November Painting and Hobby Review

As November drew to a close, I managed to finish up my first Shasvastii. This is one of the Nox Troopers from Operation Wildfire, who basically serve as line  troopers. I'm really pleased with how the paint job has come out, and a special thanks to Joel Traveller who suggested adding a second colour to the gun to stop it looking too unrealistic.

I also dropped some Contrast paint onto "Trista the Loremistress", another one of the Reaper Silver Anniversary models I picked up to help me get back into painting. I'm definitely building up a good head of steam now, so pretty happy with how that went!

As I previously mentioned, I got three Inquisitorial figures done for "Purge the Pit" - which I'm now not going to. A bit sad to be missing it, but it was definitely the right choice.

So, how are the "quarterly goals" going?

Q4 Goal

• Paint 6 models

Q4 Stretch Goals

• Finish Skaven test paints
• Assemble 10 Malifaux models - IN PROGRESS
• Paint 10 Malifaux Models
• Clean and paint club terrain crates
• Assemble and Paint Diehard Miniatures Undead
• Paint Purge the Pit force - CANCELLED
• Order Organiser
• Infinity MDF Case

It's not too bad, all told. I've now got five of the Malifaux figures assembled, and I've started on my Shasvastii, which weren't on the goals list. I've also noticed that as I go, more stuff is ticking up a warning on my Kanban Board that I've owned it for a year and not painted it.

To make sure I don't lose track of stuff I still want to paint and assemble, I've set up a Shelf of Shame page to keep track. The list currently isn't too bad. Of the five items on there, I still need to find the Diehard Undead in the Big Pile of Boxes. Then I'll need to assemble them at the club. Similarly, the Warhounds have only just ticked over, and should probably be added to the club hobby go bag.

Meanwhile, the Tsyklon and the Libertos are for my Nomads force and I need to do some test paints for those to determine how on earth I'm actually going to paint them. Once that's done, they're both lined up in my "first painted Nomads list" I've drafted up.

That leaves the club terrain crates, which are a bit of a "boring" project. Still, they're plastic, so I can dig them out and work on scraping the mould lines on them in between work that needs a bit more concentration.

The good news is that the one year mark is doing it's job. I reviewed the stuff that is "ticking over" in December and have already added a couple of things to the eBay pile on the grounds that I can't really justify holding on to them.

In other news, while I'm trying not to buy new stuff as I paint the existing stuff . . . I really couldn't say no to this. So, queued up after the Skaven are Sisters of Battle.

On that subject, I've at least started getting some base layers onto the Grey Seer. He's going to get a little more attention lavished on him than clanrats will, but I'm still not going to go too hyper detailed. I do have an army to paint, after all!

All in all, a pretty good month. I'm diverging a bit from the "planned" stretch goals for the quarter because things have changed, but that's not the end of the world. I'm still getting stuff painted and having fun.

A busy couple of weeks

So, I've had a couple of weekends since my last hobby update, so how have things been? The original plan was one weekend for painting and one for things to do, but that got rather stymied by a request to spend a weekend re-sorting the eBay pile.

Still, I managed to settle down on Saturday morning and get three of my Inquisition nearly done - there's just a few details and finishing up the bases to go. With me off at a LARP next weekend, I've got one weekend to get it all done. Achievable, but *internal screaming*.

My Ikari came back from my commission painter and I decided on a whim to take them to the St Albans Smackdown tournament. I threw a couple of lists together and took one to the club to practice on Wednesday. Poor shrikeh got demolished by Yuan Yuans and we called it part way through my second turn with two Druze left able to move.

Sadly, that used up all my skill and luck for the tournament itself! I managed to come dead last after three losses. It was a lot of fun, but for my next tournament, I'm definitely practicing to try and do better! The odd loss isn't a problem, but consistent loss drains your enthusiasm for playing.

Then, on Sunday, HATE had a bring and buy. So I dragged a bunch of stuff down to the club and spent a few hours parting people from their cash. Taking into account the cost of the taxis to get me there and back, I just about broke even. When it happens again, I'll only take enough to take on the bus. The extra stuff really didn't merit the taxi fares.

