The ute of today

I love this hobby. I really do. It's safe to say that I've dedicated quite a chunk of my life to constructing and painting 28-32mm scale miniatures based on the various worlds of Games Workshop. Anything can spark the beginning of a project: the release of a new miniature; something I saw online; a passage in a book; a scene in a movie; or even a real-life object, building or landscape. I never really know where the inspiration will come from, but it usually forms the burning need to create some cool-looking derivative model that will somehow slot into my existing collection. Often I'll start with the intention of really going to town, taking my time to actualise the ideas floating around in my head in a way that is as accurate or interesting as possible. To attempt to achieve something that sits at the (admittedly not very high) pinnacle of my capability. 

But occasionally I'll simply want to paint a model with the sole intention of clearing some desk space.

This Mantic Mule was just such an occasion. Released as a robust, sci-fi, military asset, I thought it would instead make a rugged, little, utility vehicle (or ute) for more domestic usage. The sort of thing you might see driving around the enclosed road system of an Imperial Hive City like Kruenta Karoliina Arx Rotunda.

But once I'd built the thing, it just sat there for years, looking forlorn and unloved, collecting dust. It's not alone in that fate, as I have hundreds of unpainted miniatures waiting for their moment under the brush. But when I absent-mindedly picked it up earlier this week and reacquainted myself with its muscular design, I realised that if I stuck to a quick, simple, paint-job, I could get the whole thing completed using just the spare moments of that single day. 

So a lunch-break and a bit, a decidedly non-military colour scheme*, and a handful of dry transfers (that I'd never used before, but which I wanted to include as an oblique reference to my rugged, little, youngest son) and this was ready for display.

As is often the case with these quicker projects, I'm a little indifferent to the final piece. I'm neither proud of it, nor do I dislike it. It's good enough to add to my collection of domestic 40K models, without being any kind of centrepiece.

But at least I have a little desk space back.

*Non-military colour scheme in the classic sense, that is. I guess there are plenty of sci-fi forces that use colour schemes heavily featuring yellow and green. My very own Ork Armoured Brigade being a pretty good example.