After a few weeks gap I’ve managed to get a couple more of the Gnomes finished towards my Blood Bowl Gnome team.
I’m still a bit undecided about my theme/concept for these. I think it’s the contrast paints I used to base them.
Ork Flesh and Snakebite Leather have proved to be a bit darker than I intended the end result to be.
I’m hoping my basing will brighten the overall look of the full team when it’s finished.
These take my completions to 16 this year.
I considered using a traditional gnome colour scheme (garden variety) or even a Smurf colour scheme but in the end I rejected both of those in favour of an experiment.
I’ve leaned into the woodland spirit aspect of the Gnomes with my paint scheme, going for a Green Man vibe. In the Blood Bowl setting the Gnomes are tricksters often playing practical jokes on those that travel through their realms. So I adopted a gnome-in-the-woodland-camouflage colourway.
It’s totally darker than I intended but I’m committed now. I’ve applied the same brown and green contrast paints on all the minis at the same time, before going in to start to finish each one.
I still like him. Plus… he’s completion number 14!
It’s been the best part of 7 months since my last entry here! My word that’s a long time without completions. Thinking about it I have finished another lizardman warrior over the course of the year but forgot to take a photo. Anyway…
Here is the completed (for now) Bright Crusaders human Blood Bowl team. I’ll add another Thrower at some point but these are the main bunch of players.
I’ve used the team uniform colours from (I think) the second edition of the game rather than the current blue and white the GW in-house team is painted in.
Overall I’m happy with these. The freehand is a bit wobbly but then I’m painting in fits and starts so not really getting sustained practice in.
Total completions for the year so far… 13!
I’ve got some work to do if I want to hit 52+ by year end.
The oversized ball always makes me smile when I look at Blood Bowl models but I can understand why the design choice was made. Similar to all things in fantasy and sci fi miniatures, exaggeration is needed to create a strong silhouette from two foot away on the tabletop.
So two completions so far this year.
My first completion of the year!! It’s in January too!! Woohoo!
I mentioned in my previous post that I started a human Blood Bowl team in December. This was a completely unintended distraction as I rediscovered them primed and ready to paint in a box.
I’ve decided to paint them in the original Bright Crusaders uniform. I’m quite pleased with how he’s turned out, even though my freehand numbers and shoulder symbol are very ropey.
It’s an old single piece plastic model from the third edition of the game in the mid 90s. Single piece models really are lovely to work with.
The second Blood Bowl model completed in December this time for my other brother’s Christmas present is Gretchen Wächter (I might have mangled the spelling on that).
Another of GWs expert resin kits and another fiddly thing to construct. A separate piece for the face!? Sheesh.
I lost my way a bit on the painting as I was struggling for time but I think it turned out okay in the end.
These recent two models bring my total for the year to 45. I’m not convinced I can hit 52 as I’d need to complete another 7 today.
6 inch and 3 inch measuring sticks (combined to make 9) for use in Age of Sigmar Spearhead games. I took the opportunity to test paint these with a marble effect as I plan on using it on the Spearhead terrain pieces I have primed and waiting.
Overall quite happy with the way they worked out. Not sure if they count as one of two completions though. Hmmm… I’m going for counts as two. That’s 43 completions for the year!
It’s taken a big chunk of stop-starting over the last three years but it’s finished.
I completed 13 models for the Tarantulos warband from Warcry Red Harvest for this army along the way too. But as is Games Workshop’s way, a new edition of Age of Sigmar during my time painting means have been rotated out of the latest edition of the game.
I don’t mind. I’ve got an army finished.
(The photo is a quick rush job but you can see what’s in it, I took it as a marker of completion rather than anything else).
This model has taken far too long, the reason? Avoidance. I simply could not bring myself to paint the black leather straps around his body. It’s a small thing but for some reason I hit a block purely because I didn’t want to do them.
But this week I’ve managed to push through the block and complete him. It’s a great model, I love the sculpt, although my build was a bit rushed so there’s a few gaps I only noticed when painting him. But they’re quite well hidden due to the way the model components are designed to fit together.
