The Final Push – Lawnor approaches 100% painted

4 days left. I got the first 3 models finished today, and made progress on the reamining two in the 2nd pic. Then I got a game of Godtear against an almost 7 year old. The third pic is my freshly painted minis against his Christmas presents. He’s had then two days and they’re not even primed yet. Bloody slacker! He gave me a tough first 2 rounds, but I won out on rounds 3 and 4, but he made me work for it. He plays very well.

5 days to go. I spent 8 hours today basing and varnishing 21 Godtear models (pics another time), but managed to find time to finish the Godhand, and paint this red cloak. I have visitors tomorrow but hope to get some painting in. I still want to get 4 more models finished, and it looks like 2 if my 5 days will mostly be used for socialising, and basing and varnishing. Thank God some of these models are very near completion.

6 days to go. Nothing finished today but I’m getting very close with everything. I’ve just finished the leathers and may decide they want further highlights tomorrow. I have to base and varnish all the Godtear stuff in the morning as my friends 6 year old is due round on Wednesday for a game and I want to play with my new toys. He’s actually quite good, especially when Fireman Sam isn’t on in the same room and he can focus.

8 days left and one more model done, leaving 6 on my tray and a goal of 5 more.
The final Bone Eater was finished today when I painted the “packed lunch” over her shoulder. With the flesh and the lion pelt painted on everyone else the end is feeling much closer. Currently working on the hair, with 3 more scalps to go.

I’ve been on leave for 1 whole day and I’ve got a whole lot more done than I’d hoped. I’ve finished 4 of the 5 Bone Eaters. The fifth has a whole other model slung over her shoulder. I painted the swords on the Godhand and the Bone Eater Survivor (Same name, but different character from the same box. That’s not confusing at all) with the Bone Eater blades. Then the Smog Eater flesh went smoother and faster than I thought, and their masks and smoke were all done in time for a few episodes of Lower Decks before bed. That’s 7 models finished today.
My target of 33 models was wrong as I apparently can’t count. Helena has 7 models in her box not 6. So thats 34 models I want to paint. This leaves me with 6 left to paint, all of which have work already done on them, and 9 days left. Tomorrow it’s Survivor flesh and Lion pelts.

Another weekend gone and 2 more days of work invested in this.  On Friday evening I pin washed and highlighted all the steels I’d previously airbrushed, and started work on the remaining Godtear flesh areas.  On Saturday I finished off the skin, and got Helena and her followers finished in one day.

Sunday morning I decided to focus on Keera.  She was the last Godtear model left to go.  I painted the Godhands cloak at the same time as it’s the same colour.  She took most of a day to do. When se was done I didn’t feel like doing anything too demanding.  It was getting late, and Keera’s colours had all been hard work to get solid coats for.  I decided to paint whatever that monster is on the Imitation Butchers base.  He will be kneeling on its corpse with an axe raised.  His hand is part of the base so I need this painted before I paint his skin.

I finished it kinda quickly so gave in and started work on the Bone Eaters.  The base colour for the skin was airbrushed. Painting the bone will likely mess that up so I got to work on the bone before shading and highlighting the skin so I can work messily, clean it up easier.  The bone is now based, and will get washes and drybrushes tonight.  I should have everything but the skin done on them by the weekend, and can then either go crazy or find my zen by painting their skin.

My inner Dave Gorman is now screaming “So what’s that done to the graph?” (If you don’t get that go watch this.  It’s a hilarious true tale of obsession, futility, and tequila.  It’s split in to 20-30 minute episodes so it’s not as demanding a watch as you might think.)

Anyway.  The numbers.

That’s 21 of 33 models done, with 10 days left. I’m 10.4 models ahead of schedule, but there’s only one Godtear mini left. I’ll have to actually put effort in to the remaining Kingdom Death models.  I’ve 12 models left, and 10 days off (and 3-4 evenings free).  It’s all KDM.  There’s a unit of 5 similar models, and a unit of 3 similar models.  That’ll make them go a little quicker.  I’ve also done some work on everything, even if it is just laying down the first base coat.  I’ll also possibly need the best part of a day for painting the lanterns and bases, and varnishing everything.

I’m ahead of the curve, but only because I got all the quick wins done first.  All I have left is the slow, hard work.  I suspect I’m going to mostly be setting up dominoes too.  Getting 70% through a model then realising I’m better off getting 50% through another and then painting the same colour on them both at the same time, but then realising I need to do work on a 3rd model before I should do something on the second.  Once the two units are done I might not be able to finish anything until I can finish everything.

6 more models ready for the finishing touches. That’s 13 of 33, with 12 days off left. 8.2 models ahead of schedule, but it’s looking like I might lose this Saturday to friends popping round, and the same for the 27th. How dare people want to spend time with me at Christmas? Don’t they know there’s important things to be doing? It’s also likely to take best part of a day to base and varnish everything. I also expect the Kingdom Death models to take a lot longer than the Godtear ones.

Tonight I start work on the airbrushed steels, then focus on Helena and her followers.  I’ll probably start with their flesh tones, and paint Keera’s flesh at the same time.

Every year I set myself some hobby goals I try to achieve (2023, 2024).  Foremost amongst these goals is to paint at least as many models as I gain within the year.  I’ve exceeded this every year since I’ve been keeping track.  I was on target for this.  I should have just one more model left to go to break even.  Everything changed when the Black Friday attacked.  I got a bunch of stuff for half price I never expected to so now I’ve got an extra 32 models that I wasn’t expecting, and less than a month to get back on track.

This year I’ve completed 137 models, which works out at 2.8 days per model.  around 5 out of every 7 of those days is a work day though.  I’ve 24 days left to do this in, and 14 of those are not at work.  I’ve gone through my backlog and and picked out groups of models that work well for batch painting (Units, and models with similar paint schemes).  I painted a little under 100 Godtear models in a month when the KS landed and 20 of these models are from Godtear, so there is a precedent for this going well.  Lets see.

Here we see 35 models I’ve picked out, all built and primed and ready to go on Thursday evening.

By Saturday lunchtime they had all been airbrushed with at least a base colour, sometimes with near-full shading and highlighting.

By the end of Sunday I had “finished” the 3 dogs and their master, and the 3 dragons.  I’d finished adding extra pin washes, and extra highlights to the models I’d airbrushed gold on, and made solid progress on the samurai goblins.

By finished, I don’t actually mean finished.  My plan is to do all the basing and lanterns together at the end, and follow up with a mass varnishing.  It’ll be more efficient this way.

I’ve done some maths.  I have 14 days at home to do 33 models.  If we ignore workday evenings, I’ll need to do 2.4 models per day.  After 2 days I’ve got 7 of 33 models done, which puts me 2.2 models ahead of schedule, with a lot more progress done on others.  I’m starting with the easy wins for now, as I think some of the Kingdom Death models will go a lot slower.

I’ll try and come back with regular updates, but don’t expect anything Christmas week.  Time spent writing updates is time better spent painting.  Updates are best done at the office when I can’t get to my paint brushes.