20260730 July Wrapup
Can’t have your puddin if you don’t eat your meat#
July has been the month of cleaning off my plate desk, and trying to finish half-finished projects. My painting desk is an absolute mess, partially due to these unfinished models strewn about as reminders to myself to finish them. It doesn’t really work.
Hell of a hat that you’re wearing#
But first, I did finally and truly finish the Skablins by finishing the second Troll, Beatdown.
This troll was a true kitbash, using the Blood Bowl troll has a base and modifying it with some AoS Fellwater Troggoth bits to replace both arms and to add a fin to the back instead of the spikes. Replacing the right hand/arm was the main priority, as I didn’t want to paint yet another extra Goblin. The hat was also added, I suppose. I also re-arranged the shoulder pad to the other arm, and used a spikey-ball bit from something to cover the shoulder seam.
The downside of all this bashing kits was it created a much more closed-off posture, making some of the painting more difficult. I liked the cell-shaded look that Agrax gave the base colors on the first troll I went with that again. No use fighting what looks good.
So with the whole team finished, I could finally give them a little photo shoot and sizzle:
Rat burgers#
Finishing the Skablins gave me the oppertunity to tackle a few other projects on the desk, so roughly in chronological order:
I finished two Necromunda Delaque Gangers that have been bumming around on my desk since March. I’d have to check, but I believe this brings my Delaque gang to roughly 7 or 8 finished models and a handful yet to go. It doesn’t help that I bought a second box of gangers and the weapons kit so I have more to make yet. (And it doesn’t doesn’t help that they’re releasing a new version of Necro with the gang squad, weapons, and specialists all in one box. How dare they.)
Necro models are generally pretty fun to paint, I just never give them priority over anything else I’m working on.
Get on the floor#
Another vegetable that I finished off my dinner plate was a Blood Bowl Saraus Blocker. That’s right, Blood Bowl is back on the menu! The Lizard team is the team I played in the very first Blood Bowl season I took part in 3 or so years ago, but I still had 4 players to finish painting by the time the season was over (make that 3 now). I’m strongly thinking of playing them for the MacGuffin Cup Season 3, which gives me a push to get them finished.
After painting the Skablins, it’s crazy how many little bangles and dangles the Lizards have. Some might say they have too many details. I do immediately miss painting ska checkerboards though.
Still on the Blood Bowl theme, I did also paint this fun little Goblin football. A quick paint, but I like having these on 25mm bases to use in the game to show a loose ball (and the only other one I have finished at the moment is a Lizard team snake-egg ball.) I didn’t count it on my painting chart, and it honestly is creating a bit of an existential crisis when it comes to my paint recording - this thing is pretty small and inconsequential, so my gut feeling is don’t count it. But I sat down and made the effort to paint it, so count it. But if I count it, the “price per model” system I’ve been using to log retail values gets all warped, so don’t count it. You can see the issues I’m having. Not helping is the fact that I previously counted a score-tracker for the Goblin team. I may eventually go back and remove that, but for now I’m not going to make any retroactive changes.
All of that to say, here’s a football stuffed with explosives.
God Emperor is the best in the series#
Much like the dog statue from last month, this month I finished up an ongoing project that isn’t “wargame minis” related but involved printing and painting. I finished painting and verdigris effects on this replica bullfighter statue from Dune (2021) for a friend for their birthday. I wish I had gotten a more cinematic photo of it but I think it turned out pretty well:
Survey says#
That brings us to a now well-tread result of 5 things finished this month.
One thing you will notice is after last month’s dog statue, I retroactively created an “Other” category so I can still log those projects in the totals, and the Dune statue is another entry in that category. Ultimately this means the 6 month painting total was actually 42, not 41, which gives a year-end goal of 84 (I guess).
Two entries each in Blood Bowl and Necromunda this month don’t change the total project numbers much, though the $35 for the troll does bolster Blood Bowl over the $200 mark.
Once again that troll punches above its weight (above its STR 5?) to jump the monthly total retail value back up to the “monthly average” (trendlines added this time around).
Blood Bowl stays in the top spot of the finished models chart with its slow and steady additions month over month (there being only one month where there was no Blood Bowl to be seen (June)). Fantasy is still the closest to reaching Blood Bowl, but the two additional Necro models this month only brings that category into the dreaded Three Model Clusterfuck at the bottom of the chart.
Monetarily Blood Bowl is compressing the bottom of the chart even further - its almost $40 jump this month outpaces anything else that might be able to keep up. Those two “WIP” 40k models are still the best chance to make any ground on Blood Bowl.
And speaking of works in progress:
The carry-forward has some familiar faces along with a new one: The Skaven Warp Lightning Cannon was something I started years ago and the single piece I’ve assembled and started painting has just been sitting on my desk. But astute viewers will notice it’s not even marked as Built yet. As I did previously with my Screaming Bell I’m building and painting the WLC in sub-assemblies. Because spit on look at that thing, there’s no way I can reach and paint everything on it once it’s built. The catalyst for painting it comes from possibly participating in an upcoming AoS escalation league, and the WLC is part of one of the Skaven Spearheads. So we’ll see if I finish painting it by September.
and now for the weather#
Other July posts you might be interested in reading:
If you want to get ahold of me, you can now reach me at floppyparts@proton.me. Send me whatever you want.
