Worst of the Best

Of all the myriad "little tasks" that one has to perform in order to have a table nicely decorated with painted miniatures and beautiful scenery, there is one task that stands out to me as being the worst of them. I find this task tedious, niggly, incredibly challenging to do at even a satisfactory level. . . and I have never been able to do it at a superlative level. That task is painting standards.

So, imagine my relief when my better half did me a solid this past holiday weekend, took the kiddies out of the house for a few hours, and gave me a chance to put the nail in a couple of dwarf units. Standard Bearers for Bugman's 2.0 and Hammerers? Check and check.

Cossack-style for the hammerers, Chaos stuntie-style for Bugman's v. 2

Painting little designs on little flags is just something I can't appreciate until I either see a very good one (ever see Andy Chambers' Skaven army?), or I get to see the standard where it belongs- as a part of its unit. Same case here- I was very unsatisfied with the standards at first, but after seeing them amidst their Citadel brothers, I think the simplicity of the standard isn't so bad.

My now-completed unit of the much feared hammerers

On the commission front, all of the most recent completions have been a bit boring as well. But the blacksmiths are coming soon (I always leave NPC-types for last to have something good to look forward to painting), and then comes my favorite part of every project I have ever done- the group shot!

Mostly old Grenadier, Heritage, and Ral Partha bits and bobs

Anyone out there have one thing in the hobby that they don't look forward to? Any tasks that are required but mostly dreaded? Do share in the comments below!

Good evening, lead addicts.