Why be happy with what you have...

...when you can be unhappy with what you want ?

Or maybe you're asking to yourself : "why the hell is he trying to force some cheap philosophy in a modelling and wargaming blog?"

Please let me explain myself a little bit here and I'm pretty sure you will find some disturbing resemblance with your own case (unless you've already reached the Nirvana state of wargamers/modellists...).

Little time ago, I made a trade on the oldhammer forum with a valuable member (dare I say friend). We swaped chaos renegades and my partner had the delicate attention to join some spare models with what was agreed. This happens and it makes this hobby journey all the better but I already wrote about how our community can be rewarding sometimes.

What I want to tell you is that this very nice gesture has put some gigantic gears into motion. It's like the butterfly/storm concept appplied to my modelling.

Here is what I found with my good ol' chaos renegade :

Some of you will only see a bunch of plastic Heroquest fimirs while some others won't even recognise what they are. But I know some of you are already thinking "Oh my God, no! Poor him"

And if you're one of the latter, you're right.

As soon as I had them I felt like basing them and giving them a proper weapon to replace the broken ones. But doing this, I unconsciously  based them in a way I could rank them...

Why? Why would I need to rank models I don't want to make a unit of?, Why don't I just paint them for fun and as a token of gratitude towards my partner?

Well I tell you this is the beginning of the end ...

There is quick and easy test to know if you're cursed with this same disease. look at your models from above :

A) You see this :

OK, everything's fine for now, just don't look at them this way for too long. You don't want to catch anything bad.

B) you see this :

in which case I'm afraid you're pretty much f***ed. 

Note that if you see both green and blue shapes, you're in an advanced state of the curse (if you see more then I believe you can't be saved).

 

The last state of the curse is when this also pops to you mind and you're considering the 5-60 limit.

But what's the matter with seeing the green and blue shapes (or the warhammer armies extract) ? 

Well, let me put this another way, what is the matter with just painting 3 models and moving on to something else once you're done? Why not just stick to ONE project and move one to another when it's done?

Even when you're not adding new projects, the temptation is near :

I got the disciples of the red redemption from a cousin some time ago but didn't start painting them because it didn't feel right at the time.

 What is wrong with this lovely regiment of renown delicately sculpted by the great Jes Goodwin?
Nothing, except if you're looking from above...

Same problem here, I can't keep myself from seeing this instead :

I tried to add 3 flagellants to complete the rank but the scale doesn't work. I need some more redemptionists.

Why would I care, I don't even play. My last game of Warhammer was more than 3 years ago. I know I want my models to be "playable" and that is a thing, but why would I want the units to be the biggest I can? The time, energy and money it takes is crazy and almost pointless... I already know painting 15 examples of the very same model will be boring at some point but I already bought some more to have my 20 men strong unit.

I could blame GW and other brands for the "always more" philosophy behind all of this but the truth is I'm the only responsible here because of my lack of will...

It's nobodiy's fault but mine...

Bah, the only problem with this is that it tends to make me waste some time, energy and money. Now that I've realised that there is such a problem I think I know I can slow things a bit and I should probably move on to some skirmish projects and just be happy with the respectable collection I already have. I have to say there has been a revelation for me.

I really admire people who can focus on a aspect of their hobby which makes them have a very strong personnallity, I'm thinking about people like Don Hans, Ana Polanscak or Jeff Vader to name a few. 

I really want to learn from them so that I can take modles like these :

without being afraid to look at them from above.
Or being able to look at this page without my paypal account glowing red hot :

I'm pretty sure all the fuss about skirmish and small team games with revival of confrontation, necromunda, Realm of Chaos warbands or even newer games come sfrom this. The will to control our own hobby ant lead it into manageable and achievable projects. This is great, we will see more fniished projects and that we'll get less "hobby burn outs" this way.

 Hopefully, I'm in a good modelling mood at the moment (and even in a very good general mood with the birth of my newborn son ^^) so I feel like giving some old friends the attention they seek :

I'm working on both of them at the same time because I want to see how it affects my painting to work on both an evil and good character in once. I also get to work on many red nuances in once which is a great way to learn how to diversify my painting without always using the same tricks.

Even if it doesn't show in this crappy smartphone shot, I'm trying different ways to paint my reds with either high dark/light contrast or pink Vs ornage highlights. It gives me the opportunity to work on some colour theory principles too so you'll whatever comes out of this.

The grav-attack has also benefitted from useful comments and I made some plastic card lips and added exhausts. I'll soon start the smoothing part and add textures, leaving the sculpt of propellers for the end since I still don't know what I really want to do...

The deo stick is slowly disappearing behind the green stuff and details...