Friends often ask me how can I get so much stuff done, and I usually give them a little speech about the benefits of exemplary self discipline and not owning a TV, but it has recently come to my attention I actually paint really fast. We've been exchanging emails about models painted in three hours and people hate the clock and approach results as a compromise, while I realize spending more than 3 hours on an infantry model, even to "showcase" standard is rare to me. Or I should say unnecessary.
Why I might be quite efficient deserves another entry. There are distinct reasons for it. Instead I want to tell you I now have a specific goal to "finish the army" and real reason to worry about getting side tracked.
The Golden Throne Grand Tournament, 2000pts of Warhammer 40K Northern California style is the first weekend of August, and I've got my ticket and plan in place.
Left to do is:
- build and paint 14 more Skitarii troops
- build and paint a Skitarii Attack craft (the small SM flyer)
- build an paint a legion drop pod
- paint the legion librarian (new arms since you last saw him)
- detail and paint the Display Board
That's a chunk of stuff by August. But should I pull it off, I would have well in excess of 3000pts of beautiful Legion models to play with and expand for years to come. It will also give me an army that should perform well on the battle field, provide I learn to play this edition first. Those of you who play and or follow the tournament scene are aware of a pretty sad state of "meta" or current trend in army building called "death-stars", where 95% of top armies are made of the most abusing single unit you can build that takes benefit of all the re-rolls available and more often that not, insane battle brother ally benefits.
So hopefully, I get to finish the force, learn to play (ie. at least 3 practise games) and enjoy the tournament: ie. do not get totally smashed, shredded, pinned and instant-deathed by some barely painted death-star.
The reward, or possibly the plan buster, is of course, the Good and final installment in my Inquisitor trilogy. Something I've been working on for a good few months, on an off, in my head, and bits box, slowly putting stuff together and tweaking it.
There's a good deal of self created pressure. This needs to be as good and better than the first two, really different and an insane ode to Games Workshop's massive leaps in plastic material quantity and quality since starting the original "Shaddes offe Greye" group six or seven years ago. Pretty sure I have the ingredients, but with yet another "big painting idea" on how to do it things can also go very wrong :)
Migs
Well, sounds like a plan.
ReplyDeleteIf the tournaments in the US are anything like they are in Europe, you are in for a tough ride, though. I'd say if you have no tournament experience to speak of, you'll probably get trashed 60-80% of your games. The rest could then be fellow hobbyists who also are in for the fun and don't mind too much about winning.
Anyway, as long as you don't cultivate too high hopes about actually winning a lot of games, you can have a very good time at a tournament. And you might always win Best Painted or some similar price, too ;)
Hi Jimmy,
DeleteI have several top 10 tournament finishes, including 7th overall from UK Grant Tournament finals (that had two heats of 120 player followed by a finale of 120 players). Problem is that was 3rd and 4th edition. :) I know I have a very tactical mind capable of playing the game at a high level, but also know it take a a lot of practice to get a good routine, to employ the smart little tricks about placing models and other small things to excel at a given edition. If I get half a dozen practice games I'll be ok. Not top 10 form (or list) ok, but not getting stomped either.
Ah, alright, sorry. Sounded a bit different in your post ;)
DeleteNo problem - I think it's pretty rare to be so obsessed with models and to have any gaming background ;)
DeleteJuggling life and hobby can be quite different. Over the past year I have had a major juggling act myself. But you always turn out great work, discipline is strong with you.
ReplyDeleteAs I am currently building a count as storm talon mechanicus flyer it will be interesting to see direction yours goes in.
Thanks. My Storm Talon will be pretty kosher, with tweaks to weapons and their location, a new pilot and very different paint job. Nothing overly exciting.
DeleteThat is whats so great about your converting work, if when simple, the minor tweaks you make can change the entire model coupled with your grim dark painting style.
DeleteI am going the other way with my conversion. I am going for some sort of esoteric fly machine and using standard Talon weapons. I couldn't think of any other way to having a 'command barge' type thing in my army that doesn't include Necrons, so a converted count as talon would have to do. Combine the thrusters, weapons and some misc techy parts with a OOP Skull from Temple of Skulls and you've got a giant servitor manned servo skull. I am thinking of making it open topped, to have the pilot shown and essentially just make a 'character' out of the model.
I figured a while ago that you must be quite fast. It takes half an hour for me to simply set up everything!
ReplyDeleteQuite surprised that "Shaddes offe grey" was such a long time ago, that's almost the same age as my marine army, and I'm at 2000pts. I have to commend you for the relatively easy colour choices and and fast but comprehensive conversions. Keeping the themes easy but strong makes the hobby faster and more fun. And that makes all the difference during seven years. I've definitely learned from watching this, and will take much heed for my next project, even if it does appear slightly mad at this point.
Well, fast may not mean easy :) Like the marines for example, that color scheme is extremely hard to pull off but fast like watercolor compared to some other styles that may better map to say oil paintings. I also have so many themes within the themes that there really hasn't been any serious repetition yet...
DeleteThat's why I said relatively easy. Trying to pull of an army with a shade of lime with particularly poor coverage is just outright stupid. :D Themes within a theme seems like a smart way to avoid repetition.
DeleteAlthough there's always something cool about big numbers and a repetitive style. I guess the trick is to find the balance between "circus" and "clones". Making an army that's fun to paint, interesting to look at, but cohesive enough to impress.
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