Am I the worst miniature painter in the world?

I got into wargaming about six years ago, though I only started playing properly around February of 2009.  Now my path into wargaming was from the Dawn of War computer games.  These constituted my first exposure to the world of Warhammer 40'000 and from the moment I saw the very distinctive intro movie to the first game, I was hooked.

It wasn't too long after that before I was checking out Games Workshop and looking at their products.  The next thing I knew 2008 had come along and I was buying battleforces and building armies.  Then late that year my friend Shaun, who'd played 40k when a lot younger, decided to get back into it and by the time 2009 came along we were going to have a game.

So I decided Chaos Space Marines would be my first main army, after a bit of messing around with the Crimson Fists and Dark Angels.  With limited space to play in, Shaun and I agreed that we'd stick to a thousand points.  So I came up with a list, started building it and then, started painting it.

The results were shocking, essentially just lots of paints slapped on plastic.  Shaun described them as so bad that his then three year old daughter could have painted better models.  Bad as the insult sounded, the worst part was that it was true.  When I heard, I determined that I would become, if not the best painter in the world, at least someone who could paint decent if unspectacular models.

In the years that have passed since then, I'm not certain I've  managed to acheive even that limited aim.  Too many of my models have dirty looking paint on them or bits where I've gone over a line and painted the wrong colour.  For example too many of my Imperial Guard have streaks of blue on their red pants.

That tends to be because I end up rushing models so I can use them in games and tournaments.  However since I haven't played a game in going on ten months, I have no excuse for rushing any more.  Now in that time I haven't picked up a brush once, but today I did.

I'd forgotten how strangely relaxing it is.  The act of just picking up a brush, wetting it, then dipping it in paint and applying that paint to a model is so simple that I couldn't believe I've waited so long before doing it again.

With money tight at the moment I can't really afford to buy anything new which is a good thing since I have so much that needs painting.  Apart from dozens of Sisters of Battle that I'd bought either early last year or in 2011, I've got some Tau and other little oddites including two French Napoleonic soldiers, circa 1812 and a 17th/18th century North American militia man.

Anyway I think I'll bring this introductory post to a close now but leave you with an example of just how bad my painting is.  These guys represent my one attempt to paint 15mm models.  Believe it or not but the visors are painted a different colour to the rest of the helmet; turquiose as opposed to blue.