Pondering my Ork: Time, Space, and Managing Enthusiasm

Mentioned on Hive Scum (the ep that’ll be out 11/2) that I’ve hit a bit of a hobby slump lately. Talking my way through problems helps me out a lot, and the boys helped me think things through which was particularly helpful. 

My creative world goes through changes, in cycles that last anywhere from 6 months to 2 years - times of intense flow to times of steady ebbs. After seeing this cycle play itself out a dozen or so times I know I have to temper my flow to keep it sustainable, and I also like to chew through my ebbs so they don’t become stagnant. 

I’m certainly hitting an ebb - and with this ebb I know what I have to do, I have to make a workflow change to keep it moving, even if it’s more of a trickle for a little. 

About a month ago I started feeling it, a backup of home projects, hobby projects, family obligations and professional obligations left me stressed and overwhelmed. I had a little micro-breakdown before bed one night (always when we are tired huh?), and I decided to go to sleep and see what the landscape looked like in the morning. 

I realized something the next day. I had been trying my hardest to squeeze it all in. The build-up of ideas became too much, and the intention and focus I enjoy when working in tasks was gone - and left was a feeling of guilt that I was unable to get it all done and make time for my family. 

That was the full stop. I couldn’t sacrifice time I could be enjoying family activities to focus on getting stuff done. Also getting 8 hours of rest had an overwhelmingly positive effect on me mentally. So there it was, my solution: slow down, reclaim intention, and give the tasks some space. 

For this last month - the hobby has been on the backburner. I found it hard to scrape even a half hour to sit down at the workbench and I reflected on the work I’ve done in the past year. I’ve painted three armies and several warbands, each one created in a unique way, and you know - it felt great to do that.

But I lost something in the massive push. 

I lost the love for the individual model. 

I lost the love of focusing in on one step in the process, I pushed and pushed and the hobby started to feel like a race rather than a meditation it once was. 

Maybe speedpainting over two color zenithal isn't my answer.

So last night I finished my first model I’ve finished in a month. A kitbashed ork for 40k. It felt great, because I took my time. I sunk in and just enjoyed pushing the paint around. Painted a face on the shield, some checks on the gun, hit some places with gloss and did more than just throw flock at the base. 

Obviously it is nice to get these big chunky projects blasted through - and even when blasting through, I still make time for the little details, but because I’m flying, there’s a hint of anxiety involved. 

So here I am, slowing down a bit. Focusing on the mini in front of me, and living one hobby session at a time. 

Slow and steady work always yields more production than expected (the first step is the hardest as they say). My problem is I start steady and healthy and then I set a precedent and try and meet the productivity. 

This ain’t going to always happen, especially with a toddler who is my main focus. I’m not always gonna find regular hobby time. 

A good hobby friend of mine - Maggot Ian (Echoes of Battle, Portcullis zine), put it perfectly when talking to Enzo, another hobby dad who can’t always find the time to paint or play: “Also easy to fall into all or nothing thinking. Some gaming is better than none.” Same goes for all aspects of the hobby. Sometimes we are gonna get there, sometimes we aren’t. 

It’s more important to slow down, do what you can, and enjoy what you are doing. 

xoxox

Terry

The Incident on Harrark's Grin

Last episode of Hive Scum, I talked with Gage and Steve a bit about solo-wargaming. It has always been something floating around in the back of my mind, I remember reading a Jervis Johnson piece about creating custom scenarios to play in his basement. This idea (like I said on the pod) is very appealing. I get to set up my creations, look at them all setup, and learn a new game, at my own pace - shifting rules in the process to meet my needs.

I've been slowly setting up a board using some 1x1 tiles that were made by Gage for an event run by him and Evan (@itswhatevan). They mostly sat around the studio for the last couple years, but this plus some scatter would make the perfect board for the first mission. 

Which I hope will lead to more!

Here's a look at the board as it stands now. I fitted a 2'x3' play area in a part of my garage studio that's seldom used. This can stay up for however long it takes me to finish. I dug out some Nurgle cultists and they are just milling around for now - doing what cultists do best.

My goal is to learn 3rd Edition 40K. I've got the rules printed out, and my computer is set-up right next to the game so I can reference it if I need to. I am going to take one tiny step at a time, and get a chance to really absorb it, rather than feeling to crunch of an opposing player.

For now I just have some of the opposing force setup, but I will be dropping my Black Templars on the map when I pick them up from the studio. It's going to be really small numbers - 250pts or so, and I'm going to ignore unit cohesion so it feels more skirmish like.

