Painting Goals for March (and some WIPs!)

I started this week with a goal. It was part of my grand new idea to get myself painting more often and more regularly. That goal was to paint an entire unit of dwarfen Longbeards. I'll be frank, it wasn't even a very honest goal - I'd already painted the first rank! Even so I've come to realise that I'm simply not going to be able to paint the poor buggers fast enough to get them all done this week.

I'm not going to give up though - that way lies a half painted unit sitting in my case for the better part of six months, unloved and untouched whilst being cruelly mocked by the legions of painted dwarfs. I am, however, going to reassess how I look at the goals I set myself.

Firstly, I'm going to set realistic targets. I know now I'm not going to get a full unit of 20 dwarfs painted in a week (or the 15 left, don't judge me!) but I might manage 10 (or 7.5!) quite easily, judging by what I've got done so far.

Secondly, I'm going to change the goals to monthly ones. How much can I get done in a month? This is a pretty common idea amongst the project log scene so it's not some great revelation but it is something that I wish I'd considered before.

With that in mind, here's my goals for this month.

1. Finish that poor unit of Longbeards that's been sitting half finished for rather too long!
2. Paint up my Redemptionist Necromunda gang. I spent a week or so putting these together and I learnt a lot doing it regarding pinning and my own abilities as a hobbyist. Turns out I'm better than I thought! Really looking forward to getting some paint on them!
3. Paint some dwarfen Miners - they're the Skull Pass ones so they're not the best thing since sliced bread but they'll be a simple project to end the month on!

So, that's one large project, a medium sized project (I only have 10 Redemptionists to paint and some of them are going to be fairly simple) and one small project. I feel excited already! Breaking it down like this, as with everything in life, already seems to have made the whole thing feel more attainable. Brilliant.

Right, anyway, here's some pretty pictures to tide you over until I can show you those finished miniatures!

Dwarf Warrior Regiment

Those are my warriors; I finished them a fair while ago. The bases need cleaning up, but other than that I'm pretty proud of them! I still have another unit of them to go, but I'm getting fed up of painting the same dwarfs over and over so they're going to be on the backburner for awhile, I suspect.

Dwarf Longbeard Front-Rank

This is the front rank of my Longbeards. The picture isn't as great and I had to use the flash as the light today is awful. They're coming along nicely though - I like the gold and I like the way they're beginning to feel more uniform than the rabble that is the warriors. When the unit is done, they're going to look great.

Longbeard WIPs

And here's the WIP Longbeards. These were painted under a daylight magnifying lamp, unlike everything else, and because of that the red is looking a lot more vibrant and cleaner (although you wouldn't know it from this photo - the perils of using the flash! I blame the sun. And its hiding away). These are, however, just the same old dwarf warrior models with masks. I'd hoped that difference, plus the fact they've got gold (and gold is fun to paint) on them would make a big difference. It hasn't and I'm getting tired of painting this model now... Still, one soldiers on and hopefully I'll have something to be pleased of by the end of this.

I am looking forward to painting the gold though. Something about shiny things...