Time to assess my projects. I want to decide if I can take on anything new. Many of the people I play Monsterpocalypse with are long time Warmachine fans. Their enthusiasm for the game is infectious. Playing so much Monsterpocalypse helps me realize that I don’t have enough games with regular opponents.Heavy Gear is one, but I haven’t enjoyed playing it as much as I had hoped. I have too many games where I’m working in a vacuum. This is a danger of historical games.

I cannot blame historical games alone. I tend not to finish my projects. Even at a slow pace I could have easily finished a large Warhammer 40k army. It was my first miniature wargame. It is the model that all others have followed. I borrowed a friend’s copy of White Dwarf. My friend didn’t play. I think he’d “inherited” two issues from another friend who had moved away, just as I “inherited” them from him, and whoever has the issue I’m missing “inherited” it from me. No one I knew played. I have never had luck recruiting friends to play. Those I recruit are never as enthusiastic as I would like.

The Ottawa Miniatures Gamers club was an excellent change from this pattern. Here were people as enthusiastic towards miniatures gaming as I am. However, historical gamers are fractured. Everybody in a Warhammer 40k club plays the same game. OMG was more about collecting and painting the miniatures needed for a specific scenario and then running it at the club. The only game that was wildly played was DBA, a game I soon found I disliked intensely. Not only did I dislike the mechanics, the attitude behind the game — how few miniatures you could get away with in your army — was contrary to everything I love about wargaming.

Now I realize that picking projects that appeal to me and finding people to play after isn’t always the right choice. I realize that it’s okay to compromise and play a game that isn’t one I would pick on my own in order to find active and enthusiastic opponents. This realization lead to a wild moment of thinking I was going to collect a Warmachine, Flames of War, and DBA army all at once. That insanity has passed. I’ve emerged with a clearer view of what I want to accomplish in my hobby. Part of that is assessing what projects I wish to pursue, something I haven’t done since last April. It feels just like yesterday. Nothing much has moved on my painting table in the past year. Time to get a move on.

The first thing I did was classify my projects based on whether I plan on building a gaming army, or I just wanted to scratch a painting itch.

Some people prefer to paint. Some people prefer to game. I like both, but I’ve been mostly painting. I’ve advocated modeling projects, but I’ve lost sight of the concept. My 1812 project was originally a modeling project. I wanted to paint a big battalion of Napoleonic soldiers. I didn’t want to get involved in a long term project. During my research the project got bigger in my mind. Suddenly I was painting both sides to the Battle of Queenston Heights in two scales. I always let projects mature. My first thoughts rarely match my end thoughts, or I waffle between different approaches. It’s back to being a modeling project now.

Modeling projects are simpler affairs. They take less time to complete. I paint a figure, or a unit, and I’m done. I have two in progress, Warhammer FB Orcs and Dork Tower miniatures for TMP. Once they are done I’m not entitled to paint anything more for them. There’s no guilt, just the pleasure of painting something for the fun of it. Sometimes I forget that. I put myself on the hook for more. While classifying my projects I made sure I was clear what project was what.

Next I looked at what projects I wanted to finish or add to. I have a painted army for Heavy Gear but I’m not anxious to play right now. I could add more units. I have unpainted miniatures for the game. I wouldn’t have to buy anything more. Still, I’m not excited by the project, so why force it? I’m excited about playing Warmachine, so it goes near the top of the list. War of the Ring, GW’s new massed battle game set in the Lord of the Rings world, while I don’t have any immediate plans to play, is really appealing. Plus I can start small, expanding the Lord of the Rings miniatures I have for the skirmish game.

I’m also not ready to abandon my Field of Glory plans, although I again don’t have any opponents lined up. It’s another game where I’m blazing my own trail. Those at the OMG that are interested in it are collecting armies in 15mm. I, on the other hand, prefer 28mm. Here is an interesting situation where I know I want to do something, but the project isn’t ready yet. I’ve painted some Romans, but I’m also interested in Dark Ages. Do I do both, or only one? Which one? Perhaps I should do Dark Ages in 15mm so I can play at the club. This project needs to mature in my mind. I’ll paint what I have and then put it on the back burner.

So, I am ready. Here are my hobby plans for the next little bit. I am trying to alternate between painting miniatures I own and painting new miniatures in order to reduce my store of miniatures.

• Finish painting Orcs.
• Warmachine Khador Battle Box — it’s enough to start playing.
• Romans — they’re already on my workbench.
• Aragorn and Theoden Box — I’m thinking Rohan vs. Isenguard for War of the Ring, so a mounted Aragorn and Theoden, plus three Warg Riders would make a good start, and I already own the box.
• Khador ‘Jack — to expand my Warmachine army.
• The rest of the Fellowship — More of the skirmish game, but I already own the models.

The order may change. I’m trying to paint in the evenings again, but won’t be buying any new miniatures until I complete my move. If I finish the Orcs I may skip ahead to the Romans. I hate seeing miniatures sitting on my workbench. Somewhere in there I should paint the last three Dork Tower miniatures.

Tyler

Charge!

These are the last from the Fellowship of the Ring boxed set. They were the easiest to paint because they were mostly black. I followed GW’s instructions from the issues of White Dwarf published when the boxed set was released. This meant that the miniatures are painted simply with no highlighting on the black.

Painted: c.2003-2004 with a mix of Vallejo Model Colour and Games Workshop paints.

Lord of the Rings Men of Gondor produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler

Just a few of the 24 plastic goblins included in the boxed set.

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings boxed set from Games Workshop was the first boxed set where I painted the entire contents. Until this point I had never finished painting a GW boxed set, from Warhammer 40K 2nd Edition, Warhammer FB 3rd Edition, Mordheim, Epic 40K, Battlefleet Gothic (although I split the set with a friend and we did finish our own shares) and Warhammer FB 5th Edition. Since painting the LOTR boxed set I’ve started and finished both the Starship Troopers and Battle of Five Armies boxed sets, so this set was a turning point for me. It really feels good to finish something like this. For those that haven’t done this I really recommend it. Pretty soon finishing a boxed set won’t even be a big deal.

Painted: c.2003-2004 with a mix of Vallejo Model Colour and Games Workshop paints.

Lord of the Rings Moria Goblins produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler

Holy blown-out highlight batman

Here we have more from the LOTR boxed set. This time the swordsmen. Same difficulties of coverage. I’m glad they’re done. Since I’m not repeating the bit about painting them here, I’ll add this. LOTR is one of the few games I’ve managed to paint enough to play with, and have had a chance to play. As usual, my beautiful wife beat me.

Painted: c.2003-2004 with a mix of Vallejo and Games Workshop paints.

Lord of the Rings Elves with swords produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler

It’s about time that I start updating my gallery. I have a huge amount of painted miniatures that never got put back up. From time to time I’ll upload them in lieu of a normal post.

Elf Bowmen. Bowelves?

These are some of the plastic Elf Bowmen from GW‘s The Fellowship of the Ring boxed set. They were a pain to paint as the gold didn’t want to cover. At first, I was painting them Mithril Silver (2 coats) then some metallic gold (2 coats). However, I then started undercoating the gold bits with a yellow brown, similar to the actual gold colour. This sped the process up tremendously, but it was still time consuming.

Painted: c.2003-2004 with a mix of Vallejo and Games Workshop paints.

Lord of the Rings Elves with bows produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler