New Beginnings

So... this is my first blog post. So, currently, I have a few projects in various stages of completion scattered across my desk. Like most hobbyists, I’ve built a small mountain of miniatures that have yet to be assembled or painted (including the recent Sisters of Battle release). Rather than fall to the temptation of building more miniatures and starting yet another project I will not finish, I have opted to clear out all of my current ones. I may have too many hobbies, and the desire to give them all some time results in not giving any of them an adequate amount of time.

My resolution for 2020 was to become more goal oriented in order to be more productive. I feel that with each completed project I’ll be able to not only clear my desk, but also attain some sort of mental clarity with which I can renew my focus for future projects (I adopted a similar attitude towards completing my backlog of video games last year, knocking 22 off that list (however, I’ve also added to that backlog because of Amazon sales). I’ve decided to record my progress (no matter how slight) to help encourage myself to maintain consistency, have visual documentation of my improvements, and hopefully, meet fellow hobbyists for comments, criticism, or casual conversation.

So, with that introduction out of the way, I present my current projects – 2 Onager Dunecrawlers, 2 Armiger Warglaives, and 1 Sydonian Dragoon.

Today, I resumed work on the hull of the Armiger Warglaives. The first picture shows the original on the left, and the recent on the right. The second shows an updated version of the original. Specifically, the gold panels. I had originally worked on one of these last year. You can see the difference in terms of the lighting on the big flat panels, I also decided to soften the stark contrast between the dark and light in certain areas. I think the NMM effect is an improvement over my initial attempt.

First Armiger Warglaive on left, recent example on right.

After updating the original.

Another one of my problems that I feel prevents me from completing many of my projects is my constant revision. Whenever I learn or improve on a technique, I feel obligated to touch up previous models to the same level. Looking at a line of similar models with noticeable differences in skill is rather jarring for me. So, I’ve decided that my next step will be to ‘catch up’ the second one to the stage of the original (doing the NMM steel under and on the sides, and painting the exhausts and attaching them), and by painting them simultaneously it should minimize the difference.