Help me choose my hobby project for this fall

[Antarius]

Hello everybody - it's that time of year again, when the leaves start to come off the trees and everything turns cold and grey. So, I thought I'd see if I couldn't motivate myself to not just start a hobby project, but also a) actually finish it and b) maybe try some new techniques/ideas that I wouldn't otherwise use, as well as c) document the process with pictures and (hopefully not too enormous) walls of text that I could post on my blog and maybe inspire some of of you, during a sometimes demotivating time of year.

My only real criteria is that it must come from my closet of treasures (I really don't like the pile of shame phrase, as I don't feel any shame whatsoever about having vast amounts of minis) and that I should ideally be able to do most of the work inside without inhaling dangerous chemicals (but rattlecans and maybe some oil washes are a possibility). Finally, almost all of these ideas are intended as somewhat modular, in the sense that I'll start out with a relatively small project that I'll be sure to finish, but which will be easily expandable, if it turns out well.

I always get a huge motivational bump from the Call to Arms and a slight post-CtA depression, so if anyone else feels the same and would like to join in on having a fall project, maybe we can figure out some system for keeping each other motivated and following what everybody's doing.

For some reason, I am too stupid to figure out how to add a poll (let's just pretend it's an issue with my browser as that will be much more comfortable for me). So, the ideas I have at present, which I'd love if you guys would take a look at and help me choose between, are:

1. Necromunda terrain. I have a bunch in varying stages between unassembled and partially painted. The idea is basically to combine GW kits with other stuff and make sure they look suitably asymmetrical, combined with a relatively easy "industrial" paintjob and some nice weathering/detailing.
2. A Death Guard kill team (possibly a small army, if I decide to expand upon the initial batch of 7 or so minis)
3. A Space Marine (probably Imperial Fists) force that can be used for either Horus Heresy or 4th ed. Warhammer 40.000. It's an idea that I've been toying with for a while and I think it should be doable.
4. A bunch of Daemons (most likely Nurgle and/or Slaanesh)
5. Some Tyranids with an interesting, not too cartoony colour scheme. I have a bunch lying around and while I don't have any concrete ideas for a colour scheme at present, I think it might be interesting to see if I can cook up something that's both relatively easy and doesn't look like something out of a candy store.

 

Like I said, I couldn't make the poll work, so if you'll write a few lines about the idea(s) you find most interesting it'd be a great help to me 

 

 

Edited October 15 by Grotsmasha
=] Polls are Mod only [=

[crimsondave]

I’ve got a Crimson Fists side project going when I’m tired of painting Dark Angels (which hasn’t been often lately with the new models) so I vote something Dorn.

[N1SB]

Speaking of polls, I'm pretty sure I just voted for you in the Call to Arms.  I'm pretty sure that's your Lord of Change.  Didn't know it was you.  Actually all the minis looked really good, not just yours, everyone did great work, but for whatever reason your big bird stood out for me.  Great job!

 

So understanding you just finished that Daemons project, I actually suggest this.  I got like a Roadmap proposal here:

 

• Fall 2024: Death Guard - light project, weaning yourself off of Chaos Daemons to Marines
• Winter 2025: Loyalist Marines - having been weaned off Chaos, now pure Marines
• Spring 2025: Tyranids - by this time, you've had time to back-of-mind-process your colour scheme
• Summer 2025: Slaanesh Daemons - in anticipation of the Emperor's Children Codex, imagine hearing news or previews while working on that project

 

Regardless, after your big Tzeentch project, maybe just enjoy a small Kill Team, which happens to be Death Guard.

[calgar101]

I picked 30k/40k dual army, especially since you want to do Imperial Fists. As someone who will do a 30k IF force soon that was the clear choice for me.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing whatever hobby goal you pick.

[Bouargh]

I vote for Terrain, as Terrain can be used in all and any cases. Morevover, if yoy are still undecided, terrain is also a sure value for what it brings: it gives you time to decide for next thing to do. I fill proscratination time with Terrain. I recommend the medicine.

 

Edit: And I like the pics of terrains from your gallery and I hope you will share more.

Edited October 15 by Bouargh

[Antarius]

5 hours ago, N1SB said:

Speaking of polls, I'm pretty sure I just voted for you in the Call to Arms.  I'm pretty sure that's your Lord of Change.  Didn't know it was you.  Actually all the minis looked really good, not just yours, everyone did great work, but for whatever reason your big bird stood out for me.  Great job!

