Now with this being the third of this year’s Monthly round-ups, and given that it marks the first quarter of the year, I thought it might be a good time to look again at my year’s painting goals as listed during January:
1. Paint and finish some 2+1 marine forces/bump up existing small groups to this as a minimum.
Black Templars, Celestial Lions, Fallen Angels and Deathwatch, though I have another one on the go right now, and plans (oh dear, the plans) for several more. I’d also count finishing my 2006 Ork force in there.
Celestial Lions have gotten one squad as have the Flesh Tearers (“the one on the go” that I referred to). Both need a second squad and something like a Vehicle and/or a Dreadnought still. My 2006 Orks still need their Warboss and Grots to be completed. No more Fallen Angels painted yet, nor Deathwatch or Templars.
2. Reinforce the existing 40k armies. Specifically, both Minotaurs and Iron Warriors need some proper reinforcements.
I’ve naturally got specific plans for this and that, but nothing done, bar a Captain for the Minos. I need to get cracking a bit more on both of these. With some luck, I’ll get a squad or more finished here.
3. Sort out the stuff that’s painted but needs reorganisation to be playable in 8th edition. I’m very much thinking of my Imperial Guard here.
No movement here. Yet. I just need a bit of time and space to sort this out.
4. Finish more of the stuff I started but never finished. There’s a unit of Elves just waiting on three models to be done to be completed. There’s a unit of DUST Gorillas, a unit of Undead, some Mordor Uruks, Arbites, Savage Orcs… It’s bloody exhausting to think about how many started-but-abandoned units I still have.
February and March’s challenges have made some solid headway on a few of these. The DUST Gorillas are done, I’ve done some work on the Undead (2 units, it seems!), Mordor Uruks are done, Arbites are untouched, and I’ve done some work on the Savage Orcs. Seems like the Squad: March challenge got me working on some of the “neglected squads”. No bad thing, I guess – as it gets more of the started-but-not-complete stuff done and out of the queue and out of the way.
5. Complete all of my metal Dwarf Slayer models.
I’ve done a bit of work on a few that live on the desk, but nothing really significant, and nothing completed.
6. Complete all of my metal Viking models.
I managed to almost-complete the last of the Foundry Perry Ex-Citadel models I picked up a couple of years ago – though that was technically now, in April – pics next post. I’ve just primed Still tons more untouched, though.
7. Get a Nurgle Daemon army up and running.
This is essentially done. Well, up and running, at least. It’s pretty basic still, and there’s a helluva lot to go. I ideally want to finish my metal Nurgle Daemon models this year at the very least, and am making myself do so before I start on the plastics. I’ve got plans to add more to them in April, should things go well.
8. Get a Grey Knights army up and running.
Ain’t nothing happening here yet.
9. Get a second Chaos Legion force up and running.
Ain’t nothing happening here, either!
10. Skirmish forces & small miniature boardgame models updated/ready to play. Necromunda, Shadespire, Blood Bowl, Gorechosen, SAGA (aside from Vikings)
A few Necromunda models finished, and a few Vikings, another custom for Gorechosen, but not much more. I should do a little Shadespire project.
11. Two small opposed forces for Bolt Action.
Still ain’t nothing happening here yet.
12. Then there are unfinished terrain pieces, projects like the Graveyard and the Mighty Fortress, and scatter scenery, and…
And yet again, nothing here. I did spray that bunker-y building in a custom Necromunda Blue, but haven’t done anything since. A couple of scatter pieces just finished, but again, not much.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
The good thing is you have a list. The down side is that like many of us, myself included, you will most likely add more items to it than you remove!
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Well, the list is a guideline that I came up with at the start of the year. I think this is the first time I’ve taken the time to go back to it and remind myself before the end of the year rather than forgetting about it almost entirely for 10 months.
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I really like your models and how they are painted! I also like that you have kind of a plan regarding you forces as my only plan is currently to paint all of my models before I buy new ones. So please keep up the great work and post regular updates as I get a lot of inspiration from other miniature painters like you.
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Thanks very much, mate. I’d like to maybe have that same plan, but I know I’ll never stick to it so I just disregard that one now and try to get as much painted as I can. I try to post every second day unless I really have nothing to share, or I’m burned out (when it gets slower) or when I have too much to post (when it becomes daily).
