Jabberwocky

Oh frabjous day!  I said back in December that it would take me another 6 months to build the next Armiger and I was more or less right.  Except it's not painted and I have 6 days to finish it along with an Onager Dunecrawler and a Stratoraptor.  Oh yes, they will be phoned in.  It's either that or face the unthinkable prospect of taking bare, grey plastic to a tournament.  That would be like going to school in your pyjamas.  The stuff of nightmares!  I don't want to do that so my plan is to half finish this one and get the basecoats on the others.  It's a good plan and it will probably fail so I don't expect I'll get much chance to post in the next week.  Or much sleep for that matter.

But I just couldn't stop working on this one.  I probably got a bit obsessive about it.  I spent ages running brass rods through the left leg to make it hold the entire weight of the model on one toe.  Once I realised that it was going to work and I hadn't made a complete hash of it, I tinkered with it compulsively, like an ulcer in your mouth that you can't stop touching with your tongue. Feverishly sifting through  the bitz box and watching it rotate endlessly on the turntable.  To hell with tournament deadlines, I was having fun!  (Dear God, what have I been reduced to?)

The head was a problem originally and frustrated me at every turn.  I tried everything from the Brundle-Fly Lord Discordant head to a giant drill bit from the Tectonic Fragdrill set and yet nothing seemed right.  Having spent so much time on the legs I really didn't want to cock it up.  I had a spare Helldrake head and it's a lovely bit of kit but it just didn't work.  For some reason, my subconscious mind kept telling me to glue it on upside down. 

 

But that was just stupid.  Right up there with the vomiting Sigmarine and the Eversor Assassin on the toilet.  People would laugh and point and all the good work would be wasted.  I put the model down and turned to other projects but the thought would not go away.  Fast forward 6 months and now the Maelstrom XIII (unlucky for some!)  deadline loomed.  I had a week to finish three large models or just not bother and unleash them naked at a local primary school.  I would get arrested.  Time to stop procrastinating.

'Ok, okay!' I informed my idiot hindbrain. 'I'll glue it on upside down!  I just need to fill in the eyes with some green stuff to hide that fact.' 

'No...' said the aberrant corner of my mind. 'Leave the eyes.  In fact, paint them with a glow effect to accentuate them.  This model serves the ruinous powers.  It's meant to be fucked up'.