At the present time, it is difficult for me to work on modelling projects due to family circumstances. Being slightly obsessive, such things are rarely far from my mind and I found myself having a nose through my blog and reviewing some things I've worked on in the past.
As often happens with me, I found myself feeling guilty about unfinished work and work that hadn't been completed to a standard that I now find is "up to scratch". This led me to two of my biggest modelling regrets (and there are others, I promise!)
2018 will be the 10th anniversary of two of the biggest scratch-build projects I have ever worked on. I was given a copy of the first edition of the "Apocalypse" rulebook by
my friend Mike who also gave my son James (who at that point was still gaming) a Baneblade model. This, along with a challenge which James gave me to scratch-build a Titan - inspired us to do some modelling work and arrange an Apocalypse game!
The Baneblade was quickly assembled by James, but lay unpainted for a long time until
I picked it up and completed it a while back.
So, since we're not millionaires, I accepted James' challenge and embarked upon my first scratch-build project - a 28mm scale
Warhound Titan.
Whilst I am still immensely proud of the achievement, I've always felt disappointed by the overall result; the paint-job is poor and there is not nearly enough detail on the model. Too many flat surfaces. The basing is uninspiring too. Don't even start me on the banners - awful. I'd like to think my painting skills have improved somewhat since I did this and it looks horrible to me now.
The "good guys" were sorted - a large force of Imperial Guard (played by me) with allied Ultramarines (supplied and played by a friend of James') were facing off against a force of Orks (played by James) with allied Necrons (played by Mike).
Conscious of the fact that the "baddies" were under-represented with larger models, I also scratch-built a
Stompa for the Orks.
Neither the stompa nor the titan have progressed past this point. Enough is enough, so,
I resolve for 2018 to get this Battle-Puppy and metallic Bigfoot back out of their boxes and rework the finish. I may even build the two missing guns that I was originally going to create for the Titan, so that it can have interchangeable weapons. The Stompa needs its feet working on, a better head and the gatling cannon thingy is a bit naff too.
I also have in mind another "Lords of War" scale project - I might do it in 2018. Not decided yet. I picked up a second Baneblade model a while back with a view to using it as the basis for an Astra Militarum Gorgon troop carrier. I've always loved the Gorgon model but as I've already said "I'm not a millionaire".
Watch this space. Brace yourselves for lots of black-and-yellow hazard markings!
