Project SNAFU's

Must be due to this coming Halloween, but two projects have run into some minor problems. The first has some incorrectly sized movement trays. These are my long awaited Litko trays with steel paper inserts. I ordered them in September and finally got them the other day. Today I put them together and two trays are too small, and the custom sized ones look correctly sized, but  their inserts are too small. I ordered the "roomy" option for all trays (including the custom ones); this option is supposed to give a 3mm extra fit for depth  and width.

As may be seen the below photo of the custom sized ones, the steel paper inserts are short. I called Litko and Jim said they are supposed to fit exactly so they must be not be custom sized. I told him not to worry about sending me replacement inserts for these, but I wanted correctly sized (roomy option) trays for the two that are too small. I ordered two trays each for 9 X 3, and 7 X 3 figure units; all on Litko 20mm square wooden bases with magnetic bottoms. Jim said he'll have those made and shipped as soon as possible. I get to keep the incorrectly sized ones.

This next photo shows one of the trays that is not correctly sized with the roomy option.

Litko's customer service is very good, but as these items weren't exactly cheap, and the wait was long enough (about a month), I was hoping that everything would be in order. I normally build my own movement trays, but since the figures for this group have magnetic bottoms (Litko), I figured I'd get the trays along with the steel paper inserts from them. I've long since based figures on either steel squares or metal washers. It's a lot easier finding magnetic sheeting than steel paper. In any case, I was hoping to get these figures on the table soon for a Chariot Wars game.

My second "not going so well" project is a long overdue one. I had recently decided to re-start my early Holy Roman Empire army - mainly the cavalry. Awhile back (when I had an Old Glory Army membership), I ordered a pack of Teutonic Knights and some Turcopoles. The infantry was completed over a year ago, and the cavalry figures were sitting in a drawer awaiting inspiration. Well, the inspiration (or resignation) came to me last week when I thought of painting the knights up based on the Codex Manesse knights. Well, when I looked at the OG Teutonic Knights, I realized they all had capes, and the knights in the codex don't. The light bulb went on, and I started cutting off the capes as best I could. Then it occurred to me that this may not have been such a great idea. The image below shows the sorry state the knights are in right now.

One good thing did come about this affair, I re-looked the figures that Mirliton makes and found a US supplier (soon to go out of business) that had a couple of figures left in his stock. I've ordered these and will start on them as soon as I get them. I think Mirliton sells the riders separate, so I can still use the OG horses I already have.