Graeme's Formidable Fimir - Wrap-up Post

Graeme's Formidable Fimir - July's Wrap-up

Like a few other challengers, I struggled with this edition of the OWAC. It's my own fault: I planned to do way too much, failed to do enough prep work, procrastinated mightily, and in the end only got round to half the things I wanted to do. On the one hand I'm a little disappointed I didn't manage to achieve my vision, but it's still been by far the most productive part of my hobby year. I managed to struggle across the finishing line and I'm happy with what I did manage to finish.

So here's the whole army as it stands:

The Formidable Fimir army

The Paul Bonner illustrations in WD102 have been the biggest inspiration for this challenge. Another unit or two of troops and a couple of banners, and I think I'll be a lot closer to emulating this one.

Some close-ups of the individual units:

Fianna Fimm with Meargh

Fimm warriors with Noble and Dirach

I initially found the Nick Bibby sculpts really challenging to paint, but it did push me to try some new techniques to bring out the subtle details.

Orc mercenaries

Another first for me this challenge: the first Orcs I've ever finished painted! I've got a load more still on the painting table, so this motley crew is definitely going to be expanded soon. The spearman unit will be beefed out, a unit of swordsmen added, and a unit or two of archers will be providing some much-needed missile troops for their Fimir paymasters soon.

Boar host

Chaos Hound Chaotic host

The Boars and Chaos Hounds were a nice little change of pace during the challenge, and gave me a chance to bulk the army out a bit. The Chaos Hounds especially have a load of character and were really fun to paint.

So, in total I managed to out together an army of just over 1200 points. Hitting the point goal was never really going to be the biggest problem for the expensive Fimir troops, but the 10-figures per month quota was a push at times. Still, I got there. The overview for each month is below:

Army total:         1228 pts

June:                 298 pts

May:                  388 pts

April:                 150 pts

March:              202 pts

January:            190 pts

The ubiquitous Bryan Ansell inspired pose

I've certainly learned a lot from this OWAC:

- Realistic targets are important. Too many ideas and side-project just distracted me on this one.

- The prep for older models can take a lot more effort than you expect, even for those that don't have a lot of detail. The poor surface quality of older models needed a lot more filing and filling than I had planned for.

- Prep is king. I wasted way too long prepping stuff during the challenge. I'll aim to have most prep done before I start next time.

- Any conversions should be done before the beginning of the challenge, so I can focus on the painting and details.

On the positive side, I built up a real appreciation of Nick Bibby sculpts in this challenge. So much so, I finished off my collection of his C28 Giants. I suspect at least one of them may end up in this little force...

I'm also glad I had Fimir, Orcs, Boars and Chaos Hounds to work on - the variety was refreshing, and really added a different flavour to the army.

I have to say, seeing the many other armies grow over the last 6 months has been inspiring - not only have people put together some huge armies, but the quality of painting has been awesome. One sure-fire way to find motivation is to see a well-painted army, with some original ideas, billowing banners, and real character, and there have been plenty of those in this year's challenge!

The addition of some 40k armies really cranked up the nostalgia and I'm looking forward to seeing more next year.

Great job, to all those that managed to cross the finishing line! And of course, many, many thanks to the glorious overlord, Iannick, for running the show!

Hope to see you back here in a few months for OWAC5! I've got plenty of options to choose from, but I'm leaning towards an old favourite of mine...