Of Epic Proportions (spring clean challenge 26)

The little and often painting schedule means that I’m getting through models at a faster rate now.  It doesn’t seem to have taken anytime at all to have finished another Assualt company

A friend knowing I liked 40k and in particular old 40k gave me a brown envelope full of bits of old cardboard. This was the old cardboard

In amongst a treasure trove of old cardboard scenery, counters and pamphlets was this advert

These little dreadnoughts are going to be attached to the Devestators

So this humble project has been awarded a Golden Button Award. Something it doesn’t diserve, my painting isn’t really up to scratch. I’m not saying this out of any negativity. I am literally painting models that are older than my wife at 5 in the morning that are smaller than my finger nails!

I would like to say thank you for all the kind words about this project.

• Ben unfortunately I don’t have the orks anymore I have them away years go. 
• Jerry, I’d forgotten about the navigatior in Inquistor. I should go back and read it again. I remember the weird relationship between the imperial fists.

Lastly if anyone knows where I can get an epic scale thunderhawk ( that isn’t silly money). The blood angels feel like they are missing something like this.

Finally the Devestators are finished. I’m not quite sure why they have taken so long to finish. The second assault squad is almost finished yet it’s taken bloody weeks to do these..

And I’m not happy with them. I look at them and I just don’t like them. The painting is at my usual poor standard so it can’t be that. I think it’s the colour choices, the blue helmets jar with me on an artistic level. But that’s the colours they are historically so it’s the colours they must be

Also I need to remember that these photos end up been bigger than the model themselves. I generally have a low opinion of my painting, and painting at this scale as if they were 32mm is a tall order. When more of them are finished I’ll take an army photo to show what they look like as a whole

I’m a big believer in green bathing. There’s something deep grounding about been surrounded by trees. So when I’m getting too stressed or disjointed at work I retreat to the trees.

Anyway your not interested in all that.  I was thinking if I’m going to play the game, I should really learn how to. This has left me with two things I need to think about. One the types of terrain I’m going to need and two, blast markers.

Blast markers are something I hadn’t thought about but I’m going to need quite a few off them. Do I go for something quite simple or do I go with something a bit more dramatic and scenic.

It’s time I face up to an issue. I don’t have as much time as I used to. I have a 12 year old and a 4 month old and I don’t have the free time I used to. Sometimes I get chance to do some painting, but I can’t rely on getting that time anymore. Where I thought I’d get chance to paint at a weekend can easily vanish with cuddles and bopping. 

So I need a different methodology, and that’s painting before 6 o’clock in the morning. In the time where a I usually just doomscroll I could do a little bit of painting, and you know what it works. Just getting the tray down a coat or two and just chip away does seem to get results.

With just a bit of pre planning it is possible to work through bit.

So I’ve finished the Devestators. I still need to get the Rhino’s finished but there on there way too.

So I need to do another tactical company, 3 land raiders and characters and dreadnoughts. O and I want to do anothet assault company. All easily achievable.

Ian Watson one of the original GW authors died the other day. I’m not going to say his writing was poetic and artful, because if I’m completely honest I bearly remember it. What I do vividly remember it’s the atmosphere they created. The stories of inquistors, hive cities, assassins and homoerotic marines was completely different to the storm rocked Hebrides I was reading them in.

Although Games Workshop retconed his stories to death, the start was there, in my tiny teenage little brain. They started an interest in the 40k and the imperium.

So what has this to do with this project? Sod all really. But I wanted to write about this and this place, this project seemed right. If anything it’s Ians books that started the path I’m on.

Yet I want to do something that links my teenage enthusiasm, to the present day. So in honour of Ian Watson, I’m going to add a little Jaq Draco to this project. Even though they don’t have rules of inquistors in this edition, there will be a little Jaq in honour of these novels  and the effect his work had on my teenage mind.

So why am I rambling on about authors and making more pledges rather than painting the Devestators? It’s because I have an infected cut on my index finger, which is making painting interesting. Not painful but uncomfortable, and this scale doesn’t allow for poor brush control (and it’s not great to start with). But I can do all the prepping and undercoating so it should take less time to get the marines finished and the guard started.