I consider myself to be the ‘average war gamer’ so am consequently in possession of an embarrassing amount of unfinished projects. With so much in the candy shop coupled with a terminal case of the fickle mind everything is too tempting and I find my attention perpetually pulled from one tantalising idea to the next. Always starting bravely and fiercely yet all too often I am drawn away before consummation as inspiration strikes from unknown and unseen quarters…oooo I’ve got something in the bits box/avalanche that could be converted into that…and off we go again.
Enough I say! Enough.
The most embarrassing thing to admit is despite so much hard work, intricate conversions and pain staking hours attempting to improve my meagre painting abilities I don’t yet have a single complete/painted army to show for 40 odd years (off and on) dedication to our sacred passion.
Shame! Shame and thrice shame and a curse upon my piscine like attention span…
The situation begs of several questions…Can one honestly go to one’s grave without a single solitary painted army? Is it possible, even in theory, to finish an army? Where and how do you safely store said army if by some miracle you were to complete one?
Such questions must wait another day. Call it embarrassment, call it old age, call it a conscious decision to curb the spiralling hobby costs…either way a challenge has surfaced and a hero shall arise…well maybe…
1) Who buys all this fucking stuff?
Good question. I have about twenty boxes of differing sizes and capacities safely ensconced in the attic/penthouse (plus an uncounted number swilling around and within the work station) dedicated to this sacred pastime. I dread to think of and refuse to calculate the costs involved in amassing such a collection but am happy that no children were harmed, sold or went without during the assembling of the dread edifice so the conscience remains clear…ish…
2) What exactly is the objective?
Mmmm. There are so many great painters out there who seem to find the time to get their armies ‘to table’. Magazines and the t’internet abound with such glorious examples and yes perhaps many are painting professionals, working in the industry full time but not all can be, surely? Are not some everyday working fellows (like myself) who have achieved the impossible dream? Of course they are and where one man can succeed another can creep along in his footsteps. So the objective is to have and to hold a gloriously realised collection of little painted men all standing to attention before their imperious creator.
3) Just one?
Yeah…..Well, that’s the thing see…after another comb/churn through the hoard it would seem that we have enough unused/uncompleted models for more than one army 😬. The wet, sodden feeling of a project expanding exponentially in its birth canal grows deep within the colon if my imagination. But as one great leader once said…it’s only hubris if I fail…
Soo…in the world of the Third Ring which is where the said army/armies are envisioned to exist there are a number of displaced and competing factions. Namely the ones I can create from the hoard without actually spending any money. (NB-I may need a base or twenty and card etc for scratch building movement trays but this is pennies really and I’m also not counting actual modelling supplies, paint and some descent not-too-expensive brushes that I can get along with and have yet to find, as these represent normal/day-to-day expenses)
As seen elsewhere upon t’blog this year’s summer project has begun…the White Wolf Clan are some of the ogres of this world (back story to come) and at a projected 30ish models for the army (that’s all I have) represent a doable goal and a starter for ten (30) army wise.
So who else would inhabit this world?
Humans obviously and in this we have the start of another army (two?) based around the Fireforge Northman figures including what may turn out to be around two dozen cavalry. The idea of a bandit army/warband also tickles the fancy…
More to follow if hubris allows...
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