Stop-start progress for me over the past month. I am nearly finished Demon Prince K’thul from Knightmare Miniatures. I love their miniatures, they have a very Oldhammer, nostalgic aesthetic.

I’m still trying to become a barely competent painter and a lot of my miniatures are getting the “minimum effective paintjob” treatment. K’thul here being no exception.

This involves a black undercoat, then a drybrush with both Bronzed Flesh and Snakebite Leather, two remnants from my childhood paintset. This gives minis a sort of rustic and earthy look, but it works well enough for me on the tabletop for now. I’ll finish him up with a wash, probably.

This is also the first time since my hobby comeback that I’ve attempted something “adventurous” on the base. This lad had a lot of room at his feet, so I used some little stones and a GW skeleton to liven things up a bit.

I’ve made little progress on Isaac Bonefingers skeleton guard (below). The skellies themselves have all been done with citadel contrast paint Skeleton Horde. I still need to do their armour and weapons.

Basing is all done, bar a final coat of goblin green, on everyone but Isaac himself. The unit leader and his Ghoul assistant got the minimum effective drybrush treatment, as mentioned above. I added some bits and pieces to his little barrow, too. I imagine them touring round the battlefield, picking up bits of his defeated warriors and putting them all back together.

This is a home-made movement tray (here’s how I made it). I like to have round-based minis to use in skirmish games like Open Combat, but also the ability to form them into a unit to use in Kings of War.

In the background, you’ll also see the hay barn and cart I got from Warbases, which I’ve now painted up.

On the subject of Warbases and movement trays, here are some of theirs I picked up recently. My home-made one is front right. The middle 3 I’ve painted with a green undercoat, prior to adding sand. The front middle one is in a more complete state, with the sand added, and a coat of green spray over it.

The ‘Infamy Mob’ tray on the left works really well for these snotlings/goblins because they’re not in a strict, organised formation. Whilst the archers in the middle line up well in the single row formation. No danger of a rogue arrow in the back there!

And finally, the “I wont buy any more stuff until I’ve painted what I’ve got” thing didn’t quite work (does it ever?). These 6mm-scale soldiers were a recent purchase from Irregular Miniatures. Most of them fit well on existing 28mm-scale bases that I had, though the archers in the middle needed custom bases built. I did this with Fimo Clay, which comes in handy now and then.

By mid-March I want to have these little guys finished, my skeleton guard finished, and all those movement trays totally finished too. Feel free to give me stick if/when I don’t achieve it 😉

PS – What are you up to yourself, hobby-wise? Give me a shout on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!

Progress has been fairly slow so far this month. But I’ve not actually bought any new miniatures this year, and am determined to work through a bulk of my to-do list first.

I’m trying to improve on the brush care front too. And I’m making an effort to paint from a wet pallet as much as possible.

I got myself a better light last month – an LED one. I was just painting with a normal lamp until recently and minis that looked okay in the evening, turned out to be utterly horrifying in the daylight. A familiar old story eh…

Anyway, I did some archers and knights from my Perry Miniatures boxes. The two-sword fighter and halfling are by Midlam Miniatures.

I visited the Warbases HQ this month and was lucky to come away with some freebies. Painting these up is on the to-do list, and I’ve even made a start on some of them.

In December, I bought my first Games Workshop miniatures in a couple of decades – a unit of skeletons. I’ve just started painting these. I’m creating a warband led by a plague doctor from Warmonger Miniatures. I’ve named him Isaac Bonefingers, and he’s backed up by his faithful servant, who’s an old GW ghoul.

Finally, this big guy is Demon Prince K’thul from Knightmare Miniatures. He’s primed black and ready for a drybrush (pretty much the extent of my talents at the moment). I did spend a wee bit of time on the base, using stuff from the skeleton kit to liven it up.

So that’s my workload at the moment. I’ve also had my head turned by these vikings from Victrix and I think they might be my next purchase. Still showing iron resolve and not splashing out though. Not that I’ve any money to spend anyway… been hit with a few “life” bills this month!

That’s all for now. What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments below!

If you’re like me, you’ll probably have a hobby to-do list. A list that always seems to get longer, rather than shorter.

There’s a growing pile of unpainted miniatures on your shelf. There’s new stuff you want to buy. There’s other games you want to play.

It’s easy to fall into the “it’ll all be great, just as soon as I…” mindset. But this is like chasing the metaphorical pot at the end of the rainbow.

Imagine you somehow lived forever. Had owned and painted every single miniature. Had played every game there was to play. What then?

Without sounding all touchy-feely, we often overlook what we already have, in place of looking at what should come next.

Pleasure Vs Contentment

Pleasure and contentment could initially be mistaken for being two words for the same thing.