I'll have more of a lore dump in the next post about this game, but the basic story is a mostly abandoned manufactorium on a moon called Harrark's Grin, which orbits a larger planet called Metolocus II is now home to a budding Nurgle-loving abhuman settlement. Planetary Defense Forces on Metolocus have received messages of unknown origin from, who they believe to be Imperial citizens from the small pole-based communities which still have workers stationed at them. After years of sending PDF and Guard squads, Planetary Governor Bulard has connected with Sector Lord Montavius, who has enlisted the help of nearby stationed Black Templars, on crusade in the neighboring Archarbos Sector. They accept the Sector Lord's proposal and send a team of 5 Initiates and their Castellan.

I'm excited to see how this plays out. In any case it will be a learning experience and a new way for me to engage with the hobby on my limited time I have to myself these days!

xoxo

Zona Alfa/Inhumane Harvest Crew

Things have been rolling across the hobby desk a bit slower these days. Summer's over and my daughter is going through what feels like her 100th tough night-time transition, so I don't get too much time to dwell in my cave. I'm working on a big project that I can't talk about here just yet - but I've also been making a crew to run in games of Zona Alfa, Inhumane Harvest, and the two taggers will act as NPCs for a Necromunda event in the near future, put on by my friend Trey.

I'm really happy with the crew. a couple use some old bashes that are being recycled, one guy in the back is made using different Bolt Action sprues, the dude with the assault rife in the front is metal and was a lucky find from my bits bin. I watched Trent's basing video yesterday and it opened my eyes to creating dynamic bases, so you can see two in the back are constructed using some of Trent's asymmetrical slants. Very fun to do and they really make those poses more dynamic. The two I'm most excited about though are the ones with spray cans which are from Slow Death Games: Wild in the Streets. I've sat on these FOREVER and I've always wanted to use them for a game. I like to imagine they are the ones writing "Dead Inside!" on doors and other post-apocalyptic messages you'd see in an area overrun with mutant freaks.

Anyway, I'll prime with guys up tonight most likely. Aside from that I'm working on making some music again, using some techniques I used back when I first started making noise. Be on the lookout for a release (hopefully soon) on IRWT, as well as probably a very rare IG post (boo!)

See y'all next time 

Turnip28: Some Buildings

So Paulie Mordheim left me with a couple of buildings from the Vexed Village Kickstarter because I mentioned I wanted to paint them up. I love the character of these buildings and they remind me of some of my favorite turnip terrain from  Dr Mathias

Paul had primed them black, so I soaked them in my usual way with a bunch of random paint off the shelf:

I thought that the greenish tint would be cool, and I left 'em out in the sun to dry up all day:

I hit them with some color, using a sponge for the white. Just like all my turnip stuff it was quick, rough and sloppy.

 

Then I mixed up some oilwash. I've been using streaking grime a lot lately, but oil is MUCH more cost effective. I love the messy stage of slopping a bunch of oil on there and seeing how bad it looks

Then of course, it all looks great when you wipe it off:

Things got kinda weird here... I tried to resplotch on some white over the oil and it looked really bad haha, still I went forward with it, and drybrushed the red and the gray metal. I didn't take pics because it wasnt part of the plan.

 Then for these final pics, I went over the whole thing in a dark brown ink wash (sort of agrax-like), which brought the messiness together.

Ultimately, I like them, they weren't hard to paint up and I think they'd look killer on a table.

Thanks for stopping by, I know I said I'm done with Turnip, but I played one game and now I'm really back into it.

Turnip28: Rootmen of the Carbuncle

Let me tell ya folks, I'm ready to take a break from this project for a bit. Love the regiment that I made, but I'm glad to put a tack into the final unit and call the whole 3 snob force done for now. 

Last unit to get finished up was my brutes. I made a post before about how I built these, inspired by moldmoldmold and his new book. I still have a lot of experimenting to do before I can figure out how he actually sculpts and paints his stuff, but this was a start I guess... some things worked with these, and some I think could go better - but that making art right? You learn a bit more with each project, and the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.

Anywhooo, here's how they looked closed to the beginning

Lots of layers of matte medium to create a sort of sickly translucent layer (that's the white). The rest is very minimally painted. After a wash or two, I picked out the actual "root" which they call Carbuncles. The lore goes that these roots crawl in and attach themselves to the nervous system of the dead and create little walking brute zombies that are tough to kill!

