Week 32 - Roadblocks and Future Plans

So I have hit a bit of a snag with the painting challenge, I have injured my hand. I have overstrained it between painting every evening and trimming mould lines at work every day. So this week I have had to rest it up, only taking time to work on the hills I am making for the club, which don't stress my hand in the same way as tiny models do. So ultimately I have no new progress this week.

In its place I will talk about some other things. Firstly, the tutorial I posted last week seems to have been quite popular, garnering over 150 page views in a week! With this in mind I will make sure to post an add on going through how to paint the spotted breeds of large cat. This is going to be a little while as I wont be able to paint next weekend either and still have work to do on the hills in the mean time.

I am also working on some sci-fi terrain with lighting so that will be up as a tutorial once I finish it up. I have to order in a hose and fittings for my airbrush, which while frustrating will at least mean I will have it sorted. Once I have it though I plan to practice using it by painting up a space table. It seems like it is an easy thing to learn from the tutorials and would certainly look impressive for a game of Firestorm: Armada or X-Wing.

Something that I have been thinking about a bit lately is a question my wife has asked me, more than once... "When will I be finished?" Most specifically, what do I want to achieve with my hobby? Do I have any goals? So I have been mulling this over while I haven't been able to complete any more models. Now many people I know would immediately answer with more competitive goals, like 'Winning X tournament' or 'Having a full set of trophies.' For me I just like playing the games, I have found more recently that the competitive environment just isn't for me. While it is often a good time to play with unfamiliar faces (or old friends as time moves on) I have been finding that I would rather play a far more light-hearted game. So for me the goals are far more material. So below is a compiled (yet not exhaustive) list of things that I would like to achieve over the coming years. Bear in mind that being painted is also a requirement!

• Own a complete Warmachine/Hordes faction. This one I have already completed and parted with. Being able to field any list I could imagine was quite fun and really helped me understand my chosen faction. If only I had started with a better faction I may have done a bit better over the last couple years of tournament play.
• Command a true undead horde. Few things on a table can compare to an unbreakable army of the dead. This shouldn't be too hard with the quantity of models I already own, I will just need to pad out the options for playing Kings of War as I go.
• Own an apocalypse of zombies. Ties in with the last one this also shouldn't be so hard. Between the 150 or so KoW zombies, 65 from Zombicide S1, 150 or so from Season 2 and 40 from Deadzone I am quite close already I imagine. You can never have too many zombies though...
• Drown in a tide of goblins. The only thing more imposing than a horde of undead is a carpet of goblins. Now this one requires a lot more work on my part. If I can fill a deployment zone full of goblins, I will be happy. With Mantic prices this won't cost the earth like it would have in the past. Having done this with orks years ago I know what it entails, which is why this isn't a goal for an ork army.
• Lead the human expansion for the corporations. A human guard army is really playing to the underdog theme, something I quite enjoy as it can make for very cinematic challenges.
• Manage a fleet of starships. This one is more recent but still feels right. I want to have an imposing fleet, airbrushed and with damage details and all. This one I want to be particularly impressive. I have been thinking a Dindrenzi fleet from Spartan Games.
• Build a cityscape. Quality armies make the game but playing on a empty table is boring. A bustling city for games of Infinity and Warpath will make for really good gaming moments.
• Paint the universe. This I mentioned above but still deserves a spot here. Fighting amongst the stars is great but I want some really nice nebulae, asteroids, planetoids and more to really set the tone of deep space.

What this list does is put my current efforts in perspective. It is not the be-all-end-all as ultimately I still want to play games and try new things. It does help me focus my spending however and gives me things to focus on as I wrap up this years challenge. With the injury to my hand I need to focus more on models that are already assembled, meaning the Corporation Marines are going to get some attention. This brings me to a little gripe though, as I have run out of the blue I use for them. I used Midnight Blue from the GW range, which of course has been discontinued. It has no new equivalent, nor is there one from Army Painter or P3. So I have had to settle for and Army Painter colour which is hopefully close enough. Time will tell.

Finally, I have trimmed down the list of models that I end my posts with. With everything documented on the Wall of Shame I don't need to keep repeating things that I just can't seem to get round to. I am expecting Zombicide Season 2 to ship by the end of this month, as well as the final Kings of War shipment. I expect to spend next year working on Mantic models given how much of my collection they consume but who knows what will take my fancy by then?

Day 223

267/223 Painted/Days passed

267/366 Painted/Target (73.0%)

50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)

6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)

71/71 Zombicide! (100%)

31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)

32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)

10/15 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (66.7%)

18/55 Dreadball: Season 2 (32.7%)

21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)

26/150 Corporation Marines (17.3%)

1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)

1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)