Paint Table Finale - December

2020 Painting Challenge

276/52 -> ???/52

Well fam, this is it. The last slice of pizza, the bottom of the ninth, the end of the biscuit. 2020 was a strangely horrible year, and its ramifications wont go away once we trash that calendar, but we can at least have the small comfort of a new year and semi-spiritual accoutrements. I'm closing the chapter on what has been the most productive paint year of my hobby career in the hopes that by the end I've hit my goals and had some fun doing them. I write this note in the past not knowing how close I'll get, so I've got my fingers crossed and I hope to Glob its a number that begins with 3.

See you on the other side.

Pair of Snipers - I wanted to represent another faction in my Never Going Home setting, and so I found a pair of female Russian Snipers from Bad Squido Minis to do the trick. Mechanically, I really appreciate the spotter pose one of them has assumed, since I could rig up an overwatch or markerlight rule to make that the gimmick of the force. 

+2

Eldar Heavy Weapons Crew, Warlock, and War Walker - A few months I got bit by the oldhammer bug, and decided I wanted to paint more figures that predate the era of Warhammer I experienced in my youth. Because of the White Dwarf Painting Group and Jaycee's Red Nebular projects, I gravitated towards Eldar for the first time in my life, particularly these older metal models since they met the prompt requirements and were the inspiration behind my friend's further sculptures. So I placed my orders, studied up, tidied the minis and did a base coat... and then forgot about my pile of Rogue Trader goodness for a month or five.

However, as its the end of the year I'm interested in tying my projects up with a tidy bow, so that in 2021 I might make new messes and enjoy completed things. With renewed gusto, I finished up the Oldhammer War Walker and 4 crew for the Eldar heavy weapons, and promptly plopped them on my shelf. My vision for this little team is a cluster of guerilla repairmen keeping a War Walker in working condition as they fix up an outpost somewhere on the edge of the cosmos. I don't anticipate this faction going beyond a member or three more, but I've said that before and regretted it.

I also found this Warlock I'd forgotten about and made short work of him over a weekly vidcall with my family. The tech babes need an escort, so what would be more perfect than a boi with a dummy thicc sword? I think in the future if I were ever to do a Dark Angels successor chapter, I'd probably do their cloth much the same as I have here; Payne's Grey base with Cerulean Blue and Titanium Nickel Yellow to build up the highlights. 

+6

Wodewives - I decided to round out that unit of Wodewose from 6 to 10 so I could run them as counts-as Chaos Warriors for my Blightking army. These four minis are sourced from Bad Squiddo and Heresy Miniatures, and blend really well together. They've all been given light conversion work (this is the way) and painted up with the Zorn palette to keep consistency with the rest of the unit. Very pleased with how grim and gritty they've gotten, and super psyched to see them take to the tabletop (eventually.)

+4

Putrid Blightkings and Lord of Blights - Back in October of 2019 I began my first Age of Sigmar army under the guise of a warband for The Ashen Stair campaign. By January all of these models were converted, but I hit a wall, or discovered Turnip28, or whatever happened happened and I derailed really hard. Since I wanted to close out the year symbolically and also have another finished army, I put the Grey Court to the head of the queue and polished them off the week before Christmas. These were done with the same limited palette as above, but with Cerulean Blue and Titanium Nickel Yellow to really develop that sickly green that denotes their subtle devotion to Nurgle. With these painted up, the army is now kindasorta finished.

Clocking in at 840 points, I could still stand to add a wizard or something to the mix. As it stands, I'm rocking a Lord of Blights, two units of Putrid Blightkings, a unit of Chaos Warriors and an Aleguzzler Gargant. How would you polish off this list?

+11

And then a plot twist happened.

So for those of you who've been following along, you might know that I passed actual 300 maybe a month or so ago. The prompt that began all of this had a goal of 52, one mini a week, that you had to do for yourself and have at the end of the year. Having blown past that initial challenge, I considered that maybe I'm no longer beholden to its rules, and my gunning for 300 might be a bit moot if I'm just going though the motions for a high score. A fair number of the minis I painted were me trying to clear a developing lead pile, more than working towards finishing models I was excited to paint and play with. In this time of reflection (12/24) and with resolutions coming up, I'm going to take a little time to reexamine my relationship with the hobby so that next year I can make more meaningful and thoughtful creations for your eyes and mine.

Does that mean I've failed to hit my goal? And that failure is ok?

Yeah, kinda. 

I might paint a mini I want before the year is over, and that'll be the 300th mini of the year, but that'll be something I'll do when I feel like it. I think a lot of people treat failure like its the end of the world, but maybe it's healthier for us to look at losses as calibrations. You set up to do the job right, do it, and if you miss the mark, figure out why and then adjust for next time.

299/52

Well, almost...

(I'm not a hypocrite, I promise)

,

Recently I did a bitz exchange with my homie Fudcrup and gave him a bunch of my old sketch sculpts, but I saved this stack of gnomes and decided to finish it up into an actual based mini. Piggybacked Gnomes with Blunderbuss! I have a bunch of drawings leftover from my first gnome phase, (which if memory serves coincided with my first mushroom phase,) and this is one of the translated concepts. I might revisit the style and stew someday down the line but for now I'm just glad these friends wont be sleeping in the bits bin anymore.

+1

300/52

So that's that. Rack 'em up and let's do it again!

Not really. I do have BIG things in the works, but I'll catch you up next time. 

Have a safe and happy new year folks!