Paint it or Punt it

A day late but it was too dark last night to take photos. Instead this post puts two days of hobby together.

Yesterday was a second coat for the base colours and washes and this morning was highlights and painting the base (plain because at the moment I have no plans for a rebel force).

Washes used were Reikland Fleshshade for the skin, Seraphim Sepia for the scan and nuln Oil for everything else. Then I highlighted up with the original colours (adding a little Pallid Wytch Flesh to the Coal Black after that highlight got lost in the first pass).

Additional paints:
Skin – GW Kislev flesh
Webbing, belt and jacket detailing – GW Death World Forest
Metal details – AP Gun Metal
Eyes – GW Pallid Wytch Flesh and Abaddon Black

I did change the scarf colour as once the Death World Forest was down for the webbing, they were too close in colour. To make it I mixed a little of the Kislev flesh into the original in a 50/50 ratio.

2020 is the year over decided to finally tackle my most hated body part to paint… Eyes. I usually do the cop out flesh tone/wash and done routine but you can’t get better at what you don’t practice so (within reason) every model this year in going to try and do eyes on. We’ll see in 12 months of there’s been any improvement!

On the whole, I’m happy with this one. I bought the model because I needed something from Legion for terrain scaling reference and Rogue One is my favourite of the new Star Wars. The plastic is better than the first core box that I bought at launch and then sold on months later and it was quite fun to paint. The head feels a little oversized but that’s probably because I’ve been sitting through all my MESBG models which are 28mm true scale.

I said yesterday that there be an addendum to the 4th goal of the pledge. Playing in a tournament isn’t something I’ve been particularly interested in in the past. I’m not a competitive player and having played against a couple of them in my brief 40k forays, it put me off. The point of the goal was that having a tournament would put a fire under me to paint more of my MESBG models. It still is part of the goals however…

Last year GW staffers took part in a challenge to get more of their MESBG hobby done and they released the Hobby Bingo document behind it. The community loved it and throughout the year it was cool to see people working on crossing off as many of the challenges as they could. I wasn’t in a headspace where I could take part but I kept a copy of the bingo square to do this year.

This week they announced that they are doing another for 2020 and it seems like a perfect time to jump on board with that version instead.

The post over at the Warhammer community can be found here.

You’ll see that one of the challenges is to go to an event so that covers number 4 of the hobby pledge!

The rest tie in nicely to my other pledge elements so I’m looking forward to taking part… It’s almost as though turning something into a game is a good motivator in our hobby ?

I know this is another text entry with no hobby but tomorrow will be Jyn Erso part 2

My pledge from the Hobby Pledge thread starter in the forums by @lawnor

1. Paint it or Punt it – take a long hard look at my models and be honest about the chances of playing those games. Get rid of everything that is superfluous and create a spreadsheet of everything else to start painting. The end goal is a 100% painted collection but I’m not going to commit to that this year (or at least until I’ve taken inventory!)

2. Make terrain – over the last year my flat has become the base for our RPG games and I’d like to get enough terrain that it can be the same for our miniatures games. I really enjoy making terrain and I enjoy not having to leave my house

3. “Help” more people into the hobby. Last year I tried a group of friends on MESBG and they loved it but I didn’t follow through. This year I want to help get new players in to the hobby whether that’s by providing armies or teaching them how to paint their own. I’m very fortunate to have nerdy friends, it seems a shame not to corrupt them.

4. Get an army ready and the confidence to go to some tournaments for MESBG or Star Wars Legion.

5. Hobby for 30 minutes a day at least 25 days put of every month. That works out at 150 hours over the year minimum.

I’ve decided to rename this project to match the biggest of my hobby goals for the year – Paint it or Punt it.

I, like most people, have far more models than I’ll ever paint or ever play with. This year I want to slim down the collection to only things that are getting/going to get used and work towards 100% painted. I don’t like having so many things still on sprue or primed but nothing else. I want my collection to be something I enjoy not have stored in a cupboard in a cardboard box.

The first step of this is do to a full inventory of what I have. The second will be to have a hard look at what realistically is going to get used in the future. If it won’t, it goes (Punt it). If it will, it goes into the paint queue.

I’ve already started work on a new table for Star Wars Legion (Theed, Naboo) to go with an upcoming Legion Battle Companies Campaign were planning. I also have some MESBG terrain that I started on. Not sure what the balance will look like between painting models and terrain but in the first half of the year I’d liked to have this but if the pledge ticked off.

This one I’m confident of in theory but socialising is draining my energy badly at the moment.

This one we’ll come back to in tomorrow’s post about an addendum to the pledge.

