Weekly Waffle #350 –
12th October 2024
I’ve worked hard this week to try and get over the mojo block and get something finished for you this week. In particular I have been really struggling with a large cloak. But to try and get round this I decided that I didn’t need to have it perfect, after all I’m not painting this for a competition. But I did need to get it finished so I focused on good enough as opposed to this has to be perfect. After all non of my painting is perfect so as long as I was going to be happy to share it then it would be good enough. I am a little bit vain so I wouldn’t want to share anything that I wasn’t on some level happy with. There are certainly things in this week’s update that I think could be better but I am happy to share it with you. And I can come back to it at a later date and make some tweaks if I want to.
So what is this mojo killer that I have been working on. Well it is the Emperor of Ork Kind. And before you say that isn’t a really thing. Puppets War would beg to differ. At hart this is their take on Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka and I think they have done a fantastic job of it. They have taken the classic Empire of Man Kind pose where he is poised over the body of Horus. But has used an Ork Warboss, who just happens to have a set of weapons that align with Ghazghkull in the rule book. It is something they do a really good job of and I hope they keep this up.
When it came to a painting choice I was going to go with my standard red, blue and yellow colour scheme. But I have seen some examples out there that were painting up in the gold of the Emperor of Man Kind. So I thought I would have a go at going down this route.
This was quite an easy decision to make and the first part of the process when really quickly. I just got stuck in and things were flowing really well. The colour choices I made just seemed to work and I didn’t really give it much thought. The details on the model are really nice and was enjoying working away on it. It was only when I came to doing the cloak that things seemed to fall off a cliff.
I had several attempts to try and get it to look right but nothing seemed to work. It was patchy, or it was streaky or there just wasn’t enough definition. Nothing I tried seemed to work and the more I did the worse it looked. Which in turn made me feel worse about wanting to carry on. Hence the mojo just disappeared. In the end I decided I would start again but do it with the air brush.
That wasn’t quite what I did in the end but the air brush was the saviour. I decided to start by getting the highlights done with my thinking being I could always revert to glazing to get the shadows. Turns out I was feeling good with the airbrush and did nearly all of the cloak with it. Without ruining the metallics I had already done. So I was very happy with that.
I think this has been a really big learning experience for me. If this hadn’t gone so wrong I wouldn’t have had to try and find a new solution. Which in turn has given me some renewed confidence in using my airbrush for something other than just priming and varnishing.
Even though I had gone with a dirty gold I still use red, blue and yellow for something other than the details. This was done so the it would still fit in with the rest my army and I think it works quite well. But what do you think.
There are several bits that I think could do with a little more work. The cloak needs some weathering along with some general weathering to tie the mini into the base. But because this has been something of a blocker on the mojo front I just wanted to get it to a stage where I would be happy to field it in a game. And that is where it is now.
I have a few other models that I’ve already shared with you that could do with some weathering. So at some point in the future I will probably have a weathering session. Mainly so that I can try and get a consistent finish across all the minis. They may never find their way into an actual game but it would be nice to have them all looking consistent. You never know I may decide to sell them and it would be good to have that same consistent finish across the army.
Getting this guy finished has eaten up all of my hobby time this week and I’m going to be short on time next week. I have a lot of travel to do for work so time is going to be short. I have primed the Grot who came with the boss man so I’m going to try and get him finished before I move onto anything else. I’ve got lots to be going at I’m just trying to pick things I think I can get completed in a week. Then if I have any extra time I can start preparing larger jobs. Buy that I mean can I get a squad built as well as getting something painted. Then can I get it primed. With the aim being to something to the stage where I can then complete it for the next week.
Trying to have finished content each week has changed how I approach projects now. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not but it is keeping focused. And it’s keeping me painting so it’s certainly not a bad thing. The only downside is that I might not be painting quite as much as I could. Because I don’t want to end the week with nothing to show you
That just about wraps things up for this week. The mojo is back. I have projects to be working on, the only thing that may be lacking is time. But what time I do have I am going to try and out to good use. Until next week I hope you all keep safe. And I hope to see you all back here next Saturday for a bit more waffle.
