So it happened again...

Remember yesterday when I posted about me being excited to be back into positive painting figures? Well I should have learned my lesson by now.

It started simply enough. I was up Athena Games in Norwich yesterday for a day of gaming, so I bought myself an Ork character as a reward for breaking even:

I've loved this model since it was revealed last year, figured I deserved a treat and had the painting points spare that I was still in the positive. So far so good.

Then a mate of mine turned up with a box of Mordor Orcs for me. I'd mentioned to him I needed some more spear dudes for one of my armies and was expecting him to turn up a few spares.

I was not expecting a full 24!

So yeah I'm in negative figures again, after less than 24 hours!

Luckily I've hit the week off work and in a bit of a painting groove, so I had a pretty productive day today finishing off some of the Ork repaints I've been cracking on with recently. I reckon I've done pretty well:

I'm still in negative figures, but I'm not too far off breaking even again for the second time in a week.

It's all good. I might even get some more done over the weekend. Depends how distracted I get with new Pokemon stuff. 

Happy Hobbying! 

A Division of Labour

For the first time in a long time I'm actually in a position where I don't feel the need to be actively buying models. Beyond my 30k Imperial Fists, which I'm expanding as the campaign goes along, I have pretty much everything I want/need right now.

That makes the next few months the perfect opportunity to try and make some progress on my backlog. It's quite a nice position to be in tbh. It gives me a chance to focus on some stuff that's fallen to the wayside as I've gotten distracted by the constant stream of shiny new releases. 

On the other hand there's the issue of that backlog. It's getting a little bit ridiculous. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I'm too much of a perfectionist to have several army projects on the go at once, especially when one of those armies are Orks. Luckily I have a secret weapon - I'm going to cheat! 

Well not exactly. A mate of mine has been having a lot of fun using the 'Slapchop' method to churn out a load of models recent, particularly his Leagues of Votann army box:

I'm sure you'll agree that they really are lovely. Even more impressive is that he got the entire box done in just a few weeks! 

I was looking at the scheme he'd used and realised that it's actually really close to how I want my Deathskulls to be, so I asked if he wouldn't taking some of my bikes and vehicles to paint. 

Considering I've painted a ton of Death Guard stuff for him over the last few years, he was happy to return the favour. 

So yeah, a bunch of my Orks have gone off to be painted elsewhere, which frees me up to work within my hobby comfort zone: smaller, more detailed projects.

I've had the week off work, so I've had a bit of time of get some painting done. I finished these last night:

I seem to have amassed quite a few different sculpts of Thranduil over the last few years and somehow I've failed to get any of them painted, so it made sense to work on them all at the same time. I've got another two still to finish up after these! 

It's very strange to be essentially batch painting my centrepiece model, but it's also nice to get consistency between them all. I really like how they've turned out. I think the purple really makes the darker colour scheme pop.

I've also got a Sicarian half-done on my hobby desk, but I seem to have lost a bit of momentum on painting it:

Hopefully I can kick my hobby mojo back towards finishing it soon. I think my current pallete cleanser of Middle Earth stuff should do the trick, but we'll see. 

At least I'm staying productive, but it would be nice if I could stay a little more focused. You'd have thought I'd be used to me being a hobby by now!

Oh well, I'll keep you updated on how I get on. Until next time, happy hobbying! 

Big Squig Energy

I really need to stop doubting my painting abilities so much. I only went and nabbed another Best Painted! 

I was pretty shocked tbh. I really didn't think my Cirith Ungol were anywhere near as good as my Hobbits, but clearly they impressed people, so I can't argue with that! 

It was a really fun event too. Was great to see a lot of people I haven't seen for ages and play some excellent games. It really brought home to me how much I love gaming in Middle Earth and I left with a lot of ideas for future projects. 

 

As for results, me and my mate didn't do overly well, but it was still a great day and it was a good laugh. Really looking forward to the next one! 

Not one to rest on my laurels, I went right back to my hobby desk! I finished up some Orks on Sunday night.

