Enfilade ho! (the mad dash to the finish)

Enfilade! is a week away and I'm painting and working on terrain like crazy.

I don't think I've ever had the kind of productivity I've had in the last couple years. The Miracle Dip™ deserves all the credited for this.

It's a good thing, too, that I'm being productive because I'm moving into Enfilade Death March mode. I'm hosting two Enfilade! events. One, a Bronze Age skirmish game that I've run before and I can do it without any further effort (though it would be nice to get some of my 40mm mounted Prehistoricalistic Europeanoids completed). The other, the Irish Project, has been an undertaking. I've made steady progress on it, even though I've turned off the straight and narrow a few times to work on some other "Rampant" projects—and let's be honest, I'm also lazy.

Minis

All of the figures/models I need for the Irish Project event are either (1) completely painted and based, (2) completely painted but unbased, (3) nearly completely painted. That says a lot, but the final bit will be a mad dash since there's a very large number in the (2) and (3) categories, though mostly (2).

For me the big hurdle in painting minis is getting them past the dipped (i.e., glopped) phase. It's smooth sailing after that. However, the way I do most things requires waiting time. I have a multi-stage process that works very well openendedly (is that a word?), but can be tough when dealing with an unforgivingly hard deadline.

Assuming I get all the minis completely painted and dipped by this weekend, that leaves a lot of basing to do in the remaining four days till Enfilade. I'm taking the week off work, so I'll have a lot of time, but some things take a few days "curing" time; for example, I tend to wait at least 48 hours after dipping before I brush on a coat of matte varnish, which protects the Minwax stain from curling when the dullcote hits it (it's been a problem). I also tend to wait at least 24 hours for the pumice gel medium I use for basing to dry. I expect to be dullcoting final based minis Thursday night before the convention.

Bases ready to load

I've made marvelous progress this week. I've had to revise this post several times since starting it last weekend because I outstripped my reported progress.

Pikes leveled, ready for the gel medium

At this point, I'll have all my minis based and glopped with MinWax by tonight, or early tomorrow.

Various stages of preparation

All along, the process of completing nearly 200 minis—with no two painted alike—seemed like chaos, but it all eventually came together. I can still do a kind of batch painting by applying a single color to a small group of minis, then another color, etc.

I would certainly have accomplished more sooner if I were more disciplined in painting—as if that were possible. I got a lot done in hours-long sessions, but then wouldn't paint for days. Nevertheless, my painting table went from crowded,

To nearly clear,

To completely clear.

All that remains now is dipping and basing, and I have six work-free days to do that.

Terrain

I'm near finished with terrain for the event. I've built up a lot of it over the years, so I can rest and reuse most of it. However, there were a few new/revived pieces.

The Hudson and Allan buildings I got from Michigan Toy Soldier company are done! They really didn't take much effort at all.

The long house

The not so long house

I liked them so much, I ordered another two Hudson and Allan buildings, but they're out of stock and won't arrive by Enfilade. But I'll be able to get them into later games—of which I hope there will be many after all the work I've put into this project.

I've had some wonderful Armorcast stone walls that I bought 20+ years ago. They got a bit knackered over the years and I'd been meaning to redo them. I also thought I'd like to add to them, so a recent order to Armorcast got me twice what I used to have. I completed/redid them all in a new way and I'm quite happy with the result.

Don't fence me in

That ought to be enough to get on with, but I couldn't resist ordering another four of the 9" long pieces. They arrived on Monday and I'm already well along to finishing them. With these last pieces, I'll have 180" of stone walls. That's surely enough to be getting on with.

Finally, I wanted to do something fancy-schmanzy with my woods. I've used felt in times past to demarcate the footprint of a wood. It's easy to do and quite common. Years ago, I made some rough terrain pieces for DBM that I found useful for other things after I stopped playing DBM. They're very flat. I used an .030 plastic sheet with a layer of fine pumice gel medium as a base with a blotchy layer of coarse pumice gel medium on top. Painted and flocked, they make a nice base—but I only have two of them and I need many more for my games at Enfilade!

I got two very large sheets of .030 plastic from Plastruct and cut out several more, including shapes that will interlock with wall angles. These have already been schmeered with the pumice medium, so I only need to let them dry a few days and I can paint and flock them.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

Then there's the trees. I have several already completed. I did a quick job on them last Enfilade! when I completed about 30 trees almost overnight in the middle of the convention for the Queztalcoatl Rampant game I ran with Kevin Smyth. I did a more thorough job on the bases after the convention and started another 30+ that still need work. I'll get to them after the weekend I expect.