 

So understanding you just finished that Daemons project, I actually suggest this.  I got like a Roadmap proposal here:

 

• Fall 2024: Death Guard - light project, weaning yourself off of Chaos Daemons to Marines
• Winter 2025: Loyalist Marines - having been weaned off Chaos, now pure Marines
• Spring 2025: Tyranids - by this time, you've had time to back-of-mind-process your colour scheme
• Summer 2025: Slaanesh Daemons - in anticipation of the Emperor's Children Codex, imagine hearing news or previews while working on that project

 

Regardless, after your big Tzeentch project, maybe just enjoy a small Kill Team, which happens to be Death Guard.

Thank you! I was honestly feeling rather "done" with my Daemons project, when it finally became time to do the big guy - I had saved him for last, as a sort of prize for getting all the other stuff done, but it turned out this was a bit of a mistake, as I really didn't enjoy painting him as much as I should have. I'm really happy you like him, though!
You roadmap might actually come to pass, seeing how the votes are falling, so far. In any case, it's a great suggestion and I've actually just gone out and done a quick zenithal prime on my DG kill team (the guys from the wh heroes series), as it seems like they'll be the first (and if not, it won't hurt to have them primed for later).
 

5 hours ago, calgar101 said:

I picked 30k/40k dual army, especially since you want to do Imperial Fists. As someone who will do a 30k IF force soon that was the clear choice for me.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing whatever hobby goal you pick.

 

6 hours ago, crimsondave said:

I’ve got a Crimson Fists side project going when I’m tired of painting Dark Angels (which hasn’t been often lately with the new models) so I vote something Dorn.

I can promise that you'll both get your wish eventually, even if it doesn't turn out to be the first project out of the gate. I found a couple of Rhinos with IF symbols on when I rummaged through the cupboard, so I'll have to do something with them sooner or later 

 

 

21 minutes ago, Bouargh said:

I vote for Terrain, as Terrain can be used in all and any cases. Morevover, if yoy are still undecided, terrain is also a sure value for what it brings: it gives you time to decide for next thing to do. I fill proscratination time with Terrain. I recommend the medicine.

 

Edit: And I like the pics of terrains from your gallery and I hope you will share more.

Yeah, terrain is great like that. I actually had a couple of years where I basically only did terrain, because I was in a bit of a painting slump when it came to miniatures. As you say, the great thing about it is that it's not bound up with a certain army, so it's always a good investment of time and energy. I'm very happy that you like the stuff I've posted so far and I'll certainly be doing more terrain at some point, either as its own project or as a bit of breathing room from other projects.

[TheArtilleryman]

Death Guard Kill Team and some Necromunda terrain, because one will complement the other and it will be achievable as a small autumn project. You could even paint the terrain up with rust/verdigris/mould etc. to fit in with the theme.

Edited October 15 by TheArtilleryman

[Antarius]

51 minutes ago, TheArtilleryman said:

Death Guard Kill Team and some Necromunda terrain, because one will complement the other and it will be achievable as a small autumn project. You could even paint the terrain up with rust/verdigris/mould etc. to fit in with the theme.

Hmm, I actually do more or less paint my Necromunda terrain in Death Guardy colors…

[Firedrake Cordova]

I vote terrain, because it's often neglected, makes games more immersive, and no-one actually has enough (even the loony that owns this giant Sector Mechanicus board  )

Edited October 15 by Firedrake Cordova

[Antarius]

Good morning and thanks for your votes and comments!

It seems like you, collectively, have as hard a time choosing as I have on my own 

 

However, there is a clear top three, so I think I'll just do those three and maybe make it a fall/winter thing.

When I went to bed, the Death Guard had a very clear lead, so as I mentioned, I actually went ahead and primed them:

As you can see, it's basically the Space Marine Heroes series, plus a terminator (I just figured he'd be fun, he's probably not usable in Kill Team at all). They're primed brown/bonewhite but for some reason they seem really greenish on the picture, probably greatfather Nurgle interfering with the lens.

[Antarius]

10 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I vote terrain, because it's often neglected, makes games more immersive, and no-one actually has enough (even the loony that owns this giant Sector Mechanicus board  )

Very nice Mechanicus board! (I get the feeling it's yours  ). Any plans for painting, colour scheme and so on?

[Firedrake Cordova]

38 minutes ago, Antarius said:

Very nice Mechanicus board! (I get the feeling it's yours  )

I wish it were! Sadly it is not.  It was posted over on Yaktribe some time ago (I've also seen a nice one or two on Dakka Dakka).

[Antarius]

39 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I wish it were! Sadly it is not.  It was posted over on Yaktribe some time ago (I've also seen a nice one or two on Dakka Dakka).

Ah, ok. Shame; would've been fun to talk about ideas and so on - especially if we were both painting our stuff at the same time.

