Peasants @ MindSay

I DID IT!  I actually got the basic paint jobs done on all 20 peasants last night, and some drybrush shading on almost half of them.  One more evening of detailing (belts, beards, shoes) and they'll be done.  As it is, they're already "tableworthy" with no unpainted parts.

Tonight I'm probably working late, and Friday is never a good night for hobbies, so I'll have to pick the project up next week.  But I'm heartened that I may actually finish a "unit", considering that I only have one other actually finished "unit" for my Dark Ages gaming.

If I may be so bold as to plan (it's a risk - I've failed more hobby plans than I've succeeded), I'll finish off a nearly done Viking unit next, then finish off my nearly finished scifi guys (Grath, Hishen, Razors, Xeogs - all mostly base coated and shaded, but with no details painted yet).

So last night was a bust as far as figure painting goes.  I've decided to chide myself by posting status reports every day until I get those peasants done. 

Then again, if it starts to become too much pressure, I'll probably stop posting - this IS a hobby after all! :-)

But peasants are used to dirty work!

It looks like it took a bit longer than a few nights (try more like a few months) to get back to these guys, but I got half of those peasant figures painted last night.  Tonight I hope to go back and do some shading work on them, or maybe paint the other half of the group up.

It's been a LONG time since I've done any hobby related stuff, and it feels good to be getting back into things.  That's assuming I can gain any momentum.  I really need to do some work though, because the back-pressure of my various projects is starting to interfere with my work, and that's never good.

So those peasants I ordered?  I'm having a BLAST painting them.  So far, I have them primed, based, and the first coat of flesh on them.  I also painted their farming implements, so at the moment, they look like the Black Farmers of Doom.  That is, they are all wearing black cloaks and hoods - that will be recitified soon.

Since these are more Dark Ages than Medieval peasants, I'm limiting any non-brown colors to the two guys who seem the most "leader-y" of the crowd.  They'll get green hoods to indicate that they're wealthy enough to actually afford dyed cloth clothing.  The rest will all be undyed shades of brown and cream, probably liberally splattered with mud and off-color patches on their elbows.

I'm not sure why these guys are so much fun to paint.  They're not soldiers, though a few of them are brandishing their hoes in a menacing way.   They are all Gripping Beast figures, and I'm starting to see why people are so fond of that line.  The only other GB pack I have didn't really do it for me, but it looks like I need to re-evaluate my stance on their figures.

Maybe it's because they're "just peasants" and I don't feel any great pressure to do a "perfect" job on them.  Ironically, that lack of pressure seems to have freed me to some extent, and I'm tyring out some painting techniques I've read about.  I still don't claim to have any particular talent for painting, but practice makes perfect, and I have 20 "expendables" to practice on here.  I really hope that I can keep my momentum going, because two or three more evenings like last night, and the lads will be ready to take to the fields.