I’ve seen people doing things like #hobbystreak to stay motivated painting large armies. Personally I feel you shouldn’t force yourself to do a hobby or else it will become work.
During Dana Howl’s pile of shame video I came to the realisation that while I do not suffer from FOMO for most limited things, I do suffer from Deal FOMO. If I know something is a good deal and it is something I want down the line. I will buy it and sit it to one side. This has led to me losing interest before getting round to things and they never get made/painted.
When Dana said she would do a video on the system she is using to reduce her pile of shame, I thought it would be a #hobbystreak video. But instead it turned out to be a system to motivate you to paint what you have, and stop buying as much.
The video is down below.
This seems great for me so I’m going to do it starting from 15th June.
Summary of points
+1 Buying a model.
Bonus +5 buying a unit of 1-10 within 30 days of release.
Bonus +20 buying a unit of 11-30 within 30 days of release.
Bonus +30 Buying a new starter set within 30 days of release.
-1 Finishing or selling a model
Bonus -1 Completing a unit.
Bonus -5 Completing a start collecting or faction box
Bonus -20 Completing a starter set.
So where do I stand right now?
+60 for 60 minis in Age of Sigmar Dominion
+30 for buying a starter set within 30 days of release
-5 for painting the banshee and wraith unit
-1 Unit bonus on wraith unit
+1 metal Wight I got on eBay
-1 painted 1 model for my Forbidden Psalms warband.
Since the last post I completed the first unit of 10 Black Knights. I decided early on I wanted it to be a bit more uniformed than Black Knight models usually are. I managed to give 7 out of 10 of them the same winged helmet, just leaving the command group without. I also gave them all Tomb King shields. This means they all have similar looking shields, as well as looking a bit more effective than the small odd shaped shields in the Black Knights set. I painted them up with simple heraldry designs and think it works quite well.
I also stripped and painted 10 more skeletons for skelly squad 1, bringing it to 30 skeletons. I went with a simple castle banner for this unit.
And I made and painted a Wraith unit led by Banshee for use in fantasy using a Myrmourn Banshee and 4 Grimghast reapers.
Currently Working on:
I started going though some of the extra cursed city models I bought on ebay and converting them to be used in the army.
Bat Swarms
As bat swarms are no longer in AOS I decided to put them on square bases for simplicity. These will only get used in games of Fantasy.
Zombie Ogre unit.
I love these models. I’m not sure what they will be run as in AOS, but in Fantasy they will make great Crypt Horrors. I converted the Champion(Crypt Hunter) with an orc skull, an ogre weapon and a sarcophagus lid from the Garden of Morr (sigmarite mausoleum) set. I made them a movment tray using plasticard to make them simple to use in Fantasy
Bennard Collins First Wight Of Phoenix Port.
When it became clear the forces of destruction would be besieging the city of Phoenix Port before the majority of city’s army would return, Angelique suggested something that shocked the royal court. She told them of magicks common in her land that would allow them to call on the city’s ancestors to help defend it. If there had been any other options the lords and ladies of the court would have questioned this more, but they all knew the city would fall without help.
The great hero, Bennard Collins, was chosen to lead the army of awoken ancestorsagainst the greenskins. While he has been dead for over 400 years, the history books were littered with accounts of his great leadership winning him battle after battle.He managed to lead not only the dead, but also the living to a decisive victory in only 3 hours.
After the battle Bennard took his place at the head of House Collins. Few would try to argue that the founder of the great house should not be in charge now he walked among the living again.
I had already made this before the last post, but forgot to show it off then. Not to toot my own horn, but I love this model. Thinking about painting him similar to this guy on the 4th Undead book cover with gold ornate armour.
Golden fancy boy
Blood Knights
The only model set I got from the new Soulblight release. Their large bases cause issues with fantasy, so I decided to try magnetizing one to it’s base to see if it would work. It’s a lot of work (and green stuff) but seems worth it. Once I get a chance I’ll repeat the work on all the others.
New Purchases:
I cant resist a good ebay deal and ended up getting 45 more skellies on square bases.
