In my previous post I indicated that I was going to be launching into another "slow grow" painting challenge. Well at the time, I didn't really understand just how much emphasis was going to be on the "slow" part of things...
May was the first month of the challenge, and we set off with a group of us declaring our planned involvement and what we were going to be working on:
- Me - Nuln Empire
- Noakes - Bretonnians
- Sean - Daemons
- Tim - Skaven
- Pete - Vampire Counts
- Hamish - Beastmen
- Jono - Wood Elves
The general guide was that we'd work on a rough target of about 250 points a month, with the aim of putting together a usable force over 8 months or so. All pretty simple, not very formal in terms of what order things were worked on. It's just meant to give some shape and motivation for getting some painting done.
Anyway, May is now done, and between us we have... not a whole lot to show for our efforts. Here's an update:
Me (Nuln Empire):
I figured I was starting the month with momentum on my side, having just worked my way through a regiment of Handgunners, and a War Wagon before that. This made me confident that I could tackle a relatively big opening month, and I declared I was going to paint a regiment of 20 Halberdiers and 10 Handgunners as their detachment.
How it started: 10 Halberdiers, 10 Handgunners, and a bonus Engineer. If I got all of that done, I'd be off to a flying start.
Unfortunately, by the 13th of the month, I had made little progress. I had allowed myself to get distracted in the evenings, and before I knew it, nearly half the month was gone. Not a glorious start.
Nearly 2 weeks in, and this was all I had to show for it.
It was at about that point that I realised I really had to knuckle down if I wanted to have anything at all done by the end of the month. I improved my level of application, and although I didn't achieve my original goal, I did have something done.
20 Halberdiers ready for the field. As with everything I'm painting, they're on old base sizes. They'll get adaptors for Old World. What that means of course, is they I basically can't rank them up. Stupid state troop models.
All models in the unit were already assembled, as I got them second hand (this adds to the ranking woes). I tore a few off bases to move them around, and I also pulled off the heads of the whole lot and replaced them with Pistolier heads that I bought specifically for this purpose. Probably more than 10 years ago. Man, I'm so old...
I've done nothing with the banner yet, partly due to time constraints, but mainly because I didn't know what I wanted to do with it yet. I still don't. I'll come back to it. I don't want blank banners anymore. I gave the regiment purple as kind of their "regimental colour". The black and yellow are going to be throughout the army.
So I had the Halberdiers done, and there was still maybe a week left in the month. I was starting to believe that I might be able to hit my target after all, but I prepared a few character models just in case time got away from me. Then time did get away from me, and I didn't even get a character finished... The guy below was started on time, but only finished last night (a few days into June).
This guy is a Highlands model, but he very much captures the vibe of the official models. I was painting him as a Captain, but I guess he could just as easily be a General.
The cape looks relatively smooth in real life. As usual the camera is being mean to me. You'll just have to take my word for it. The feathers are the spot colours I figure my various regiments will use in the army.
He got eyes and everything. That's how you know you've really made it in my army - when I bother to paint your eyes...
Anyway, even if I count the character who really didn't get painted in time, I didn't do a great job with my target for the first month. At this point I'm assuming my second month will be those Handgunners that got missed, and maybe a War Wagon. We'll see how we go with that plan.
Noakes (Bretonnians):
Noakes was really keen to get started with his Bretonnians and strike whilst he had the motivation. He then proceeded to paint a group of Mounted Yeomen, start on a few Knights of the Realm, and then immediately start to get stuck on colour schemes. He managed to vent all his pent up hobby energy on models from at least 3 other games, whilst the Bretonnians languished and prayed fervently to the Lady for some kind of deliverance. We'll have to wait and see if he can redirect his hobby mojo in their favour again.
5 Mounted Yeomen with very fancy flowery bases.
It turned out starting with the peasants was a great idea, given how stuck he got once he moved onto the Knights.
The Knights are looking good, there's just... not enough of them.
I'm not going to lie, I have a Bretonnian army here and I've always been a bit put off by the prospect of having to paint them all different colours. Choosing colours is one of the hardest parts of painting, and having to do it over and over...
Sean (Daemons)
In an effort that pretty shamed all the rest of us, Sean painted 2 Skullcannons of Khorne. That probably means he actually achieved his stated goal for the month, and he did it after clearing a few other unfinished things off the painting table first. I am now convinced that Sean is just here to make the rest of us look bad, but I guess someone has to do it!
What a weird, creepy thing it is. It's come out pretty well, though.
Sure, it may look like he just photographed the same model twice, but there are minor differences between them.
I'm not sure what Sean is planning to paint next month, but at this point there's no reason to think he won't achieve it. Disgusting, really...
Tim (Skaven)
I'm pretty sure Tim has only sat down to put paint on things a few times in the entire month, so it's not really surprising that he hasn't made that much progress. Of course, he claims there were other problems...
"The ratmen were sabotaged by those more jealous of warlock engineer Skritch Skritch's intellect and cunning! Some lesser rat left white paint everywhere for the finest rat troops to trip over and fall in"
Seems a likely story, but you really have to factor these things in if you want to make it in Skavenblight.
I think the original plan was for everything in this photo to get done in May,
Some progress has been made on the Clanrats, but they still have a way to go.
The Warlock Engineer and Ratling Gun have even further to go...
Pete - Vampire Counts
Pete has not really started the slow grow at great pace. He was sort of talked into it given people around him were doing it, and it's worked well to help him get stuff done in the past. Anyway, having decided he would take part, he then spent the entire month tidying up some last details on some Necromunda models he was painting. I don't think he's even assembled any undead yet. An inglorious start!
Hamish - Beastmen
The last time we did a slow grow, Hamish was consumed by trying to paint 35 Dwarfs at once and never came out the other side (I have no idea if they ever got finished, actually). Anyway, this time he's onto Beastmen, and he appears to have painted 1 Gor. Now I'm no mathematician, but I think that puts him behind on his monthly target. I believe part of the delay is that he's experimenting and trying to come up with a new efficient approach to getting them done. I guess we will see.
He looks fine, his base is very nice...
But evidence thus far is the new technique is not magically quick. Time will tell.
Jono - Wood Elves
Jono chose a faction for which the models were not yet available. This obviously doesn't help on making a start. On the bright side, the situation has changed and some of his models have now arrived. We shall see what he can do with them going forward.
He has plenty of models to work with now, but of course they're not even assembled yet...
As you can see, we're already into the second month and some of us really have our work cut out for us. I'll provide more updates when I have them.
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