A small update on lots of little projects

These past few weeks I've gotten a bit distracted by work and the ever dangerous time sinks called computer games. If you value your hobby time I suggest you skip The Long Dark and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. With Fallout 76 almost out I worry it'll be December before I get around to some serious painting again (probably not, I tend to get bored quickly and suddenly after too much screen hours). In the meantime I have found some idle moments to blast away with my airbrush, drop some superglue on unsuspecting models and take my brush to (ancient) metal. It's just that every time I start, there's a computer game calling my name...

I think painting dead(ish) skin is one of the most Zen experiences in the hobby.

One of the prettiest projects on my table is this Skaven Warlord on Brood Horror by Forge World. I bought it during Warhammer Fest and I've been having a blast painting the bruised (dead?) skin on it. The basic recipe for this is to start airbrushing a light skintone (Cadian Fleshtone) and go up to an even lighter skin (Kislev Flesh), then wash it with Reikland Fleshshade and follow up redoing the top two layers with the airbrush. Then when all is dry just go wild and spray light patches of extremely thinned down red, purple and yellow. I tend to focus the red around anything that looks like a boil (almost half this model) and then use the purple and yellow just wherever fancy takes me. Next up I should be painting in the warpstone chunks and major boils. But there is a computer game calling my name...

These guys belong in a museum...well a diorama display at the very least.

The second project is a group of models that has been waiting for a paint job for a very, very long time. It is the Fellowship of the Ring including Bill the Pony. This boxed set, BME1 The Fellowship of the Ring, was one of the first Games Workshop purchases I ever made way back in the eighties. They have been stripped many, many times, Bill the Pony has snapped of at the legs and I've had to replace Boromir as he turned out missing in action when I finally stripped them for a proper paint job a few years back. Right now they are just sitting there with a Zenithal prime job and some basic skin tones and I really want to finish them. But there is a computer game calling my name...

To do: get better at painting high contrast red.

Last but not least (ignoring the Ratlings, Commissars and the Madboys in the back on the previous picture) I've picked up a few Blood Angels second hand. The Dreadnought is still made of metal, the Assault Marine is a regular plastic guy and Dante was missing his gun when he arrived so I made him a new one. I planned to sell on most of the Blood Angels (there are more) but I find it hard to part with them. I've always had a soft spot for idiots dressing in bright red and gold on a future battlefield. On the other hand, now I'm tempted to actually paint Blood Ravens... Decisions, decisions. I should at least finish Dante first. But there is a computer game calling my name...

Damn you, you time sink!

On the bright side, I have taken up one of these newfangled gamepad controller horrors and by dint of playing Kingdom Come, I'm actually getting the hang of it (or so I think). So there is that. I should really set aside a bit more time for painting (especially as I hear Nighthaunt moaning about Deadcember). But there is a computer game calling my name... Well I'll just have to man up, stop blabbing about computers and take more time to splatter paint. Its time for a digital detox! Wait...what was that?