I, like any other hobby butterfly, have started thousands of projects, but how many have I reached the end of? Well, not as many as I’d have liked. In an effort to inspire me, I thought it would be interesting to run through my top 10 unfinished projects that have a Warhammer-flavour to them (because there are plenty of other, non-GW things half finished and that’s a whole other level of pain), and see if something would give me that spark. Instead, it’s all made me feel a little rotten. So much not yet done, that I started doing! Curse you, hobby butterfly! Curse you!

So, let’s look through some of my shameful false-starts, shall we? Will I ever complete any of these? Who knows. Maybe. Maybe not. Their fate is not yet written, which I suppose, is why I’m writing about them here. In no particular order…

P.S. Yes, I do usually start painting minis from the feet up – it feels like you have time to get your eye in on the shins and get good for when you start working on the upper bits that people will actually look at 🙂

1- The Noise Marine

I love Noise Marines, and especially Noise Marines with Guitars – I paid over the odds on Ebay for the original and had lots of fun painting that up, and I was thrilled when the new version was released but I… just couldn’t get on with it. I still think it’s super cool, but it just doesn’t grab me in the same way as the old one did. I know I sound like one of those old fogeys who thinks the days of Lead minis were better (and I do not think that – modern minis are very much preferred here), but that one was always a favourite that the new one had little chance of living up to.

If I were going to revive this project, I’d undercoat it black (rather than grey) and go completely bonkers on every panel.  I’d make it a model of challenges that would result in an eye-bleeding cacophone of colours and patterns. But that takes a lot of time and effort, so we’ll see if i ever get back into that mood.

2- Sister Amalia

I’m a big fans of the resculpted and reimagined Sisters of Battle and I picked up this mini because it does harken back to that classic piece of Karl Kopinski artwork that made the Adepta Sororitas so cool in the first place. But then I made things tricky for myself. I wanted to do an almost metallic dark green for her armour, and give her a pale complexion with red hair because, well, I hadn’t seen that done. Then something else must have dragged my attention away from her, and it was another challenge to myself that I am still yet to complete.

I’d start again from scratch if I went back to this. The model is too damn cool to not do really, and I’d really like to do her justice. And I think I could nail that green armour now, so maybe this goes a little bit further up the queue. Maybe.

3- The Vostroyan

It has been an age since I worked on a Necromunda Bounty Hunter, and this light conversion (if you can even call it that!) from the Cursed City box was a joy to work on and I was being fancy but then, of all colours to stimy me, it was the red of his coat. I like painting red, and I’d even say I was quite cood at it, but I want to get it right and that just felt like too big an ask here. The idea is that this chap is a Vostroyan who now earns his crust (or crusted corpse starch) in the Underhive and that’s too cool to give up on too!

He’s already high on the list, but I just need to stick my courage to the screwing place (something like that) and get on with him. There’s too much lore in my head that I need this mini to help me express!

4- The Imagifier

Another Sister. This was started as part of my yearly “6 paints” challenges and I never got her finished which is a great shame. Between new projects coming along, and the fact that I was going to be stuck tryingto paint her gun bright blue, I just lost interest.

If I slackened my rules on the colours a little, I think i could have fun with this one. I think the sister above takes precedence though.

5- Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought

Talk about overreaching! I was going to, many moons ago, try to paint every single one of the Legion-specific Contemptors and I made a good start with the Iron Warriors and World Eaters dreads getting done in good time. Then I went for the Word Bearers and boy did my enthusiasm fall off a cliff. It’s a lovely model, but, meh, I just don’t like the Word Bearers. That, and it was an expensive project that I’m no longer that interested in completing.

If the bug to paint nothing but Contemptors returns, I will for sure get back to this big guy, but right now… I got nothing. Also, as far as pricey projects go…

6- Epic 40k Revival

Ages ago, I found all of my old Epic stuff from when I was a kid, and I decided to try and revive some of it. And I did! Turns out Contrast Paints made it a rather easy job to do actually. But after getting a few little bits done, I just ended up thinking “What’s the point?”. I always wanted a fun Epic scale army, and they were looking good, but it’s not like I’m going to get a game in any time soon. It’s a right weird little project to be honest, and as fun as it could be, it just didn’t excite me.

