Bravery Test or Sanity Deprivation?

[FifteensAway]

Now, was this a Bravery Test or a Sanity Deprivation Action?:

In the last couple of days I 'unpainted' 150 figures that I had painted!  Which may sound odd but I like to think there is a worthy reason.  I am painting a very large east Africa plains animals setup and already had elephants, wildebeest, zebras, and giraffes 'done'.  But then I decided to expand those herds, some significantly.  And I'd already done this with the giraffes and ended up with two groups that didn't match as well as I'd like - and worried the additional adds would give a third variant.  So, I pondered whether to repaint or not.  And then the box of painted giraffes took a tumble and some broke off of their bases and I took this as a sign that I did need to repaint for better final results.  So, 36 each giraffes and wildebeest and 39 each elephants and zebras got "unpainted".  And then I primed the full herds for each animal: 150 wildebeest, 120 zebra, 60, elephants, and 60 giraffe - plus dead and live animal trade animals for each specie.

There were supposed to be even more wildebeests but an order I placed with Stone Mountain seems to have gone off into limbo - I know the owner is suffering from a rotator cuff issue and isn't a spring chicken but he isn't replying to my emails either.  Still hoping but if not received by end of month I am going to have to ask for a refund - some other items in the order.

And a 'failed' purchase of Museum Miniature onagers which I hoped to add to my zebra herd but were just too little are going to be painted as quagga, what at the time (my period, late 1800's or so) were thought to be a distinct species but are now considered a sub-species of zebras.  96 of those, again with additional dead and live animal trade.  I am going to paint these very much on the brown end of the quagga spectrum so they are distinctly different from my zebra herd.  As to using them for younger zebra, I covered that with Pendraken's 10 mm zebras which nicely come in three poses.  The MM onagers are also in multiple poses.

Many more species in the mix and almost all primed and, hopefully sooner than later, some new offerings of suitable animals from a manufacturer.  And in 15 mm, of course, which is slightly more sane than doing this in larger scales.

So, was it a bravery test or a sanity deprivation?  I tend to lean on it was a mix of both.

The sanity of the overall project is a different matter altogether!   

[Atheling]

We'll have to start calling you "Old Blood and Guts" 

A very serious business un-painting mini's! 

[Tactalvanic]

Its certainly to save your sanity later for sure.

As later, if you hadn't - you would notice the mis-matched colouration and have gone absolutely scattier than you already did un-painting.

hopefully the extras, where-ever they are eventually going to turn up from, do so prior to you finishing the full repaint, as otherwise you might have to do it again to be sure they all match 

But wow, what a bloody project!

[fred]

Thats a lot of wild life! You are doing much better than me, my Pendraken African animals got a base coat but haven’t progress any further - though I did make much better progress on European animals.

As to stripping the paint off the originals - you’d not catch me doing that - I’d rather just update the paint job, using the original as an undercoat, much quicker.

[syrinx0]

Anything that took a tumble was definitely asking to be repainted.  That said, I avoid repainting at almost all cost.  Too many figures and projects unpainted as it is.

[FifteensAway]

Just an update that the missing figures did finally show up and are now properly primed and included so my "wildybeesties" will number 180, plus dead and live animal trade for a total of 194 critters for that one species.  I did have to pop off ten figures to ensure that no base had three of the same sculpt on it.  I am doing my best to have variety in poses for each species wherever possible, not all but most.  My ibex will be mono-pose since they are sourced from Museum Miniatures domestic goats; just hoping the right paint job will cover it. 

I have finished painting  - but not yet textured the bases for - the elephants and giraffes, 66 total and 64 total respectively.  Also, already painted are the African Cape buffalo (96 + 4 dead and 2 ridden!), 24 + 2 vervet monkeys, and 6 okapi; and a dozen ostrich with another two dozen to paint (not planning to unpaint those!).  Those ridden buffalo and the two extra vervets are for character bases (fiction and movie inspired).

Still waiting to hear about the additional species - though assured they are in the pipeline including something of a surprise (carnivores).

Fun passion project.