Hey there hobbymaniacs! Ben from Moosehead Studios checking in again to let everyone know the ups and downs and progress that I’ve made towards my goal of having 18 fully-painted units for the North American Games Workshop Inner Circle hobby event.

But first, I have got to catch my breath. The time between my initial article and now has been quite the rush. Professionally, my school has gone through standardized testing (which is great for late-night hobbying), and I’ve also started spring training for my football time (not so great for late-night hobbying).

All-in-all, it’s been a positive experience so far, so let’s get some of the lower points out of the way.

Hobby Lows

Life, in general, has been much more hectic and crowded, as it always does at the end of the school year.  With work, my child’s activities, my family responsibilities, and maintaining a commission painting service, I sometimes don’t know which way is up, and my head feels like it is spinning.

I don’t think I’m unique in that, though. Anybody who has had multiple responsibilities has felt like this at some point.

The positive effect of this is that I have become more efficient with my hobby time. I do very little extraneous or “just because” hobbying. Whenever I pull my chair up to my painting table, I have set goals to accomplish, and I simply don’t have the time to do anything that doesn’t help me work towards completing those goals.

I have also had to scale back some of my goals.  I am still painting (or at least I THINK I am) to a high standard, but in the interest of just getting everything DONE and ready for the competition (and subsequent tournament the next weekend), I’ve had to scale back some things.

They aren’t game-breaking changes, however. Originally, I had planned on fully magnetizing my Imperial Knight with all of the weapon options.

I still plan on doing that, but since I am not using it in competition, I am just re-painting and magnetizing the parts that I had already built.  I had planned on doing some dynamic basing for some of my models using spare building parts that I had sitting around.

Nope. Not going to do it. Maybe further down the road, but not now.

It’s just not a priority, and it will take away from getting models completed.  I had also planned on having multiple pieces of ruins on my display board. I have scaled that back to just one big piece. It will still be dramatic and do the job it needs to, but by only having one building, I am saving time and re-allocating it to painting my miniatures.

Now, for the good stuff.

Hobby Highs

All of these compromises, however, have not diminished the quality of the work that I have been able to complete.  In the time since my last article, I have fully completed the following units:

• Thunderwolf Cavalry
• Wyrdstorm Brotherhood
• Inquisitor Greyfax
• Celestine’s Geminae
• Imperial Knight

Which has made a significant dent in my overall total of completed units.  This has encouraged me that I can, in fact, paint to a high level of quality with a deadline fast approaching.

Here is where I stand with just under a month left until competition:

Cawl’s Units

• Cawl (nearly completed)
• Archmagos (completed)
• Skitarii Rangers (completed)
• Skitarii Vanguard (still unbuilt, sadly)
• Kataphron Destroyers (unpainted)
• Kataphron Destroyers (unpainted)
• Onager Dunecrawler (completed)
• Skitarii Ruststalkers (unpainted)
• Skitarii Infiltrators (unpainted)

Greyfax’s Units

• Inquisitor Greyfax (completed)
• Blood Claws (completed)
• Blood Claws (completed)
• Thunderwolf Cavalry (completed)
• Wyrdstorm Brotherhood (completed)
• Wulfen (completed)
• Wulfen (unpainted)

Celestine’s Units

• Saint Celestine and her Geminae (completed)
• Imperial Knight (completed)

And a bonus Gulliman of course.