Promotion, pressure, and painting Salamanders for the Polish Championships
Sometimes hobby motivation comes from a calm, well-planned project. And sometimes it comes from a deadline, a tournament, and the sudden realization that yes, these models really do need to be painted before April.
This week we had one of those very relatable hobby chats: a bit of life news, a bit of roasting, and a lot of painting pressure.
First: huge congrats
end3r dropped the kind of message that instantly changes the tone on the channel: he got promoted. The best part was that it came with that very specific feeling of hobby-and-life overlap — going from being the person asking others what could be done better, to suddenly writing a four-paragraph explanation of his own and feeling like it actually made sense.
Naturally, the immediate response from the rest of us was somewhere between sincere congratulations and the usual friendly abuse. Michalbe summed it up in the most hobby-brained way possible: apparently quantity matters, and if you do something enough times, quality eventually shows up on its own. Honestly? That sounds suspiciously close to how a lot of us learn painting and playing Kill Team.
There was also a suggestion that end3r should launch an “Academy of Kill Team” and start teaching people for money. Which is especially funny when you hear the current tournament record: three events played, with results of 1:2, 1:2, and 0:3. So yes — clearly a masterclass is imminent.
The real deadline: Mistrzostwa Polski
Jokes aside, the serious date on the horizon is 11–12 April, when the Polish Championships for Kill Team are happening. And like in all good tournament prep stories, the real enemy is not the opposing operatives.
It is the painting queue.
At the moment, end3r is working on Salamanders, and by his own admission, the current state is “nothing spectacular yet” — but honestly, we all know that stage. The part where a project looks rough, unfinished, and slightly suspicious right before it suddenly starts coming together.
What makes this extra painful is that he could have gone for the fast route: green primer, quick bright green drybrush, done. Instead, he chose the path of hobby righteousness:
- black primer,
- white drybrush,
- two coats of dark Contrast,
- and only then a bright green drybrush on top.
Which is exactly the kind of decision that sounds smart, looks good, and absolutely destroys your available hobby time.
By current estimates, that means well over a dozen hours per model, maybe more, especially at a careful pace. Completely unreasonable. Also extremely relatable.
Is the extra effort visible?
According to end3r: a bit. Mostly on the armour. Not a dramatic difference, but enough to justify the suffering — which, let’s be honest, is a classic painting conclusion.
And from our side, the verdict was simple: both versions already look great. More importantly, it is just cool to see the project moving. We all know that feeling when a force exists mostly in your head, on a list, or in a pile of plastic — and then suddenly it starts becoming a real painted army or team.
What comes after Salamanders?
Because hobby plans are never limited to one thing, the conversation immediately jumped to what is next.
After the Salamanders, end3r wants to build dwarfs for Necromunda. The idea is to make them work visually as proper Squats, because the default loadouts from Leagues of Votann or Kharadron Overlords do not really map neatly onto what you want to show on Necromunda models. And honestly, that makes perfect sense — if the gang is on the table, it is nice when the gear reads clearly.
After that? More dwarfs — this time Dwarfen Mountain Holds for Warhammer: The Old World.
So yes, the current roadmap is basically:
- paint Salamanders for Kill Team,
- build Necromunda dwarfs,
- then move on to fantasy dwarfs.
A deeply respectable pipeline.
Speed comes with reps
One of the nicer parts of this chat was how familiar the underlying theme felt. End3r likes painting these models, but still feels too slow. And honestly, who among us has not said exactly that at some point?
The good news is also the obvious one: speed usually does come with repetition. The same way tournament confidence comes from actually playing events, hobby efficiency comes from just putting in the reps. Maybe Michalbe’s joking theory about quantity turning into quality was not a joke after all.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table
Of course, it was not just one hobby emergency in the chat. Michalbe also had his own deadline panic going on: he wants to bring a tournament list that includes two monsters that are not even assembled yet. Which is the kind of sentence that every Warhammer player understands on a spiritual level.
So while one of us is racing a paint schedule, another is preparing for a late-night assembly session and trying to find time to test the list before the event. Standard operating procedure.
And then: more congratulations
A day later, the channel turned into congratulations mode again. The exact details stayed in chat shorthand, but the vibe was very clear: success happened, people were happy, and the energy immediately swung back toward the important questions in life — like when the next Kill Team game is happening.
The answer, sensibly enough, was that maybe first there should be a little time for video games and maybe painting something.
Which, honestly, sounds like a pretty healthy plan.
The hobby moral of the week
This was one of those conversations that really captures what we like about the hobby:
- people leveling up in real life,
- tournament ambitions that are slightly ahead of current results,
- painting schemes that become way more elaborate than originally intended,
- and at least three future projects queued up before the current one is finished.
In other words: everything is proceeding exactly as it should.
We are keeping our fingers crossed for the Salamanders to be ready in time for the Polish Championships, for the Necromunda dwarfs to happen, and for the eventual Dwarfen Mountain Holds project to roll onto the table too.
And if the secret really is just doing things often enough until quality appears on its own, then honestly, we may all be onto something.