It's nice to actually finish up some models from the Beast Snaggas box. Apart from the Squighog Nob,  the box has  e, been laying forgotten in a dark corner of my hobby pile for the past few months while I've been distracted with other stuff. Of course it would have been better I'd finished something which was actually in my crusade roster, but oh well. With our Requisition Points expanding as we move into phase 2, they might end up in there anyway!

As for the models themselves, I'm far happier with how the riders turned out than the Bomb Squigs did. On the other hand, they're essentially glorified tokens so it makes sense that I focused more on the riders themselves. They're all good though and it's another thing off my slowly shrinking backlog!

I'm probably going to take things easy hobby-wise for the rest of this week. I'm back at work for a few days before going back on another week's holiday, so I don't expect to really do much at least until I'm off again. Rest assured though that I've got plenty of hobby ideas bubbling away, so I'll be back soon to share them with you.

 Until then, happy hobbying! 

A splurge of progress

It's that time again where I make excuses for why I haven't posted for a while. I'll be honest, I've just been incredibly lazy when it comes to keeping the blog updated. I've been pretty busy hobby-wise though.

For a start, I finally finished Bozrog!

I actually got him painted up pretty quickly once I turned my attention to it. It was mostly just building up layers of drybrushing, then picking out some details.

I might go back later and add a few transfers and a bit more weather, but I reckon he's pretty decent as he is.

Beyond that I've mostly been working on some Mordor Uruks for a doubles tournament I'm doing with a mate in a few weeks time:

They're not going to be be winning any best painted awards any time soon, but I'm happy with them. We're taking the Cirith Ungol legendary legion, so I've got to sit down this week and paint the command models, plus the Orc half, but that won't take too long.

The event should be great fun. Me and my mate aren't taking it seriously at all. We're just using it as an excuse to hang out for the first time in ages and have a laugh.

As if those weren't enough, I've also been sprucing up my Reaver Titans for Adeptus Titanicus:

With news of the Traitor Legios book on its way, I'm a lot more excited for the game than I've been for a while. The arrival of Corrupted Titans also gives me the perfect excuse to add some Nurgle-y details to them, so I've been having a lot of fun with technical paints! 

I've tried to keep things subtle, so a casual observer is likely to miss the chaotic influence at first, but the closer you look, the more you see. Finding the right balance has been an interesting exercise in self restraint. 

I am pretty happy with them though and I can't wait to carry on with the rest of the Maniple, as well as adding to it with a few more obviously corrupt Engines. That's in a few weeks time though, once this latest Middle Earth event is done with. 

So yeah, that's what's been keeping me busy. Shame I'm so terrible at blogging about it in a timely manner! I'd promise that's going to change, but we both know that's unlikely. You'll have to endure my occasional splurge catchup instead! Hopefully you've enjoyed it though. I'll post more again soon.

Until next time, happy hobbying! 

Rambling Progress

After trying kickstart my productivity in my last post, it actually seems to have worked! Not in the way I'd hoped, but at least I'm painting. You see, I've been out buying stuff again.

I know I said i wouldn't be buying anything until I'd caught up on my painting points, but lets face it, that ship already sailed when I started my Orks! Besides, I'd had a crap week at work, so I fancied treating myself with a trip to the secondhand gaming shop in Great Yarmouth.

To be fair, it was all stuff I kind of needed for various projects, but it's still a big hit to my points. 

But weirdly that's actually spurred me on to start cranking stuff out. I got all this done, or made serious progress on them at least, last weekend:

Plus this:

And I finished these for a mate:

Pretty good going I reckon!

I think part of it was at least inspired by the fact that I bought myself a tablet, which allows me to run YouTube at my desk as I paint, which prompted me to do a tidy and reorganise of my hobby space. 

It looks quite cluttered, but all my paints and non-current projects are out the way, with space to work, so it's done the job. I always find that having a tidy desk helps me get on with projects. Hopefully I can keep that energy going, as I've got a lot of bits which I need to get done. 

I'm at the weird point of having several projects ticking along nicely, but very little actually in a usable state for games. I need to try and be more focused in what I work on so I can get some games played with my new stuff now that things are opening up.

