I'm Almost Done Painting? - Warhammer

There is a really weird side to all of this that I'm starting to be faced with, if I'm running a true Thousand Sons army - I'm almost done painting.

Who cares if I have chosen, possessed, raptors, or even a mob of normal chaos space marines to do - none of those can be part of a Thousand Sons army.

That's one of the weirdest parts of this. I like the rules of my army, and I'm really liking getting that army on the field because all things considering, I'm one unit of terminators to a REALLY broken level where everything gets to re-roll saves of 1, and considering just how stupid that can be, it's a really tempting thing to do. But, there's one problem. All of the other cool things that I have sitting up on my shelf - they can't be in a traditional, book approved, Thousand Sons army.

Unless I go into detachments, allies, and whatever else, there's no way to field a normal unit of chaos space marines, because they don't work in the thousand sons army. Same goes with the rest of those models.

The hardest part to hitting this point is trying to sort out how/why/when I would ever field all of this. The problem is that typically, up to this point, it was more of a statement of whatever I have painted is going out on the field wither I want it or not. It was impossibly easy to make a list because I'd plug int the models that I had into an army builder and then just spend points away until I got to the magical number of whatever point value I was trying to fight at. There was little to no strategy, it was just getting figures on the field because it was the easiest way to go.

The reason I painted warp talons so fast? (and honestly I should go back and fix them a bit more so they fit into the army a bit better, and give them some shading) They were worth a lot of points for only five models. 220 points for only five things - that comes out at 44 points a piece. Nothing was that point heavy for such a small model in my army and I needed points to field. Who cared if they were weak strong or whatever else, I just wanted a painted army. That's the same reason I rushed the cultists. They're a healthy unit of rush job too, and if you start throwing upgrades at them, even if they're pointless upgrades like a mark of Tzeentch, they at least can put some dent into the world of points that I was trying to table.

I've finally hit the point where I have to think about my army. It's a good point, but a scary one none the less. Long gone are the days of bring everything and see what happens. Now I can bring different things and try to actually strategize into what I'm trying to do.

I almost wrote that gone are the days that I bring things that I think are cool even if they're not, but let's be honest, that's never going to happen. I'm always going to bring things just because I have a crush on them.

It's just a weird point to be at when I'm seriously starting to realize that instead of everything I paint going directly onto the table, that everything I paint might not be forced onto the table the next time I play. There's no longer a rush. It's a good thing because in all reality I could stop and have a 2k point army ready to go that I'm comfortable with. It's also a bad thing because now I'm looking at the last projects and realizing that I don't HAVE to. Even though the completionist side of me will never let that happen, it's tempting to finally put down the brush for a bit and take a break.

The only thing that I have to keep telling myself is that I'm not done painting yet. I've got a lot of work to do still. Considering I have ONE army ALMOST complete (and really it's not even almost complete, it's just more than 50% done so I can say it's on the down hill slope of things), I've still got THREE others to worry about. Part of me is considering buying more models (especially those terminators, aspiring sorcerers, and of course Magnus) but I have to keep chanting to myself that I'm not buying anything new until everything I have is painted. I think once I get EVERYTHING chaos space marine done, then if I'm still feeling up to it, I'll buy those three things . . . one at a time. . . finishing with Magnus.

I've just got to keep telling myself that I'm not done, so the rule of painted or no buying still is in effect.

Officially, for the record what I have to still paint is -

2 rhino
1 predator
1 daemon prince
1 terminator (sorcerer, lord, whatever can do both)
1 lord (from the dark vengence box, big sword, cape, pistol)
1 unit of chosen (dark vengence box, 6 of these guys)
1 unit of possessed (5 of these)
1 unit of raptors (with possessed wings, 5 of them)
and then a massive block of chaos space marines (massive = 23)

All in all, that is 45 more models (some of which are transports, heroes, or monsterous creatures) so they'll take a bit more time, but let's assume that I do a model in under three days (which isn't too crazy when you get into the realm of the units where it goes into more production line painting than anything else) that means that I should be done at the end of April. I guess we'll cross that bridge when I get there. It's just weird to think that that bridge is finally showing up. 

Edit: I can't spell and apparently I don't know the unit names for my own army.