What I Did On My Thanksgiving Break

 Some of you out there who grew up when I did (when phones had physical buttons and were plugged into the wall) might remember an exercise when you returned from a long break or holiday to your Elementary School.  It was a tough assignment, handwritten in pencil on "loose leaf paper" usually requiring 2 nights to turn in.  For a boy with sloppy handwriting in Catholic School, this assignment was usually a complete nightmare.  Not because of a lack of writing skills, or imagination, but for the simple fact that the many reviews it would go through with my mom would require scores of re-writes due to penmanship, or one word looking like it was misspelled.  In honor of that joyous memory, I present to you What I Did On My Thanksgiving Break written by 9 year old me...There are pictures at the end if you suffer through the entire essay.  Or you can just skip to the pictures.

What I did on my Thanksgiving Break.  

By Steven M Whitesell.  

This Thanksgiving Break I had an entire week off of work.  My Mother In Law stayed with us at our house, which made the house seem very crowded.  My wife was grumpy because her mother was staying with us all week.  My children still had school until Wednesday which was great because I could go down to my workbench, and was not bothered by them needed by them.  When I went down to my workbench in the basement, I painted lots of many miniatures.  So many miniatures I painted so many miniatures that my hands began to hurt.  

While on Thanksgiving Break I finished three 15mm Dark Age Infantry units.  First I painted a unit of Saxon Housecarls, then a unit of Viking Spearmen, then another unit of Saxon infantry with swords.  I was very happy with how these troops turned out so I painted more stuff.  Next I painted a unit of Napoleonic 10mm Russian Grenadiers, and then a unit of Napoleonic 10mm Austrian infantry with helmets.  While I was painting my wife would come down to the basement and ask me to go do things like take out the garbage or do bills or run to the store.  This made me grumpy but I did it anyways because she is the boss.  When I got home returned from my chores, I went back to painting.  I had so much fun painting that I painted even more things, including two Napoleonic 10mm Austrian Uhlans from the 1st Uhlan Regiment and 3rd Uhlan Regiment.  Then I painted two units of Austrian Hussars from the 3rd and 8th Hussar Regiments.  Because I was having so much fun painting these figures, I decided to basecoat and paint even more figures including a unit of Kallistra War of the Roses Billmen and a unit of Kallistra War Dismounted Knights.

On Thanksgiving I ate alot of turkey.  When we got returned home from Thanksgiving Dinner, I painted more troops.  The next day, I put up Christmas Lights outside with my children and helped them bake cookies.  I felt it was entirely too early to do this but they really wanted to so I said ok.  Then I took my wife to see Napoleon.  My wife insisted we see Napoleon because I like to play with toy soldiers enjoy playing with toy soldiers. This was not a fun movie because we sat in the second row of the theater.  Also I thought the battles focused on too narrow of an area and did not give an idea of the scope and scale of Napoleonic battles.  I really hoped there would be some of the personality in the Marshalls but they didn't talk during the movie at all.  I did like the uniforms and thought the musical score and classical selections were good.  Josephine was excellent (and very pretty) but overall, the movie barely skimmed the surface of the period and it would have done the history more justice had it been let as a miniseries.  The beginning of the movie up to the end of the siege of Toulon was very good but "went downhill" after that.

When the movie was over we got bought a pizza and brought it home for my kids children and my mother in law and I did not have enough pizza and was grumpy.  That is what I did on my Thanksgiving Break.

There has been much written already about the movie Napoleon.  I very much enjoyed the movie as a movie-goer.  I did not enjoy the movie as a wargamer, or as a student of military history.  Christopher Plummer will always be Wellington to me (or the first Wellington in the Sharpe Series...he was outstanding).

adorable WOTR Billmen with homicidal intent.

Saxon Housecarls fighting against their favorite enemy - the Vikings

Viking Spearmen eager for plunder

Like painting drums, I always have fun painting shields and shield designs on 15mm troops.  Small enough to be forgiving when you make a mistake, and a palette of color.

Yes, MORE Russians.  And there are hundreds of them after this.

Austrian Uhlans!

Hussars!

I didn't take pictures of the other units and also finished my last Old Glory French infantry (painted them as French Levy from Hesse-Darmstadt) and am now basecoating Austrians and Russians in the hopes of finishing them off.  Dave is coming over Friday night and I'll put a big Napoleonic bash on the table.