I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to work on, now I’ve got past Armies on Parade. The last few weeks have been a hobby holiday so I could recharge and avoid burnout, but I’m getting to a point where I can feel a pull towards my workspace again. I’ve had a few ideas kicking around my head, along with several projects I could revisit. In the “revisit” category, I’ve got:

• Idoneth Deepkin; I have some Eels, a Shark, and a King still waiting to be added to the small army I painted earlier in the year. I also have a few Daughters of Khaine models to add as Allies.
• Adeptus Custodes; I’ve got a bunch of Custodian Guard built and primed in gold, just waiting for me to get the spark of inspiration again. Then I’ve got some bikes, Terminators, and a Dreadnought to build.
• Adepta Sororitas; at the end of last year I picked up some of the old metal Sisters of Battle sculpts, which I planned to be a companion to the Custodes. With the beta Codex coming in Chapter Approved next month, it might be time to get them back on the painting table.
• Dark Angels; I’ve been slowly chipping away at the mass of non-Primaris Space Marine kits I have stockpiled over the years by painting them as Dark Angels. I painted a couple of 5-man Tactical squads and Razorbacks last year, and it might be time to finish these to the point they’re usable on the table.
• Alpha Legion/Deathwatch; I had an idea when Kill Team came out, that I would create a highly customised Alpha Legion warband, using Primaris bodies and the Deathwatch rules. I made a start, but Armies on Parade ended up being more work than I’d anticipated. A lot of the kits I’d acquired for this project ended up going into the Armies on Parade project as well.
• Death Spectres; I still have plans to expand the army I started in Armies on Parade. I want to fill out at least a battalions-worth of models, so this project needs another troop choice and HQ to reach that goal.

None of these are particularly grabbing me right now. The most likely to get worked on are actually the Dark Angels, as my local GW store is looking for 1000 points of Dark Angels to display in their cabinets. By painting up three Ravenwing units I already have, I could get to that target pretty easily. But I just finished painting a bunch of black-armoured Space Marines, so I can feel my brain resisting.

Over on the new ideas side, there are:

• Stormcast Eternals.
• Nighthaunt.
• Imperial Knights.
• Various “competition pieces.”

At the moment, I’m leaning very heavily to Knights. I have accumulated three kits over the years, but have never got around to doing anything with them. The thought of having a “grab and go” army of just three-five models definitely appeals to me, and painting such large models would be a great change of pace. I’m in two minds whether I’d want to go with the fairly realistic, heavily weathered style I often apply to large vehicles – or to go with something simpler and cleaner. I’d also like to do some minor conversions and reposing, but I don’t know if that’s just setting myself up for a lot more work than I’m looking for.

Both of the Stormcasts and Nighthaunt ideas are really just painting the lovely models from the Soul Wars box. I’ve had an idea for applying more of a heraldic look to the Stormcasts, but I haven’t nailed down all of the details yet. I might save them for Armies on Parade 2019.

Competition entries is as it sounds. I have at least two competitions pencilled in for the next nine months, and it might be a good idea to make a start on these. I have one firm idea for the second contest, that will take quite a lot of effort, and a couple of secondary ideas where I know what I want to paint, just not how. I might start chipping away at my most developed idea, and leave the others for now. There’s also a themed monthly competition that happens in my area, so sometimes I’ll want to take part at those.

So as you can see, I’ve got a lot of choice! In fact, it’s too much choice, really, and choice paralysis has been kicking in something fierce. At this point I’m 80% sure I’ll start on some the Knights, as those seem like win-win: clearing something from my backlog, and being a viable army with only a few models needed.

But as any GW hobbyist knows, there’s always something new and shiny on the horizon to distract us…!

I don’t know what this is, beyond a “Spindle Drone” from the upcoming Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress game, but it sure has got me interested and excited to find out more! In 25 years, I can’t recall ever before seeing or reading about anything like it in the Warhammer 40,000 lore.

Given the setting of the game, and some of the teases, it seems likely it’s tied to either the Eldar/Old Ones or the Necrontyr/C’Tan. But the legs and the curves of the armour remind me more of the Tyranids than anything else, despite it appearing to be (entirely?) mechanical.

Blackstone Fortress should be out by the end of November, so it shouldn’t be too long before we get some answers.