Time for another slow grow update, and this time I've got some updates from some of the other people who are doing it with me. That's right, I'm not making this up - I'm actually not doing this stuff by myself! Shocking, I know. Anyway...
The second "month" is over (actually the third month, but the first 2 were rolled together. I know it's confusing. Don't blame me, blame Nick - he organised the thing). It finished on the 15th, and technically I did not. I started the month very late due to the distractions of the Christmas break - basically tried to get it all done in the last week and a bit. I thought I was going to make it, but just didn't get enough time on the final day and fell short. But that's OK, because I also didn't have time to do a blog post to publicise my shame, so nobody will ever know...
My stated goal was to paint another 10 Thunderers and 2 Engineers. In the end I managed to sneak in another Engineer, who had already had a little paint on him (he'd been started by a previous owner). That's good, because it means I've painted all the Engineers I own, and I've decided I don't particularly like painting the models. I don't have to like it now - I'm done with them!
10 Thunderers in the same colour scheme as my previous ones, and 3 Engineers lurking in the background.
There was a little improvisation with a couple of the Thunderers to try to give the unit a little more variety. I don't know who that axe belonged to - now it's this guy's.
Lighting isn't great here... Anyway, 3 Engineers. When I decided to give the clones leather coloured aprons, I didn't leave myself much scope for giving them colour. They're all metal and gear. I also had real trouble working out what was going on with their faces. The other guy was better, and managed to sneak in a little more colour. So now we have a red one, a green one, and a red and green one!
Lots of tools, lots of pouches, not a lot of chance to add colour. Maybe I should have given them bright coloured manbags.
And this is what my overall force for the slow grow looks like so far. 750 points (if you ignore the cheeky bonus Engineer, who can't do much without a war machine of his own anyway). Feels like a handy amount of stuff at this point.
So that's it from me, but as I said at the start, this time we'll take a look at how the other contestants are going! Bear in mind most of these pictures have been pulled from Messenger, so the quality is not what it could be...
Nick
This whole thing was Nick's idea, and he decided to paint a Beastman army for the challenge. He then proceeded to try to kill himself with far too many models in his initial 2 month period, and will likely be playing catch-up for a while. Bear in mind it's been a long time since Nick really painted much in earnest, so I guess he's forgotten his limitations...
20 Ungor and 6 Trolls. The Trolls were Nick's "Month 2" effort. The Ungor were meant to have friends for Month 1, but most of them are still a work in progress.
This is a Cockatrice, who was also part of Month 1. Bear in mind Nick is using the Warhammer Armies Project list for Beastmen, so there's extra stuff in there that you won't find in the official Beastmen book.
Pete
It is a commonly acknowledged fact that Pete won't get out of bed for anything other than Vampire Counts, so it should shock you to know that for the painting challenge, he is painting... Vampire Counts. It's not really a case of "more of the same" though, as his existing army was probably largely painted 15+ years ago and is very heavily based around an Empire-themed selection of classic Von Carstein unit choices like Skeletons, Zombies, Grave Guard and Black Knights. This time his focus is on the more feral side of the army list, with Ghouls, Crypt Horrors and Strigoi Vampires.
A regiment of Ghouls, 2 packs of Crypt Horrors, and a Strigoi to lead them. This is actually enough stuff for the first 2 periods of the challenge (ie 750 points). Pete really pumped through them, which is shocking given his usual lack of enthusiasm for grinding out painted models.
A Varghulf, who was finished just after the end of Month 2, but didn't really fit in the points limit anyway.
The Ghouls are Mantic models that Pete's been sitting on for years. All the rest of these models are 3D printed from Clay Beast Creations. There's a fair bit of stuff along a similar visual theme (Bats, Vargheists etc), so you can expect more of this sort of thing.
Noakes
Noakes has probably painted more models in the last few years than all the rest of us combined, however he flits about through different projects and themes so quickly that I think he's in a state of perpetual dizziness. He's had an Ogre army stuck in a state of WIP for years though, so if this challenge can help him focus enough to knock that out, it will be a big achievement.
12 Ogres and a Firebelly (in a really crumby, low-res photo). I think Noakes claims this is 750 points, but without being bothered doing the math myself, I think there's some creative accounting going on.
Apparently this is next in the queue. I've never painted a Stonehorn, so will be interested to see what he does with it.
Tim
We've spent a lot of years picking on the lack of painting Tim does, and he has generally responded heroically by still not painting anything. For this challenge he went and chose Bretonnians, which are really the most paintingest of armies, which seems like a special form of folly. He's been spending a lot of time away from home and thus far he is well behind on the painting targets, but the fact that he has painted anything at all remains a shock to us all...
Most of this stuff is still a work in progress, but I think the Bowmen are actually done.
Hamish
Hamish is one of those rare beasts in this group who is actually known to paint armies. I'm not sure when he last did one, but I figured he might actually have been going to paint this army anyway, so was probably likely to be one of the more reliable contestants. He has elected to paint Dogs of War (also using a Warhammer Armies Project list as his basis, I think).
With those shields, I'm not sure if these are just crossbowmen, or Braganza's Besiegers. The character is one of the iterations of Marco Colombo.
Ogre Igonguts, who appear to have found the sweetest of terrain to stand on - an inverted Lego baseplate.
This kind of looks to my eye to be more like 500 points rather than 750 - I think Hamish might be behind, or holding back on us. I guess we'll see.
Aaron and James
At the start of the challenge, Aaron declared he would join in and would paint the Wood Elves he'd had for years and years. His son James (who has never played Warhammer) also proclaimed his own involvement. James has painted maybe a handful of models, ever. Aaron has probably painted fewer than that in the last 15+ years. Suffice to say, I didn't expect these threats to go anywhere, and when there was no movement at all after the first 2 months, I was not surprised.
Against all expectations however, Aaron got COVID and was isolating, and we heaped so much shame upon him for wasting all that isolation time that he was finally tipped over the edge and began painting. Then when he was allowed to leave home again, he went and stocked up on contrast paints and exploded into action, and actually looked like he might paint his full 750 points, in a matter of a few days. He didn't quite get there, but I'm no longer willing to write him off. Next we'll discover that James painted thousands of points whilst nobody was watching. At this point it would barely be more surprising...
All this stuff with paint on it... I don't know exactly how close Aaron got to finishing the first 750 points, but this was like seeing 20 years of painting appear in a handful of days.
All in all, this has already been an interesting exercise. Most of the guys have been making at least some use of contrast paints, and this has resulted in some extremely fast progress. I am old and grumpy and set in my ways, and painting things to match things already painted, so I am almost the exception here. We've also started to see results from numerous people who really haven't painted anything at all in years (and even more people who haven't painted any Warhammer models in years).
Anyway, we're into the 3rd "month" now. For my 250 points, I'm pretty sure I'll be painting some Miners and an Organ Gun. Hopefully I can get onto them early in the month this time. Wish me luck!
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