Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Argonor on 11 August 2010, 01:39:14 PM
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The reason behind this thread:
I want to keep track of a project I'm starting out on.
The reasons for my project:
- I originally started wargaming with 1:72 Airfix napoleonics.
- I always liked to play 'big battles' with droves of painted figures.
- I entered the world of 28 mm fantasy miniatures through D&D
- I was intrigued by Warhammer, but never really liked the rules, as they are too cumbersome to me
- Still, I always liked the GW fantasy minis, and hence I bought several boxed versions of Warhammer over the years
- Because of that, I have a lot of unpainted plastic laying around in boxes here and there
- Kings of War sounds like it's going to be fast and simple rules
- Although I think Kings of War would be better off played in 15 or 10 mm scale, as only the unit size, and not the actual models will matter, my heart lies with the 28 mm scale, and I now have a reason to get some of all that plastic painted
The project (re-prioritized Aug 13th):
1: Make 2 High Elf regiments.
2: Make some Undead units
3: Make some Dwarf units
4: Make 2 Human units (Empire)
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1: Make some High Elf units.
- Find the old boxed set containing High Elf spearmen and archers ☼
- Get the models cleaned, assembled, based, and primed (white)
- Quick-paint the units using washes and drybrushing
As this is about putting units on the table ASAP, no fiddling around with layering on these.
More as I get started...
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High Elves found and retrieved - double the number I expected; 20 each of spearmen and archers.
Added bonus: 16 Empire spearmen and 16 Empire handgunners (plus a mounted model and some extra bits, like a cannon and/or a mortar, and some command bits).
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Hurry up then - would love to see these forces painted up and knocking lumps out of each other! >:D
Oh and you're right about 28mm! ;)
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Right now I'm going to bed, and most of tomorrow is earmarked for redecorating house, and installing a new loo. I'll probably start cleaning the minis tomorrow evening, and I expect to get along quickly. I must - I need to get some stuff done ;)
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Know the feeling - got to paper and paint our study (an overly grand title! ;D) when I have lterally hordes of orcs needing a lick of paint... >:(
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Let's hope the loo causes no further troubles ;)
I want pictures ! Not of the loo but of elves, as I'm really into them.
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I want pictures ! Not of the loo but of elves, as I'm really into them.
As soon as I have some progress to show. I just realized that I have moved all my plastic slottas, and my poly cement, to the new place ::).... I'll start trimming the plastics today, then hopefully find my glue and bases tomorrow...
(The toilet did not get moved anywhere today - I had to mow the lawn, as all the rain from this week has made the grass grow faster than red martian mold.... So we managed to get one kid room finished (orange), and primed the other white before being painted pink (yikes!) tomorrow. At the same time my in-law cleaned the fridge and some kitchen cabinets...)
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So, cleaned up 4 spearmen, and separated the other 16 from the sprues.
Took a pic of a sprue, but am too tired to do anything about it just now....
Tomorrow evening, hopefully I'll get 5-6 additional spearmen trimmed, and all the trimmed models glued onto bases.
With a little luck, and perseverance, I might have 20 spearmen primed by Thursday. Or not. Depends on, how much work I have to do on the house on evenings during the week....
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This sounds great mate, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
I too am going through all my miniatures, finding any old GW plastics from various kits, so far, the finds have been excellent! I found a whole load of wizards...
If anyone has a spare Amber wizard, I am desperately looking for one, I have a spare bright wizard... :)
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Not much progress yesterday, as the house wore me down to me wicklers...
I retrieved bases and poly cement, though, and got the 4 trimmed spearmen glued to bases.
I also washed the whole lot in warm water with washining up liquid, as I'd forgotten to do that.
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High Elf sprue. I found 5 of these.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/6/38_16_08_10_7_50_09.JPG)
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Real life foiled my plans again Monday evening, as my eldest daughter - seemingly - had forgotten her sports sneakers outside at her new school (which is very close to our soon-to-be home, but about 15 km from our current residence...) So we went there, and spent more than an an hour NOT finding them.
Today they then turned up INSIDE, at her wardrobe spot.... dangit! (Not that they turned up, but that I wasted another evening's hobby time on nothing).
I have promised myself that NOTHING, save grave accidents involving emergency ward, will drag me away from home tonight.... I NEED to get some work done on those plastics....
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Sounds like it just wasn't meant to be!!!! ;D
Really looking forward to your progress.
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My afternoon commuter train was delayed almost ½ hour, due to 'signal problems'. Because of that, I barely had time to do my 5 km run, and prepare and eat dinner, before having to deal with kids' bedtime.