Add that to the fact that my local gaming shop has just announced their first Middle Earth event since last January and it looks like it could be a very interesting summer of hobby for me. I'm hoping to get both my Cirith Ungol and Hobbits up to 600 points by early September. Out of those, the Hobbits will take the most work to get ready due to sheer numbers. I'm really looking forward to both projects. I've been wanting to get them finished for a while, but this should be the push I really need to crack on with it!

I'll post more soon. Wish me luck! 

Hitting the ground running in 2021

Happy New Year! 

I was going to write a really long end of year review post for 2020, but quite frankly last year is one which noone wants to look back on, much less relive in any detail. Instead I'm going to hit the ground running on the new year and hope things look up in 2021. Oh wait, we're back in Lockdown here in the UK. Never mind...

On a more positive note I've got a week off work and suddenly finding myself with nothing better to do, so I've spent it being pretty productive with attacking my backlog. It's gone pretty well so far:

I've managed to knock out four characters over the course of the first three days of the year. Really not a bad start at all. They've turned out pretty well, even if I say so myself. Mounted Legolas in particular was a joy to paint up. I've wanted that sculpt ever since I got into the game, so I was super happy when it cropped up on Made to Order at the end of last year. 

Lots of progress also means I had a chance to test out the lightbox which a friend very kindly bought me for Christmas, so you may see an uptick in the quality of photography on here once I've had a bit of a play around on with it.

Naturally the first photo I took was of something that didn't fit in the box:

That's everything I painted last year. I originally took the photo for the scrapped review post, but I still wanted to show it off.  That's 498 painting points across twelve months. Quite impressive I'm sure you'll agree. What's even more impressive though is the fact that I'm still in negative figures! Covid really hasn't been good for my self restraint on starting new projects. 

That's why the first part of this year is going to be spent trying to clear through my mighty backlog. If you saw my last post, you'll know that I've got plenty to keep me busy for a while.

Luckily I'm feeling really productive right now, so I'm going to channel that productivity into producing tangible results before that feeling fades again.

Currently on my work bench are this:

And these:

That's the Mirkwood Terrain I've been working on for my home board for a while now, then a couple of Harry Potter characters which I bought in my frenzy of impulse buying back in the summer. They should keep me busy for a while, whilst scratching my hobby itch in two very different ways.

I'll keep you updated on how I get on. 

He's making a list, he's checking it twice...

.. And thats the extent of the festive content on here. Bah humbug!

Seriously though, after talking about getting to grips with my backlog in my last post, I decided to do a mini audit of all the half completed projects I have strewn about:

That was my first mistake. As you can see it's huge!

To be fair, everything listed as Death Guard is for a friend who really doesn't care how long I take to paint his stuff, but it's still a pretty hefty list. 

It very much confirms how much of a hobby butterfly I am. It also shows how terrible I've been at finishing projects I start until recently. None of those are fresh in their box, they're all things i've started and then gotten distracted from!

Now the purpose of making this list isn't just to depress myself with my lack of productivity, although that is an unfortunate side effect. It forms a handy reference guide when I'm looking for something to paint. In theory, it means that no project becomes wholly forgotten. I can find something that needs doing and catches my interest at a particular moment, then go dig it out and work on it.

It's a simple enough theory at least. I've even made a start on it, with Saruman and some Ringwraiths on foot making it onto my painting handles this week:

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that photographing mostly black models is a pain in the arse with my current setup! 

They didn't turn out too badly for a few evenings worth of work though. I didn't try anything too fancy with the Wraiths, as beyond scenario play, they're mostly going be used as dismounts. I did them mostly with Contrast apart from final highlighting and the metallics. 

 I did put a bit more effort in on the layering on Saruman's robes though. It didn't turn out as smoothly as I'd hoped, but looks decent enough. I picked him up on a whim a while back, partly because I absolutely love that particular sculpt, but he's also going to eventually be part of my Fantasy Fellowship/White Council. That's a while off yet with my current plans, but Its nice to have him done.

I'm not sure what I'll do next, but general productivity seems to have settled on me now, so that's always a good thing. Hopefully my manic work schedule between now and New Year doesn't chase that away!

