A Leader in Solvent, AoS Temptations, and Big Battle Plans
We love those hobby evenings when one topic smoothly turns into three others. It started with painting panic, drifted into browsing Age of Sigmar minis, and ended exactly where it probably had to end: with dreams of playing a proper full-size battle someday.
Emergency at the painting desk
Michał had a very practical problem to solve before Saturday: his leader miniature went straight into solvent.
Why? Because he primed it with a matte white spray, and then came the painful lesson that this was not going to work the way he wanted with Contrast paints. So instead of trying to force it, he went for the hobby reset button and dropped the model in solvent, hoping it would strip cleanly by the next day and be ready for some evening repainting.
Honestly, this is one of those hobby moments we all recognize immediately. Sometimes the best painting decision is admitting that the first attempt is not it.
If you want one tiny takeaway from this little disaster: not every white primer is automatically a good base for Contrast-style painting, and sometimes finding that out happens on the most important model in the warband.
Looking at AoS models with fresh eyes
At the same time, Dubry admitted something we suspect happens to a lot of people: the longer you look at Age of Sigmar miniatures, the more you start liking them.
Michał chimed in with a great oldhammer-meets-newhammer perspective. He remembered having that acolyte model years ago, including its appearance in our legendary battle on a ping-pong table on Sieciechowska. Back then, it felt like these miniatures had not really changed since 1999.
And then you compare them.
Suddenly it turns out they have changed a lot.
Not every range wins everyone over equally, of course. Michał was pretty clear that while some of the updated sculpts look great, clanrats still do absolutely nothing for him.
And on the other side of the chat, there was also this reaction, which honestly says enough on its own:
Small games are great, but battle is the destination
Then came the really important question: are we going to play a full-size battle one day?
That hit a nerve immediately.
As much as we enjoy the faster, smaller formats, there is still something mythical about “proper battle.” Dubry summed it up perfectly: for all the greatness of Warcry and the apparent greatness of Spearhead, battle is the feast, the ultimate goal.
That is exactly the energy. Skirmish systems are fantastic because they get models on the table quickly and lower the barrier to entry. But somewhere in the back of our minds there is always that image of ranked-up units, a big table, a whole afternoon blocked out, and the feeling that this is not just a game but an occasion.
And if motivation is needed, Michał already has it covered: 3000 points are waiting.
How we got pulled back in
One of the nicest parts of this conversation was how casually it reminded us that getting back into Warhammer often happens through people as much as through the miniatures themselves.
In Michał’s case, the October trip to Kalymnos turned out to be unexpectedly important. His climbing friends pulled him back into Warhammer: Paweł, who plays Warhammer 40k, and Marek, who has already ordered himself a Spearhead force. They were also there for our first Spearhead game, and when Staś had to leave, Marek took over his army and finished the match.
That is such a perfect hobby story. A bit of travel, a bit of crossover between completely different friend groups, and suddenly plastic soldiers are back in your life.
We also had a brief moment of imagining some ancient local veterans who had been playing continuously since the 90s, the kind of people who could tell the whole history of the scene from the Morion days until now. Sadly, we do not have such legendary contacts yet. But honestly, the image alone gave us a good laugh.
The current state of affairs
So where does this leave us?
- one leader is hopefully dissolving productively in solvent,
- Age of Sigmar models are looking better the longer we stare at them,
- Spearhead continues to do excellent recruitment work,
- Warcry remains tempting,
- and somewhere on the horizon there is a real, full-size battle waiting for us.
Which, if we are being honest, sounds like a very good place to be in at the start of the year.
If all goes well, the stripped leader will return to the painting desk soon — this time with a better plan underneath the paints.