Indomitable Gnome Fighter: Adventurers Starter Set

 

Monday night has become a 'painting' night now. I get home, get the dinner on and paint up some figures. My favourite miniature watches a movie with her son after school and I am left, for one night only, to my own devices for a couple of hours. Tonight, I started work again on my four skeleton horde figures. Battling changing eyesight, poor light and wonky brushes. 

I made some progress layering paint over three models reflecting on the time I used to do this regularly, with confidence and speed. But its was a struggle. I found myself wanting to let rip on something a little different than bare bone. 

So I went back to my little box on donated lead and found this little gnome. I've always had a fondness for gnomes (as does my favourite miniature who has placed two characterful chaps in our garden) so the chance to paint one up struck a chord with me. At first I thought this little chap was a member of the famous C11 range of Gnomes but after a little bit of research I found out that he is a member of a boxset -  the Adventures Starter Set... not a release I was familiar with at all!

With a release date of 1985 it was certainly before my entry into Warhammer and sits firmly with second edition. I'm not sure who sculpted this figs so if any of you know please pass it along. Looking at the selection below you can see that they were a pretty mixed bunch of chaps. A knight in armour (who I had in my original leadpile, if rather broken and missing a tab) caught my eye as did the Young Fighter who was also part of my old collection. 

With this figure I used the nine paints from my 'Citadel Colour set' I talked about a few posts back. Using a limited set of colours is a fun way to solve problems and mix up different shades. It also gives me a link to that far younger version of myself who went everywhere with couple of brushes and the very same set in 1989. I based the gnome in white, applied the base colours and just washed the lot with browns and blacks. I felt I was a little bit more painterly this time, though my eyes still went crazy a few times trying to focus but things seemed a little easier with this model. 

Once he was dry I just highlighted up like I always did. Much of the muscle memory is still there but the technique is very rusty. But I feel like there has been a bit of progress after last week's effort. 

What do you think?

In the end it wasn't just me that got interested in the paint set. My partner's son picked out an old plastic elf from a useful collection of items donated by Michael from https://angelbarracks.co.uk/. I was very appreciative to Michael for sending a couple of bags of flock and some static grass as it will allow me in the coming weeks to put together a scenic board to actually photographs these models slightly more sympathetically. Thank you for your generosity. 

My partner's son had painted a few figures with friends before and had a some experience with the more modern washes (which he had in his possession) and here is his first model. His mum and dad were very impressed with his efforts, as was I as getting the initial model in any collection complete is a challenge. Michael's static grass helped finish off the base here in a more modern style than mine. 

Michael, we salute you! 

In other news, we have appointed an architect to begin drawing up plans to modernise the house. As I have said before, there is some irony that a man that spent many years writing about the '80s now lives in a house unchanged from that time, and a fair few years before. So who knows, I might end up with amore permanent set up again one day? At the moment I just get everything out on the kitchen table...

My M.O.T also went well. The car passed which means, fingers crossed, I might have a tiny bit of budget next week to spend of figures that catch my eye. I've seen that obscure bargains can still be found on eBay and there are a number of retro shops around here in Essex that may well contain a stray metal figure from our time period... so who knows...

Orlygg