Talking of which, this will probably be my last post before Christmas, so I'll take this opportunity now to say stay safe and have a Merry Christmas to you all. It's been a crazy year, but hopefully things will be looking up as we go into 2021.

Merry Christmas! 

Getting to grips with my backlog

I've slowed down my pace of work a little this week. I've just been chipping away at my backlog. This time I finished up my mounted Knight of Umbar for Corsairs and some Morgul Knights for my Mordor force:

They didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but they're decent enough. Quite frankly I was sick of looking at them on my painting desk, so it's nice to be able to move onto something else. 

I'm coming to the conclusion that my Pile of Shame is getting a little ridiculous again. Being stuck inside most of the year has given me far too much free time to scroll through ebay and pick up various bits and pieces which I probably didn't need. A quick glance at my running total of painting points shows just how much all that has added up, despite how much I've been painting recently! 

I need to get back into positive figures on my painting points. I haven't been nearly as disciplined with it as I really should have been. With that in mind, I've decided that I'm going to force myself to be strict and not buy any new models until I hit that magic number of zero!

If I manage that, I'll treat myself to a set of Balin's Tomb terrain and some lovely Hobbit characters from Forge World. A nice little incentive I reckon. 

Luckily I've got loads of metal Middle Earth characters knocking around which I can knock out reasonably quickly, plus my Indomitus sets which should take massive chunk off that total too. Wish me luck!

Getting a grip

I've been bouncing between projects so much recently, I'm surprised I don't have whiplash!

Lockdown really hasn't been good for my focus at all. I've just been flitting between projects almost at random, not completing any of them, whilst also buying way too many models. 

It's hardly surprising tbh. I tend to build and paint stuff with playability in mind and I'm always at my most productive when I've got a game or event to get things finished for.

So whilst I'm stuck at home, I've decided to give myself something specific to work towards, which should hopefully help me get things rolling again. 

I'm setting myself two goals:

1. Paint everything on my 'Table of Shame'.

2. Work towards getting everything sorted so I can play some solo games.

Nice and simple I reckon, but it'll keep me busy for a while and give me the kick up the arse I need to be productive again.

My Table of Shame is a pretty simple idea:

I just put all the projects which I've been putting off for ages on a table and took a photo. Those will be the only things which I'll be working on. I'm not buying any more models until they're all done.

Pretty simple, eh? I'm aware I could be setting myself up to fail here, but at least it gives me a clear sense of what I'm working towards.

I've even already made a start on it and finished up the Emperor's Children Veteran Squad which I showed you guys a few weeks back:

Barring the lack of transfers right now (waiting to get paid so I can do a FW order now they've reopened), I'm pretty happy with how they turned out in the end. An entire 30k army done like this is going to be pretty eye-catching! 

I've got the bits standing by to do another squad, plus a really fun Fulgrim conversion, but they aren't on the Table of Shame, so they can wait. 

Moving onto my other point, I've decided to finally scratch the gaming itch I've been having. Obviously with social distancing rules being what they are in the UK atm, I'm not likely to be able to get a game against a real opponent any time soon. That means I'm going to have to be a little creative. 

I've had the idea of playing some games against myself, taking control of both forces. Whilst I doubt this could work well with large scale games like 40k, it might work reasonably well with games which veer towards the skirmish-y end of the spectrum, like Middle Earth. 

I quickly realised a big drawback to this idea: playing both sides would mean there won't really be any back and forth between me and my opponent. I'd know exactly what they were thinking, making it harder to play an interesting game. 

This got me thinking even further. I've been wanting to play some narrative scenarios ever since I started the game. Maybe I could play through some of those by myself? It would certainly encourage me to play in a more interesting and narrative way. 

I figure it's certainly worth a try. The worst that could happen is that it doesn't work as well as I hoped. At the very least, it'll keep me entertained for a few more days of lockdown, which can't be a bad thing. 

I'll cover my adventures in making this plan a reality in a later post. I just wanted to put a post out covering where my mind is right now, hobby-wise. 

I'm going to be trying to blog a bit more often too, as that should also help me get into some kind of hobby routine. I don't know how successful all this will be, but it'll at least be interesting to find out. Hopefully I'll be back with more soon!