I don't like to let anyone down, but it was more than I could handle.

 I mentioned recently that I had hit a wall with my painting and I knew that I needed to do something to sort things out. Having completed the 60 odd large sci fi figures for David and posted them back to him I tried to turn my attention back to the 18mm Napoleonic commission for Mark. I knew that I had been struggling to paint these finely detailed castings for some time and had mentioned it in my YouTube videos with feedback from other painters so it was time to make a painful decision, I had to be honest with both myself and Mark and admit defeat. The project had completely overwhelmed me, painting them to the standard they deserve with the numbers involved was so demanding and tiring it was clearly impacting upon my mental health. I don't feel great about it, Mark has been understanding though obviously disappointed, but it had to be done. Everything is being packed up for return this week. I am very sorry.

Going forward I'm going to stick with painting Epics plus the 20mm's that I do for Old John of course. I have a well established method for painting the Epic strips now at a speed/quality ratio that is both enjoyable and keeps the costs down.

So, I'm still painting monthly batches for Noel, we are finishing off his vast Epic based ACW project with the cavalry, four 20 figure Union and four 20 figure Rebs plus dismounted and horse holder bases. This week I painted two regiments, 40 cavalry and they are a mix of Epic plastic and Peter Pig metals, a perfect match for  scale as you can see below. Photos show them pre varnish and flags etc. I'm back to Carthaginians this week for Leo!

I also painted 2 more units of 1/72nd scale Streltsi for Old John before I did the cavalry. We had a nice long chat on the phone this week, I have been painting for Jon for more than 15 years now!