A Reasonable Dream part I

In late 2010, the staff at Privateer Press (the makers of Warmachine and Hordes) had an in-house “Impossible Dream” challenge, in which they each attempted to paint a 100 point army within one month.

When I heard about that, I thought to myself: “Self, I think I’d like to try that.” I tossed the idea around amongst the regulars over at Vancouver Gamers and was ultimately convinced by them that it was a ridiculous idea, but changing the timeline to 3 months would make it a fun thing to attempt.

A few of us decided to take on this challenge, with the ultimate goal of having some sort of show-down at the end, where we would take our newly-painted 100 point armies and battle it out for bragging rights. Unfortunately, it looks like that grand finale probably won’t be happening, due to waning interest, one of the participants moving to another city, etc.

Anyway, for me the most important part of the challenge was always trying to get that army painted. I really enjoy painting, but for some reason I always have trouble getting myself motivated to actually do it. I tend to find that unless I’ve got some kind of deadline in which to get a certain number of models done, it just won’t happen. Because of that, I’ve got a firm rule that I’ll never take an unpainted model to a tournament (I will sometimes use unpainted models in casual play, but I greatly prefer not to). I also take on whatever painting challenges come my way. If I didn’t, I’d probably only have a half-dozen Cygnar models painted right now.

The first step for this particular challenge was to look through my depressingly large collection of unpainted miniatures, and decide what to include in this 100 point army. My primary focus was to include models that I’ve wanted to get painted for a long time, with a secondary focus on ending up with a playable 100 point force, and a tertiary (yes, that’s right, I just used the word tertiary in a sentence – thank you AD&D module D01-02 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth for teaching me a word that I could then insert into a blog entry many years later in an attempt to make people believe that I’m educated!) focus on making it somewhat reasonable from a painting standpoint. No massive infantry horde for me!With those criteria in mind, here’s the army that I initially chose to paint:
Epic Stryker (+6 warjack points)
-Ironclad (7)
Epic Nemo (+6 warjack points)
-Thunderhead (12)
-Centurion (9)
-Hammersmith (8)
-Hammersmith (8)
Katherine Laddermore (5)
3 Stormsmiths (3)
10 Sword Knights (6)
-Sword Knight Officer + Standard (2)
–Firefly (5)
–Firefly (5)
6 Stormblades (5)
-Stormblade Officer + Standard (3)
-3 Stormblade Storm Gunners (3)
10 Stormguard (9)
5 Storm Lances (11)
The Black 13th (4)
Storm Tower (2)
Storm Tower (2)
Epic Eiryss (3)
Total: 112 points (100 points + 12 warjack points)

You may note that a couple of Cygnar staples (Squire, Journeyman Warcaster, etc.) are missing from this list. That’s because I’ve already got them painted! Those who know me and have played against me in the past may be surprised about some of the other items on this list, such as the Stormsmiths, the Stormblades, the Centurion and the Sword Knights, since I’ve already got them painted. Well, these are doubles for those theme lists that need multiples, and for 2 caster games where I can take more. I’m particularly looking forward to doing a Nemo theme list with 6 Stormsmiths and a pair of Fireflies. Lightning comes down from the sky to hit EVERYTHING!

I took a photo of the assembled army-to-be-painted, although a lack of planning meant that I took this photo after already starting to paint, so a few of the models seen there have the beginnings of basecoats on them. You may also note that Eiryss is nowhere to be seen in that photo. She’s just that stealthy…

The first step was definitely to undercoat everything. The undercoat is important because it creates a surface for the paint to adhere to, thus making it less likely to flake or rub off at a later date. I almost always use a black undercoat, because that way I can leave the undercoat showing in cracks and recesses of the model to simulate shadows.

I used to always use a spray-on undercoat, but recently I’ve been using black gesso, and I’ve been pleased with the results. Gesso is something that artists have been using for a very long time to prime canvases in preparation for painting. It goes on very thick, but it shrinks a great deal as it dries, so unless you really gloop it on, you won’t lose detail. It’s also got good tooth (meaning that paint adheres to it well), and seeing as I live in a city where rainfall and humidity are frequently too high to use a spray-on undercoat, I love the fact that I can brush it on whenever I want regardless of the weather. The downside to using gesso is that it takes a long time to dry properly (I usually leave it for 24 hours), and because it shrinks as it dries, you tend to end up with a number of pinholes of bare metal that it has shrunk away from. A little touch-up fixes this.

Many of these models were already undercoated before beginning this challenge. I always find that if I get the inspiration to paint a particular model, I want to paint it RIGHT NOW, I don’t want to first take it out, take the time to give it a good undercoat, and give that undercoat time to properly dry, and then maybe start painting the next day. Getting everything that I’m likely to want to paint undercoated as soon as possible allows me to paint as the inspiration takes me.

Before I got much farther than what you see in that first picture, I started thinking about a tournament I was attending in February (ed note: this tournament was GottaCon, covered in previous posts by Ben and myself – Subhedgehog). If you remember from earlier, I’ve got a strict rule that I won’t take an unpainted model to a tournament. When building my army lists for this tournament, I decided that I wanted to field a list with 2 Defenders in it. Since I only had 1 Defender painted, that meant I had some more painting to do. Rather than simply add the Defender to the huge pile of models I was painting for this challenge, I decided to do the smart thing and incorporate the Defender into this 100 point list. I said goodbye to the Ironclad and one of the Storm Towers, and hello to Mr. Defender!

Because of the earlier deadline of the tournament, the Defender and the Black 13th (who I also included in my tournament lists) got top painting priority. I can be a bit of a procrastinator, though, so top painting priority actually meant that I waited until a couple of days before the tournament before frantically painting them up.

I managed to get both the Defender and the Black 13th done the night before I left for the tournament. Right on schedule! So with the tournament behind me, I was about halfway through my time limit for the challenge, and I had made some progress towards my goal. Specifically, I had a grand total of 5 models painted – the aforementioned Defender and Black 13th, along with a Storm Tower that I had painted earlier. Kind of. More on that (and more photos!) in part II…

One Response to “A Reasonable Dream part I”

1. Subhedgehog says:

   2011/04/02 at 22:25

   I feel better knowing that I’m not the only procrastinating panic-painter. It’s the only way I’ve ever gotten any Blood Bowl teams painted. :D
   Can’t wait for part 2 – more peekatures!