Azazel and his monthly challenges strike again! For those not in the know fellow blogger and hobbyist Azazel has been setting himself, and anyone else who fancies joining in, a different challenge every month of 2018. Some I’ve taken a shot at, some I’ve let pass by, but this one has me very interested indeed. Azazel has called for May to be Neglected Model Month – a chance to clear our desks of that miniature that’s been sitting half-finished and gathering dust for far too long (Azazel suggests six months as a minimum – sadly I’m sure I’m not alone in having a few contenders that are much, much more neglected than that!)
Something I’ve been wondering about since I decided to take on this challenge is why some models end up becoming neglected. I’m not thinking about spur of the moment purchases that end up looking less appealing after a day or two but well loved models that grab your enthusiasm and then, as the paint goes down, your interest wanes. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why this happens, and perhaps that’s because the specifics will differ from model to model, but ultimately you end up putting the model down and never picking it up again.
Once this has happened the problem becomes self perpetuating. Life beyond the hobby is often busy and stressful and we turn to our collections of models for pleasure, not for more work. A neglected model however hardly conjures up good feelings, we feel ashamed of them, guilty that we’ve not been more diligent in painting them, irritated to see them still sitting on the painting desk. No wonder we don’t rush to pick them up at the end of a long and difficult day, who wants more bad feelings in their lives? So we grab the new thing that we’re excited by and crack on with painting it instead and the neglected model continues to gather dust. Now in spite of our tendency as hobbyists to ascribe personality and spirit to our models, and to treat them as little household gods, a more materialistic outlook would insist that these are just little lumps of plastic or metal which, although artfully sculpted, don’t feel particularly bothered one way or another if they have an outer layer of brightly coloured plastic applied to them in semi-liquid form. My models don’t care if they’re painted or not but I do, it matters to me, and it upsets me slightly to see them unfinished. In this regard Azazel has done me a great favour by setting this challenge and encouraging me to get to work painting up some of those incomplete models once and for all.
Thus instead of taking on just one neglected model I’ve dug out a whole pile. Here’s what I’m hoping to have finished by the end of May.

Let’s take a look at them individually.

I tackled this Bloat Drone as part of DreadTober last year. By the later part of the month it was almost done, I was happy with it, and I didn’t want to rush it to meet someone else’s deadline. Why not just take my time and enjoy it, I thought. Yet here we are, in May and it hasn’t see a brush stroke since.

Another DreadTober victim, this Helbrute with flails was first built in 2014 – then took a whole year to get painted. By the time Dreadtober 2017 rolled around however he was looking distinctly worse for wear and in need of some repairs. Did he get them? Did he hell!

These fleshhounds are so neglected that one of them has gone into hiding. In theory I own a squad of five but when it came to setting up this group shot I could only lay my hands on four. Never mind, as soon as I find the fifth he’ll join his pack. I got them a few years ago now as a gift from a colleague for looking after his dog whilst he was on holiday (see what he did there?). We weren’t terribly close mates even then (although I always got on well with the dog) but since then he started acting more and more like a recalcitrant ass at work and generally went out of his way to make everyone’s lives tough. The result; I never did sit down and finish painting his hounds. It’s not their fault they were purchased by a tool though – they just want to devour souls for their master Khorne.

Also rather a fan of Khorne is this ogren berserker. The blood god’s favour will be a long time coming however if he doesn’t get properly painted – the Taker of Skulls may not care from whence the blood flows but he takes a dim view of anyone who doesn’t take the time to finish painting his banner.

I started working on these nurglings at the same time as the others, back in January 2015. Look at their happy faces? How can I have failed to show them love for so long?
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So there we have it, my challenge to myself for the next few weeks. My thanks once again to Azazel for coming up with this challenge and of course, best of luck to everyone else who’s taking part. Your models may not thank you for it per se but you’ll be happier once they’re done.