As expected, November's White Dwarf had new Inquisition rules. And as I feared for Purge the Pit, there were points drops on some of the units I'd taken. Inquisition flamers and the Jokaero both got a chunky price cut meaning there was a need for me to find more models to paint . . . or was there?

With 25 points to spend, I decided that rather than make things harder for myself, I would use the model I'd planned to use as a Primaris Psyker as a Daemonhost, and in turn, give the model James painted for me to round out the warband. An extra model, but no extra painting.

There's a busy couple of weeks to come, so the blog may be a little quieter than it's been. December (after the first weekend) is pretty quiet, then busy again between January and April. I think maybe a little too busy. So, for the future . . . perhaps leaving a little more time for me, rather than over-committing due to the fear of missing out.

October painting and hobby review

With October down and into November, lets check how I'm doing with my quarterly hobby targets. I finished up the Dreadmere Mercenaries for Reaper Bones as one of my palette cleanser quick paints.

I finished the Skaven test paints, so that's one of my additional goals done. This also took me over the target number of models for the month complete, so I've hit my quarterly goal in the first month! Everything now is a bonus.

James from Gonzo History Gaming painted this psyker for me, though I have not counted him in my own painting totals.

I also complete the first of my Purge the Pit models, although I really should have got about five done to have a steady rate of painting between starting the Purge the Pit project and the event itself. Whoops! I guess I'll be painting quite a bit more Inquisition over November.

Q4 Goal

• Paint 6 models

Q4 Stretch Goals

• Finish Skaven test paints
• Assemble 10 Malifaux models - IN PROGRESS
• Paint 10 Malifaux Models
• Clean and paint club terrain crates
• Assemble and Paint Diehard Miniatures Undead
• Paint Purge the Pit force - IN PROGRESS
• Order Organiser
• Infinity MDF Case

The main priority for November is obviously Purge the Pit so I can take an all new force painted for the event. Any painting outside that is likely to be to break up the painting - but they're all pretty different figures so I'm not too worried about getting fed up with painting the same thing over and over.

In a slight change of direction, the Games Workshop Christmas previews showed a Skaven Battleforce that's basically everything I wanted to get next . . . but I really can't justify that without getting the existing Skaven I have painted. So maybe around Purge the Pit I can get some Skaven assembled? But I'm going to be strict with myself and not abandon assembling the Malifaux models first.

So, next month I need to paint more than I managed this month to be ready for Purge the Pit. It's time to really up my game!

Purge the Pit: The Herald

Hwaet! A Herald approaches.
Bone masked, curved horn,
Flaming torch to guide the way.

Twist limbed, despised roach,
Curse the very day it was born.
But heed the words it has to say.

Beginning the journey to Purge the Pit

With Purge the Pit in December I worked out I needed to get about fifteen models painted, and I had three free weekends to get it done. Currently I'm a "little" behind that curve with one model painted rather than five, but I'm sure I'll catch up.

This little fellow is a converted mutant I made years ago. The white undercoat was really thin so I re-undercoated him in Grey Seer and quickly went to work with contrast paints. I added some dry-brushing to add extra texture, and played around a little with washes. I feel like I've got a better idea of how this will go together now, so hopefully the next models will be a little quicker.

I also got a bunch of models undercoated. I've not bothered to take photos of all of them as it's not hugely pertinent, but in particular, the four Shasvastii I assembled a while ago are now ready for paint.

I also undercoated the Grey Seer for my Skaven and the three Malifaux figures that I had assembled. With the weather the way it is, I suppose you take the opportunities you have!

I also finished assembling this adorable little sweetums, and got him undercoated as well - though I don't have an undercoated photo of him.

I'm mostly assembled on the mimic, too, but it does need some basing sand.

I spent my Sunday afternoon at HATE again, assembling more Shasvastii. I got the Shrouded and the Gwailo done, but no pictures yet. The Gwailo was relatively complex, with six pieces, so it took a bit longer to do. The Shrouded was only four pieces, but the joints were nowhere near as well fitting as the others, so there were a lot of swears, and I badly bent it twice trying to get it together.

Once they've had some basing sand, they should be good for the undercoating queue.