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I have to ask, how often do you switch between minis? In the past when I was painting several Blood Bowl teams, I would sometimes get bored with one and move on to another…but typically it was after I finished all of one color on the team. Like say, all the orange shoulder pads I needed to do. I also wasn’t as organized back then, so when I came back to something I started…I unfortunately had to recall what color I had used. I think I had a big enough scare of not being able to remember one time….that I started documenting colors and also don’t seem to shift too much between painting too many models.
You seem to manage painting tons of models though. So I guess what I’m really wondering is how you manage to juggle such a monumental task?
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How often? Constantly. On my desk right now in the “working on right now” section I have 10 Space Marine Minotaurs Troops, a Space Marine Minotaurs Hero, a dozen Vikings, A different Space Marine Hero (chapter undecided), three beastmen, a Chronopia Barbarian Shaman-ish guy, 9 Nurgle Forgeworld critters, a trio of High Elves, and some Iron Warriors Chaos marines being built.
On the next floating tray, there’s a Minotaurs terminator squad, a Flesh Tearers hero, Ork Warboss, Dark Angels hero, and on and on it goes. I guess I’m trying to say that I usually work on multiple things at once, and so I’m forever inching forward on a dozen different things, and might work on one project (model, hero, squad, whatever) for 5 minutes or 0 minutes or 2 hours in a given day. Then every so often I’ll decide to really focus on this or that, and if/when I manage to actually do so, I get a model or a few models completed.
This is an old photo – at least a couple of years, but you can see here that I’m working on a bunch of different things at once. In that pic I can see I was working on the base for my Hydra, as it’s in the middle of the space I paint in, and the closest other things there are some Zombicide dogs and survivors, D&D giant snakes, a Gondor trebuchet, a unicorn, dwarven slayers, and an ogre. You can also see the Chaos Dwarf Boar Centaur War Machine there, which I only got finished at the start of February. So that’s the downside of working on so much at once.
It doesn’t keep me “focused” very well, but it does keep me from becoming bored at least.
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Thanks for answering! I noticed the ‘color wheels’ you use, which is interesting. Is that how you keep track of which paints you’re using for which minis? I know that you tend to use quite a variety, even different brands. Combine that with the number of models you’re working on, I’m not sure how you even keep track of that. Notes?
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Ah – those are actually end caps from CD/DVD spindles that I kept over the years to use as palettes. As for colours, I either remember with varying degrees of success or am able to work it out – or more recently I sometimes write painting notes on the blog.
As for paints – yeah, I use a wide variety – though I do tend to have “go-to” colours and combinations for specific effects or outcomes.
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There are always more models to paint, and your progress so far looks great. I must admit one of my motivations about dividing my pile of models into projects was to get some sense of completion other than “those ones are out of the way, not on to the next” which was not great motivation.
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I’m going for a mix this year – both with trying to have some focus on specific projects but also getting ones I’ve started however many months or years (mostly years) ago finished and out of the way. The latter is a bit random but I’m finding it actually quite satisfying to get them done and out of the way – and I guess it provides me with a lot of variety.
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Dude, I genuinely don’t know how you do it – huge kudos – every one of those minis looks amazing. Which was your favourite to paint?
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Thanks Luke! My favourite? Out of these… I’d say a 3-way toss-up between the Great Unclean One, Mamon the Transfigured (Nurgle Daemon Prince) and the Squad of Celestial Lions. The former two because they were a process of mucking about and changing things and lots of techniques on a pair of large models, and the Lions because they were just so quick and easy to paint from start to end that it seemed odd.
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You’ve gotta love it when a plan comes together though! Nurgle are always so much fun so I can see why you would enjoy painting them. They ooze personality (no pun intended) and I imagine they give you a fair amount of free reign to paint how you want, whilst also being guided by their grossness 🙂
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Yeah, they’re more forgiving than a lot of other factions, though most of them offer a lot of freedom when I think about it.
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Last weekend I’ve managed to paint five Dropzone vehicles with their transports, complete a couple models for Dark Age and finish one model for Hordes that was waiting for months the last touches, and I felt like I had accomplished some herculean task. You’re progressing very fast, keeping top quality paintjobs!
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Hey Gabbi – that’s a pretty bloody productive weekend – no doubt about it. I’m now paying the price for the last three months. I’ve barely got any interest in painting right now. I think trying to assemble a bunch of new stuff on a desk that’s still full of crap that needs to be painted was a mistake…
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Restecp !
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Great to have an ambitious plan, and you admirably aim high. Certainly your production level is amazing, surpassed by the quality of the work. You’re jacking 2018’s ass!
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I was for the first three, anyway. We’ll see how it continues, but right now the productivity is in a real slump.
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