March to War 2018 Roundup

Posted on 01/04/201828/10/2019 by Rob Knipe

Well March to War 2018 is over, and we thought we’d give you one last post to show how we got on. We still think it’s an excellent challenge, but it is one that needs careful planning and consideration. Next year we’ll all complete it…

Adam:

The end is nigh! Actually, for me it’s right here. The Apocalypse… or at least the end of March to War 2018.

As I am away this weekend I’ve had to finish a bit early (Prague for a stag do. So if I never write anything again, you know why.) I think I will be rather glad to not have the painting monkey on my back and be able to wander between game systems with impunity. That said, March to War has been great for pushing me to finish old, lagging projects. I don’t think that’s what it’s meant to be for, and I think if I had built a balanced force I would have been in with a shot of hitting some targets. [According to Games Workshop Liverpool, that’s precisely what it’s for. Finish the old, so you can start on your new Christmas presents – Ed]

As it is, I have done a large number of models, but in a rather haphazard way. It’s not a surprise I haven’t achieved the total points: a lack of planning is planning to fail, as they say.

However, this starts me off well for 2018. I have a few new projects on the horizon, and this was a good way of boxing things off, or in the case of the Night Lords, getting any finished at all.

I have also managed to do a bit of terrain, and paint a few Russian tanks (which happen to also be articles on Brush and Boltgun), and finish a few Samurai that escaped our last Hobby Challenge.

But less of what could have been. Let’s see what I have achieved.

Firstly, the totals:

Painting: 1347 points (822 Orks, 525 Night Lords)

Building: 941 points (416 Orks, 525 Night Lords)

Again, with finishing models being a priority, building is considerably lower than painting. I am fine with that, and a number of the models I have completed were already started (and so not included in the total). The picture below shows everything that is valid:

Below are all the Orks:

Then the Night Lords. Note with the Night Lords I have also finished a further two squads of infantry, and hope to keep up the momentum on these to get the army done. Hurrah!

With apologies for the lighting in my loft: it’s far too bright or dull as anything.

Of the two armies, my favourite units are the Apothecaries and Bikers respectively.

I love the models for the apothecaries, and really like the way the conversion has turned out on my bikes (although the camo scheme on the Kommandos is a firm second- see my last post).

With that, I sign off from the challenge. What will the hobby future hold? If only I were psychic… *thinks really hard*

Oh, ok then, I won’t keep you in suspense. Franks for SAGA. If you are surprised that it was a SAGA Warband you haven’t been reading my last few posts, have you?

Mike:

I don’t like failure. I loathe failure. However, we often learn more from failure than we do from success. (Yes, I’m being philosophical. I too am away. At Eastercon, the British Science Fiction Convention. It’s a bit different from a Stag Do, but with just as much heckling.)

As I said in the previous update, I’m quite happy with what I did manage to get finished, and I did some good basecoating/colour techniques on the stuff I started too. For ease I’ve split my 40k and Age of Sigmar efforts as follows:

Then the Age of Sigmar models, which are just Duardin. They’re such cool models though, I can’t wait to get them finished and on the tabletop, crushing their en- (come on, it’s me) dying in their droves…

Rob:

Total Build: 2254 (including unpainted miniatures shown in the updates)
Total Painted: 2023

When we started this challenge, I’d suspected that my choice of miniatures would be my downfall, because for no reason other than how cool they look – probably due to playing too much EPIC as a youth – they’re low on points and high in number. Despite this, by ignoring all the other painting that’s needed, and by staying up later than I should too many times (I’m pretty much nocturnal now) I managed to churn them all out.

The nurglings aren’t present above, but that’s the force I was working on throughout. I’m particularly pleased with a couple of bits that have been shown throughout, such as the sword on the champion, the librarian, and pretty much all the Fallen. The Fallen were the most fun for me, as they had a variety of iconography that could be used that kept the details interesting.

The Relictors came out pretty well, and I was quite happy painting the grey armour, and trying to get their faces so they didn’t look too well after years of associating with chaos.

The remaining four bases were a lot of fun though, who can’t love the lunacy of nurglings, those festering little fun bags. I have another two stands of those to do in the near future for Age of Sigmar, but for now, they can stay as they are.