"At the Paint Pots of Madness" or "A Fig Too Far"

In the face of gentle encouragement from Millsy and Nugget (such encouragement taking the form of japes, wind-ups, and jocular jibes at my masculinity, parentage, and inability to complete a painting task within a specified timeframe), I set myself a task for the weekend. I publicly undertook to paint 40 Gnoblars for my Ogre Army.

What the hell was I thinking?

I'd been delaying the inevitable, I'd done the building, basing, and undercoating, but I had gotten no further than painting the skin of these little monsters. They sat in their box, taunting me with their incomplete status, their gargoyle grins mocking me, their undercoated bodies showing the flat, dead-black tone of the truly accursed miniature - the project which knows no end!

I began Sunday morning around 10am. Six hours later, a gibbering human wreck was found at the kitchen bench, tearfully begging his wife to count the small goblinoids again, just to be sure that there were actually 40 completed.

Batch painting 40 figs is not a task for the faint-hearted, especially if you've only ever painted 20 at a time before. I'd certainly never attempted it on this scale. I'm not a Stakhanovite like Millsy. Gnoblars are much smaller than 28mm humans as well, meaning a lot of close-in work would be needed.

I forged ahead, setting up something of a production line for the little green men, forgetting breakfast and lunch, and refusing any nourishment other than black coffee. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake, and would go some way to explain my frazzled nerves when it was all over. That and forgetting to block in a key area and having to go back several figures to ensure completion... it happened more often than I would like to admit, so the production line was not as well-coordinated as would have liked.

For better or worse, here's the result;

That's the speed hump/distraction/meat shield of the Ogre Army, and at two points per figure, I'd better have 20 more completed before too long. Not just yet, is all I ask!

It's big figs for me again for the foreseeable. There's a Maneater to assemble, and the core units like Bulls and Ironguts could use some bulking up. And it might be nice to have some ranged capability beyond the Gnoblars' barrage of rock, bottles, and small animals, so the Leadbelchers could fill the vacant Special slot.

Just not for another couple of weeks, I beg you...