When one of my friends looked through his miniatures and plotted out his painting schedule, counting only what he currently owned -- no new purchases, he pronounced himself booked up till 2006. Then he asked us if we thought it was "sick" that he'd planned out his painting that far in advance. I told him that it was sick only if he actually FOLLOWED that schedule! We all know how our enthusiasm for different historical periods grows and wanes. My #1 is definitely Ancients. What is #2, though, seems to change from season to season. The Seven Years War used to be a solid second. Then it was (ahem) 15mm Fantasy miniatures. Then, while I was reading Stephen Ambrose and watching Band of Brothers, WW II was my number two. Three and four usually get squeezed off the painting table, so it is pretty academic. Right now, my interest is drawn to post-WW II Africa wars. A couple years ago, I bought the "AK-47" rules, but had decided not to do it, then. Suddenly, my interest has been sparked, again. Rather than do it at the platoon level though, like AK-47, I'm planning on man-to-man skirmish. Players would control a number of squads (about 20 figures per person on the table). I found a web page for a manufacturer in Britain, Liberation Miniatures, that makes 20mm miniatures in this period. I was thinking 20mm would be both affordable and "big enough" to do in skirmish. Honestly, I would not be able to afford it in 28mm! Liberation's prices seem reasonable despite the dollar's weakness, and I can convert 1/72 plastic for the few vehicles I'd need. So, even though I don't own a single miniature in that period yet, it's risen to my #2 position. I'm devoting "gaming energy" to it -- reading books and writing rules. As for Ancients, I've put my Medieval SE Asian project on "Pause" for the time being. The Khmer, Malays and Thais are finished. I'm taking a break to do Biblical Ancients. The first army, the Canaanites, are half finished. On deck I have the Early Hebrews, Libyans and Philistines. The Egyptians and Nubians were done in the past. My eventual project goal is to have all the enemies of the New Kingdom Egyptians. One of the great things about DBA is you can paint up a collection of historical enemies and allies, as they don't require many miniatures. So, I admit my interests tend to rise and fall in popularity like empires. But then again, I feel it's natural to be drawn to new and intriguing things because...well, they ARE interesting! To paraphrase my own response to my friend, it would be sick if I WASN'T prone to new interests and periods in this fascinating hobby of ours! Back to The Herald 63 Table of Contents Back to The Herald List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by HMGS-GL. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com