Monday 15 January 2018

New year, new challenges

Happy new year, everyone! I hope the holiday season was good to you, and Santa showered you with an unseemly amount of hobby goodness.

Naturally I spent the holiday break doing things other than updating the blog, which has become a bit of a theme. But I have been up to a few hobby-related things, so it's clearly time for an update.

First up, I am in the midst of preparing for the annual pilgrimage that is Cancon. For the third time I will be playing Kings of War at the event, and this time I have decided to take Elves. I think I have only used Elves once, in my first ever game of KoW. And naturally I will not be playing any practice games. In fact I don't think I've actually played a game of KoW since last Cancon. So yeah, what could go wrong?

Of course, it wouldn't be tournament preparation without trying to use the event as motivation for getting something painted. This time I have decided to paint up the Green Lady, a sabre-toothed pussy cat for her, and a regiment of Stormwind cavalry. In Warhammer terms this is Ariel, Queen of the Wood Elves, and a regiment of Silver Helms. 

Every time I go to paint Elves, I am reminded how much hard work I find it. They have far too many fiddly details that you either spend ages painting properly, or feel like you cheaped out by trying to ignore and hide it. This is probably why I've been avoiding painting these Silver Helms for about 15 years... It's time. I'll just try to ignore the stares of the 30 or so unpainted ones that were sitting behind this batch.

As for Ariel, I've had the model for about 20 years when I got her as part of the prize for the first tournament I ever entered. She has sat partly assembled for most of that time. Better than her husband, I guess. I got Orion at the same time and he's never even seen glue...
OK, so she's meant to be on a 40mm base. She balances remarkably well on a 20mm though, which is what she'll need to do when she is being the Green Lady. After all, she's just an Elf. A really, really tall Elf.