The hobby can offer you both. But far more folks will pursue pleasure, which is temporary, as opposed to enjoying a sense of contentment, which can be permanent.

To-do lists, to-buy lists, challenges, and goal setting is all part of the fun. But if you don’t enjoy the process, then you’re missing out on a lot of what the hobby has to offer.

To be able to relax into the act of concentrating on the 2-3 minis on your painting desk. That can have tremendous value for you. Sure, there might be 250 more waiting to be painted, and another 400 that you’re planning to buy, but try simply bringing your attention back to what’s there in front of you.

When you manage to get a game in, do you look at the table and think “once I just get that extra unit bought and painted, this will be great”, or, “If I can only get those terrain pieces finished, THEN, this’ll be good fun”?

Or do you give what’s in front of you your full attention, appreciate the opportunity to play, and have an enjoyable time?

Either way, you’re still physically doing the exact same thing. But it’s a small mindset shift that can help you get the absolute most from your experience.

Sustainable Gaming

I thoroughly enjoyed the recent conversations on sustainable gaming on the Paint All The Minis Paint Ramble Podcast.

I think it’s healthy for people to become more aware of why they’re doing what they do. What do they get out of it? This act of “looking inwards” can make you much more conscious of what you’re actually doing.

Before buying that next thing, you’re able to ask yourself “do I really need this right now?”. Will spending money adding to your lead or plastic mountain increase your long term contentedness? Sure, you’ll experience the short term pleasure of getting a new thing. But at what cost?

Few people are able to feel positive about having a huge amount of stuff to paint. It can cause disillusionment, and even anxiety in some. Why turn what should be a meditative and cathartic pastime into a chore or a slog?

Let’s face it, there’s always something to be done next. There always will be. The sooner you can make peace with that, the more value you’ll take from your overall hobby experience!

A New Year is an opportunity to move forward. But I think it’s also important to look back at what you’ve achieved in the last one.

I’ve only just recently returned to the hobby. These are my tentative first steps. I managed to work on a few different projects from around September to December 2019.

I’m still trying to find my feet with the building and painting. I’ve noticed that, as a kid, I didn’t really have any fear of just splashing paint on and experimenting. Getting back to the painting desk all these years later, I’ve probably been guilty of being over cautious. That’s something I need to work on in the New Year for sure.

Anyway, I’ve been focused on building forces for 2 games I’ve gotten really into since my return – Open Combat, and Kings of War.

Both these games are in the medieval/fantasy genre, so I can pretty much use my minis in both of them too. I’d just need to stick the round base guys on square movement trays in KoW, and come up with some “counts as” stats for them.

I’m not interested in tournament or “serious” play, so I decided simply to use the KoW system to start building 2 generic armies, a “good guys” and a “bad guys”. As much as I love the KoW rules, as well as the general ethos of creators Mantic, I never really bought into their lore. I prefer to mix in my own worldbuilding endeavours with elements of the Warhammer Old World I grew up with.

Anyway, here’s the bits and pieces I’ve put together so far.

This warband of rabbits and hares are by Oathsworn Miniatures, created primarily for their game Burrows & Badgers.

This village militia are mainly made up of Midlam Miniatures, but their leader (I’ve named him Raving Rufus) is an old Citadel Miniatures Empire Flagellant.

This little warband are from Knightmare Miniatures‘ Pantheon of Chaos range. I love the aesthetic of their minis, very oldhammer-esque. I bought a good deal more but have had a lot of false starts with the paint jobs.

My greenskin ankle biters warband are predominantly Citadel snotlings from many moons ago. The standard bearer is from the Knightmare Miniatures‘ Green Skin Wars range. The little guy charming the snake came as a freebie with an order and I can’t for the life of me remember where!

The early core of my “bad guys” army. Lots of old Warhammer stuff here, Chaos Warriors, Plaguebearers, Chaos Spawn, a Champion of Nurgle, and a Beast of Nurgle. Using my greenskins here too. Note the square movement tray I built to house them in games of KoW.

For my “good guys” I bought a few boxes from Perry Miniatures. Lots of medieval French/English soldiers, ranging from mounted knights to men-at-arms and archers.

As you’ll see from the pics, I managed to get my hands on some incredible terrain too. This stuff adds a whole extra dimension to the gaming experience, and is a million miles better than anything I could hope to make myself.

And yes, my miniature painting is very much in the “rookie” stages. Most of the stuff I see posted online looks world class. It’s amazing what some folks can do with a paintbrush, but I figure they didn’t get that way overnight. 2020 is a new year and an opportunity to put more time and effort into learning, improving, and getting stuff done 🙂

Happy New Year everyone!