This is my boomstick!

You all were expecting Ash, weren't you?

Well, these guys take the expression "boomstick" a little more literally:

Yesterday I finished my first batch of Iron Fang Pikemen, but I din't have the right light to photograph them anymore. They were a bit of hard work to get painted, I had to go back and fix a white haze that turned up on the red. No idea where it came from, I think the weather somehow affected the way the paint dried (My painting room has become a bit chilly this winter, so I paint in the living room, but I store my painting gear, including half-painted mini's in the painting room...)
Plus, they are basically 3 colours, red, brown and metal. It took some perseverance to keep going at such large and repetitive expanses of similar shapes and colours.
But I made it through. Now to gather the courage to start on the next batch of six, including the unit leader, bannerman and officer. I'm not sure if I'll keep them as one painting batch, or split them up in 3 grunts and 3 "specials". Right now I'm leaning towards painting them as a group of six; it means I only have one more batch of pikemen to get through, I can hopefully maintain some painting interest by alternating grunts and specials in the assembly line, and I reduce the risk of getting stuck with a painted unit that has unpainted officers....

Oh, here is the rear of this batch:

 Hardcore nutters in heavy plate, wielding bombs on long sticks, what's not to like about them?

Oh, to maintain sanity, and enthousiasm as the painting of the pikemen ground on, I also sidestepped into these guys:

The first part of Sir Yet Nameless his retinue. These are his archers. Sire Nameless and his retinue-to-be are part of my larger Warhammer Quest/Chanson de Geste/Dungeoneering/Fantasy Skirmish project.
At this point the wash on their cowls was drying, livery, leathers, faces, bows and grey metals are done. I still need to paint their hose, arrows and fletching, and copper/brassware bits and paint the bases before they are finished.
The two metal ones (sword raised and the guy with the horn) are lovely sculpts by the Perries, from GW's old (and by me, much missed) Bretonnian range. Accounting for their age, and single piece nature, even the three plastic ones aren't all that bad.

I find batch-painting the less enjoyable aspect of painting for wargaming. To keep myself enthousiastic about painting,  with every batch finished, I  "reward" myself with getting to paint a single individual miniature. Recharge the batteries, as it were.
So, once the archers are finished, I'll have two batches achieved, which means....TWO individual figures to paint!
Not sure yet, what those will be, but I'm already eyeing a few of my primed figures. Good chance they'll be figures that can be used for the Iron Kingdoms RPG, or maybe a Warmachine solo as these have all passed my converting and prep bench lately... Then again, I may just rip something out of a blister at the last moment.
Gotta keep things interesting...