In 11 Days, We Ambush

Had a really strong evening of hobby tonight. I’ve started listening to the Rule of Carnage podcast and blasted through a bunch of episodes while getting everything remaining built and primed. Working with the restic wasn’t too bad, though the way some of the mould lines work around the Shadowhound faces is a pest and I couldn’t really get those cleared. 

Honestly, leaving mould lines in place might be the most traumatic thing about this project. 

Done not perfect.

I took the time to go over all the bases with the new energy colour (Nihilakh Oxide) and it is starting to grow on me. Cutting all the painted minis off their painting bases and moving them onto to the regiment multibases was the next job for the evening. Thank goodness for Preferred Model Count! Fitting 15 instead of 20 on these bases was more than enough. I did make sure that no part of them was overhanging the edge of the bases; these models are very spindly and I have no doubt they’d snap as soon as look at their enemies in a charge.

At this point I did have to take an honest look at the situation. I can’t do any hobby tomorrow because it is our RPG night which means I only have one more evening left to paint up everything for the game on Saturday midday. I really wanted to go back over the spectres with a dry brush and the scarecrows with a highlight pass but it’s just not going to happen. By putting them on the bases, they are going to be more difficult to come back to in the future but painting the next steps on just what can be seen when they are all massed up in their regiments is more efficient I guess.

It’s done. Not perfect but done.

My RPG group got cancelled so I got a bonus evening to paint. At the start of the evening I had three butchers, eight shadow hounds and two character models to paint. Now they’re all finished and based!

To be clear, the paint jobs across the whole army are one coat of Contrast paint over a zenithal prime with some metallic put on the weapons. Do I love the look? No but I don’t dislike it as much as I thought I would. However, in ten days I have a painted army ready for the table.

Done, not perfect.

I had a little time left over today so I added some spots on the heads of the butchers and even just that one detail really lifted them. I should manage a couple of hours work on the project tomorrow so I’ll need to have a wee think overnight about what I want to prioritise for Saturday’s game. Given I’ve used Contrast, I know I’ll need to do at least a quick coat (preferably a couple) of varnish.

I also need to find a head. When I went to paint the Shade, I found I’d just completely skipped gluing it’s face on. Oops. It doesn’t look too bad given the theme of the model but yeah… find the face is on the to do list.

The last day before the army hits the table for the first time.  By Friday my fatigue and chronic pain are at their most severe. Most weeks all I can do is climb into bed around 6pm to pass out. 

Thanks to yesterday’s bonus hobby time, there’s no real need to work on anything today in terms of painting. I realised after I finished last night though that I forgot to magnetise the bases so I didn’t have a safe way to transport everything to the game shop tomorrow. I challenged myself to do hobby for the time it took to watch The Weekender.

• Though not ideal, I had to go with magnet sheets on the bases instead of magnets. It’ll be fine, I think. 
• Managed a single pass of highlights on the models I felt needed it most
• Totally forgot to put a wash over the metals, oh well.
• The weather was miserable so there was no way I was getting varnishing done

That’ll do for today though.

It has been so long since I played a full game of Kings of War that I honestly couldn’t’ tell you the extent to which Ambush feels like the same game. It is really fast to play and very killy. Or maybe that’s just going against an army where every army has Crushing Strength 2 or more on it. Either way, in three and a half hours we managed three games at a fairly easy pace.

We played scenario each time but we never really got to a point of scoring them, my army was so decimated by turn three or four that we called the game and reset.

Now those of you who know Kings of War, and in particular know the Nightstalkers have probably been screaming at the screen for every entry in this porject up until now. Because you probably all noticed something that I, using only the companion app, hadn’t. Those lovely spectres that I pivoted to make a second regiment of because it was easier than dealing with the restic reaper kit? They don’t exist in the new version of the Nightstalkers list. My mistake was selecting Nightstalkers, not Nightstalkers 2023 when list building or I would have realised they have been taken out and the models reclassed as Dopplegangers. It was my very lovely opponent who pointed this out when we were chatting in game two or three and wondering what exactly they were firing for their ranged attacks.

Going forward I definitely need to look at my options for dealing with crushing but on the whole, I’m having a blast with the game. I’ll do conclusions on the project in a separate post but to close out this one, here are some photos.

I wanted to start this project to try and kickstart my motivation after a big old bout of depression related hobby stagnation. Using a new painting style and a self-inflicted deadline to push me. It has done that and managed to be fun at the same time.  I can’t say I love the look of Contrast as much as I do my normal way of painting but as a way of getting a relatively satisfying job done in quick time, they are a valuable tool.

Has it revitalised my painting? I don’t know but I think maybe it has. It felt really good to get an army on the table quickly without it feeling like much of a chore to do. Painting sessions were little bubbles of good feels because a whole regiment could be done in a couple of hours. Every session felt like a little win which, certainly for me, is one of the key ways to work through my depression. “Fixing” my hobby wasn’t going to be what “fixed” me but by able to claw the joy back, even a little, hobby can go back to being part of how I cope.

Who knew Contrast paints could do so much?!?!

This is an army I’ll be adding to in the future – I already own several units and have plans for a couple more. After the spectres/doppelgangers revelation and being pummelled by Crushing Strength, there’s certainly some thinking to be done. Knowing that it will be easy to plough out the rest of the units I have and anything else I add in makes expansion and or list changing a lot less intimidating a prospect.

For now though, I’m calling this project complete. I think all future army updates might just go into my other KOW project and leave this one as a reminder to myself that I can finish things even when they are “just” done and not perfect.

A lovely wee way to close out the project thanks to a butt-butt-ding