Welcome back to the Tiny Plastic People hobby roundup, presenting what our contributors have been working on for the past month or so. So how was everybody’s April?
Lockdown has been slowly easing here in the UK – I was able to go to a Games Workshop for the first time in months (they didn’t have what I wanted ? ), and I’ve seen that some people in our community have been lucky enough to be able to play games. Though they did have to do it outside, in the snow in one case, so maybe not so lucky?
Tom F (LeSwordfish)
For my own hobby month, having picked out and dipped my toes into some Imperial Fists over the previous month, I’ve devoted the time since then to painting a whole mess of them – A dreadnought, tactical squad (and a half), and a converted Master of Siege. It’s been a comfortable rut to settle into, cranking out little yellow men, and I’ve managed the most important part of any new project, which is “working out how many models you can do in a batch without getting fed up” – this time it seems to be about eight.
I’ve got another half-squad on the painting table right now, and a pair of special weapon squads. Friend of the site Gamix has laid down a 30 in 30 challenge, for thirty models in the thirty days of April – i’m just about keeping on track for that, and might take a break from painting power armour later to focus on some of my Lord Of The Rings models and polish the 30 days off.
Pete (Fiyenyaa)
March was for me a month of mostly random weirdos. And the same held true on the painting table!
Getting some hobby stragglers sorted out was my watchword, and it was nice to paint some bits and bobs that were a bit less usual. These Nightmare Hulks from the Rogue Trader expansion for Kill Team were a real highlight – I don’t know if it’ll ever actually use them in a game (perhaps as incorrectly-base-sized Chaos Spawn?) but they’re really unusual models that I had a blast with.
These two lads from Kill Team I also finished off, meaning the whole set of the Imperial side is finished with now. I think their fate is probably to be used as some kind of miscellaneous upper crust types in a Necromunda campaign some distant day.
With the cultist firebrand chap done, I have fully finished every single Blackstone Fortress miniature I own – which is just the main game and the one big expansion – but I am pretty pleased to have that weight off my shoulders. Also, painting fire is really difficult when it’s in such an odd shape, I had to re-do this once and I still don’t think I nailed it. More smaller, Sisters-style, braziers for fire please!
Rich (Cronch)
It’s been a bit of a quiet one for me since the last roundup – I seem to find myself pulling in lots of different directions, unable to settle in and push on any one project. GW’s blistering announcement schedule recently has left me reeling from the choices for hobby budget and new army projects, and I’ve found this has had a knock-on effect on my painting motivation. With Cursed City arriving though, I’m sure I’ll have plenty to talk about next month!
In the meantime, I have made good progress on the elf commission that I’m working on, finishing off most of the troops and leaving myself with some big beasts to paint. Here’s a unit of Swordmasters of Hoeth, ready for their new owner to command.
I did finally manage to drag myself across the line and finish my Adeptus Titanicus shame pile, completing the final Warhound I had left along with the pictured Warbringer Nemesis titan. These were a fun change for me, as I decided to experiment with oils for pinwashing and shading, as well as some sheets of checkerboard transfers. I enjoyed the change of pace, and overall they still fit nicely into the rest of my Legio Ignatum force. The Titanicus tab on the shame spreadsheet won’t stay green for long though – the impending arrival of the Precept Maniple boxed set and the Warmaster titan means that I may well have more to paint in the not-too-distant future!
Tom G (Respectable Geek)
Is speed painting undead becoming my thing? I think speed painting undead is becoming my thing.
After the success of my first Lavacron (see January’s roundup) I’ve painted a whole squad of them. I’m really quite pleased with the lava effect I’ve ended up with for the amount of time spent: these models took just 18 minutes on average, so when I get round to the rest of the force I should be able to have a whole army going relatively quickly.
Also painted recently: Blood Angels Terminators, featuring one of GW’s greatest innovations in my more than 20 years in the hobby: sculpted banners. It’s so nice to be able to get a decent result without spending hours freehanding, or fiddling with paper banners that never quite work right!
These terminators were finished to accompany the Space Hulk set I painted towards the end of last year, and with the objective markers also done I now have that boxed game fully complete, which is pleasing!
I also finally got to play my first game of 9th edition 40k in a friend’s garden. We got snowed on. Britain.
Alistair C
March has brought a completely unexpected new painting obsession: Tau. Despite never having played 40k and not wanting to start, I started painting some ancient Fire Warriors I had and found it the most fun I’ve had in ages.
A lot of my enjoyment is probably coming out of trying new techniques I’ve been thinking about for a while. Better colour choices, exercising my airbrush skills, and panel lining with enamel liners. It’s keeping me invested and excited to go back to the brushes every day.
AxolotlQuestions
This was the month I got distracted by starting an Oathmark army.
I managed to score some cheap Gripping Beast Viking Hirdsmen from eBay, so I painted up a quick 10 of them to form a unit of spearmen.
Then I decided to kitbash up a unit of goblin infantry, mainly using Northstar’s goblins, but adding bits from GW’s Lord of the Rings range and Mantic’s old goblin kit, as well as some spares from the viking kit.
But I did manage to put the final touches to my 4th Frostgrave warband. Hopefully with lockdown ending soon, I might even be able to play a game…
James R (James Alone)
A month! A productive month! Not that you should ever really worry about words like productivity when applying it to hobby because that leads to Bad Mind Feels, but anyway..
Firstly, I painted a resin bust! I’ve never attempted a larger than 28mm model before, but I couldn’t resist a Weirding Way Navigator.
The large face was clearly the focal point, so it was fun to try and bring some painterly brush strokes in with the play of light. Great fun.
I also completed my Dankhold Troggboss kitbash from last month! Again, another excuse to play with colours, blends and just being a bit messy. I’d love to say it was a joy, but the nature of kitbashing is you do often make things like ‘painting’ hard for yourself…
Not even the last thing… But Trogg needed some small friends. I’d not really thought much about my Gloomspite scheme, so I painted a quick test grot, which then spiralled into a whole box. I sure hope I can handle another… 40 of the little gobbos..
Finally, after writing a follow up to our Getting Started With The Black Library article (coming soon!) I gave Watchers of the Throne another listen and remembered ‘Hey, I love Sisters of Silence’. So, out of the shame pile and onto my desk came another 15 Sisters. It was to be my Easter weekend treat, but took a bit longer as batch painting Sisters is a lot harder than, say, grots.
Drew
Recently I’ve been getting into some more involved conversions and sculpting. It’s been an interesting challenge to study the GW style and then try to develop it with my own ideas. I have found it very freeing, though currently I mostly seem to be focusing on silly hats:
James O
After the long slog of getting through my Noise Marines last month, I’ve decided to just paint a few characters as my next projects. Minimal repetitive work, and a great opportunity to try out different things during assembly and painting – they’re individual models, so can be less coherent than other units in the army without looking out of place.
I managed to speedily (by my standards) push out a Master of Executions in just over a week. I really like this model and what it does on the tabletop, even if it isn’t super competitive. If you’re a character and this guy is within six inches of you at any point in the game, you’re probably about to have a bad day.
I had the idea that since he already has trophies adorning his armour (and just being carried in one hand for some reason) I would take that idea as far as I could. I had a go at painting his skirt thing as scraps of seized imperial banners, and tried painting a really rusty blade on his axe (something that wouldn’t normally be seen in an Emperor’s Children warband). I figure that since he’s so keen on hanging on to banners, bones and severed heads, he probably likes showing off exactly how much use he’s had out of his axe.
