I need to do more ‘hobby’ activities. It sounds strange as you’d think I have loads of fun playing with scenery, terrain and wargaming models all day! Nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is I spend a good deal of time worrying about the business, a good deal of time cleaning, moving and sorting out the warehouse, a good deal of time ‘scrolling’!
I know right now my mental health isn’t great but a wonderful part of recognising that (and being able to talk about it) is also being aware of what I need to do to make sure things don’t get worse … and that is DO THINGS!
It sounds easy, and in some ways even seems a little condescending; “It’ll be alright Viv, you just need to do things”. Where my mental health is concerned it’s very rarely as simple as summoning my inner Nike spirit and chanting the mantra, “Just Do It”. But this is exactly what I need right now, to just do something!
So I decided to do a simply paint job on the Necrons I got in the Indomitus Warhammer 40,000 box set a while back. I knew they would be easy to do, I could commit to spending 30 minutes a day painting one miniature and it would give me a small sense of accomplishment each day. And it’s true … as I sit here, writing about my “One A Day” project I’m already keen to start the next one!
These Necron miniatures had already been primed black, so that saved a little time when thinking about this project. When I got the original set, I assembled and primed all the miniatures, both the Space Marines and the Necrons. The Space Marines I thoroughly enjoyed painting, I zipped through them in 2 weeks but the Necrons have sat on the shelf since.
I think having everything assembled and primed made this project entirely possible and I think if I did it again with another group of miniatures I would start with them also assembled and primed (including zenithal if required). To keep things easy I wanted a simple scheme, and I’ve always liked the look of bone or sandstone ‘armour’, so the first step i was an overall drybrush of Vallejo Khaki.
I use a round, medium sized make-up brush for the first three drybrushed layers. It’s important to point out that I don’t clean or rinse the brush between colours, I think this helps them blend together nicely. Make-up brushes come in all shapes and sizes, I have a good collection of them and really enjoy working with them. They are well worth adding to your brush pot!
I don’t wait for layers to dry (not that a drybrush needs long to drive) the second step is Iraqi Sand straight over the Khaki. As with all layered drybrushes, this layer captures the highlights and leaves behind some of the Khaki shadows.
So far these two layers have only taken a few minutes and is already looking good. The final drybrush is a light layer of pure White, but given I have not cleaned or rinsed the brush this layer ends up a lovely off-white colour as the white paint blends with the colours already on the brush.
Everything that isn’t suppose to be the bone/sandstone colour I rebase using a heavily watered down German Grey, I find this colour combined with a Nuln Oil wash creates a wonderful black. In this case though, I’ll actually be using a blue wash!
A quick drybrush using Pig Iron from P3 (Privateer Press) with a smaller round makeup brush on all German Grey surfaces. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on all the details so everything gets hit with a metallic drybrush. I think in the case of the Necrons specifically, a quick hand leaves a better finish as opposed to the Space Marines where I spend a lot of time with fine details and highlights.
With the Pig Iron quickly slapped on I’ve probably only spent around 15 minutes doing the first few colours. It’s now time for an Asurmen Blue wash. Why Blue? I have no idea, I just thought “it would be cool”, so I did it. The effect is very subtle as I watered the wash down quite a bit but it is there and I think it works well with the blue on the weapons.
At this point I need to wait for the wash to dry, I either let this happen naturally if I’ve got the time that day, or in most cases I keep my hobby hairdryer close at hand to make this step MUCH faster.
Once the wash is dry I’m onto the final step, adding a blue glow effect to the weapons.
The blue layers are all drybrushed one after the other without waiting for anything to dry, but I do need to be careful to make sure things blend nicely. I use Night Blue, Magic Blue and Electric Blue all from Vallejo Game Colour.
The next step is to highlight with pure white but I need the layers beneath to be dry so I give the model a quick burst with the hairdryer again.
A quick highlight here and there with the white and the model is done! I took a picture of each new model each day and then added a little caption and posted them up on Instagram.
It was an AMAZING PROJECT!
It most certainly confirmed for me that doing something small each day as part of a larger project, being consistent and acknowledging each small achievement was a wonderful way to connect me back “the hobby” and help me feel like I am achieving something!
I’m very much looking forward to my next “One A Day” project, I’ve got an idea of what that might be and this post might very well have been the catalyst.
HAPPY GAMING!
