HI, I'm introducing myself so Alex doesn't delete me! I've browsed this forum for a long time, and finally decided to join, since it's filled with so many knowledgeable people of good cheer--and a lot of good painters to boot. I'm from Wisconsin, USA. I've been gaming since about 1960 when one of my older brothers devised an extremely simplistic card-driven game for all our hundreds of Marx army men. I've always loved military history since listeneing to my Dad and his buddies talk about their experiences in WWII.
In 1971, the same older brother, after his combat tour in Viet Nam, introduced me to board games (Blitzkrieg and Tractics), and 3 years later to miniatures via his law school chum's (Ken Bunger--Hi Ken if you're here) beautiful, huge miniature collection in Omaha.
I have collected, painted and sold off 2 Colonial armies since the late 1970's--Indian Mutiny and Zulu War, but have painted alot of other eras, mostly the American Indian frontier wars, King Phillip's War through Blackhawk's War, with some ancients, Gladiators, Old West and more Colonial Wars. I paint much, much more than I game, which is mostly solo. I played a lot of board games in the 80's and 90's when the family was young, and computer games the last 10 years (I'm a big fan of IL2 Sturmovik and it's mods), but in the last 5 years I have tried to get back into painting more. I read military history vociferously, and have a pretty hefty library of as many titles as I can find on those subjects mentioned above, especially original source material or contemporaneous accounts at least. (Google Books is great for those OOP titles from the 18th and 19th Century.)
I jumped back into Colonials in a big way this last summer, thanks mostly to the Perry Twins, and my semi-fictional armies will center around the NorthWest Frontier and the Sudan, fighting slavers, religious pretenders, and a host of tribes not too willing to be dominated by European powers. They will take on British, French, Italians, Egyptians, and all their colorful allies--Sudanese, Bashi-Bazooks, Senegalese, Algeriens, etc. There may also be excursions into the waters of the South China Sea chasing down Indo-Chinese pirates.
Like many, I suffer recurring painting blocks that last months and months at a time (once for almost 2 years), so that it is hard for me to finish anything and start gaming. But recently I put myself on a concentrated painting plan that finally seems to be working---paint at least 1/2 hour a day, every day, and 4 hours on the weekend, minimum. Anything more is gravy. My goal is to have most of the Colonial stuff finished for when I semi-retire in 2 years.
I plan on putting some stuff up in the Gallery section soon. Need to take some more pics first.
Sorry for being long-winded.
Mark S.
(mjkerner is my lovely, wargamer-understanding wife.)
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 20, 2024, 05:28:05 PM
