Weekly Waffle #363 – Little Prospect
18th January 2025
For this week’s weekly waffle I have decided to stay in the vertically challenged world of the Squats. Or at least I have in terms of content I can share with you. To keep the mojo flowing I have also done some work on my next batch of Infinity minis, all three of them. But that has been more about cleaning them up and getting them primed. The jobs that always seem to take way longer than I anticipate. So working away on these bits whilst working on the rest of the squats is my way of trying to plan ahead.
Planning has been a thing this week because I’ve been back on the road for work. Nothing silly but it does eat up time with early starts and late finishes. So making the most of my hobby time is something I’m trying to work on this year. Trying to get into good habits early on in the year so that with a bit of luck they carry me through the fallows.
I’ve also tried to set some realistic goals for the year that align with good habits. That all sounds a bit thoughtful but it’s not that deep. What all of this is really going to mean is that I’m setting realistic goals. Enjoying my hobby time and last but not least learning something from each project. And even though we are only a few weeks into the year I’ve held true to some of these principles. But have utterly failed in the other.
So where has it all gone wrong this week. The idea of setting realistic goals has been the one I have fallen down on. Although it’s more of planning failure than anything else. When I was think about this it more about not setting a goal or a standard that I just have no chance of reaching. Stretching myself and failing is ok but make the things you are stretching for realistic. What went wrong this week was that I set aside a bit of time but do some prep work for future projects. Just so that I can keep things rolling. But the time I set aside turned out to be wildly optimistic.
What I wanted to do was simply to build up a unit of Hearthkyn Warriors. Not convert them, not paint them. Just clean them up and get them built. That way I have something to move onto when I finish with the minis I already have built and ready to paint. It’s just ten multi part minis so nothing special. As usual the GW instructions are all nice and clear. The parts are easy to find so no problem.
Well that is what I thought. And to be fair there weren’t any actual problems. It’s just that cleaning them up took me an age. I did get distracted a couple of times but everything seemed to take an age. I think part of this was down to me cleaning things up to a slightly higher standard than I have done in the past. And by that I mean I have cleaned all the mould lines off with a knife and got them nice and clean. But I’ve then gone over everything with a sanding sponge just to smooth things out a little bit more.
I started doing this on the Infinity minis because I had to use a metal file to clean them up. Then using a sanding sponge made sense as a way of getting rid of the file marks which would have really shown up on these minis. You probably don’t need to go to that length on these guys. They aren’t being painted for a completion or anything like that. In fact they may never see the light of day on a table top. I’m just painting them because I like the look of them. So going the extra mile probably isn’t really needed.
But I did it anyway and the end result was that they took a lot longer to do than I had anticipated. The up shot of that was that I didn’t have as much time as I thought to get you some finished content this week. So instead of getting my prospectors finished I’ve only finished three of them. I made the decision that I wanted something finished for you so I’ve been working on them individually to get at least one of them finished. I managed this and got two more done in the time I had available.
They have been painted and based in exactly the same way as the guys from last week. I said this last week and will probably say it again when I finish off the last three of these but I really like how they have turned out. For me the orange and blue works really well together. Which is going to be a challenge when it comes to painting the Hearthkyn Warriors to see how I integrate the colours because most of the minis have normal heads. Not the open face helmets that we have with the Pioneers.
For now though here are the next three Pioneers.
Thinking about the Hearthkyn Warriors there is the option to model them all with helmets to keep the blue. But most to them are closed so I don’t know how that will work out. I could always look to built them so I can swap out the heads. Either by magnetising them, if I have any small enough that will hold. Or simply pinning them so they can be swapped out. I think I will build them without any heads and then paint up both options. That way at the very least I can dry fit them and see how they look.
My thinking at the moment is to also add some blue to the shoulder pads. This will give the extra bit of colour that I think makes the colour scheme work. Assuming I build them bare heads. But it would also be in keeping if I give them helmets. I think at the end of the day it’s just going to be case of painting the first few up and see what they look like. Hopefully I will get it right first time. Or at least close enough that I don’t have to worry about it.
One thing I will be doing and is going in the sessions learned tally for the year is going bold on the shading. I think the orange really works because of the dark brown shading. It makes the orange pop more and gives the feel or proper light and shadow. Or at least it does to me. This was what I first tried on my Infinity minis and carried over to here so that is what I want to continue for the rest of the year.
It might not mean that I used that on every mini. But it’s knowing that if I use it correctly it can give really nice results relatively easily. Quick wins all the way. Anything that makes things that little bit easier or that little bit quicker is good in my book. But at the end of the day it has to be fun. That is my goal for this year. Not to get bogged down in someone that isn’t fun.
So on that note I’m going to call it a day for this week. It’s a full English breakfast and a catch up with my dad next for me. Whatever you have planned for the weekend and week ahead I hope you have a good time. And if you get the chance pop back here next week to see how things are progressing.
