Slow Grow Catch-up

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...

A dozen base-coated Warriors, and a BSB on oath stone who only existed as a puddle of liquid resin earlier on Friday.

Retro hammertime!

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).

One Herohammer-era Runelord on his Anvil of Doom, back when they had wheels. They didn't tend to get bases back then though, so you know this guy is special.

Super slow grow and another battle

 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...

No, it's not the same. No, it's not even really close. Yes, it causes me pain.

Slow Grow - Month 3 and first battle

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.

Bit over 1000 points... It's actually starting to resemble an army.

More Slow Progress

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).

A small unit of miners, an organ gun and a unit filler grudge pony who really isn't meant to be here.

Slow Grow Update - End of Part 2

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.

Slow Grow Part 1 Complete

This post comes about a week late, but you'll just have to take my word for it that I actually did manage to get my first "month" (really a first effort of 2 months in one go). The deadline was the 15th, and I finished painting at about 11pm that evening. Depending on your perspective, I either barely got there, or planned it perfectly...

The last part of my first month target was a pair of bolt throwers. Actually, this is a lie. It was originally 10 warriors, but by the time I got to them after painting hammerers and thunderers, and with time gradually sliding away, I decided to change my goals. The bolt throwers were always going to be on the list at some point given that I didn't have any painted, and it was a bit more interesting than yet another group of 10 troops. So here we are.

2 Dwarf bolt throwers with their crew. The crew are actual GW models, but the bolt throwers I 3D printed using a model someone uploaded to Thingiverse, which appears to be based on the model in Total War. It certainly looks like it.