Graeme's Skaven - July - Wrap-up

Graeme's Skaven  (266.5 points)

Wow, six months have flown past!

It's been a proper challenge this year. It started with indecision about which army to go for, and included some dips in motivation, severely limited hobby time due to work, and the usual amount of procrastination. Starting to paint with magnifying lenses really helped my eyes, but slowed down my painting when I realised how much detail I had been missing...

While I'm glad to have finished, I really scraped through on the bare minimum of models, and let's not even start on points value...

My plans were much grander, and I just don't feel this year's effort is up to the standard I was aiming for, or really completed - there are loads of details I want to redo, and I still didn't get round to painting up their shields, due to a silly amount of work in the last month.

Still, it's another dent in the pile of shame. I'm a step closer to fielding a proper Skaven army. Progress is progress!

Anyway, here's the end result:

So the final tally is 42 figures, broken down into:

1 Warpweaver level 10 Wizard, armed with a spear - 82 points
15 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (still not done) shield - 97.5 points
15 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon and spear - 45 points
5 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon and light armour and (still not done) shield - 30 points

6 Giant Rats, armed with malice and evil intentions - 12 points

Which is a whopping 266.5 points in total! I'm lucky this was a special edition of OWAC, or I would have been resting gently and deeply in the field of bones!

Thoughts of OWAC VII are already floating around in my head. I've got to try to come up with a realistic and less grand plan if I'm going to take part next year. I came up with a list of options for armies and the popular vote in the OWAC group pointed to extemely Oldhammer-esque candidates of either Slann or Norse. Now I'm not ruling out another last-minute, ill-advised switch to Skaven again, but those are looking like the strongest contenders so far. Some test models are in the pipeline!

I've also got plans for the next 'special edition' OWAC, which involves a Rogue Trader theme. So the summer months should be busy, prepping as many figures as I can.

Massive congratulations to the challengers who managed to finish the challenge. I'm incredibly impressed with the number of challengers who go above and beyond, with not only well-painted armies, but also huge quantities of figures (and scenery)! I'm envious, but also inspired! Keep it up!

Graeme's Skaven - June - Leader Month (82 points)

 Graeme's Skaven - June - Leader Month (82 points)

This month started off well - I converted some models to give me some variation of leader models and add a little bit of character to the army. I managed to get the base colours on them in the first week, and was feeling optimistic that I was going to be able to end the challenge on a high note and deliver a group of at least seven well-painted characters. I even looked out some musicians, in case I finished ahead of schedule, and made progress on the rat swarm I'd been working on.

I'll spare you the details of the , but work got crazy busy, the weather was too hot and humid to paint (at least for me - my Scottish blood doesn't appreciate temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius. I couldn't focus well, and I was getting frustrated with the paint not flowing well.) and I suddenly found myself with a week left in the challenge with no way of completing them. I decided to focus on just five models. After a couple of days that got narrowed to three. With a day left in the challenge, I just focussed on getting a single figure finished to avoid the field of bones...

So, here he is:

1 Warpweaver level 10 Wizard, armed with a spear - 82 points

I'm VERY fortunate I left the leader month to last. I wouldn't have had a chance if it had been a rank-and-file-month. In the end, I'm happy with how he turned out, and to get over the finish line, but I'm frustrated at how little I painted this year - I started with grand designs, but I've been struggling to keep up the pace, and this month in particular feels like a real let-down.

I'll put some finishing touches on as many 'in progress' models as I can in July, and see what I can put together for my wrap-up post.

Congrats to all the challengers who made the finish line! I'm genuinely impressed with the quality and quantity that people consistently produce here. It may takes me years to complete the same amount of models some people get through in a six-month challenge, but progress is progress.