The Strange Artifacts crew has decided to explore Mordheim, and we've all selected war bands. Myself, I've chosen to play the Skaven of Clan Eshin, pics and lore to come. But, as a hobby goblin, now that I have a project to work on there's nothing I want to paint more than literally anything else.

So, since I've begun my Mordheim war band, I've dug out cast models from the vaults to assemble and base. I've reread all the rules for Cauldron - a beautiful, whimsical game by HILL GIANT - and pulled together two new gangs for Ramshackle's Mini Gangs.

I don't know what it is about me, but I'm flawed in this way, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Big projects are fun but they can also be daunting.

Palate Cleansers FTW

I don't do a lot of kit bashing, in part because I don't buy very many kits, Battletech aside. Most of my models I 3D print at home. I've easily painted a hundred or more Knucklebones minis, for example, and I've printed many more. The bulk of the rest are from hand casters, like colecifer_xxviii, Marcello Rizza, and especially Ramshackle Games.I even do a bit of sculpting and casting myself. Printing and collecting can be a hobby all its own. Because of this, whenever I print new models, or I get new hand cast models in the mail, I will usually clean them up, base and prime them right away. This way I always have plenty of models on hand, ready to paint.

I don't want to skip a hobby session because I'm feeling overwhelmed by my current project. I'd rather grab a prepped model off the shelf. While I'll frequently have one or two non-project models in various states of completion, my favorites are the models that I can paint, start to finish, in a single 60-90 minute session.

Each of these models I had based and primed, on hand in a box on the shelf, just in case I wanted to paint something fresh. In the case of the frog and the Dunger in particular, I had a moment of inspiration that I wanted to act upon right away, while the muse had me. Each took about an hour to knock out, and I left the bench feeling very happy with the outcome. Each session was time well spent even though they were painted with no other purpose in mind except to have painted them.

I'm also reminded during these one-shot painting sessions why I choose the models that I choose. Each of them speaks to me in some way that only I can hear, in a way that is unique to me. Just like everybody else.