But after that, while watching 'Le Pacte des Loups' (about the Gébauvan beast) on telly, I prepared a large number of bases; I scrape the bottom edge of slottas, so that the edge loses its sharpness, which makes the paint less prone to wear off along the edge.
Nothing interesting on tonight, save 'Rome - The Last Frontier' from 20:00 to 20:50, so I should be able to get some spearmen trimmed.
The unit will not be ready for priming before Saturday and Sunday - and then only if no more 'real life incidents' crosses my path for the rest of the week.
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If time is limited, better take smaller steps. Amassed miniatures can be quite intimidating to look at, in every single stage from preparing to painted battlefield formation. You'll stay motivated much easier by painting up a few for a start and proceed at your own pace. At least in my experience, if you're not used to going for numbers, you easily block yourself.
Up to now your project sounds more like work to be done than a hobby to be enjoyed. Anyway, as a wise man said: 'I'd like to wish you happy painting...'
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Sounds like one of those epic plans my friend.
Best thing to suggest re: staying on target is little and often, get a nice block of minis build and undercoated. Then keep a little modelling space, ONLY with a few units and the paints you need to complete them.
I find I need to do that otherwise I get distract.....
Oh look shiney shiney!!!
(Doesn't always work but there you go! ;)).
The Commander
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Yeah, but this is a project I can actually work on in small steps and still see some progress - all the while my weekends are totally booked up by the work on the new house/moving stuff - and at the same time it's easy to shove the whole bunch of plastics aside when the table space is needed for other purposes.
I am not going to paint a full unit of 20 in one go, but I always prime batches of about 20 minis, as it reduces waste of spray paint not to have to empty the nozzle quite as many times (and the overall time used for priming). I'll probably start out with one test mini, then do batches of 4-5.
If I weren't doing this, I would be doing nothing at all for the next couple of months, hobby-wise, while being in the process of re-decorating new house, moving and settling in, and fixing the current rented house. And, at the same time it reduces my back-log.
And, btw - trimming models, and painting blocks of minis is always more a chore than a pleasure - I'm really only painting minis to have something to play with, and could never afford to have someone else do it for me. I'm a gamer, not a painter. But I don't like to play with unicoloured lumps of metal or plastic.
Got stuck helping my daughter playing Disney Princess Adventure on PS (had to translate the tasks for her), but got another big pile of bases done.
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Excellent.
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11 spearmen trimmed and glued onto bases. 9 remains - and I have to fill the remaining gaps in the slot on all 20 when I get that far.
Will do a couple more, now....
Edit.: 14 Spearmen ready - will post pic of unit as soon as all 20 are ready.
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19 done.... tomorrow I'll get the last one trimmed, and then fill the gaps in the bases. Pic of 20 grey elves to follow.
If the weather behaves and if I can find my white primer), I'll have them primed Monday evening.
May have to visit the nearest games store after work Monday to get some primer....
Plan is to start trimming the archers, 1 each day while I'm painting the spearmen - that way I'll have a head start on the archer unit instead of starting from nil when the spearmen are finished.
And I just remembered that I have a Teclis and a Prince Imrahil + one more HE mage in blisters somewhere. My classic Dragon Masters set and my Great Imperial Dragon might come in handy as well.... the latter is missing its ears; I may have to sculpt some new ones if they do not turn up :?
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Here comes a couple of pics of the full spearman unit (with a couple of skirmishers added):
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/7/38_23_08_10_7_05_59_1.JPG)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/7/38_23_08_10_7_05_59_0.JPG)
It's pouring down outside, so I won't be able to prime the unit today. Hopefully soon....
EDIT:
And, before someone asks: Yes, they are on round bases, and no, it's not an error ;)
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Hmm... it's the first version of Prince Tyrion, I have, not Imrahil... (yes, have him too, but he is a LotR mini...)
The weather finally let me prime the Spearmen unit Thursday evening after rainstorms and gales all week, and I managed to get a few more Archers trimmed while waiting for that to happen..
I shall start painting my Spearman test figure later today. First I have to go look at a replacement stove for the new house, then I have to pull out about a million small nails from the wooden floors, so we gan get them grinded down to a nice surface.
I should be able to post up a picture or two of the test model for comments/suggestions either today or tomorrow.
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Real life prevented me from following my plan for the test mini.
I managed to paint silver on 10 elves, then Asurmen Blue wash on the scale mail and the cloth.
