Tackling Large Projects: Land Raider Redeemer

We all have our comfort zones. Some people are right at home when they have a month and half to spend on a single HQ, while others are more content to hammer out 30 guardsmen in a weekend. Inevitably, when working on a full army, we run into a model or series of models that push us outside that comfort zone. All too often this can lead to a staring contest with grey plastic, still on the sprue, while your mind tries to wrap itself around what to do first. Here's a few tips that I picked up to help with the biggest kit a marine hobbyist can stare down: The Land Raider.

One Room at a Time

This is the fourth Land Raider I've painted, and it's still intimidating to look at the mountain of bits still on the sprue. I start thinking about all the detail that needs to go into just one piece, then my eye shifts to the next one and my thoughts follow suit. I can spend hours just staring at the project, lost in thought. It's the same problem my dad deals with when he's renovating a house.

When my dad is working on a huge project like a house, he concentrates on one room at a time. If he is working on the master bedroom one day, the kitchen does not exist. If he's working on the bathroom, the living room belongs to someone else. This way he keeps himself sane and on-task, two things that are constantly in danger of slipping away when faced with such a huge project. As wargaming hobbyists we don't have as many things to keep track of, but the strategy works just as well.

In my case I base coated all the individual pieces I would be working on, then set them in a box, which I placed above my eyeline so I couldn't see all the pieces I had yet to work on. I could only see the pieces I was currently involved in, and I stored the finished pieces on a lower shelf so I could see I my progress. This saved my brain.

Go Big or Go Home

I like to leave the "showcase" elements of an army for last.

There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, it's too easy to get the exciting models out of the way first and then get stuck with the 50 troopers that you I never end up finishing. I get the grind done with first, and earn myland raider.

On a more practical level, I know that when I bring an army out, there are certain models that people are going to look at first. The basic troops almost always get glazed over in favor of the big shiny elements. I want to be as well practiced as possible before I bring a brush to the flash I'm going to be packing. I had painted the Howling Griffon logo well over 50 times before I put it on the side of the raider, and the experience paid off.

Which brings me to one of the main reasons to wait until the last few models to paint.

Whether or not I realize it, the whole time I've been painting the army, I've been defining the visual scope of the armies appearance. In essence, I've written the rules on how to paint the Griffons. Now is the time to break those rules.

I realized that I had never done an oversized griffon on any of my tanks. The Land Raider was the perfect opportunity to break away from the mold as paint a large-scale detail of the icon. Where I had stayed fairly utilitarian in my design of the freehand , I now had the room for scripture. In this way, I was easily able to keep the main battle tank within the bounds of what made the Griffons vehicles their own, but also with a distinct identity.

Fight the Fatigue

But no matter how hard I try, it will eventually become a slog sometimes. It's summer and I have no AC, I'm hungry, I'm tired, I really want a coffee (okay, I do break for coffee). There are a million excuses the mind makes up for not getting things done. My rule is that it's fine to contemplate quitting and doing something else, so long as I'm painting while I contemplate. The only way to finish a project is to get it done.

And so the last tank of the Howling Griffons project is done.