It's been a while since my last Slow Grow update, but that doesn't mean it is over. The push for Cancon derailed me a bit, but eventually I regained a little focus. What should have been easily completed in February managed to bleed over into March, but eventually it got done.
October is over, and another month in the slow grow has passed. I have some progress to report, and a few extra photos to show how the stuff I've been working on is coming together...
First up, my contribution for October was 5 more Outriders and a Baggage Train/unit filler for the Halberdiers. I did start on another wave of Handgunners, but ran out of time (they're still not quite finished, despite being almost a week into November). Ideally the Baggage Train would have been a bonus thing for the month, given it's not really worth any points in terms of army growth. But I am working with particular priorities right now, which I'll explain further down.
The slow grind of the slow grow continues. Sadly I don't have that much progress to report overall, but at least it's not nothing.
Me:
I'm quite happy with this month, not necessarily because I produced an amazing amount of stuff, but because I actually started taking steps to tackle one of the weaknesses in the appearance of my Empire army - its banners. I have an awful lot of unit banners (we're talking dozens, really) where the painting is limited to a single colour, or maybe a vertical or diagonal stripe. I've always lacked the nerve to tackle anything more ambitious, and as I've generally been focused on getting things usable on the table, a fancy banner has never been a priority. But I've also been aware that banners can really improve the appearance of an army on the battlefield, so I've probably idly promised myself that maybe one day I'd go back and do something about them. I haven't quite got to that point yet, but at least this month's banners are done properly (to my level, anyway)...
Another month has passed (well more than a month, really) and there has been some limited progress on the painting front. I'm not really sure what my target was as the month started, but I ended up scrambling to reach my target by painting a couple of cannons toward the end of the month, and that was enough for me to at least be on track from a points perspective. I'm not proud, I'll take that.
I have been continuing work on my new Nuln Empire army. Progress has been steady, and I've completed 10 Handgunners with another 10 well on their way.
Another week or more has passed, and I've made some more progress on my Dwarfs. After grinding my way through the longbeards, it was nice to be able to move onto some less numerous choices - things that felt closer to a quick win.
First up, I finally painted a flame cannon. I've had this model for probably 15 years, and it's taken until now to actually do anything about it. I think in my head I always wanted something that looked pretty much like the original GW studio paintjob, so it's no surprise that I stuck with that plan.
Somehow it's been nearly a month since my previous post. I don't really understand where the time goes anymore. All I know is that I just can't keep up. I'm clearly getting old.
Anyway, it's time for a hobby update. I haven't been posting, but I have been painting. Slowly. Painfully slowly. As if there were any other way! I actually no longer know where I'm at in terms of the slow grow schedule. My gut tells me I'm still behind, because my efforts to catch up with the longbeards were far too slow. Regardless, I am at least still making progress.
The longbeards are done. I say that, but I guess what I really mean is that I've done the 24 that I originally set out to paint as the unit. It wouldn't hurt to have more, and I could always just print more... But I think I'd need a specific reason to do that. For now, this is the unit.
When you are a Dwarf, you are slow. You move slow. Eat slow. Paint slow. The only thing you do fast is drinking and writing down grudges. And since I don't drink (not being a very good Dwarf), I obviously just need to focus on my grudge writing...
As bad as I am at some aspects of being a Dwarf, I have been doing a very good job of painting slowly. A nice slow Dwarf in a slow grow painting league is pretty much a guaranteed recipe for glacial progress. It has been 20 days since my last progress update, and my progress in that time has indeed been slow and steady. Mainly slow. Only a bit steady...
Since the previous update, I have completed the first 12 of my Kyoushuneko Longbeards. I have also made moderate progress on the next 6, having sensibly broken up the second half of the unit in order to make the process a little less painful. I probably told myself it'd mean more frequent updates here, but well... anyone can make a mistake.
I have been doing this for a long time. The blog alone is over 10 years old, and I was painting models for a long time before that. It is slightly concerning therefore, that I seem to have learnt nothing. I keep making the same mistakes, each time somehow convincing myself that this time it will be different. It's all just a little bit of history repeating...
Anyway, I am back painting models for the slow grow. I was completely derailed last month by the battle report, so I'm currently in catch-up mode. I decided that the simple solution would just be to try to make sure I painted 500 points this month, but we're halfway through the month and I haven't actually finished anything yet. I feel like I'm leaving myself a lot of work to do.
I started off by deciding that my Dwarf army as a whole needs more core units, and that I wouldn't mind having another unit of Longbeards. I have the files for some Kyoushuneko ones that I really quite like, so I printed off a pile of those, and figured I would start with a unit of 25. Sensible size, usable in a normal sized game, and worth a fair chunk of points. And then, being exceptionally clever, I figured I'd paint all of them in a single big batch. You can imagine how this has gone for me...
It's been a while since my last post, but that conceals the very stop-start nature of what I've been doing in the background. I managed to maintain my momentum painting those half-completed, Warriors, which meant I handily completed my monthly quota before the deadline.
After spending an eternity painting the Anvil of Doom (and playing Total War), I had not only allowed it to take its whole month (which was more than I had really expected), but it also took a fair chunk out of the following month, in which I was meant to be working on something else. It meant I was quite a bit behind, and had some catching up to do.
Late last week, Tim had suggested that we play a Slow Grow game at the club on the Saturday. I agreed, but wanting to actually take the new anvil for a spin, we needed the game to be a bit larger. We agreed to stretch to 1500 points, which meant I really needed more core troops if I wanted to field a legal army. I had only just started painting a group of Warriors, so I needed to get them to a point where they wouldn't look completely embarrassing on the table.
I also decided that I really wanted a battle standard bearer - one on an oath stone, because I already have a painted Dwarf battle standard, and the oath stone would help justify having a second model to choose from. I didn't have a suitable model, so I decided to print one. On Friday. When the game was on Saturday. Because I am stupid.
Anyway, by 1am on Saturday morning, this is how things looked...
Well it has been a tragically long time since my previous post, and I've only just finally managed to finish painting the Anvil of Doom. I did eventually finish the campaign in Total War, and from that point I spent basically every evening working on this thing. It took longer than it should have, but that's really down to the banners and a couple of points where I hamstrung by indecision about how to approach things (notably the colours on the anvil itself).
I'm making progress on my painting, I promise!
Honestly I have sat down several times to try to make progress on my target for this month (just the old Anvil of Doom), but I made the potentially fatal mistake of starting with the banners. It hasn't killed me yet, but it's still on the cards...
Importantly, I made them as difficult for myself as possible. I made them out of slightly curled plasticard, attached to the brass banner poles using some plastic tubing and plastic cement. So they're constructed OK, but they're a far cry from trying to paint a piece of paper. And then I was dumb enough to decide that I wanted to do a design based on what was in the 4th edition army book...
I've already shared my progress for this month, but I've grabbed an updated group photo, and it's time to check in on our other participants, and this time we actually started playing a few games with our little armies!
First off, here's my happy family pic of everything I've done so far, including my cheeky bonus grudge pony.
We're nearly at the end of the third part of our Slow Grow challenge, and for once I'm actually comfortably ahead of schedule. I finished my nominated target of 12 Miners and an Organ Gun some time ago, and even did a sneaky unit filler (for a unit not currently involved in the Slow Grow). This is encouraging progress for my Dwarfs, but having extra time at the end of the month has been distracting...
Anyway, here is the stuff I was meant to be working on (well, mostly).
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!
