Over the course of the weekend I've been inundated with hobby-based tribute to soften the blow of hitting forty years old. The softening effect was considerable.
My normal steely resolve has been heavily eroded, and I've cleared the decks to make room to work on a model I've been hankering after for some time. Here he is laid out on the table.
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| The Ettin awaiting a good scrub. |
The curs'd ettin from Forgeworld is a nasty model, in the best possible way. He's like some kind of horrible Francis Bacon sculpture. The deformities make him a great candidate to represent a fomorian in my fimir army. I'll add some extras to him, maybe give him a bigger weapon than the tiny rock he comes with, some armpit hair, couple of boils and so on. I'm very much looking forward to working on this fellow.
Literally sweeping away all current projects for something groovy like this is kind of symptomatic of how my approach to the hobby is changing lately. After chatting to a few folks on how they tackle painting and how they manage the teetering piles of lead, resin and plastic most of us own, I've decided to step back a touch from a military style plan of painting x units and y armies in z time to something more laid back. I won't be leaving pile of half assembled and black-primed models all over the place either, as that would drive me utterly insane, but I'm going to be a tad more whimsical and try to remember this is a hobby, not a job. With some shiny new boxes of yum piling up from the weekend, I think this is the right road.
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| Is there any greater joy than a box of models? |
I think it's part of the rules that once you get to a more, ah, mature gamer, you receive a mandatory interest in historical gaming. I've been cooing at Bolt Action for a bit, and my bluff was well and truly called with a bloody great brick of a boxed set as a present. I'll be posting on this box of WW2 goodness soon. The thing is now I'll have to figure out how to paint WW2 lads with the right gear, colours etc. I hear that's a slippery slope.
A looooong time reader and probably first (or second) time caller. Your 40-year post scared the crackers out of me at 32. 8 years before I give in on best-of-abilities plans? Terrifying.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I've fallen deeply, deeply in love with Song of Blades and Heroes. It allows me to paint one model I like, of any kind, and add it to a warband I like, of any mismatched, pluralistic, racially-harmonious, random blend I want, without some twit in Nottingham saying that ogres don't fight with harpies or mummies or snails.
Hats off to you and your ettin.
As an aside: check out Mirliton's cyclops. It is around 32mm tall and has a longer, simian jaw than the website photograph suggests. No pointy upper lip, however.
Better get those paint brushes moving Paul! Tick tock...
DeleteSong of Blades & Heroes sounds good. I must take a gander. The Mirilton cyclops is a nice sculpt. I have the skeletal one, which turned out to be taller than I expected from looking at it online.
That giant is fantastic. Been thinking myself to buy him. looking forward to see you paint him!
ReplyDelete/Hans