And later that day...

Continued the winnowing process today and 'added back in' a bunch of figures.  Well, sort of.  I grouped a bunch of additional foot only figures into 'sets of six' and some of them will be retained, especially the Gambler Gunmen - and the Women's Temperance marchers which I will need for the Battle of Whiskey Hills.  Others might replace some of what was winnowed yesterday.  Still many 'final' decisions to come over time.  Remember, "the cunning plan" is still in place to paint until 'satiated' for the Old West/Pony Wars.

And a significant moment today when I laid out for priming what started as 120 but ballooned up to 144 individual standing only bases - plus a matching 24 dead figure stands, 1:6 ratio dead to alive for the foot only figures.  That is a lot of bases.  And add to that 24 figures painted/being painted for me along with appropriate dead figures.  So at least 168 individually based foot figures and 28 dead figures.  I can see myself easily doubling that number to a total of 336 figures plus dead as needed - but beyond that is excessive for sure.  That means 56 'sets of six'.  So, another dimension of the downward winnow will be prioritizing which of the 'sets of six' are either most important to me or most versatile, ideally both.  The challenge is how many more of those sets there are, perhaps triple that.  Easily see myself bumping it up to 60 sets - and there goes the creeping upwards!  {60 x 6 = 360 + 60 dead = 420 to paint.  A lot but a lot less than 1,300 plus before the winnowing began.  Resolve is required.}

Additional bases were prepared - and need to do some more but a fraction of the rest.  The individually based cavalry now has all the needed bases (but for a few more).  Two of the three still to paint cowboys have their bases, need to do a few more for that third unanticipated cowpoke.  And then I did all of the individually based Indians - except for those assigned to the cavalry as scouts.  Perhaps some more to do to add in Apache to the mix, that is a probable.  Looks like I will need to order more of my round metal bases - but mostly for other projects than the Old West/Pony Wars which has made a big dent.  

Wrestling with the idea of going through the rest of the 'extra' foot only figures to group them in sets of six but not sure about that, not sure it is worth the effort.

Even with many decisions still to make, considerable forward progress the last few days.