I painted the bases that I had mocked up recently. I'm pleased with the results for a number of reasons.
First, I did some research and it shouldn't be too cost or time prohibitive to crank out a whole bunch more of them. Second, I tried out Reaper's line of paints for the first time. I didn't see a GW color that I liked for this, and I've been meaning to try out new paints, so I grabbed some Blackened Steel the last time I was at the shop. Granted, I didn't try to do a lot with it, but it seems like good stuff. Finally, I'm really pleased with how they looked. The models look just how I think they should. They're dynamic. They're evocative. They're exactly what I hoped for.
The biggest headache of the whole process was trying to separate the models from their original bases. I guess that's part of the problem with committing to an idea wholly, prior to when you really should. I ended up losing a few toes temporarily and had to glue them back on. It's not a big deal, but definitely a pain. If anyone has any tips on separating plastic connected via super glue cleanly, I'd appreciate it.
And of course, this came out:
While the chances of me actually buying one, let alone enough to play a whole game of 40K on, are slim to none (but desperately hoping that slim pays out), I might have run around the house screaming with my hands in the air. It's pretty cool.
Finally, we get to the plus. I've been mostly good. I have gotten a
lot done on the Vargheists, and they're pretty close to done. But I
also got wrapped up in painting Deneghra from a Cryx battle box. For
the most part, I haven't tried to do anything special, but I went a
little more extreme with the highlighting on the dress. I like how it
turned out. What I don't like, almost hate in fact, is the head. I'm
considering swapping it out for a Dark Eldar Wych head. Really any head
from that particular group would look better.
In an attempt to pique the interest of some of my board gaming friends about playing what I totally swore was a skirmish game, I acquired a pair of War Machine starter boxes quite some time ago. Since then, they've languished in their primer. I understand that put's me in the conversation for best painted at a War Machine tournament... I kid, of course! But seriously, one of the new guys at the club comes to us from playing War Machine, and I saw an opportunity to maybe get a little bit of use out of my small crew of Jacks. It turns out they're super easy to get painted. I knocked out the big jack while taking breaks from the Possessed, and the little ones in about 20 minutes apiece. They aren't much more than table top quality, but I don't feel like putting a large amount of effort into models for games that I doubt I'll play a whole lot. Still, a sense of accomplishment is always a nice thing. You might recognize the color scheme. I swear I know that other colors exist. The first Jacks I painted were actually for use as Obliterators in 40K, so in an effort to be able to use them for both games, I found my options pretty limited. I think it works pretty well though.
My other stated goal from previous updates was to get the Nightbringer fixed up and ready for paint. A cursory glance told me I'd need a little green stuff. When I started the more involved work, I found the work would need to be a bit more expansive. Obviously that didn't faze me much, as I've got more than a few colors already on this bad boy. I am starting to wish I had been a bit more patient. I am careening forward without a plan beyond simply, "Make it green." It's a more complex model than I initially thought. The model has a robe that wraps around the body, parallel to the ground. This breaks up the flow of the model. The initial inspiration for the whole army was actually a simple dark to light transition on this piece. Now I find I need a new plan. I may go with all green on the robes, with black skin and green highlights. That seems to be the simplest of solutions.
