Welcome to Space Din-O-pinions where I ramble about my incoherent thoughts in the wargame hobby. Today's post will discuss something I'm sure a lot of you have faced: when that hobby project just starts dragging and never seems to end. The particular project I'm talking about is this unit of 5 Drakespawn Knights, whose pretty pictures now grace this article. In the literal months it took to finish this unit, which is far longer than it takes me on average to paint models such as these, it got me to thinking about why that happens and what you can do to fix it.
Now, I've talked at length before about when a Warhammer Army doesn't work out for you, and in that post I discussed the issues I had with working on the Gloomspite Gitz. One of the major issues was the amount of time it was taking to get models finished, similar to what I had with this unit and my Anvilgard/Har Kuron army as a whole. In the case of the Gitz, I gave up, but this army is the opposite side of that coin, where despite the amount of time I've decided to stick with it. So why the difference?
My Anvilgard army (now Har Kuron thanks to the actions of Morathi) has been sitting a long time largely unpainted, with just a smattering of units painted. Mostly this was due to how Games Workshop has handled a lot of the older Elf (Aelf?) models in Age of Sigmar. Originally, the army was mostly High Elves, but with their squatting in Age of Sigmar 2nd edition, they were left with a large part of the army gutted. Sure, there were still rules available, but they've since been left in the dust from power creep. Try comparing them to the new Lumineth range to get an idea of the disparity. Yes, I was able to proxy some models in for others but it only goes so far. A large chunk of the force ended up donated to my younger brothers, who still play with them and enjoy them.
Now cut in half, the army languished for a bit, until I got 15 Drakespawn Knights for cheap, 5 of which were already painted to a decent standard. One of my earlier posts actually details how I moved them from square to round bases, which goes to show how long it's been since I've worked on the rest of the knights. Regardless, they added a nice cavalry force to the army, something that had been missing since the loss of my Dragon Knights. Plus they added dinosaurs to the army, which was a bonus to me. At this point, Anvilgard had now turned into a hybrid High/Dark Elf army. A few more Dark Elf units made their way in, and I was back to having a playable force.
With the army somewhat playable again, and with the new rules provided in Broken Realms: Morathi, I turned my eyes to this army again. Amazing what a good bit of lore can do for inspiration. I started by painting 5 more knights to match the 5 original ones, as I thought it would be fairly easy and quick. And boy was I wrong. I don't know if it was trying to match someone else's paint scheme. Maybe it was the shiny new box of Cursed City still waiting to be built. It might have even just been old fashioned laziness. But the project just kept on going all the same.
It eventually got to the point where I would set aside these miniatures, complete a different unit, pick them back up, and then repeat the process. Honestly, that may have saved the project as a whole. Sometimes, I get it in my head that you have to stick to something from start to finish with no interruptions, buts that's how you get burnt out. Taking breaks lets you return to something later, fresh and with new perspectives. The final push to get these finished left me elated as I finally saw it all come together.
So why has this army survived while the Gitz went the way to Ebay? I like dinosaurs (shocking information given the name of the blog) and dragons, which this army now had in spades. That small amount of theme kept me going, which is why I think it's so important to have an army that you like the theme of, as well as the miniatures. I still think that the Gitz have some of the finest models in Age of Sigmar, but the theme didn't hold me enough to want to spend the hundreds of hours it would take to get it all painted. Obviously that's a personal preference, but you have to find out what you like.
Theme is important too, because if you're just a meta chaser, always going for the best models rules-wise, I have news for you: Games Workshop can take that away from you at any moment with a single FAQ. That's too ephemeral of a reason for me to stick to an army. I need models AND theme to pull it off. But that's just me. I'm not a competitive gamer so your mileage may vary.
Remember, theme is something you can create for yourself. On this blog and in my hobby I pride myself on the narrative I create for each army, and even if the pre-packaged theme and lore that comes with the army isn't your cup of tea, make your own. Be creative. Color outside of the lines. Want to make an un-dead elf army? Do it. Good guy Chaos army that has reasons for what it does? Sounds interesting to me. It's YOUR hobby, not GW's, and not anyone else's. So make it yours. So long as you're not a jerk to anyone else, and your models are easily recognizable as what you say they are, anything is fair game.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the pictures of my finally painted Drakespawn Knights, and I hope the lessons I've learned help you on your hobby path.
-The Space Dinosaur
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