I then decided to move my workstation to the new house - which might a be a mistake, as after that, I really only have been able to work ½ hour on the test mini last Sunday:
I painted gloves and boots leather, then gave them a Devlan Mud wash, and gave helmet, plate armour, and spear tip a wash with classic Citadel Black Ink, then painted some bits Dwarven Bronze (OOP Citadel colour?) and gave them a chestnut wash.
Given the results so far, I think I'll be better off doing the helmet/plate stuff with a basecoat of Bolt Gun Metal + Black, then build up with chainmail and silver. Won't take much more time, and will give a better result.
Likewise for the 'gold' parts, I think layering will be almost as quick as basecoating-wash-drybrush-highlight... I may even be able to skip a step (basecoat-main-highlight).
We move this upcoming weekend, so I'll probably be able to do some hobbying during next week.
As soon as I have a finished test figure, I'll post pics. Really...
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Hmmm... no pics, yet, as the phone company seems to be stuck in Victorian times.
I ordered the line moved a month ago, and as I did not get any confirmation, yet, I called them up - and after a few failed calls (it's a phone company, go figure...), I finally got the message, that they'll probably not get around to doing before OCTOBER 22ND!!!
I have been painting a bit since last post, and I've come to realize that I have completely forgotten how to paint gold :o
So now I've basecoated areas that are to be gold-coloured 6 different ways on 6 different models to check what works best... ::)
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Very nice, I'm following this thread closely, keep it up!!
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Alas, the whole moving business is still not leaving me much space for progress. This evening I have to go get the old dsl-box and my computer at the old place, as the phone company suddenly decided they can move our line tomorrow... between 7:30 and 16:00. I may even get some work done while waiting for the phone-guy... ::)
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Of course the phone guy arrived early in the morning, and ever since I have only been able to do very little brushwork Friday evening.
Good news is, I am now online from home, too, and as the former owner of our house actually emptied the garage Friday evening, I have now been able to unload some cardboard boxes from the study an onto some steel 'bookshelves' (not really, but I lack a better word) in the back room of the garage, so as to recreate easy access to my painting desk ;)
We also got the last stuff moved from the old place over the weekend, so we can start painting next Saturday.
I have promised myself to do hobby work at least 1 hour each evening from now on, and this time there shouldn't be anything to prevent it.
I shall also take a pic of my gold experiments so far, and maybe some of my new den, and the garage/workshop/storage room/attic
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So here are two quick shots of the not-very-fantastic progress I've made so far, this row of minis primarily to show my ongoing gold experiment (REMEMBER: I know exactly what I want to do for the next stages, as soon as I have the shading/basecoat nailed - this is not intended to be finished gold):
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/7/38_04_10_10_9_12_57_2.JPG)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/7/38_04_10_10_9_12_57_1.JPG)
I think the gold thus far is, in order of appearance:
- Shining Gold with a chestnut(?) wash, then Shining Gold
- Beaten Copper, then Shining Gold
- Dwarf Bronze, then Shining Gold
- Pure Shining Gold - won't work for sure, will try a wash on that....
- A mix of Scorched bown/Dark Flesh, then Shining Gold
- Tin Bitz, then Shining Gold
I tend to think that the darker basecoats (to the right) work better than the lighter ones.
Mrdee, who painted a wonderful succubus here: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=22757.30, uses some washes with the Vallejo equivalent of Tin Bitz to tone down the basecoat of VGC-equivalent to Burnished Gold... might be worth to try skipping the Shining Gold and go straight to Burnished...
What do you guys think on this subject, please?
And this is a WIP shot of my little corner of the world. The old desk is a mess right now - I plan to buy a large bottle rack from Miniaturicum to place in the far left corner of the desk (EDIT: That's the far corner nearest the beholder, actually), and then put little shelves just big enough for paint bottles all over the wall above the desk (been wanting such an arrangement ever since the Prof. showed his painting station in his old home!).
I need to find another way to mount the black lamp, and I also need to repo my 3rd light source that seems to have been pressed into service as nightlight for my oldest daughter ::)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/7/38_04_10_10_9_12_57_0.JPG)
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My personal technique for painting highlighted gold is to go with bronze first. Though the copper and gold looks nice as well.
It's a personal thing though, so go with what you like.
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Rather liked the 2nd from the left in your array of gold figures.
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Though the copper and gold looks nice as well.
Looks better in the pic than IRL, where the copper is a bit too red.
I think I'll try a dilluted wash of the old GW brown ink on the model with plain SG, and perhaps the same on one with plain BG.
And I really have to dig out that vampire I painted last year, with ancient gilded armour - that one turned out well, and I may be able to see what I used for basecoat/shade.
