(Lead) Mountain Musings - "Partially-Painted/Printed Pledge” [II/IV] January 2026

Last month's output ranged from spacecraft to spacemen, and even a small bit of terrain

Having already completed a quarter of my latest Partially-Painted/Printed Pledge (PPPP) I thought I'd spend the next four or so weeks focusing upon a number of 28mm plastic soldiers produced by "Warlord Games" - which frankly have been gathering dust on my shelves for far too many months. The majority of these figures will be World War Two Italians, as having bought the Nottingham-based company's "Bolt Action" Third Edition rulebook, as well downloaded their Italy Army List [dated September 2024], I thought I might finally finish a force of Benito Mussolini's fascists I've previously assembled, based and undercoated.

In addition, I couldn't resist recently picking up a copy of Issue 454 of "Wargames Illustrated" as it had a sprue of US Firefly Jump Infantry 'cello-taped' to its front cover. In the past I've experimented with "Konflikt '47" using my quite considerably-sized collection of "Secrets Third Reich" miniatures by "West Wind Productions". But never got on with that range's Jet Soldiers - finding the sculpts significantly smaller than the rest of my models. So thought I might try the 'official' figures for a change, and maybe even pick up half-a-dozen Axis Stahltruppen Heavy Infantry as opposition if the mood takes me.

"Warlord Games" WIPs - Three of the six US Firefly Jump Infantry I've assembled for "Konflikt '47"

I'm also eager to continue working on the brood of Zeek Scuttlers by "Artisan Guild" I have produced using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on my Mars 5 3D Printer. With my unit of Burrowers now finished and ready to represent a Tidal Swarm for the Trident Realm Of Neritica in "Kings Of War", I plan to get both my army's leader and a couple of basic infantry units completed 'toot sweet.'

Lastly, I haven't forgotten how badly my Napoleonic project has started floundering in recent times. I was fully expecting to have doubled the number of French skirmishers and Russian militia I could field over the past few weeks. However, disappointingly I haven't finished a single one, and now enter a year in which I had planned to solely focus upon cavalry units rather than (more) infantry. As a result I hope to get the eight outstanding soldiers finished as soon as I can, and then potentially look at only doing a handful of horsemen before plunging back to more muskets and bayonets.

"Wargames Foundry" WIPs - This Napoleonic French skirmisher is now close to competition

There can be little doubt that my productivity over the past few months has been somewhat low when compared to my output of previous years. To be fair a lot of this has been down to the sheer variety of miniatures currently available to me - something which has caused me to leap from one manufacturer to another with little rhyme or reason. The number of STL (Standard Triangle Language) files I now own in embarrassingly high and means I now spend a lot of my hobby time tinkering with my 3D printers rather than actually putting a brush-tip on a model.

Somewhat disconcertingly I don't see that changing any time soon either, as I have now started printing and painting scenery too - something I've always tried to avoid in the past. Of particular note has to be the numerous pieces of scenery I just acquired from "Saucermen Studios" via their "Beyond The Trenches Of Despair" Kickstarter. Whether it be ruined walls, trench systems, bunkers, towers or concrete barricades, I am currently slowly producing as much of this stuff as my "Bambu Lab" A1 Mini can cope with - and then I'll be moving onto another terrain project concerning various sewers, dungeons and pyramids following the success of "Death x Tiles: The Lost Temple" campaign by "Cast N Play"...