Sunday 10 November 2019

Guard update

Even after twenty battalions I still remain absurdly optimistic when estimating the time things are going to take. When I woke up this morning my woman had left me and the dog was dead (she's only away for the weekend, and the dog died several decades ago, but it's still true) , but aside from that I thought my remaining eight guardsmen would take, oh, no more than an hour and half to finish off, easily.

The Hateful Eight
Eight hours later (with only a very short break for lunch) they have just received their varnish and will need at least another 8-10 hours to dry, which is why I haven't been able to mount them and show them off properly in time for this week's post.

Next week should be good though.
TTFN

WM

18 comments :

  1. Superb, worth 8 hours of work!

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  2. I dunno, Phil. My work stress is quite high at the moment (I have an impending VVIP meeting to deal with next week, so my brief has to be perfect), but it's not that bad!

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  3. Yay! Basing is the easy bit so you are really done in my book and if you don't lavish every last attention on these figure you know they'll grumble and refuse to fight.
    Had to abandon my iPad and come downstairs to make this comment on my PC as my iPad comments rarely work, e.g. nothing made on it on to the recent La Rothiere post elsewhere.

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    1. As you can see, the bases are ready too, so I was tantalisingly close, but no cigar unfortunately. It absolutely bucketed down for most of today, so there was nothing else to do.

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  4. I always think that painting soldiers is the perfect way to de stress. Those look a great 8 hours worth of anti stress to me. They are going to be a magnificent unit once completed.

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    1. I don't know why these were so tricky in the end, 'Lee, but they were. The colour palette is quite simple really, but they way they all fitted together turned out to be quite complex. Work next week will seem like a breeze in comparison.

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  5. I've lost count of the number of times I've thought "it'll only take me a couple of hours to finish that" next thing I know it's a month later! Superb work though, this is going to be a cracking unit when finished.

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    1. It's very rare for me to have a whole day to devote to painting, Ian, so I'm very glad to have more-or-less finished them!

      I think they'll look very stately finally assembled, although not necessarily very warlike. We'll have to see....

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  6. They are coming along very well. Beautiful even if not quite to the basing stage. I wish I could paint during stressful times, bit I need a clear head free from county and western-like troubles to feel like siting down a picking up a paintbrush. Sigh.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. I haven't got any real troubles, Stokes, just a few work deadlines which I can safely leave at the office. When I did have real troubles I never did any painting!

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    1. Cheers Tony. I'll have them looking their best for their march past the Emperor by next week, I promise.

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  8. 8 hours! My hands would cramp. No wonder you can use painting as a de-stresser; you must have a zen-like quality of relaxation as you paint. No wonder your lines are always so straight and smooth. By contrast, I feel like I bludgeon my brushes into submission!

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  9. It's a form of meditation for me, Dave. The hours just seem to melt away when I'm really in the zone. If gives me lots and lots of time to plot and scheme and dream about the next umpty seven phases.

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  10. Beautiful toys sir...
    In my opinion being in the zone and painting toy soldiers is such a relaxing place to be...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you Aly. I should have added that eyestrain and a stiff neck have also been known to result!

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  11. Love the intro. Matt. You forgot 'lost my money in a poker game...'!
    I am so pleased to read that I am not the only one who completely underestimates the time that it will take to paint a particular part of figures. Those final touches are always really time-consuming--mine look nowhere near as good as yours, but I think take me longer to do!

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    1. I find that very hard to believe, James. These were started in August!

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