Wargame Butterfly? Moi? ... maybe...

I just realised that a month has gone by since my last post, which is pretty poor. I apologise. I started blogging just over a year ago and was re-starting the hobby from scratch. Since then I've acquired a hundred or so figures, of which I've painted none. I've created, revised, deleted, resurrected, re-revised and re-deleted a number of blogs in the meantime, which with the research involved to make them 'realistic', has taken a big chunk of time to be back where I started. It's not that I've flitted between a large number of periods and failed to settle on just a few, my interests have stayed constant, but it's been the decision on what to do right now that has varied.

There are limits on my hobby time, just like everyone else has, but I've ended up with a couple of extra ones on top of those I had when I started this. I've also lost my dedicated gaming/hobby space, so everything has to be brought out and packed away, which again cuts into the time I've allowed. I appreciate that this is how it is for many others and I'm whining about nothing, but I'm having to adjust to change. I'll get over it and I'll shut up now.

I've had to wrestle with other things too. Taking the plunge into a period leaves you with the choice between going for a 'historical' period, or going for an 'imagi-nation'. I've seen some historical settings that have been so far removed from the truth to qualify for 'imaginary' status mind you. I've also seen some appalling 'imagi-nations' too of course. I like to base mine on factual settings where "only the names have been changed to protect the innocent". In other words made up situations in a real world. Obviously this doesn't work for some things. I lack the imagination to create a wholly new world or country, so I borrow bits from real ones.

Hispañola was formed from disparate elements of Cuban, Dominican, Spanish and even African history. It used real world military organisations and thinly disguised historical scenarios. It all required research, but if I got it wrong, there was nobody who could point that out. Once you start dealing with real events and real history, people appear to point out your mistakes. Some people are brave enough to paint up their toys in colour schemes to match their imaginary state, while I'd have to paint them as they should be and hand wave why it says 'U.S. Air Force', 'Army' or 'Marines' on the side. For that reason it is sometimes preferable to just 'do it straight', which is something I'm considering at present.

My current plan is to actually paint something and create the setting as the painted figures appear and to eventually get slightly ahead of myself and use the setting to plan purchases. There's not much point me creating an elaborate setting and then leaving it idle for months while I buy and paint figures etc to bring it to life. Any way I'll leave it at that, thank my followers for their patience and I'll be back in a few days, or a week or so, with my plans and projects for 2012. Hopefully I'll make more progress than I have with 2011's!