I just had a thought regarding the Republican Romans I'm painting. It won't take a lot of effort to paint some Principes with pila to replace the early, hasta armed, ones I'm painting now, and to replace the Leves with Velites, thus giving me an army that'll be good for use up until the Marian Reforms at the end of the 2nd Century BC. The same goes, I suppose, for the Epirote army I'm going to be starting on, I suppose - one pike phalanx being very like any other? It might be nice to fight some of the wars in Greece which came after the Punic Wars - Battle of Pydna and all that!
I have just realised that I don't have very long at all until Partizan, particularly as we're going to be away the best part of a week visiting relatives. I still need to make some palm trees and a pool to represent an oasis. Trouble is, I'm distinctly uninspired as far as the pool is concerned, and my airbrush (the easy way to paint the fronds on palm tree models) is currently unserviceable. I think I ought to take a break from the Republican Romans and deal with these remaining issues for the demo before it really is too late!
My daughter is away on camp until Sunday, and today my son sets off to spend a week with my wife's brother, so we're going to have four nice quiet days. There should be plenty of time to get on with palm trees and oases!