Aside from personal stuff going on over the last month+, one of the other big reasons I haven’t posted for awhile was needing to go out into the shed, clean up the gaming table, and set up this lot of stuff for the photos.

Despite the fact that it was supposed to be Jewel of July, I spent much of the first half of the month getting models from The Tray and D&D models done, as well as working on scenery pieces for Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge (as you can probably see!)

Unfortunately, the latter half of the month saw some Shit Go Down which has rolled into August, and so much of my painting and blogging mojo got trashed, so I did the only thing I could do for the Jewel of July challenge – I changed the rules and extended it into August as well. At least there are a few models in July’s set there that will easily qualify, but I did want to paint something cool especially for the challenge. I guess I’ve got a week left?

As noted with yesterday’s post, there are a couple of models in this round-up that didn’t get their moment in the sun in a post, but I’ll get that sorted soon enough. There is rather a lot there at least, and given how many bits of scatter terrain I got done over the month, it ended up being the most productive month ever – in terms of numbers. Though it’s pretty important to bear in mind that the vast majority of the number is made of bits of scatter terrain and many of the figures are pretty simple D&D models.

How many pieces in total, you ask? That would be 104 completed in July. So added to the 128 I got done from April-June it gives me a running total of 232 models.

We’ve gotta be real here though – this kind of number really showcases the inherent flaw in simple “model count” systems that we tend to use to track our progress. Those orange traffic cones in my pics there “count” as one model each and so have the same “value” as a tank or an Imperial Knight, which in a lot of ways, is, you know, bullshit.

On the other hand, it’s not a competition, and none of the challenges I’ve ever run or have participated in have been presented as competitions. It’s entirely about motivation and community. Motivation for the self and for individuals, and the support that we give one another as a little online community of model painting geeks (and book reviewers and artists). So, you know, getting those 25 little orange cones that have been sitting there that I really didn’t want to paint got done mostly because of the motivation of Dave Stone’s challenge and also partly because it lets me notch up 25 more models done for the month/year/etc. Motivation!

Anyway, on we soldier and see you tomorrow. I’m still trying to catch up on all of the many, many blog posts the many of you have been posting. In this situation it means a lot more likes than comments, and also that posts will be missed. But c’est la vie!