My Hobby Hour yesterday was spent on editing and uploading pics - which perhaps should become a regular feature for Mondays - either I should have played some games, or have painted some stuff, when a weekend has passed. :)
And some of the evening was used for taking the pics, and for fixing some magnet diode(?) lights to my bicycle for the upcoming dark season. Unfortunately I have suffered an injury (some tendon inflammation) to my groin, so I have to get on the bike instead of running - I would not want to have been wasting the last 2 months' efforts for getting into shape and loose some weight (and waist circumference) - I actually managed to loose 5 kilos until now, which was the goal I had set for Christmas ;)
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As everyone may have guessed, my efforts to get anything done since last post were thwarted by the pressures of real life.
The entire last week - both weekends included - we had taken vacation to get something done at the old place, and I really expected to get a little hobby time in the evenings, but we returned to our home so late in the evenings, that a quick meal and a short rest was all we could manage before crashing into our beds.
Next Sunday we'll return the keys of the old (rented) house, and then I'll need a couple of evenings tidying up/arranging the study/office/hobby room so as to make it less perilous to approach the painting desk, and generally speaking make the room less cluttered. Can't work amidst all that mess...
All in all I was too optimistic about working on this project alongside all the moving and redecorating, and I just hope that I can pick up the motivation to move forward, once we finish working on the old house (soon), and I get a little work done on the room.
It doesn't help, though, to read that Dewbakuk painted 30 plastic Mantic zombies in one day..... >:D
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Ahhhh, everybody hates real life! Its get in the way of everything lol Can't wait to see what you come up with once you return posting.
Cheers
Steve
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As everyone may have guessed, my efforts to get anything done since last post were thwarted by the pressures of real life.
You're not the only one, mate.
Took a 10 day holiday and it's been hell to pay trying to catch back up every since.... >:(
P.S. Dewbakuk obviously has way too much free time! ;)
Also looking forward to see progress on your army! :)
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Also looking forward to see progress on your army! :)
Me, too! lol
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This is a weirdly compelling topic. I'm exhausted just reading it.... :)
Doug
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Me, too! lol
Tell yourself to get a move on then!
lol
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This is a weirdly compelling topic. I'm exhausted just reading it.... :)
Doug
Yeah - but actually, this is what happened to many projects in the past that now lie unfinished (not exactly the moving getting in the way, but then other events that prevented me form working, while I had the motivation to do so).
I thought that I'd try 'blogging' this one here to see, if keeping a record of my progress/reasons for delays will keep me focussed through all the obstacles, so that I'll not just throw it into a box with some moth balls....
We'll see. Right now my motivation is very low, but it may come back when I get the office cleaned out a bit. There's no turn-off like having to edge one's way to get to the painting desk.
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Paint them in you head! o_o
That's what I do when I can't get to my brushes. :)
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House-moving issues, eh...? I feel your pain. I've moved twice in the past 6 years and I still haven't found stuff from the first move - and that's just stuff I remember having. Goodness knows what's disappeared that I've forgotten about.
Only this week I was thinking "where are those ratmen?" (eventually found with a bunch of orcs). Where is my hot-glue gun. Found, minus glue sticks. Where is my modelling putty? etcetera.
So, for your to take on this project at such an inauspicious time is challenging but reading about your travails is inexplicably fascinating.
I'll now sit back and see what happens.
Good luck.
Doug
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As it has been 8 years since my last move, I had completely forgotten the 'I cannot find this, and I cannot find that - AAARRRGH!!!!' feeling.
I know, everything is there, but I have no idea in which box/bag/drawer...
And not just my little toys, also stuff like warm gloves, pullovers, wool caps, and other stuff I need for the coming cold season...
Well, as stated, after Sunday I can start to slowly get our new home habitable (now, we use the bedrooms, one bathroom, the kitchen, and approximately 1/4 of the living room - the rest is completely cluttered with furniture and boxes....).
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Paint them in you head! o_o
That's what I do when I can't get to my brushes. :)
I've got thousands of those. The trouble is, the paint all seems to fall off when you open the gates to the mountain :(
I'm off for a week at the moment and I'd hoped to do lots of painting/terrain building. At the moment all I've done is lay flooring, tidy the garage and fix shelves etc. I was allowed monday afternoon and evening off, but that involved a trip to Birmingham to see the superb Alter Bridge in concert, so no gaming possible that night either ::)
I'm rebelling tonight and sticking some more jungle to CDs and damn the consequences lol
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"He as fearless I tell you, Gluteus strode down his path without a care of the consequences", it is poosible if you have raised your "wife faction" to very high level.... I get the Eye of Glare if its to low and I delve into my my painting... heh
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So, keys to the old house handed over, yesterday, without any swordplay involved.
