Wow, has it been a month already?
So, what have I been up to? Not much really, at least not hobbywise.
I started a in new job/project last week, and with it comes an increase in hours and travel time, leaving me knackered when I get home, at least until I get used to it (and the high-speed barrage of new-job information/training slows down).
The weeks before that were mostly spent getting the job in first place. And organizing things so that those parts of the daily care for my son (he is, as they call it these days, a "special needs" kid) I normally care of are picked up by other folks when I am at work.
Less daylight also means less hobby time, as I need natural light to paint, somehow my eyes just don't adjust to artifical (day)light enough to properly discern shades of the same colour. Which causes rather ugly and abrupt highlights. Assembling and converting in the evening is no problem however, so evenings should go to waste by default.
Normally I, in situations like these I would have left the hobby by the wayside, for the time being. Often for months at a time. But I found this usually left me either feeling disconnected from the things I was working on, or having settled into a schedule/daily rhythm where there was no room left for hobby stuff. Which made it hard to get going again, so I put hobby off a bit longer, further raising the barrier, etc.
I didn't want that to happen again. So, the moment I started this job, I decided to consciously keep doing hobby stuff, and plan time for it.
All work and no play makes Modhail a dull boy and all that (not mention cranky and depressed...).
So, last Sunday and Monday evening I took the time to finish basing a few figures (the wife, kids and druid from two posts back). And today I reserved time for painting a second group of skeletons I was working on. They're far from finished (spent a lot of time waiting for washes to dry), but it's good to see progress.
Will I keep this up? Who knows... I have to be realistic here. My work hours won't magically shorten again, and December is a very busy month for our family (there's the usual holidays, and somehow about 3 friends/family celebrating their birthdays every week). There's also the lure of video games, I just got the Diablo III expansion, so that is drawing me in again, Warmachine Tactics has left the beta, and Darkest Dungeon is getting more of my attention as it draws nearer to early access.... A hiatus might still occur, but at least it won't be from me not even attempting to do something fun/hobby-related. :-)
But this is a hobby blog, not a Modhail's Real Life Stuff blog (thought the two often interact and/or intersect). So I really should also add some hobby content to this post, beyond just quickly remarking what I've been painting today inside a wall of unrelated text.
Clearly I'm still mainly in the mood for my Dungeoneering/Generic Fantasy/Chivalry project, so we'll see where that goes. I've been giving some thought on how to proceed with this:
-One thing that is increasingly bothering is me, is that currently my heroes are at risk of outnumbering the monsters and villains... So I really should be focusing on making and painting more opponents. It's just that heroes, being single, individual models, are more fun to paint!
Hence the slogging on with my skeletons, but also simultaneously working on a Paladin to keep my interest. Maybe this pairing up of a hero and a group of enemies as a joint painting project is the way forward. I will need to experiment. It does mean I can keep painting while paint or wash dries...
-This whole chimaera of a project has flowed from wanting to paint my wife's Warhammer Quest set for her. Guess what hasn't been on the painting table for quite some while? I really should show them some love too. It's just a shame that, as I'm exploring my own imaginary world, the Warhammer one is losing quite a bit of its appeal. GWs recent antics and pricing aren't helping my enthusiasm either.
-There is also the issue of terrain, if I want to go dungeoneering, I will need dungeons or caves. I feel I can't hide from this issue for much longer. I want to find a solution for this terrain that appeals to me, is achievable and that I'm happy with, and then stick with that choice.
This will require some thought. Especially as I will build it myself and it should ideally also serve for Warhammer Quest...
For the Generic Fantasy and Chivalry part of the project, I'll also need suitable terrain.
But before I build it, I need to find/make storage for it. I have the space reserved, but it's in an open rack in the garage, so I need to find storage boxes suited to my need. A need that also depends on the scenery I will be making. The standoff has somewhat of a Mexican flavour.
But for now, none of this need to be acted on immediately. I've still got plenty of minis to happily keep painting and fill the time until I've figured these things out.
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