Ace of Paints – Back on Track.
Painting is, or at least was, one of the main reasons I’ve stayed playing miniatures games for so long, despite demand from a variety of sources on my time like a kid, a wife, video games, friends, and work. But, over the last three years my painting output has almost completely dried up, reaching drought territory and not recovering. I’m aiming, hopefully, to remedy that.
Painting for me has always been a cathardic exercise. It slows me down, focuses me, keeps my breathing steady and my concentration on a specific, repetitive task for long points in time. This really helps to unwind and relax me, much like running. I miss that type of mental exercise.
I believe that a few factors aligned all at once to reduce both my ability and drive to paint regularly. First, and the one that is the easiest to pin it on, is the number of excellent games that came out over the last couple years. I don’t tend to reach for quick, easy games, and once I start a game I really have to finish it. Since that announcement in 2015 I’ve played just a massive quantity of games to completion, ones that often take dozens of hours to complete: Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XV, Destiny, Destiny 2, Dark Souls 3, Thea the Awakening, finished Valkyria Chronicles, Xcom 2; those are the ones I can come up with off the top of my head.
Added to that, I had a kid in late 2013 and bought a house. The kid part eats a lot of daytime time, and then at night I have a lot more things I want to accomplish every week – Including writing these blog posts, which take the time that I could normally be painting. Its fine, and a sacrifice I willingly make, but it really speaks to how far my painting has fallen off.
With that, I have just a few days to do any painting, and its between 8:30 and 11:30 from Friday to Monday. Most other times, like tonight, that I want to paint, it ends up getting eaten up by other works and trying to make sure that everything else is heading along a positive track so that when the weekend comes, I don’t have to worry about anything but painting. This seems to happen less and less.
The last thing, and probably the one that has driven me the furthest from painting overall, is that what I want to paint is not what I desire to paint. Long, long ago (2 years, at this point!), I converted up some Bane Riders to be Bane Samurai. These models are coming along splendidly, and I am very proud of how they are both converted and painted. Well, painted to this point. The desire to paint all that black armor, realistically all that armor overall, is just crushing. Every time I think I want to paint I’m confronted by these models, the ones that are mostly done and just waiting for about an hour each. I know that I can and should take care of these models before I move on to others, but I just don’t have the will right now, and haven’t for months and months.
Instead, I want to paint a bunch of cool solos, warcasters and giants. I’m not letting myself, though. I refuse to have these samurai half painted, staring at me from the foam waiting for me to finish them. I have to buckle down and finish them, and I would like to paint the rest of my cryx army, too, while I am at it, and all 30 some giants I own, though a few are painted. What I think I am going to do is try and put down here my goals, my plans and see what I can do to stick to them and make it work. I’ve a lot of models to paint, and not a whole lot of time to do it. Additionally, I’ve got a bunch of models coming in the future with the Slaughter Fleet Releases.
My ambitious decision is going to be one Cryx release and two giants every month for the rest of the year.
Giants:
Cloud Giants Male (2)
Cloud Giants Female (2)
Fire Giant Jailer
Frost Giant King
Frost Giant Queen
Frost Giant Princess
Frost Giant Warriors (2)
Frost Giant Fighters (2)
Frost Giant Juvenile
Hill Giant
Hill Giant Leader
Hill Giant Touchups (3)
Storm Giant
Formian
Cryx
Scavenger (x2)
Shrike (x5)
Seether/Inflictor kit (x2)
Erebus
Sepulcher/Kraken
Barathrum
Deathjack (new)
Defilers
Crabjack Magnetized kit (2)
Kharybdis
Stalker (repaint)
Asphyxious 3
Aiakos 2
Deneghra 3
Skarre 3
Goreshade 1
Goreshade 3
Mortenebra and Deryliss (repaint)
Bane Riders (5)
Blackbanes (10) (repaint)
Carrion Thralls (20)
Satyxis Gunslingers
Skarlock Commander
Withershadow Combine (repaint)
Mobius
Darragh Wrathe
Hellslinger Phantom
Iron Lich Overseer
Soul Trappers (x6)
I clearly have a ton ahead of me, and this doesn’t include second units, jacks, ect. that aren’t already on this list.
March:
Bane Riders (5) , Storm Giant
April
New Deathjack, Frost Giant Princess, Fire Giant Jailer
May
Skarre 3, Cloud Giant Males
June
Seether/Inflictor kits, Cloud Giant Females
July
Asphyxious 3, Frost Giant Juvinile, Frost Giant Queen
August
Goreshade 1, Frost Giant Warriors
September
Goreshade 3, Fire Giant Fighters
October
Deneghra 3, Hill Giant, Hill Giant Leader
November
Mortenebra and Deryliss, Formian, Hill Giant Touchups (3)
December
Aiakos 2, Kharybdis, Frost Giant Jarl
January
Crabjack Kit, Erebus, Stalker
February
Barathrum, Defilers, Scavengers
If I can keep to that pace, I’ll probably be happy. Its a TON of painting, but I have a lot of makeup work to do. Additionally, if I do get extra time after completing some of these models, I’m going to add a bunch of extra models into the list, everything from Eilish, Rinny and Bradigan Pitt to a whole unit of Pirates and/or new units and solos. It should be a good time, and I have to press myself, but I am going to try to push to the end and hopefully document my way through with pictures, WIP’s and updates throughout the year.
Until next time!
As always – if your looking for more, I’m on Twitter, Instagram, and facebook, though they all aren’t equally active.
