This year I’m re-joining Yaktribe’s “Finish Your Stuff Challenge”. It started this month, presumably giving all the contestants a breather from the end of 2020’s challenge, which I didn’t take part in – the last time I did was 2019 and my efforts, mostly documented in this project log, resulted in being placed 3rd in the honours list, which I was pretty chuffed with. This aligned pretty well with the end of a monumental clear out and reorganisation of the man cave, in which a considerable amount of stuff – mainly models I’ll likely never paint – was sold off or thrown out, or moved into the attic. This resulted in two things – a clear and very well organised hobby space, and me rediscovering quite a few semi-forgotten unfinished projects and unopened boxes of models. The perfect fodder for the FYSC.
As a warm up in February I painted an Eldar Farseer that had been in it’s blister for too long. I’ve painted more Eldar than I care to think about (this includes Warlocks and Farseers, of which this is perhaps the 10th or 11th in the collections) so painting them is almost like working on auto pilot. It’s a very safe and gentle reintroduction to the hobby.
In March I gathered a ragtag collection of 15 models to finish – 10 guardians and 5 assorted other projects – expecting to do about half of them. I started out with the dullest, most basic thing I could find – some Eldar Guardians that have been in a box for too long. Again, a continuation of the theory that painting something comfortable is the best way to get back in the groove. Saying that, I couldn’t bring myself to do all 10 so settled on 5 for now.
I turned my attention then to the other unfinished projects and completed a small handful of them in reasonably quick succession.
Top left is Gorfragg, the coach for my Orc Blood Bowl team. The second chap is intended to be an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator who accompanies my Ordo Xenos Inquisitor. He’s a nice subtle kitbash with magnetised weapons should I want to vary his equipment over the course of a campaign. I saw no reason to do anything different than the characteristic red robes. The flak armour plates on his legs are a different, more orangey tone of red for some variation.
The third is a lone Dire Avenger so he can go and join his squad mates. Last is an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper “test model”. I’ve had a squad of Kasrkin that I intend to use as Inquisitorial soldiers ready to paint for a couple of years. I modified these with small Inquisition symbols on their left shoulder pads but otherwise left these beautiful models untouched. After two aborted attempts at other colour schemes this month I resorted to a tried and tested scheme of dark red fatigues and black armour. I am finally happy with the outcome and can now see myself painting the rest of the squad in the coming months.
The biggest paint job of the month was finishing off this Squat miner in exo armour. I have a dedicated project log for the kitbash and build of this model: kitbashed Squat in Exo Armour.
