We all have abandoned projects. I definitely do—and in this video I show you exactly why this miniature took me more than six months to finish. It started in summer 2024 with a rush of inspiration after seeing Dave Colwell’s “Sword Master of Hoeth”: that rich blue/orange contrast and the saturated NMM just hit me in the brain. So I went hard on deep, saturated blue “metallics,” shaped the light placement, and tried to balance it with mustard-gold tones. But as I pushed brighter highlights, the blues started to wash out, and once I hit those tiny helmet details I got stuck: I couldn’t soften the white highlights without killing the shine. Instead of adjusting, I hesitated… and then I stopped. In January I picked it back up with a different mindset: my piece wasn’t going to be Dave’s piece, and that had to be okay. I leaned into stronger greens in the gold reflections and started making choices that fit my version of the model. Then I did the thing that actually fixed the stagnation: I asked for feedback from multiple-time Golden Demon winner Nikolas Mortensen. His notes were simple and brutal in the best way—push overall contrast, sharpen highlights, and add more intense bounce lights to connect reflections and tie the model to the base. With that in mind I reworked the figure, built a base with cork and milliput, and pulled the palette together with browns/greens/oranges/greys. The hard lesson: finished is better than perfect—steal what you love, adapt it, and get fresh eyes when you’re stuck.