I'm a bit down on myself because I got five models assembled the last time I was at HATE on Sunday, and only two this time. That's mostly because the last set of figures were much easier than these ones. What it comes down to is that I under-estimated the amount of work they'd take, rather than that I did less work - but seeing less of a result is annoyingly disheartening.

I'm spending next weekend running around doing escape rooms, so I won't get much hobby done. Hopefully I'll find the time during the week to schedule up some posts of a battle report or something on the Monday instead.

I'll do an end of month round up on progress the following Monday.

Skaven Test Paints Finished - and what comes next

Sunday was a bit of a late one finishing off a few projects, and it was bed time by the time I'd finished uploading all my blog photos. So my Monday blog post is a little late, but in my eyes it's absolutely worth it because I finished off the Skaven test paints, and I'm pretty settled on what I want to do with the army.

(Should you want some of these miniatures yourself, they are Oakbound Studios Gnawlochs.)

As I finished up the last three, I experimented with basing a little bit. From left to right - just Aggaros Dunes, Aggaros Dunes and Warpstone Glow, and Aggaros Dunes and Plaguebearer Flesh. I felt that the Warpstone Glow effect was OK, but drew away from the miniature too much. I really liked the Plaguebearer Flesh one, as it gave the ground an unhealthy feel.

Once the contrast on the bases was dry, I washed it with Agrax Earthshade and drybrushed it with Wraithbone. At this point, I start liking the plain Aggaros one a lot more. I still don't like the Warpstone Glow base for this project, but I might use it elsewhere. I actually like the Plaguebearer Flesh base a little less in the finished version, as it loses some of the unhealthiness to the shade and highlight. I suspect I could improve on that, but at the expense of painting efficiency, which I will desperately need working with Skaven.

Skeleton Horde cloth is going to be the unifying factor across all my Skaven. I most like the effect from the fancy undercoating method with Wraithseer, which is the one in the middle.

"Use the fancy undercoat method" bears across with the colours I want to use for the Eshin, too. I much prefer the one on the right, although due to needing to do some tidy up, he also got two passes of Gryph-Charger Grey, and I think that darker hue really works - so likely two coats for the Eshin!

So, I need to sit down and write down my finalised recipes for my Skaven into a book this week so I don't forget them, and move on to my next projects.

Malifaux assembly proceeds slowly. They're fiddly models at the best of times. The second Viktoria is now done, but her sword draw behind her back involved lining up the head, the sheathed second sword, and then the two arms - with the final join being along the sword blade, so everything had to line up perfectly. It's done now, but I was pretty sweary!

So, with two models done, I'm going to get another three of the first ten done and then treat them as a smaller, more manageable batch. I'll need ten to play but trying to paint and assemble ten all in one go is not going to be good for my motivation!

I've grabbed another one of the Reaper figures off the shelf if I need a break. Having something I'm not emotionally invested in to hand is a useful thing to have. I had a couple of brain frazzles in the past fortnight where I nearly had a meltdown because I couldn't find anything low effort to paint at that exact moment. There's still a lot of boxes to go through and it's not all sorted.

I have, however, managed to find a bunch of models for Purge the Pit. I've decided to go Inquisitorial (it seems to make sense to do so) with a definite trend towards the Radical end of things.

The original plan had been to write a list and paint only the exact models I need, but this month's White Dwarf teased something Inquisitorial next month - so the new plan is to paint as much as possible between now and then and then bodge it into a force closer to the time.

Here's a few of the miscreants and trouble makers I'm looking to get painted up for the event. It may not be all of them, as I've seen some Arco-Flagellants and a Jokaero recently. I'd really like to find one of my Terminator Inquisitors too, if I can! There's also an Inquisitorial Transport or two sculling around somewhere.

And finally, aware I'm running low on my Reaper figures that are assembled and ready to go, I've washed a couple of resin models ahead of assembly for future casual paints. One is a creepy mimic, I think from a sculpting Facebook group that was a competition winner. The other is a scarecrow that was sold by JoeK Minis. I'm pretty sure it's out of print now. And I think it was something he got from an Oz inspired range in turn...

Still, a good couple of models for Halloween casual painting, I thought...