Into The Woods

About 4 years ago, a newish game hit our local scene called Kings Of War. The thing that immediately spoke to me about it was that I was able to use any miniatures I had for it. 

ANY miniatures. 

Here was the opportunity to finally paint up the mass of half price, new release, out of print minis I'd gathered up over the years. 

To FINALLY put a dent in that shelf of shame with minis I ALREADY OWNED. 

I decided to make an undead army, mixing in old GW Models, Warmachines, Bones and a variety of other mismatched things to make a truly cobbled together from a thousand races, risen from the dead army. 

All minis I had! 

The start I needed for this was buying the starter set for Kings Of War which included about 100 new minis. 

BUT THEN I PAINTED UP A WHOLE BUNCH OF OLD STUFF FROM THE SHELF OF SHAME (mixing in a few... okay several... new purchases.)

(Pictured: Proof) 

Somewhere along the line I woke up and discovered I had aquired a full second hand GW Wood Elf lot that I planned to paint up promptly as my second army. 

Of course it went in the shelf. 

I then bought more minis for this army that went with their brothers on the shelf.  

Years passed like the hair follicles on my head.

Then I bought some more minis. 

Nary a brush, or even a can of spray primer did touch that cursed realm. 

BUT GLAD TIDINGS BROTHERS AND SISTERS! The army has begun to be painted!

(Mr. Elf, the first of his name.) 

I messed around a bit with the test mini and decided to go with a classic wood elf theme and a very limited pallette. One yellow, green, and brown, a wash and one highlight each. Simple. Like my mind. 

I loved the cartoony yet camo look, but Mr. Elf was looking a little flat, so I bumped in some red as the accent colour. Everyone knows red makes you go faster. 

(Here's a picture of me batch painting and laying down them base colours. There's nothing more satisfying than painting slight variations of the same mini 22 times at the same time.)

For the bases, I decided I wanted more of a plains look that followed in step with this same limited colour scheme than a full blown forest. A city reclaimed by nature perhaps. 

(Can't spell pumice without some of the letters from yummest.) 

I glued down some GW Azyrite Ruins, added some cork and some Vallejo Grey Pumice (works nice to scrub your feet with too) and then slapped some paint on them. 

Then I put all the ingredients together, baked for 40 minutes on high and...

Voila.

If we're being completely candid (we're candid here right?) I'm sort of amazed at how quickly these have come together. 

From concept to completion, these took a few nights of heavy painting while listening to an audio book. It's amazing how much of getting projects done is actually doing them, instead of just leaving them on a shelf to get a fine patina of dust and nacho finger prints on them. 

I'm actually EXCITED about the challenge of painting this box and buying no new minis. 

I'm EXCITED that I'm bringing order to the chaos of that massive box and planning what I'm painting when. 

What army have you been looking at for years that are still waiting for the brush?

Take them out. 

Give them the love they deserve. 

It feels nice.