For the past 6 weeks I have been working on this monstrosity for a client. I have stopped playing GW a long time ago, but recently I have gotten back into GW as they have better changed their business model and more importantly seem...FUN. A gentleman I painted for back in the day approached me to do armies for him. I have not been a fan of such large lots, but I have bills to pay...and the wife wanted a deck for the house.
The army is the Kharadon Dwarves for Ages of Sigmar. I was excited by these models when I first saw them. I love the aesthetic. But after the 10th box I was like....please, make it stop. This was the largest commission that I have undertaken and I suspect there will be more. This is what I have learned.
1. It is a marathon, not a race. At writing of this I am 5'5 250, so yes I am fat, meaning I know fuck all about running, but I have friends who do and I understand the principals. This army is not going to be done in a week or two. You have to pace yourself.
2. Assembly line painting is a thing. I have always done assembly line painting: The brown on the palette id used on model's A hair and then on model B's Boots. That is why if you ever look at my auction lots, you can see the same 30 colors used at various intervals. With an army like this, you might spend 2-3 hours just doing eye lenses, which I did.
3. Colored Spray is your friend. I am breaking down and buying an airbrush as it seems like I will be doing more army work like this in the future. Blocking out large surfaces at once is a time saver.
4. Assemble....everywhere. I was working on putting these models together during my prep period at my teaching job, during Friday Night Magic, and during my weekly D&D game. Although I always work on models during D&D to help me focus. ADD sucks.
5.Take breaks. In the time I was working on these models I still knocked out a few small lots for other people, ebay, and my own gaming. Projects like that helped me keep my sanity, Painting something like a naked barbarian chick or SF model helped me keep my sanity.
6, Know when to stop, there comes a time at night where you need to shut your desk lamp off and walk away, which is what I ended up doing often.
7, Background distractions are important. During the time of working on these mdoels I polished off season 5 of House of cards, my usual shows on Netflix, and a ton of YouTube podcasts. Shout out to Word Funk.
I am sure there are people who can better eloquently explain the process, but as I said...EGO.
