Hobby Update: On the Board

I haven't exactly been killing it so far this year when it comes to painting.  That, my friends, is what's called an understatement.

The good news is that, in the last two weeks, I've managed to focus and get some things finished.  And it only took until Fall got here.  The main project I've been trying to get to the Finished stage on my board is a squad of regular Chaos Space Marines for my Word Bearers.  After playing most of the year with an army in degrading disrepair, I'm making a push to get everything rebuilt to an appropriate specification.  In the exuberance of my youth, I glued plastic to plastic and tried to make a unit of dudes that each looked awesome individually.  Everybody is posed.  Everybody has the flashiest available bit.  Unfortunately, nobody looks particularly cohesive.  In game, it was pretty darn hard to remember who had what, where the assault weapons were positioned, and which unit had what.  That was how it felt for me, which made me feel bad for my opponent.  Heck, most of the time, I forgot to say who had what before it mattered.  It wasn't good.

So Squad One is done.  Who is squad one?  Ten Marines with bolt pistols and close combat weapons.  Everybody is armed that way, except the bros with meltaguns.  WYSIWYG.  While that's a simple change and something most veteran gamers already do, I feel like it makes a big improvement, both in terms of the way the unit looks and what that means to my games.  Cohesiveness is a wonderful thing.

I am pretty happy with the way these guys turned out.  From a distance, the red is a deep vibrant color, reminiscent of the crimson that made me want to play Word Bearers in the first place.  Up close, it's a little bit messier and a less consistent than I would like.  There are spots where I hit the highlights just right, and spots where things didn't quite come together.  On the plus side, four coats of red means the base layers are really in there, so my previous issues regarding a dark undercoat without enough pigment over top of it aren't an issue.  Despite a few flaws, I will proudly put these guys on the table.  Maybe it's not the best work I've done, but these guys are solid, if I do say so myself.

Then, surprise of surprises, the motivation kept on rolling!  The Coven Throne has been three colors of green for quite some time.  I laid down the first layers of airbrushing and haven't done anything since.  After finishing the Marines, I decided, "Hey, it's close enough to done if I feel like just a little more effort."  I laid down one more shade of green and then a really solid wash on the trailing vapors.  After that, I stared at it for a good five minutes.  It had all the colors I planned on putting on it, but it really didn't feel done, nor did it look like it belonged with other models in the same army.  When put next to the other models I have done, the green doesn't pop the same way and the contrasting colors simply weren't there.  If I wanted the models to mesh, I had a bit of work left to do.

So that meant more planning.  A friend of mine, who is an excellent painter, had previously suggested Warlock Purple would set off the greens nicely, but Red Gore would come off similarly and would help give the impression of allies when I run Daemons and Chaos together.  I also wanted some black to ensure the Throne tied in with the Manticore.  I knew that I couldn't change the colors on the spirits, so the throne section of the model was the only thing that could be altered.  Red never would have worked for all real estate, so I went heavy on the black for the whole thing and tried to catch some bits and bobs with flashes of color.  In all, it took me about two and a half hours of extra work, but it came together way better than I could have imagined.

So what's next?  I gotta keep it rolling.  I have a unit of Bane Thralls/Daemons to work on.  Then it's back to the second squad of regular Chaos Space Marines.  I've got a bunch of dudes in the drink, trying to get Simple Green to do the work of getting my stuff back to square one.  Hopefully the motivation keeps on rolling.


Hobby Accomplishments!
-Painted the first Coterie
-Painted the Coven Throne/Daemon Whatever
-Ran and played in a tournament (more to come)

To Do List!
-Get the other coteries cleaned up and new
-Paint the Bane Thralls/Lesser Daemons