The paint queue gets tackled by way of the original aim of this project – a little hobby every day. It’ll help work through the backlog and (I’m fairly sure) will help with the ongoing project of improving my noggin. Now every day might be a bit much so I’m starting out 2020 by going for 25 days out of the month. This gives me leeway without feeling guilty of I need a day or two off. I’ll still have a soft target of daily though.

Managed to get in 30 minutes before work this morning. Most of the base colours are first coat down. Primer was GW Corax White.

Skin – Bugman’s Glow (GW)

Undershirt – Stormvermin fur (GW)

Jacket and trousers – Coal Black (P3)

Scarf – Khaki (Vallejo)

Gloves, boots and weapon stocks – Abaddon Black (GW)

December turned out to be a tough month both at work and at home. My job, whilst not the cause of my mental health issues, strongly affects it in ways that can’t be mitigated. I’m looking for a new one but in the mean time I’ve been trying to do 30 minutes a day since between Christmas and New Year. Most of what I’ve done doesn’t merit a post yet (it will become a series of them in the future I think), I want to put some models back in the hobby time rotation.

The other project I’m working on is Star Wars Legion related but I haven’t gotten models yet. I’m splitting the new Clone Wars box with a friend in February but I wanted a model to help with scaling so I bought Jyn. At least that’s my excuse ?

Today was a bad morning trying to get out of bed and in to work so I decided to put her together and get her primed to get an early win on the “sense of minor achievement” chart this morning. I’d didn’t help much, I’m still struggling to get through every hour but I managed this. Depending how I feel when I get in, I might pick out her colours and tomorrow aim to get some blocking in done.

I spent yesterday and today off work with this ear and throat infection so I decided to use the hobby time to start on a new challenge. I’m not sure yet if I’ll separate it out into a new project/forum thread but for now I’ll track it here.

In a recent tidy up I found my battered copy of the Games Workshop book on terrain making back when they were interested in teaching you how to make and not just selling you a better looking table. I decided I’m going to work through the book and complete things in order. This meant starting with some hedges, woods and a hill (or two). I’m also aiming to do it without buying anything new until after Christmas… or possibly before February ?

The hedges are based on some leftover plasticard from a Kings of War multibasing project that never happened. I made them in six inch lengths. The body of the hedge is made with some sponge left over from a whiskey gift box which means they are a little uniform but it was an experiment. I thought I’d use some Hornby rough flock to break up the outline but hit a snag this morning… it isn’t colour fast ?

After that rather messy hiccup, I rummaged through the flock box and combined a medium green with black tarmac to get a darker hedge colour – using Jarvis flocks! Thankfully I only had the one Hornby bag to try out.

This is the stage they are at this evening – Army Painter Grass Green flock for the ground cover. Once everything is dry I might go back and add in some clump flock to help with the outline (the hedge closest to the camera still has the remains of the Hornby crap on it and it definitely looks the best of the four) as well as a little highlight, dry brush the stones and then give it all a coat of watered down pva to strengthen them.

I’m off work tomorrow as well but I have an idea of the model I want to start on next so I’m digging it out tonight. I want to sit and hobby so I guess we can say so far so good for the project’s aim!

Time – didn’t track it but probably 90 minutes over the space of the day.

Today I started and finished this wonderful otter swordsman. I forgot to take photos on the journey but I did keep some notes.

Fabric – Army Painter Deep Blue and GW Yriel Yellow, wash GW Drakenhof Nightshade

Armour – AP Gun metal, wash GW Nuln Oil, highlight GW Runefang Steel

Sash and hat – Vallejo Cavalry Brown, wash GW Agrax Earthshade

Feathers – GW Stormvermin Fur, wash Agrax

Undershirt – Vallejo Khaki, wash Agrax

Straps and leathers – GW Steel Legion Drab, wash Agrax, highlight Khaki

Sword – AP gun metal, GW Warplock Bronze, Revell Leather Brown

Skin – Revell Leather Brown, wash Agrax, highlight Army Painter Fur brown

It was a pint her lovely model to paint. The main thing I’m fighting with is that since I last painted regularly I have had two beasts move in one of whom is a fiend and a threat to all paint brushes.

Not sure who is up next for tomorrow, the others I have primed aren’t appealing to me right now so I might have a rummage.

Having struggled with a sore throat all week, I woke up at 5am today to an ear infection. Out the window went my plans to go to a Model Railway Club’s Winter Open Day and instead a day of feeling sorry for myself on the couch ensued. Once the worst of the pity party was out of the way, I figured the least I could do is finish off my foxy friend.

Unfortunately the lighting is terrible but he is now done. I might take some better photos tomorrow but I’m largely happy with him. A couple of the highlights aren’t quite as fine as I would like but he is my first finished model in 9 months so I guess I can cut myself a little slack ?