicorne figures (and Renegade, their siblings separated at birth) are truly exquisite figures. They're nice and big and have a lot of detail, which can be a chore when painting them, but which is especially conducive to good results from the dip method because there are more nooks 'n' crannies for the Minwax stain to puddle around and detail to make pop in the finished figures. When my Renegade order arrives (soon I expect) I'll have enough figures to make three Pikeman's Lament companies: Royalist (modeled on Hopton's bluecoat Regiment), Parliament (modeled on the Tower Hamlets regiment of the London Trained Bands), and Scots (modeled on the Master of Yester's regiment). I've still got more to add, like a frame gun for the Scots, a unit of blue-bonneted dragoons, and some of those Scots lancers who tipped the scale in the cavalry fight at Marston Moor. I'll also get some more cavalry (maybe some lobsters) and another regimental gun. Bill Stewart, meanwhile, has completed his herculean rebasing project and has enough units for several companies for both King and Parliament. I have a lot of catching up to do...

The crowning mercy of the day, however, was an email from John Kennedy of The Panzer Depot with the single word, "Joy!" He'd told me two weeks ago that his order of The Pikeman's Lament was on it's way. We expected it to come last week and my daily queries of "Is there joy?" were met with disappointment. I made the trip down to Kirkland at 5:00 and had the long-awaited rules in my hands.

I must say that I'm not disappointed, even after waiting for them for months. From what I gather, the rules were complete more than a year ago and have been held from release due to Osprey's production schedule. I managed to get a copy three days before the official release, so that's something. I'll post a full review of the rules later.

I'm now awash in lead for multiple projects. I just need to sit and paint for a while.