Getting back in the groove

My holiday is finally over and after a few days at work I've been getting back into the everyday rhythm. The five weeks went through like a breeze with a trip to France, some weddings and other occasions filling the calendar. And what free time there was was spent outside of home at our summer cottage. No real progress on the hobby front to report as I haven't really picked up the brushes since late June and only got in one game during the whole holiday period. I've been lagging behind following blogs as well, as my only internet access has usually just been my mobile phone. It's hard to realize how much cool stuff is published until you try to check everything once every two weeks and notice you have hundreds of posts to check out!

Our trip to France was fairly productive with one memory card full of photos from Hotel des Invalides, which really proved to be an excellent place to visit. Nearly one whole day was spent looking at everything on show and with Bastille day being only a few days later we happened to be there during an awards ceremony where some higher officers were given medals for their service. It was nice watching the parade and hearing some military music played by the band. After this post I'm starting to go through all the pics and editing suitable ones for the blog. Hopefully the break between posts won't be as long as the last one.

I've had somewhat of a painting block for quite a while now after the Painting Challenge finished. I powered through the Frostgrave stuff, but other than that I honestly haven't really felt like painting anything. I think part of it comes from trying to paint too large batches at once, and partly from not really having any project that currently really inspires me. Gargant mob went on a backburner until I can think of some good colour schemes for them.

To get something done I tried my hand on painting up some Panzer IV's that I'd bought second hand online with just a basecoat applied. The colour modulation went on great, but my green camouflage ended up turning out quite horribly as I just couldn't get the paint to flow out nicely and not drying up on the nozzle every 5 seconds. To add insult to injury I realized what had seemed wrong  about them the whole time as most hatches were painting in the wrong directions and some parts weren't where they were supposed to be... No wonder they were so darn cheap. Now they are on hold as well until I figure if I want to strip them of paint and do another camouflage job or just go on and quickly finish them and  buy some better models later on to replace them.

With them pushed to the back as well I picked a few prepped Reaper monsters as something quick to get me going again. Not much progress yet, but at least painting on the first skin layers on the ogre and golem didn't feel like a chore. Slow start, but it hopefully it will see me back in the groove and enjoying painting again!