For Epic to come back? Or for some friends to get mad into old Epic and ask me to join in a campaign? Anything short of that, and I think these gus will be hanging around unloved for some time to come…

7- Kaptin Badrukk

Oh, Kaptin, my Kaptin! This was going to be a Golden Demon entry a long time ago, but I may have decided to steer clear of the Single 40k Mini category because it’s one of the most fiercely contested. That’s not to say I don’t want to give it a shot, and I may still (albeit with another mini), but despite making a promising start with the greatest Ork pirate ever, I ran into some issues. There is just so much detail on that mini, and it all got a bit overwhelming. I still reckon I can make him look good, but the effort and confidence it would take to do the job I want to do, is monumental. One day…

In order to get me back on this project, I will have to feel in top form with the brush, and I still need to formulate a plan for some of the finer details. This one is definitely a case of “when” and not “if”, but the aforementioned “when” could still be some way off.

8- Chibi Space Marine

I picked up a few of the 40k Chibis when they came out. I had an urge to give this unique kind of model a go in terms of painting, and I even made a start on trying to turn him into a Blood Angel, but other projects (I’ve said that a few times already, I feel) made me put him to one side. As he’s not part of a game, and more of a painting exercise, it’s hard to throw my passion behind it, but I would still like to give Chibi painting a proper go one day.

I dunno. Maybe this will never happen, or maybe, if there’s a Chibi painting competition somewhere one day, I’ll make an effort, but it just feels like there’s no real end goal with this one. An experiement – let’s see if it ever reaches a conclusion.

9- Custodes Character

No, I don’t remember the exact name of this guy. He’s a “Blade-something” right? Maybe? The thing is, if I wanted 1000 points of Custodes, I already have that, but painting this guy came at a time i was trying to make every mini look absolutely perfect and it was this chap that made me realise that that attitude was burning me out. I’d forgotten how to paint for fun, and I was just trying to break myself on every project, and if I’m being honest, it’s still hard not to go down that route. So I guess I already have some mixed feelings about this mini.

If however I get into a 40k gaming mood some time soon, I may well want some Golden Boys on my side, and this would be a fine way to kick off that project. Who knows though. We’ll see.

10- Marshcrawler Sloggoth

When the Kruleboyz were released, I fell in love with this mini. He’s so ugly! Utterly hideous and his lot in life is arduous and ghastly, and yet, I see only a fantastic kit full of flavour and fun. I wanted to paint it up for Demon, but after the first step – the skin, I realised I’d made some mistakes and it didn’t look good and, well, there that dream died. I don’t know how to fix the skin without starting over, but maybe that’s what I’ll have to do to get this going again. It was quite heartbreaking really, when I realised I’d got this all wrong.

For next Demon? Maybe? The one after the upcoming one? It sure would be nice to get this fella all sorted and righted, but I need to up my resurrection game to get him back on track.

Bonus- The Titan

I am getting sick of seeing these pictures of the only armour panels I’ve worked on. It’s embarrassing at this stage really. I always joked that it would be done by 2024 but I may need to revise that at this stage. It’s just so time consuming, and despite how happy I am with the results of what I’ve worked on already, the actual painting intensity makes me a right grumpy git and I don’t like being that person. But I will get it done one day. Just to prove I can.

And there you have them – 11 in total of my unfinished projects, why they remain incomplete, and what it would take for me to get onto going them again. The muse isn’t really with me right now, but I am working on some projects when I get a moment. Fun things, that I need to stick with for the time being until the funk is lifted. In the meantime, I hope you’re having every success with your own projects, and that you are getting lots of lovely toy soldiers done and finished. Onwards!