I have to kill a mole in my own garden, though, it seems determined to turn my lawn into a mountainscape... >:(
I expect to start tidying up around my painting desk today, and maybe I'll get time for a little brushwork each evening from now on. If I can just work an hour each day for starters, I'll get somewhere instead of nowhere... :)
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OK, Sharepoint at work is down with a 500 Internal Server Error, so I have some time to kill...
Monday evening I collapsed completely after putting my eldest daughter to bed - I sat down to have a brief look at the news, and after ½ hour then realized that I was just zapping to keep myself awake. So I shambled up the stairs and crashed into my bed, sleeping after a few minutes. Reaction to all the stress/time pressure getting the rented house ready for turning over the keys, which we did Sunday afternoon.
Yesterday evening, though, the mrs. and I worked 1-1½ hour in the study/office/hobby room to sort out the room, and put things on shelves, and it is now possible to walk all the way around the table in the middle of the room. And the half-finished 3x3 gaming board sitting on my elevated gaming table/surface on top of it can now be finished real soon. And the painting table can now be accessed without any risks taken :D
I haven't gotten around to arranging my stuff properly, yet, and I still have som boxes under the table that must be emptied, but I really expect to be able to actually use the room starting one of the next days.
I'll try to get the board finished asap, as it will probably be the scene of my first gaming session in the new home.
And THEN, I'll put it aside, take down the table, and put up a lamp in the ceiling, before before setting up another, expandable, table.
Hopefully, I'll also get some painting done all the while... but I see the light now....
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Yesterday went down the drains, literally as well as hobbying-wise; I ended up almost like Monday, too tired to do anything.
Today we did some more tidying up in the room, and if I rearrange my paints a little bit, I can now work fairly comfortably at the painting desk.
Tomorrow evening we are going to a delayed Halloween party at my daughter's school, and Saturday afternoon/evening I'll be atthe 25th anniversary/reunion of my old 'senior high' class (I don't know what the English equivalent is called... 'grammar school'?), and during the weekend days, some exterior work has to be done on the house.
So, another week went by with no progress. If I do not get something painted next week, I'll put this on hold, and start working on something else to have something 'fresh' to motivate me. Lack of continuity is a real show-stopper for me....
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Hmmmmm...
I now begin to think it unlikely that I'll have time for the hobby at all for a very long time. I simply have too much to do to, both on a daily routine basis and getting settled in, to find a surplus of energy and motivation.
It may change if I get a few games played, but with the weekends spoken for by arranging furniture, painting walls, and emptying boxes, futilely trying to find space for everything, that's not likely to happen very soon, either.
Crap. Sometimes I just hate my life.
I consider this project put on stand-by for now; if I get some sparse time for painting, I need to use it on something that can be finished way faster, so I'll be able to get some results that may motivate me further, because this situation is just depressing.
I guess the KoW rules aren't sufficiently interesting to spur me on while facing the obstacles presented by moving house, after all.
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Sad to hear it man. I look forward to your return to this project!
n.
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Yeah, somewhen after Christmas, maybe... Just now I need to take my mind off all the frustrations of this last couple of months, and get some small projects done to get the feeling that I do some progress.
I really hoped that recording my progress, and lack of same, would keep me motivated, but it was perhaps just a very bad time to start an extensive painting project, after all...
I am home today, trying to recover from a very bad cold, and I'll use some of the afternoon on planning a few very small paintjobs consisting of just 1-3 minis a piece for Strange Aeons, Fear & Faith, and eventually Chaos in Carpathia (for which last I'll do a couple of half-size warbands (Treasure Hunters and Werewolves) to get a story-driven series of games going.
I shall record those in threads under their respective sections, as I do feel that 'blogging' a project helps focusing better, I just need to have time to actually follow up on a started endeavour.
And I just remembered, that i have an almost finished .45A project called 'Secrets of the Hidden Temple' that has been dormant fotr over a year due to lack of space for makin the last couple of terrain pieces (all the minis have been painted, IIRC).
So, I actually have a lot of stuff that I can get moving this fall/winter without a very big effort, and if I get all these things finished/played, I would not be surprised if it would give me back the motivation for at least doing the 2 planned/sterted High Elf units.
I actually dislike putting someting unfinished away, but life, the lack of a regular 'alternative' gaming society 'round here, and my fluttering mind, has caused me to do just that MANY times before.