Another tank rolls in

This post isn't actually part of the Slow Grow that the group of us are currently undertaking (with varying degrees of success). Instead, this month my target felt quite under control, and I decided I could pull something extra onto the painting table.

I am getting to the point in the Slow Grow where I'm assessing my overall plans, and I feel like I'm about half way to what I'd like to complete before it's over. But Noakes then convinced me that Nuln should really have a Steam Tank, and that it should be one of those silly variants with more exotic weaponry (the sort that had rules in 6th edition, and hasn't been seen since)...

The tank wasn't part of my vision of being half-way to my overall objective, so I instead squeezed it in as a bonus for the month.

A 3D printed Steam Tank from Duncan Shadow. I happened to have these files already on hand, so it was hard to say "no" to Noakes' "helpful suggestions" (I had 2 Steam Tanks already sitting around, undercoated and ready to paint, but the demand that I do a particular variant meant that they got bypassed for a new print).

The Halflings cannot be stopped

My progress on the halflings has rolled on inexorably. Or maybe it's that I've made progress on halflings who roll on inexorably. In terms of actual time spent on some of these guys, how can something so short take so long? It's a riddle indeed.

I find the Duncan Shadow halflings quite straightforward to paint, and I like that their snappy uniforms are so crisply defined. It basically forces me to paint the puff and slash in separate colours, which is why I elected to put them alongside the MOM greatswords, who are much the same. Of course, finding them straightforward and them taking little time seem to be two unrelated things for me. And I still find that I struggle with some of their faces, particularly the female ones. Painting faces is often one of the most rewarding parts of the model, because it is sometimes really clear where the highlights should go, and it draws the model together. I didn't always find that here, and it's discouraging. But they'll be perfectly usable as a regiment on the tabletop. Looking at them individually (or with a camera) is always a little less forgiving.

20 Duncan Shadow halfling archers, up to my usual sort of tabletop standard. I had already shared 10 of these. The other 10 were done in a reverse colour scheme to try to break up the fact that there's only 6 different models there.

A Different State of MInd

Well it's been over a month since my last post, but let's face it - there have been much longer gaps recently. This is practically frequent posting. And what's more, I actually seem to have rebuilt some hobby momentum. In my previous post I had painted 7 Teutogen Guard, and it was the first real painting I had done in months. Well since then, I have painted another 7 Teutogen Guard. I was going to do more (there are 11 more that already have a bit of paint on them), but I got sidetracked. Here is what my unit now looks like with all the painted stuff together...

49 Teutogen Guard, counting the obligatory unit filler. Most of these guys were painted long ago and need a clean up. Maybe they'll get it at some point. For now they can just rely on my poor, lazy photography taken with them sitting in my lap.

As I say, I got sidetracked. I was starting to feel the grind of painting the same things, and rather than risk pushing and burning out again, I looked around for something to inspire me. This resulted in me going off on a tangent and started painting Empire models for a new province - Talabecland! They have snazzy red and yellow uniforms, and in my mind it's one of the classic colour combinations you'd see in multi-state armies. Before this post I had literally no Empire models with this colour scheme, but now I have... some. More than none, but far from an army.

Spoilt by choice?

I started in this hobby back in about 1992. Well, I might have been idly collecting and longing for models for some time before that, but realistically the timing is about correct for when we first got our hands on the rules for Warhammer. Thus began our downward spiral into the murky depravity that was Games Workshop products, getting into 40K, Epic, Blood Bowl, etc... So many games, so little time.

Warhammer was not the only fantasy battle game on the market back then (the main alternative being Grenadier's Fantasy Warriors), but it had a clear advantage in terms of presentation and marketing thanks to White Dwarf, and the beautiful photos and battle reports contained therein. Naturally we were attracted to the bright and shiny objects (it was GW's Red Period, don't forget - everything was bright and shiny and red). Thus was our loyalty to a particular game setting won.