Getting back on the horse, erh, giant rat

I did it! After, what, about a month, I’ve actually painted something! Here it is: 

To be perfectly honest, I’d already done most of the hard work (i.e. the fur) before my involuntary time-out, so it was a relatively quick job from there. But I find that I get a boost in enthusiasm whenever I finish something, so I’ll still count it as a definite win.

The figure itself is going to stand in whenever I need a Night Runner or Assassin in AHQ, so it’s probably going to see play soon (I hope to play the next installment in my ongoing adventure this weekend or the one after that).

Painting-wise it’s very simple. I ran into the same problem everyone who has to paint large amounts of black does – i.e. that it’s very hard to highlight without making it appear grey. I’m not sure I managed it completely, but Skaven are supposed to look a little scruffy, so I guess it’s fine.

Croaker

Princely Points, part 2 – Answers?

I’m still not painting, though I can slowly feel myself getting a better hold on things. Why, just last evening I actually considered sitting down at the paint-station, instead of simply going to bed, which is a major improvement. Maybe this week…

In place of painting, my free time has mostly been spent on the internet, which led me to a pleasant discovery. If you recall, back when I wrote about starting a dwarf army, I mentioned that I’d had trouble figuring out the correct point cost for Prince Ulther’s Dragon Company, as I’d been unable to get hold of a high-resolution image of the box where it’s listed.

Well, I finally found a better photo – and that’s where things get weird.

You see, this is clearly 3^rd edition rules, whereas the original White Dwarf article is from the days of 2^nd Ed. That explains the apparent difference in points between my calculation and the box (I haven’t done the math using 3^rd Ed rules, but I’m prepared to believe it, since weapons and armor generally got more expensive IIRC).

It does make me wonder how the dragon company was originally packaged, since the box logically must be a repackaging. That’s one of the problems of not actually having been part of the hobby back then – I simply don’t know.

Croaker

From humble beginnings

I’m still being kept rather busy with the care and feeding of the tiny human being my wife and I brought back from the hospital last week (the feeding part mostly being done by the mother of cause), so the amount of painting I’ve been doing this last week is exactly… nil. It’s not like I don’t have any spare time, but there’s a lot of more important stuff that needs doing first (including catching up on some sleep).

However, I have managed to engage in at least one hobby-related activity; assembling my paint-rack, seen against the wall here:

It’s noteworthy that the assembly took me three days from start to finish, which should give you an impression of the amount of truly free time I have right now.

Earlier, I just kept whatever paints I couldn’t fit on the painting-station in a box, but the rack does make it a lot easier to get an overview of my growing selection.

It’s actually kind of funny to see just how far I’ve gotten from my very modest starting point just six months ago – both gear and technique-wise. The most groundbreaking (for me) revelation has got the be the wet-palette, closely followed by the idea of Blu-Tacking the minis on to something to hold on to while I paint them.

Croaker.

Intermission

So, this is going to be one of those "bloody real life is interfering with my hobby"-posts that seems to be a regular feature on the various Oldhammer blogs , though it's under happy circumstances.

My wife gave birth to a healthy daughter a few days ago, which is obviously a blessing, but also something that'll probably interfere somewhat with my painting schedule - until we get a handle on things.

Normal service will be resumed shortly

Croaker