Fear the Crab

I’ve been painting Games Workshop miniatures on and off during the recent couple of decades. It’s usually been a sporadic affair, casually shoved into the skein of my life whenever fancy took me. As expected, the results of such endeavors feature little worth displaying, particularly since I don’t consider myself to be qualified for competitive painting; no Golden Daemons or Slayer Swords for me.

In the past, I painted whatever attracted my eye, whether the detailed sculpt of the latest release, or just something I thought looked cool. I tried to start up an “official” army along the lines of Dark Angels and Sisters of Battle, but whether through fatigue or boredom, I’d leave things perpetually unfinished. It’s rather embarrassing to think of how much money I spent on models that I will never use.

Now I try to be a bit more frugal in my purchases. I’ll try to buy only those models I know I will paint, and when I bring them home, I actually start painting them. I also try to practice self-discipline in not buying too many models at the same time; likely a contributing factor towards becoming bored in the past.

I’ve also started to try and play the actual game. The rules, while certainly not for the faint of heart in terms of complexity, are still applicable in more-or-less common sense terms, and just one or two small games are enough to get the basics. Since the objective of the game is to field an army to fight with, I researched those that piqued my interest, either with the detailed models, or the background/concept coloring that army’s theme. I’ve written up a few “army lists” that document the number of models, what wargear each may carry, and some of the statistics and other such numbers necessary for gameplay.

Over the past two years, I’ve settled on three armies that I feel I can actively start collecting: Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle, and Orks. Each have wildly different styles of play, in the sense that they are specialized forces that do one or two things well. I like the Grey Knights and Sisters of Battle primarily because to me, they epitomize the defense of all that is good against the dark hearts and minds from within and without. Orks are pure fun, conceptually and game-wise. The style is one that doesn’t take itself seriously, which is a terrific break from the Über-Seriousness of GK and SoB.

Trouble is, I don’t think I will actually be able to field a passable army if I try to finish all three. I’m closer to completing my Grey Knights, so I believe I will endeavor towards that end before turning my attention to Orks. If I feel I need a break from such purity and blessed faith, I can sidestep back to the Orks for a time. Hopefully that won’t derail me too much so that I stop painting altogether.

Towards that end, I think I will start photographing completed, game-legal squads as I finish painting them. I know I will try to take a picture of “complete” army, but who knows when that will happen. So far, I’ve got one HQ and one Elite squad painted up in what I consider “tabletop” quality:

Grey Knights - HQ

Grey Knights - Elite

I’m currently working on some Troop choices, but in my army list I have listed nine models in one squad. Since it takes me approximately one to two weeks to churn out a couple of models, the next photo might be a while in coming.

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EDIT: I forgot to include another unit choice, Dreadnoughts for Heavy Support. These count as two separate units, and I’ve a third on the way:

Grey Knights - Heavy (x2)

I didn’t “write” in any text on the Dreadnought on the right, because I was lazy. I still don’t feel like filling in anything.