Also lots of Tomb Kings bits on ebay.
And I got this as a birthday treat to myself. It’s a 3 up skeleton from Heresy Miniatures.
Currently in my paint queue for this project is:
1 necromancer.
2 Wight kings.
20 sword and sheild 2010 skellies.
10 Graveguard.
5 Blood Knights.
3 bat swarms
6 zombie ogres
Needing paint stripped:
10 2010’s sword and shield skellies.
20ish 1990’s plastic zombies.
45 skellies on square bases.
Metal Black Coach
Unmade:
Mortarch on Dread Abyssal
Cursed city stuff
+Far too much to list, and some may end up resold.
I thought I would make my first post here on my current project, my undead army. I call it an undead army, but in reality it’s a Soulblight Gravelords army for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, that could also be used as a Vampire Counts army in Warhammer fantasy battle. Saying undead makes it simpler. In the future small groups of Nighthaunt and Tomb Kings will be added as allies. Everything is going on round bases to suit Age of Sigmar, but I have some tricks up my sleeve for how I will get it to work with Fantasy. Lorewise I only think of the army has being in the Mortal Realms of AOS. Most of it would work for both universes, but I have chosen to base the lore around the universe and game that still exists.
No one knows for sure how long Angelique’s forces have been marching across Hysh. Their point of origin mostly lost to time. Like a force of nature they move across the realm, heading ever closer to it’s edge where magic is at it’s most unstable but strongest. Those that stand in the way are cut down, only to have their bodies and souls enslaved to her will.
This project came about because of a combination of Warhammer Quest Cursed City and buying odd issues of Mortal Realms magizine I liked. I realised I would have a small undead army accidentally halfway through 2021 and decided to expand it to be a legal playable army. I always wanted an undead army, but never had the patience for Fantasy when I was a teen. As I’ve grown older the old world setting and fantasy in general has interested me more. I decided to sell off a bunch of my pile of shame at the start of 2021 and that gave me the money to buy up some models I always wanted and to get this army project going.
Completed models so far:
Vampire Lord Angelique
Angelique’s name (as well as the name of this series of posts) comes from the 1960’s supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows. The soap opera also plays into some of her backstory, which I hope to get into in future posts.
The model is a Isabella von Carstein I bought many years ago with the intention of making a into Rogue Trader for a INQ28 project. It never happened. Then last year she almost was made into a Rebel Lord for Necromunda. Again it never happened. So when I started this project I remembered I had the model still unpainted in my bits box, and felt is was destiny. I decided to make her a custom character as I didn’t really want to have to hunt down a Vlad model and they are both very dead in the AOS universe. Maybe I will one day make her a Vlad stand in for games of Fantasy.
1990’s Tomb Banshee
I’ve always loved this model, and it ended up being the first thing I painted for the army. I decided to go white and grey rather than a ghostly green many people use now for banshees (I know it is not easily seen in this picture.). I saw this paint scheme in a early 2000’s White Dwarf and it felt so much more creepy than a brightly coloured ghost. Grey skin is so close to normal, but is clearly not, and that makes it feel more uncomfortable than something completely unrealistic.
The people of HelFort found her alone in the woods on the outskirts of town. Her clothing raggy and hair a mess, she must have been a survivor from the nearby CandleVault which came under attack by unknown forces not long ago. Her experiences had left her pale, and silent to the townsfolk. They welcomed her into their city, and brought her to the Town Magister in hope she could relay to him what had happened at CandleVault. When she opened mouth the sound of her voice shattered his eardrums and broke every glass bottle in the manor. She had been at CandleVault when it was attacked, but she was not a survivor.
Skelly Squad 1
I have a few skelly units planned. This one is made up of 1990’s spear skeletons. Some are the multipart ones, but others are easy build and can still move their arms. They ended up being a bargain at about £1 each and there is still another 10 to do for this unit.
Contrast paints helped a lot with these. I don’t think I would have the motivation to keep painting more if they were painted traditionally.
