Where does the time go?
Oof. It's May. The last time I posted was February. Where does the time go to? The last couple of months seem to have flown by. I'm mostly embedded in my new job and I have to admit that it has been tricky trying to find a balance between the three days a week that I get paid for and the two days that I spend working on the final bits of this research project that still need ironing out, which I don't get paid for (more fool me, eh?). Time for painting has been a bit sparse, but I have got some projects finished off over these last two months.
The first is the 10mm armies, which have been polished off, flocked and based, and have just received a good varnishing now that the weather has come full circle to brilliant sunshine and heat. Which is good in terms of not frosting up these little guys. I also got some scenery put together for them too, so I'm pretty much ready to get it all to the table for a game of Midgard. Just need to rustle up an opponent now!
I've also been considering starting a Five Leagues from the Borderlands campaign, and have put the groundwork into fleshing out the start of the campaign set in the Warhammer Fantasy world, right up to generating the first battle. So I've painted up the majority of the figures I'll need for that. As yet, I haven't actually found the time to sit down and play it, but at least the minis look nice!
After an inspirational trip to London to see their Samurai exhibit, I also finished off these Ashigaru for Test of Honour, by Grey for Now Games. They are lovely miniatures and were a pleasure to paint, despite some reservations half way through the process. I knew I wanted to have orange feature in the scheme, but it's not a colour I usually use (like yellow, it can be fiddly). I also struggle with paint schemes at the best of times, so picking out some complimentary colours was difficult and initially I shied away from adding in any blue. However, after a mix of oranges, reds and browns, they were looking a little bland an monotonous. So I chanced picking out the braiding in light blue and I am really happy with how it turned out. They're some of the best models I've painted so far this year.
I've a few more samurai themed bits to get started on and I'm keen to stick with this for the foreseeable future. And I've some scenery pieces I originally picked up for Bushido that I'd like to finish off, so I can see them being moved up the priority list.
The last thing I've polished off is this little guy - a Living Icon from Fenris Games. A very simple paint job, really, consisting of mainly drybrushing and washes to get the stone look, but it is the eyes that really bring it to life, so to speak. I had great fun painting it and it was a nice change of pace to do something fairly quick and easy to knock out, but that still had great results.
The climb continues...