8. Self-Discovery is painful

I learned something about myself recently, and it's always unsettling when you first make the realization that you are "X." I learned that I don't like painting multiple copies of identical miniatures. That's why it took me so long to finish my Tirailleurs. I have eight of exactly the same pose, and it...just...wears...on...me.... All the previous sets of eight in this range are actually two sets of four, and each of the four is different, so there are only two miniatures each who are the same. I can handle that. But, even though I knew it, it didn't click that this set was different. It just didn't register in my brain. If it had, I would have swapped four of them with the next batch, which is also eight identical figures, and of Senegalese Tirailleurs at that. Alas, after that, it's back to the "normal" mode of two sets of four, so I can't mix it up with them. I'll just have to cowboy up and get it done. (I know what you're about to say: just mix them up anyway, what difference will it make? To that I answer, well duh, I can't because the next eight is the last of the French forces; after that, it's all Dahomeans. And while, yes, they will have the same skin color, I can't paint four Tirailleurs Advancing and four Dahomey Women-Musket & Machete. I just don't roll that way.) At any rate, here's what I've finally accomplished. Eight Dixon Miniatures FL7 FFL Tirailleurs Marching, more correctly known as the Tirailleurs Sénégalais. After some soul-searching and online discussions, I went with the blue pantaloons, or serual. I based my decision largely on "Colonial Armies in Africa 1850-1918" by Peter Abbot from Foundry, yet the final decision was entirely selfish: they look better in blue! Click the pic to make it bic...er, big. I've got big plans for The Known Universe, just as soon as I become Emperor Of it.