This completion takes this years tally of completions to 41.
I really like this model, it’s got loads of character. The painting took less time than I expected with me getting it finished in about three sessions.
This completion makes it 40 for the year!!
It’s the first finish of October and another step towards completion of my Age of Sigmar 1000pt force.
This one is the Aethervoid Pendulum, an Endless Spell that a wizard can conjure during a game. I bought this back in 2023 so it’s nice to have it finished.
This one takes my total completions for the year to 39!
I’m still not 100% sure about the way I’m painting the armour but I’m just going to run with it as it’s reasonably quick.
These two make it 38 finishes for the year so far.
He’d been sitting waiting for his base to be painted for absolutely ages and, seeing as he was next to my Arab miniatures in the Works in Progress box, I finally sorted his base out while doing my Naffatun.
That’s another finish for the year! Running total now at 34.
Anyway, moving on.
I did actually finish another Minas Tirith warrior in May but haven’t taken the photo yet. So that inclusion in the list of completions is pending.
I have a completion today though. It’s a Seraphon Saurus Warrior for Age of Sigmar, or rather the Spearhead variant of the game.
The model is one of the old plastic Warhammer lizardmen from one of the starter sets but I’ve based him up with a current base size to make him ‘legal’.
This one is a test for the sand/desert lizard scheme I’m going for. I’ll be doing some orange stripes from the spine on the bigger models, such as the Kroxigors and the Carnosaur. On the whole I’m reasonably happy with it.
It’s completion number 18 for the year!
When it came to putting the skin tone on the face it reminded me why I don’t like black primed minis. But given the mini is practically all black and silver there was no point in using a white prime.
Quite happy with the final result. It’s a bit messy but it was quite quick from start to finish so it should be relatively easy to move through the Minas Tirith force. Although I suspect it’ll feel a bit tedious after a short time.
This is posted at the quarter mark of the year and in the last three months I’ve completed 17 models. Not a bad start really considering I’ve been swinging wildly around periods/settings.
I started these waaaay back in January 2023. Along with regular men of Gondor warriors I’ve got 12 Minas Tirith rangers for the Battles in Middle Earth Strategy Gane by Games Workshop sitting in various states of work in progress. I decided I wanted to finish one to see how the scheme looked.
Got to say I’m quite happy with the result. The base colour is a nice earthy one too using Steel Legion Drab.
I recently finished my Slaves to Darkness Chaos Chariot. Aside from my attempts to wear away at the lead (& plastic) mountain I had the added incentive to get this finished as I’d committed to going to an evening Age of Sigmar Spearhead event at Warhammer World.
The Chaos Chariot was the only model I didn’t have ready for the event so it got bumped up the painting queue. But due to a combination of family life and work shifts I ran the painting very close to the wire completing it in the morning of the event. The build was generally quite enjoyable, I built and painted it in subassemblies however, due to running so close in time, I had to cut a few corners on the painting so the horses and a few details aren’t as ‘finished’ as I’d ideally have liked.
My main gripe was the reins, by all the gods of hobbying they were a challenge, it might have been my build skills but I struggled. After much swearing, huffing and general bad tempered moaning I resigned myself to having a gap that I couldn’t avoid. But in a flash of inspiration I cut a spiky bit from the haft of an unused axehead from the kit and shaped it to the gap, hurrah! Problem solved. If I hadn’t got so wound up with trying to match the kit instructions and simply trusted hobby experience I could have got to this solution a lot quicker. Something to try to remember.
I was gifted this model for my birthday earlier this year and I’ve actually got it completed within six months! That’s a big deal for me.
At the event, a casual affair with ‘Quests’ to complete along with playing the games, I had a win and a draw and completed about half of the quests. It was loads of fun to play in and using a painted force was a big ‘feel good’ moment for me. My opponents were lovely chaps, there were a lot of beautifully painted armies present and good natured story swapping and chat amongst players. A very enjoyable experience all round.
So that’s another completion for 2024 putting my total on 32!
