Bloody weather, an explanation & a change of plans

It’s been a really good week painting-wise, I’ve completed the 10 Zombie players for the team (Damn! 2 minutes after typing that sentence I went & got them in & discovered that due to the crappy weather today the varnish has gone a little cloudyL, should be able to sort it out for next week though, hopefully if I go over it with paint-on varnish instead of spray-on it’ll bring the colour back, it has done in the past anyway, figures crossed, unfortunately it means that they can’t go on the completed list just yet. Bugger!!!), today I’ve managed to get a good head start on the final 5 players for the team & with a bit of luck I may even get the Head Coach painted for the start of the season on 29^th January.

If you’re wondering why I’ve apparently abandoned the Devourers I’m supposed to be painting for Richard, the reason is pretty simple. I had hoped to get a fair bit of his army done over the xmas period as I’d have the time to get them done, unfortunately the fates conspired against me & were aided-& -abetted by my own silliness.

The first problem occurred when my own hopeless ability at brush care meant that both the brushes I use to paint the fur effect on the Devourers got pretty ruined & splayed, making them un-useable for the job. If there’s one thing I need to start paying attention to this year it’s to start to look after my brushes better & to clean them more regularly when I’m painting, not letting the paint dry out or clog up the brush too much, they’ll last a lot longer.

The second problem was that my last 0.8mm drill bit broke off in a model while I was drilling a pin hole, it’s really annoying when that happens, especially when it occurs at a time of year when it is a pain to get anything posted in a reasonable timeframe. It didn’t help that shortly after the drill bit broke the half-elf I’d started painting for the Devourers (no fur needed) decided that it was going to snap it’s leg off due to the thinness off the sculpt in that area, (Rackham & Privateer Press have nice sculpts, but my god they can be frustratingly fragile at times!!!), which meant I had to wait for the new year before the required supplies turned up.

Anyway, in the mean time I decided I may as well have a go at the BB team as it had been sitting around for an age & once I started I really started enjoying myself, I haven’t painted & force/team/gang for myself in quite a while & I really want to have a painted team for the start of the “Balls of Iron” League. Plus it’s the shortest project on the list & the easiest to complete & once it’s done (hopefully no later than the second week of February) it’ll set me up well for the painting year ahead..that’s the theory at least J

So, there you have it, that’s my reasoning behind putting the Devourer on the back burner for about a month, though I have got a fair few undercoated & ready to go when I do start it up again.

As for the change of plans, that revolves around the Project: Build & paint a Warhammer 40,000 Ork army (1500 points minimum).

After thinking about it (& buying an Ogre Battalion Box set off of Shaun) I’ve decided not to do that one but instead Build a Warhammer Fantasy Ogre Kingdoms Army (2000 point minimum) and if I want to use a larger 40k army I can finish the vehicles & units that I started for my Red Scorpions army 2 years ago, I’ll look at doing the Orks next year.

This week’s photos (unfortunately now minus the 10 slightly fogged zombies):

First up a closer look at the first two completed models for the year, Kronos & Methos, Wight players for the Mousillon Bodysnatchers.

And next up, the current work in progress (L to R: Steve; Adam; Silas; Caspian; & "Fangs" McGinty).

New Tally:

Miniatures Painted to date (20/01/08) = 2
Projects completed = 0/5.

Hopefully I can salvage the zombies for next week, if not I'll just have to do the best I can & re-paint the sections that the obscured, C'est la Vie.

more soon.

J