It’s time for a new month! And with the UK about to re-enter national lockdown (not that I’ve noticed much different), there is probably going to be a little more hobby time. As you’ve seen, I’ve really enjoyed posting my little updates, helped especially by the Monday painting sessions with my Dastardly Regular Opponent among others. But one thing I have missed is talking about ongoing projects, using a post as a sort of summary/catch up/reminder of how things are going.
Project Space Marines
The big boys first – I actually painted a squad worth of dudes last month. These guys (and girls) have been waiting around for a while so it was really good to get them cleared off my to-do list. It was also a nice change to paint, with big chunks of smooth armour and detail to be painted over.
The next step is to finish off my character figure (Cypher from GW range) in a paint scheme that matches his allies but is also a touch more dramatic to mark him out as a character. I’m planning on getting him painted up this month, and then I’ll turn to look at rest of the Marines I have. These guys don’t have quite as fancy armour, so I’ll need to work out what I’m doing with the silver shoulder pad. I’m also going to try and resist the urge to buy any more marines, but the Heavy Intercessors would be really cool. The downside is I would need to buy a chunk of Deathwatch Conversion packs to get enough armoured shoulders for the heavy armour, meaning I’ll have a load of normal power armour shoulders left over…
Oh dear.
Project Enforcers
The main project I think is next is getting my Enforcers/Space Mercs assembled. I’ve worked out a few rough lists, now I just have to nail down and assemble the remaining guys. I’ve still got plenty of heads and plenty of bodies to do, but I am really enjoying the assembly stage. The Enforcers are definitely designed to fit together in one specific way but you can do a few tweaks if you try hard enough.
Ideally, I’d love to have all these guys painted up by the end of the month but it’s not a hard and fast timeline. The scheme I’m thinking for them is a little more military than the yellow scheme GW uses. In part, it’s inspired by the classic 8th Cadian colour scheme, with a bit of extra grime.
Project Fantasy
Urrgh okay. So Fantasy has been on the backburner for a good while. I had a really good start in the beginning of the year, getting a good few of Northstar’s excellent Frostgrave/Ghost Archpelgio models painted. I also grabbed a few classic GW figures and then… well I moved and the world went to shit and my motivation disappeared through the floor.
But, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As I have fallen hard into GW’s embrace, I have repeatedly been tempted by Warcry, Games Workshop’s most innovative game for a while (in no small part to a friend up in Edinburgh talking about it). What sealed the deal for me was the release of a new box including my favourite type of Elf (shadowy and stabby). Coming with two forces and a ton of scenery, it looked like a pretty good deal (and perfect to given as a combined christmas/birthday gift in the new year). So that will be waiting for me under a Christmas tree.
But of course, if I have a new ruleset and figures then I can just use all my current stuff right? Yes (after I make up some profiles with the help of a friend’s tool). However, there is an issues with bases. All my old figures are on the Frostgrave standard totally-not-a-2p – anything new will be on GW bases. I have also moved some GW figures to the thinner bases and… man they look bad. So, during a bout of insomnia/mental fatigue, I decided to rebase all my figures onto the correct size of GW base, flared out bottoms and all. For the metal figures this was an easy job of just popping the super glue and pulling. For the plastic… there is a little more work. I’ve done off the metal, so the next step is sitting down and doing all the various troops and zombies.
One part of this however was seeing my painted minis (whose bases have been swapped and rextured) up close again. I really like the paint jobs I’ve given them so far, and the impulse to paint more leather and steel is slowly returning.
Project WW2
Ah my offt loved, sadly forgotten project. It was going so well – the groundswell of support for it coupled with playing a campaign of it over in York was getting me slowly ready to sitting down and painting up my British Platoon. But then York and Leeds both got Tier 2 status and so that idea came to a screeching halt.
However, I have not been idle on it. I have now reached the point where I have enough metal Empress figures to make a full platoon plus 2x Vickers supports (very useful against an entrenched foe with MG42s). I have also been hard at work (as you can see above) doing a few conversions to prevent my army looking too much like a group of clones. Some are pretty minor – covering up a shovelhead with a bugle, or swapping a grenade hand with a revolver to make an NCO. Others have been the classic head swap, requiring some green stuff work to cover the gaps and a steady hand to do the deed in the first place. The set I’m happiest with are the tweaks where I’ve removed the helmet and replaced it with some crude greenstuff work to make some cap comforters. These guys are additional to the main platoon and so will probably end up as engineers or other support – however, I think they will do very good work in scouting pair, sneaking through the mud to find the enemy during the patrol phase.
Project WW2 is ongoing but not currently a priority – this is mostly because I can’t really do anything with it (and therefore lack the motivation to finish it) until I can return to fight my friends t’up north (such as the wonderful christmas game) or I get my hands on enough Jerry to make a rival platoon.
Project Modern
Moderns are kind of the old standby for me. There is always plenty to work on (far too much to work on) and with Spectre releasing new stuff, it’s very easy to add to the pile. I’ve picked up the new additions and will (along with the old militia on my shelf) get them undercoated and based to match the rest. I’ll probably then get the new Tier 1 guy done and in the display case with his buddies, mostly because I quite like them as a group.
Moderns is on the low simmer, so I’ll paint what I fancy. I do want to get a solo game in though – the Sangin rules need testing, and I quite fancy using the Germans I painted up ages ago…
Project Murder Elves
I continue to be intimated by my tiny collection of Dark Eldar figures and will get them at some point. Mainly because I haven’t decided on a paint scheme for the little devils.
Project adalet
Okay, so I may have mentioned that I have been suffering bouts of depressive episodes on and off for the past year or two. Well deep in the midst of one last week, I finally pushed the button on a project I’ve had in the works for a while. To put it mildly, I love the new Battle Sisters squad. The models are incredibly strong visually, and GW plastic kits are really well designed. I’ve wanted a squad of my own for ages (not a full army!) but really wanted to do something special for them.
I am also a massive fan of the game Overwatch and one of my favourite heroes is Pharah, the Egyptian lady in flying power armour. I’ve had quite a few thoughts about making some sisters different from the typical Catholic nun and the skin above (labelled as Bedouin in the game) has given me several ideas for the mix of armour and cloth. I’ll write more details in a proper post once I begin work on it (which won’t be until after I finish the enforcers) but I’m really looking forward to what this project will be like.
That’s the project update for the start of November. As you can see, I have a fair amount I can pick at when I have time (and I haven’t even mentioned the MDF yet) but I’m slowly getting back to a place where I have time/energy to put into hobby stuff. I will say, having a fixed hobby time and friends to do it with has really helped my mojo, so I’m very tempted to keep it even when things go back to ‘normal’.
I’ll be back next month with another project update post but until then, keep your eyes open for more SITREP posts.