Getting back into the groove

Well, perhaps the title should be "trying to get back into the groove". My somewhat unplanned rest month of March is over, and I don't want my lack of productivity to continue. It was nice not to feel like I was under pressure to paint stuff last month, but it didn't stop me from feeling a bit guilty. A lack of progress updates (thanks to there being no progress to report) meant that my blog updates slowed to a trickle as well over the last couple of weeks.

Anyway, April is a new month and an opportunity to get back on the productivity wagon. Recently I have been trying to decide what to work on next, and made some marginal progress on preparing a few things without actually getting anywhere with them. I've re-based, undercoated and even started painting an old Mercenary General model. I've assembled some artillery crew, but they are not even properly based yet. However, the thing that looks most likely to grab my attention is... more knights.

That's right, more knights. Yes, it's probably some sort of illness, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those that is not officially recognised yet. I realise I already have more than enough knights for any regular game I might wish to play, however my ambitions for the big Kislev game remain undimmed and I already had these models lying in wait. The plan is to round out my "generic" knight unit, based around a handful of Voland's Venators, to a nice round 40 models, to go with the White Wolves and Knights Snow Leopard. Currently I have 13 models in the unit painted, so another 27 are in order.

My messy workspace from last night

The last couple of nights have seen me making a real mess on the living room floor, converting plastic knight heads to be compatible with Voland's Venators. I will never get them perfect, but I at least want to make them look like they might belong together. Here are some examples...

A selection of my converted Venator-style knight heads

More Venator heads

The heads are all Knight Panther heads, generally with everything above the cloth band cut off, and green stuff used to round over the helmet. Most of them have scored feathers as well. One or two actually lost the headband entirely, however it was a more fiddly thing to do, and I'm yet to be convinced of whether I have pulled it off. We'll wait and see once they're painted. I did try to convert a few and then clone them to save time, but heads are very small and fiddly, and removing mould lines from green stuff on such a fine scale wasn't worth the bother.

This unit will include a large number of knights that I managed to acquire second-hand over the last year or more. Some of them have some pretty horrendous paint jobs, but I don't think I can be bothered stripping them. I am pretty confident any slightly thick paint will be lost in the sea of armour and lances.

The headless hordes await

Definitely "pro-painted". Actually, this time nobody claimed that.

I figure I will get the whole lot assembled and based, although I am yet to decide whether I give them all Venator-style shields, or change the whole lot to something more customised for my army. Then I can get to painting them, which I will probably do in 3 batches of 9.

Of course, the internet is rife with pictures and rumours of rules from the upcoming Empire release, which is due to arrive on April 7 (this Saturday!) I admit that I am looking forward to getting my hands on the book, if only so I know exactly what I'm dealing with. In terms of the new models, I am generally underwhelmed. The Imperial Griffon is ridiculously huge, with a teeny tiny head. The new War Altar looks OK, although having 2 fancy wizard ones seems a bit silly. I'm also not convinced by the Demigryph Knight models, however I will definitely want some in my army. I have my own plans for how I will address that particular problem...

Soon...