Out of the blocks

Another army started! But this one is a departure for me, as it will be speed painted, with mass effect on the tabletop more important than the paint work on individual models.

This first detachment is a case in point. It's sprayed black, a base colour applied and then washed with devlan mud. No additional highlighting required.

If I can stick to my plan, I should be able to add a small detachment or a half a unit of state troops every fortnight or so. Of course, I will no doubt break off at times to work on other armies, but if I dedicated all my hobby time to this one army I could have the whole army painted in about a year. That's about four or five times quicker than my other armies.

A change is as good as a rest?

I am officially really bad at choosing armies. And sticking to resolutions. It's just a month since I declared I would be concentrating on chaos and dwarfs as my main fantasy armies, but I have painted just one figure in that time, this rather nice classic Tzeentch sorceror. The colours were loosely based on the picture in the army book, though with more metallic tints rather than pastel colours. In that month I have played four games with the new list and am struggling to find enjoyment doing so, just frustration. I feel that warriors are a must inclusion in the army, yet they are hard to get the best use from, being so slow and easy to avoid. Supporting troops are obviously key to playing the army, the secret of which I have yet to unlock. So rather than continue to bash my head againt the proverbial brick wall, I am going to play a different army for a few weeks.

The army that has been most in my thoughts in the past week is not even one I own. I have a few figures from a previously abandoned project, just about enough to make up a Mordheim warband, not an army. I have always passed them by in favour of more exotica, but I think I might have to finally give into my instincts. So my next project may well be to collect the most average, ordinary army in the game - Empire.

My motley collection of bits is a few militia and some flagellents, which were going to be converted into a Witch Hunter warband. But I have recently come round to the idea of making several small bands of troops, such as a witch hunter band, a band of brigands and cut throats, maybe some trappers/hunters, that kind of thing. Each band could have some kind of unifying theme and make a discrete painting/modelling project, then be used as a detachment or small regiment in a complete army. Over time (a considerable period of time it has to be said), the bands would coalesce into a complete army, possibly with a Sigmarite theme. My opponents often plays beasts and chaos, ocassionally vampire counts, which also fits the theme. The more I mull it over, the more it makes sense.