Kein Plan überlebt den ersten Kontakt mit den Würfeln. (No plan survives the first contact with the dice.) Baron Mannshed von Wreckedoften, First Sea Lord of the Bavarian Admiralty.
The excellent results justify every minute of blood sweat and tears you put into them. Looking forward to seeing all of your hoplite efforts deployed on your superb table. Well done Simon. On a smaller scale I have just finished painting 30 Stadden 30 mm Zulu War Brits that Whisky kindly sent me. They are gorgeous little figures ,(ironically now actually slightly smaller than ,modern "28mm" figures, they used to dwarf proper 25mm figures) but in painting them you do appreciate that to do it well takes a lot more effort now when compared to current offerings. Luckily the end result justifies that labour.
Rules? You ask me what rules do I use. No, I don't do rules.