…of a hobby slump!
Hello folks, it has been some time, hasn’t it? I’ve been in a real hobby slump of late – no particular reason, but I just haven’t really felt like doing much lately :-/ Also I need to apologies to those followers who are not on WordPress – for some bizarre reason I have been unable to post comments outside of WordPress for a couple of weeks, but fear not – I have been looking on with interest!
The fallow period hasn’t been a complete write-off though, I have slowly worked my way through a selection of Skellies over the last several weeks, and I also went through my leadpile in search of inspiration. First up, let’s take a look at my recent painting achievements.
Here we have a bunch of Nightmare Legion skellies, including a couple of musicians, a complete standard bearer, Renzo the champion, and Mordini the hero:
This is kinda cool because a) I now have the complete range of figured from this Regiment of Renown, and b) I can now add this lot to my existing Legion to put together a unit of 40. This is significant in AoS points because that last 10 comes at half price, and as a bonus, this frees up the C17 command section that used to lead them. Here is my updated Legion – note that Renzo is in charge now, but Mordini is not included in the unit:
I’ll get around to accurately reproducing the banner at some point in the future to really put the final gloss on this unit, but next up we have a couple of real randoms. The guy with the crossbow is an unnamed 1984 pre-slotter – he did come with another horned skeleton of the same vintage, but sadly I lost him to lead rot :-( The two with scythes are not quite as old – the anatomically unlikely one is from the MD8 undead chariot, while the heavily armoured guy is in the ’91 Red catalogue (thanks Hivemind!!):
These guys fit in perfectly with my Cursed Company, taking this unit up to 33ish models:
Next up, I have this lonesome pikeman to show – nothing hugely exciting here, and no idea of his age or range:
He slots in nicely with my Grave Guard unit, as does Mordini and the C17 command section that got released from the Nightmare Legion. Graveguard are pretty damn good in AoS, so I am pleased to see their numbers increasing slowly:
Finally, I painted up a Middlehammer Necromancer – this guy appears in the Black catalogue of 1993:
He’s a bit boss-eyed, but he’ll do ;-) He’ll support my existing ‘mancer in AoS, and is also destined to act as his apprentice in a future Frostgrave campaign:
So, that’s it for now folks – my apologies for being so crap lately, but hopefully I’m over the slump. One of the good things about sorting out the leadpile is that I’ve gotten excited about some of the many projects I have shelved over the years… I am about to start one such project – a whole new army for Rogue Trader! Thanks for bearing with me & stay tuned for more :-)
Leadballoony - It's a lead thing 
Good stuff! Looking forward to seeing the new Rogue Trader army…
Me too mate! I’m hoping it comes out well & should be something a little bit exciting and different… ;-)
Oh man! These are insanely good! You’ve been busy, they are tremendously cool.
Now I’m looking forward to your RT endeavour…
Hey, thanks man, and so sorry I haven’t been dropping comments on your blog! I’ve been keeping up to date, but for some reason, the comments just ain’t working for me atm!!
Awesome stuff here, Alex. Very cool to see so many old-school models set up for AoS as well. I’d love to hear the story about you using them to play someone in a GW store and the confusion that it would create! ;)
Hehe – thanks dude, that would be fun… these boys are older than the store manager!!
Love the purples, I’ve been using purples and pinkishness paints the last few days. But different. I like the pikeman a lot, especially because he’s a bit mysterious. What is lead rot? I mean I can imagine what it is, kinda but is there so much deterioration that they can’t be salvaged? Welcome back by the way.
Cheers mate, it is good to be back! Glad you like the purples – it’s just violet wash over white plus a little ‘dirtying up’.
Good question about lead rot – it is a nasty corrosion that affects high lead content minis, (so older models are particularly vulnerable), and it can spread from mini to mini if they are stored together… It eventually turns minis into a pile of lead oxide powder, and is basically a collector’s worst nightmare.
Mild cases can be cleaned, treated and sealed, but sadly, the mini in question was a gonner.
Whoa, never heard of this! It’s like an old D&D monster come to life. Yikes!
lol – yeah… total party killer!
Great to have you back, these slumps definitely happen. The Nightmare Legion has been one of my favourites since I saw them in my big brothers’ Citadel Journal back in the 80s as a little kid. You’ve done them justice! Obviously the rest is ace too, as usual :)
Cheers Mikko, it is good to be back mate! Yeah, I know what you mean about the Legion – goofy skulls and horribly mono-pose, but there is just something wonderfully endearing about them :-)
How do you do it mate? I’ve always hated that lumpen, awkward looking necromancer and yet now I find myself looking at him with a warm glow of nostalgia (same with the Nightmare Legion although I can’t say I’ve ever had particularly strong negative feelings about them). This may be a misplaced description (given that we’re talking about the undead) but you’ve really brought them to life. It shows the difference a more restrained and mature paintjob makes (not bashing ‘eavy metal given that any one of them could paint better than me even if they were less healthy than these shamblers – but their preferred style back in the days when these corpses were fresh tended to highlight rather than obscure their flaws).
Hey, thanks dude – I don’t know what to say really! I guess that I’ve always viewed the undead vibe as being ‘faded grandeur’ at best, or ‘decayed and shabby’ at worst – it wouldn’t even occur to me to try and paint them with a pristine & fresh look. I don’t think of that as being restrained or mature with my painting, but more lazy and messy to be honest! It is a happy coincidence if this helps to disguise some of the many and various flaws with the minis themselves :-)
Hobby slump … tell me about it. I need to get my groove back.
Brilliant set of undead. Love ’em!
Thanks dude – hang in there :-)