April is the cruelest month#

…because it’s the month of the Skaven.

But more on that in a bit.

April was a bit of an odd one. Most of my time was spent painting for some competitions, which meant painting material outside of my norm (ie little to no Skablins).

You’ve read it all before#

Not to re-beat a dead horse, we’ve got write ups of those here for the first one and here for the second one. I do think it was a good experience in both cases - painting models, techniques, and deadlines outside of my comfort zone.

I tried some new tricks I otherwise wouldn’t have thought to try, I painted some models I have kept putting off for years (you know, those “I’ll get to them eventually” type models you pick up and then never get to). Painting under a deadline was also a new experience (never did that before, not even for an event (beacuse that’s my secret captain, I don’t play in events)).

Anyway, those 3 models were pretty much my free time from the start of April (the 2nd) until the end of April (the 28th). Since I don’t get the chance to paint every day, there wasn’t a ton of breathing room between those.

Talk about a Waste Land (T.S. Eliot, 1922)#

But that’s where the Skaven come in.

One weekend in the middle of April, my kid wanted to paint miniatures. And what do we do when my kid wants to paint miniatures? We paint miniatures. The problem with painting miniatures in this way, though, is now we’re painting miniatures at the kitchen table. Bad lighting, bad posture, limited paints, the classic issues.

But the solution? The solution is always Skaven. Because no matter how many models my kid wants to paint (of their own models), I always have some dumb Clanrats I need to paint. I’ve got like 60 of these assholes, sitting around unpainted. And the great thing about Skaven is you can just slap some paint on them. Doesn’t have to be great. They’re going to die anyway. Block out some base coats and drown them in Agrax, problem solved.

So in the course of a day each I finished a kitchen table Clanrat, which makes for three Skaven models this month.

You might notice a lack of Skablins this month. While I did paint Blood Bowl, technically (see above), I only partially got a Skablin model painted. Started blocking out colors at the end of the month but nothing to report in the stats so far.

Give it away (1991)#

As I mentioned way back when, I made a couple rules for myself vis-a-vis obtaining new models (as in, I can’t, won’t, don’t). We were going for a net-zero approach. Sell off parts of my current collection, or trades. But then this month I both messed that up and found a new loophole.

First: I came across a situation (or really, it was presented to me) of an invested and interested hobbyist who like myself, prefers painting over playing. But as a younger, less financially stable individual, had limited means to engage in the hobby. And I’m sitting here on a horde of kits I haven’t opened like some asshole dragon. So I lessened by backlog and did some donating.

A box of Pink Horrors, a random sprue of Space Marine somethings, Tau Firewarriors and KT upgrade sprue, Space Marines Sniper Scouts, Tau Commander, Tzaangors, and a sprue of WWI infantry. Maybe something else I forgot. A little bit of everything. And honestly, if I was their age and had someone just give me a box full of miniatures, that’d be an Inside Out style core memory for me. (Instead as a kid I had an older cousin who liked to not let me play while he flaunted his miniatures at me).

Yeah, I could have flipped some of that on eBay for maybe $30 a box. But I’m in a priviledged enough position that the $30 isn’t going to make or break me, and knowing it’s going to someone who will appreciate it is more worthwhile. (And, I hate dealing with eBay. But that’s only kinda related.)

(Donation adjacent, I also donated a baker’s dozen measuring tapes to the FLGS. That was more of a “we’re cleaning out the inlaw’s house and no one needs 13 tape measures” situtation, but another “I know it’ll go to a good use” donation.)

I’d like to thank…#

So you might be wondering, what’s the loophole portion of this?

Award money. As also mentioned here, I came in tied for second for the painting contest hosted at the FLGS. And you know what’s not “buying” miniatures? That’s right, store credit.

Line go up#

April’s totals were five finished miniatures, and $115.30 in retail. The updated chart shows a year-to-date total of 32 painted miniatures and a total retail value of $253.65.

The comparative chart shows while the five model total is the same as March, the retail value almost doubled - likely due to the centerpiece quality of the kits used for my various contest pieces. The Gnome Treeman alone was 2/3rd the total retail value of March, and the modern version of Ikit Claw (Arch-Warlock) isn’t far behind that. The only reason the Ambot was valued at less is beacuse it’s a box of two so the retail value is split when only painting one of them. (Also interesting that almost half my painted retail value occured this month, at 45%.)

I did make some new charts, because why the hell not. These are cumulative charts - a running total of models painted and retail value by category.

As you can see for the number of models, Blood Bowl and Fantasy are neck and neck. The assorted little Clanrats I paint are definitely helping bolster those numbers. Necromunda and 40k are on the board, technically, but probably won’t get many more numbers for a couple of months while I work to finish out the Skablins.

Retail value is a bit of a runaway train for Blood Bowl, again with the big centerpieces helping those numbers. Between the Skablin specialist positions being $15 a pop and now two Big Guys putting up Big Guy numbers ($35 and $43 apiece), Fantasy (or god forbid, 40k) is going to have a hard time catching up.

The work in progress portion of the list shows what’s been started but not finished - that Tau Commander could put up some big retail numbers, if I ever finish it. But here’s the proof that I did get some paint on at least one Skablin during April. It just won’t be finished for a while.

If you want to get ahold of me, you can now reach me at floppyparts@proton.me. Send me whatever you want.