Gross! Anyway after a bit of work on the base, and a little more gloss, they were pretty much done.

The Rootmen of the Carbuncle:

I am painting up some Turnip28 terrain, so next post will probably be that or W!R stuff!

Big love!

Turnip28: The Gurgling Griggonions

 

This morning I wrapped up work on my two Whelp units for Turnip28, collectively called the Gurgling Griggonions. I have no idea if they are good or not, but I always want some fast units in my forces. I've never learned how to use cavalry units efficiently, but I'm and aggro player at heart (to make up for lack of strategy) so I figured having two units of whelps, each led by a Toady on a horse would be the way to go!

I made up the Whelps and Toadies using a box of Warlord Games Napoleonic British Union Brigade, I wanna say for the Black Powder line, but I threw away the box. all the Whelps just have the classic turnip heads that Gage printed me forever ago, and the Toadies have some fish heads sculpted by Ana Gardens of Hecate, which were put out by toadally_not_matt. all the bodies were properly gritted up which I outlined in a previous post.

When I got to painting, I did it the same way I painted my fodder. Started with a really messy basecoat, cramming it all in while the colors were still wetty spaghettis:

They always look comically bad (although quick to paint) until you hide those mistakes with some wash, in my case - more Streaking Grime. I added a few highlights and details and here's where we are at:

Then I give the bases and the tray a little flockin' love and they look like a real unit!

That's that! Easy peasy whelps, here's some glamour shots:

The Brutes are nearly finished, so those will be next. Then I'm taking a break from turnip, to focus on some Wanted! Reward characters.

xoxox 

Terry

Turnip28: Pierre-Louis Pustul de Maggonet and the 281st Festering Carbuncle

Well I whipped up my fodder unit, painting it all super quick and messy - as any good turnip paintjob should be. I started by just spraying a bunch of cans I had kicking around. The colors probably played little part in the end, but I figured I'd just experiment with it:

From here I did a PROPER splotch job on them. I used a big brush and 5 or 6 colors, I just crammed it all in there while the other colors where still wet and didn't really care if I hit the wrong areas.

It's been a while since I experimented with "saving" a paintjob with a wash. What I mean by that is relying on the wash to hide all my sins. Streaking grime did not disappoint here! 

Also I went back with little highlights and some detail work, but only spent a few minutes with each model. It was mostly done with a big drybrush.

Pierre-Louis Pustul de Maggonet went through a few variations, but ultimately I just used a body from the Wargames Atlantic Conquistadors box that I won at Under the Dice Fest YEARS ago.

Here's the ol' bird all done up, in the same way as the messy fodder. I'm not sure if he will remain the Toff, or if I will have a more inspired idea. As I said before my job here is just to get a regiment all done, then I'll work out the lore details.

I did however gloss up the heads pretty good. Just felt like a funny thing to do. I'll probably tie it to the lore somehow at some point, but for now I just wanted real shiny helmets and bayonets. Maybe they put some sort of root slick all over them.

And here's the lot of them, looking ready to march!

Next I think I'll paint up the whelps all at once, there are two units, and the toadies are twins. The brutes are also happening, but it's a little trickier, you'll find out when I post em.

 

Flames of Orion: Dark Demon

Dark Demon is the name I generated using the Flames of Orion Callsign Generator, and dammit I'll stick with it, although I'm tempted to try again. I painted up the mech today while hanging out with the gang over at the Hive Scum HQ.  We had intended to actually play too... but sandwiches and xacto knife dartboard got in the way. 

You know how it goes.

Anyway this mech started off as a Marauder I pulled from a blind box a while ago. My favorite mech from Battletech I've seen! I had already painted this one, but wanted it to fit a little more in the FoO-niverse. I added some greebles and some grit, and I made it a bit more asymmetric and came up with this:

 

She primed up nicely, and I put a wash of a couple GW shades I had kicking around over the very bright white zenithal I had laid over. 

I was already liking the way it looked:

I added some red on a few areas for pops of color:

Then I hit it with some streaking grime, and after that had dried I hit the windows with some red, to match the booster in the back and gel with the red details.

After it was mostly dry I tried to make the base pop by mixing up a bunch of random paint to see what happens. In this case it was Dirty Down Verdigris, a yellow contrast paint, and some sky blue for highlights.

After that I painted to base rim black and called it done! I probably could so more to this, added more highlights etc., but thats the fun part of painting with others for me. I paint quickly and I don't care as much, and usually it comes out better than expected.

Thanks for lookin'! Pce!