A lesson: preserve your wisdom

Putting the Numidian LH together underlines to me the lesson I already took out of my prep. That 'how to' wisdom you built up over years of the hobby: don't let it go.

I had wanted to see how useful it would be to take minis prep much further than usual, before removing them from the sprue. All the mounts were varnished and had wire posts ready, and all the riders blocked out with base paint colours.

But it didn't work.

HaT Numidian riders have a relatively tight, difficult seat on their mounts. And of course by guessing where the wire posts would sit, I made my job all the harder. Much fumbling, scraping and refitting later, I realised I had wasted my time and everything would need to be varnished again, then repainted.

All 11 riders are now mounted. (The LH general is already complete). About half the riders need a wire post, the others more-or-less sit right with the aid of PVA glue alone. All mounts are base-painted. Since I want dun-coloured mounts right across the board, I mix a medium brown sort of colour for base. Applied with a light hand over dark varnish, many of the original lines won't need lining-out again.

I must fetch my Later Carthaginian LH in for comparison before I get to the real paint stage, I want them to be compatible. I also have another element with my Impy Romans which almost certainly needs redoing.