[Antarius]

I felt quite motivated this morning, so I thought I might as well get started. Here you can see the result of my first pass with pale sand (a warm off-white, as I'm going for an overall warmer feel, even though the pictures have a rather cold tone).

And here you can see how my drybrush/stipple has already provided quite a nice gradient. I basically just catch the edges by drybrushing in the opposite direction to the edges, then I finish off with drybrushing in a circling motion where I want more coverage and "stabbing" the brush at some areas that are harder to get at (maybe we should call this "stab chop"?).

As you can see, I leave rather a lot of the original colours showing and don't care too much for a smooth coverage, both because of the feel of these particular minis, but also because this will work to my advantage later when I start using washes and so on. Maybe I'll even do some oil wash/painting on them, if I feel up to it.
But I think I'd better move the rest of this project over to my blog - I hope you'll be interested in following along there 

The plan right now is to do these 7-8 DG guys first, then if I can't help myself, do some more DG infantry and some vehicles/gribblies. After that I'll move on to Imperial Fists and we'll see how far that goes (in theory, I have an entire company or so laying about...). I'll work on my terrain as a bit of a "palate cleanser" as I go along. So if any of these interest you, please follow along and by all means comment! The comments really mean more to me than you might know, as they're a huge factor in keeping me motivated and keeping the creative juices flowing.

[Antarius]

I just went ahead and did the first blog entry on the project. Please feel free to comment and tell me to get my act together, if the blog post trickle starts slowing down 

 

 

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

@OP: You are asking on a dedicated SM forum what kind of hobby project to do and one of the choices is SM? Well, there will be only one outcome...

 

But seriously the only correct answer would be this:

 

You should do whatever you like to do in the moment and not what you have to do. When I finished my ten assault intercessors a few weeks ago the next project was anything but SM. I couldn´t stomach to do power armour and OSL eye lenses again. So I painted up a couple of Undead for Frostgrave. And in a few weeks more SM will be painted as the power armour fatigue has worn off.

[TheArtilleryman]

29 minutes ago, Deus_Ex_Machina said:

You should do whatever you like to do in the moment and not what you have to do.

This is 100% the best piece of advice ever. As soon as I stopped saying to myself “I have to paint those tactical guys before I can paint a tank” my hobby output exploded. Now bizarrely I actually look forward to when I feel like getting around to the basic guys.

Edited October 16 by TheArtilleryman

[Helias_Tancred]

I voted DG kill team. Those new model sculpts are well-done.

 

[Antarius]

14 hours ago, Deus_Ex_Machina said:

@OP: You are asking on a dedicated SM forum what kind of hobby project to do and one of the choices is SM? Well, there will be only one outcome...

 

But seriously the only correct answer would be this:

 

You should do whatever you like to do in the moment and not what you have to do. When I finished my ten assault intercessors a few weeks ago the next project was anything but SM. I couldn´t stomach to do power armour and OSL eye lenses again. So I painted up a couple of Undead for Frostgrave. And in a few weeks more SM will be painted as the power armour fatigue has worn off.

 

13 hours ago, TheArtilleryman said:

This is 100% the best piece of advice ever. As soon as I stopped saying to myself “I have to paint those tactical guys before I can paint a tank” my hobby output exploded. Now bizarrely I actually look forward to when I feel like getting around to the basic guys.

You're both right, of course. I also think we all know the feeling of planning out an entire army project, starting it and then getting fed up and not finishing it, due to feeling that it's become a chore rather than something we want to do. That's also why I decided to frame the projects here as limited but expandable, so I might keep going with death Guard if I really enjoy it, or I might move on to something else.

However, I also just though it'd be fun to have you help me choose the project, as they're all projects I want to do at some point. In fact, I have much, much more laying around on sprues in my cabinet of wonders, so these are just the projects I felt would be fun at this particular moment in time 

[calgar101]

It can be good to get input from others and some times be "pushed" into a project, to give you that extra incentive to make a start. Procrastinating is the enemy of progress. 

With whatever you decide to do, as you get near the end of it you might keep going, having caught a 'hobby bug'.

 

[Xenith]

Terrain, you can use it in every game. Cross that half done project off. 

[Antarius]

Thanks again for your replies everybody. I'm already roughly halfway through the Death Guard kill team (at least it feels that way; the final details will probably take longer than I imagine) and then I might get out the terrain - perhaps even employ some of the oil/weathering techniques that I'm hopefully going to learn/perfect while working on the Death Guard.

As a little bonus, I wrote up my "heavy rust" recipe that I managed to remember earlier today. It's quite easy and effective, fun even 
Here it is, if you're interested: