I imagine that many men who play Warhammer or something like it have had something similar to the following conversation with their wives:
Wife: I like that your army men are on the kitchen counter. They're cute.
Me: ...Um, they're the Death Company of the Blood Angels Chapter.
Wife: They're still cute.
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| Can a unit with the Rage USR be cute? |
Anyway, these past couple weeks have been good as far as painting progress. Actually, quite good. I managed to finish up the aforementioned Death Company. I painted the entirety of three Banshees for some Daemons. I airbrushed the first coat of green on a Coven Throne. I finally finished remodelling my Defiler. I primed a bunch of basic Chaos Space Marines. Progress!
Of the ten models in the squad, one of them has been done for quite some time. The remaining nine have sat with varying stages of colors finished. At one point, all the actual Marines were finished, but the jump packs were still totally black. Motivating yourself to bang out nine jump packs can be quite a task, but I managed to sit down and knock out three batches while watching football.
It's probably a little cliche, but I am feeling good about how they turned out. OK, it's very cliche. But once I slapped a layer of Dullcote on them, they lost a lot of the shiny black gloss color that tends to bleed through because of the crappy primer I use. Prior to that, I was pretty nervous. The varnish does tend to even things out, but it's definitely never a matte finish. So, happy surprises. The other reason I like these guys is they include my first attempt at doing lots of highlighting. In some cases, I may have gone a little overboard, but the orange really pops coming off the red, and the dark gray looks really good on the black armor without making them look like they're supposed to be gray.
Some of you who tend to focus on the play side of things may be wondering about the squad and its loadout of weapons. Technically, Death Company can't take a meltagun, nor do they have a unit champion option, and seriously, where the heck are the power weapons? Well, the squad was put together during fifth edition, when Allies weren't a thing. This unit was intended to be a Skyclaw squad originally, but with the advent of sixth edition, I reached a point where I could conceivably include them as Death Company. I'd love to do that. What I'd really love to do is add five more dudes with power weapons and Infernus Pistols so I can do both, but we'll see what comes.
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| I plan on using them as Flamers. |
Trying to prove that I can paint colors other than just red, I also painted a trio of Banshees for my Fear Daemons army. My original intention was to try to do these girls in their entirety with an airbrush, or as close as possible to it. That didn't happen. I went all paintbrush. Unfortunately, I had some serious issues with getting any kind of paint flow through the airbrush. Turns out, I tried a little too hard to keep the pots clean and created some Q-tip blockage. Whoops. So I got that fixed, but not in time to work on these ones.
The models were originally from the Coven Throne kit. I clipped off the tails after applying the paint, so I'd have something extra to grasp while I painted. It was a pretty straightforward process. The models got multiple layers of the same shades of green that I've used on some previous monsters, with lots of dark greens blending into much yellower versions. I've added some of the lighter colors towards the top of the models, which is a departure from the way I painted their big brother, the Nightbringer. I tried to make those lighter colors more prevalent, but I think the extra layers could do with some more glazing to try to smooth it out. I also might try to matte up the black some.
Briefly, I'd also like to touch on my Defiler. Not in a dirty way. A few weeks ago, I went a little nuts and ripped off all the legs and arms, plus I pulled the torso(?) from the chassis(?). I'm not sure what to call what on a daemon engine. Then I went even further off the deep end, magnetizing just about everything. The result? A defiler that was more transportable since I could take it apart and put it in a Rhino slot in my carry case, plus I could also easily represent the vehicle being immobilized, destroyed, or losing weaponry. Success! Except that the weight of the model was too great, so the Defiler just slid down to its base as the magnets would rotate. Failure! Because of that, I pretty much just left the thing at home.
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| Now he's a walker, instead of a sitter |
After some practical thought about problem, I decided to go as simple as possible and glued some ordinary sprue to the Defiler's ball and socket joints. This prevents the magnets from rotating, holding the legs in an appropriate pose. It doesn't look pretty right now, nor will it when it is finished, but there's enough going on that I don't think it'll matter if I stick to dark colors in those sections. Plus I'd much rather have a functional model at this point.
Hobby Goals
-Airbrush the Coven Throne by Wednesday
-Mechrite Red on the Chaos Marines by Saturday
-Silver on the Possessed by Sunday
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. 
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.
Of the ten models in the squad, one of them has been done for quite some time. The remaining nine have sat with varying stages of colors finished. At one point, all the actual Marines were finished, but the jump packs were still totally black. Motivating yourself to bang out nine jump packs can be quite a task, but I managed to sit down and knock out three batches while watching football.
Briefly, I'd also like to touch on my Defiler. Not in a dirty way. A few weeks ago, I went a little nuts and ripped off all the legs and arms, plus I pulled the torso(?) from the chassis(?). I'm not sure what to call what on a daemon engine. Then I went even further off the deep end, magnetizing just about everything. The result? A defiler that was more transportable since I could take it apart and put it in a Rhino slot in my carry case, plus I could also easily represent the vehicle being immobilized, destroyed, or losing weaponry. Success! Except that the weight of the model was too great, so the Defiler just slid down to its base as the magnets would rotate. Failure! Because of that, I pretty much just left the thing at home.
I showed off the Possessed Marines I finished in one of my last hobby posts. I was hesitant to start the next batch right away since I was hoping to acquire two more bodies and a few arms and legs from some friends. Honestly, I never got around too it and, surprise, surprise, my patience ran out. I raided my own bitz box and came up with an Ork head, some Crypt Horror hands, and a few other bits that got grafted on randomly. They don't fit perfectly, but if you don't know to look for them (cuz you're not me) they'll blend well enough. Now on to paint!
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.
To the right, you can see the 60mm round base for 40K. It started life as your basic GF9 magnetic base. Up close and basically naked, it's not the prettiest, but I plan to use some red or purple tinted water effects to fill some of the gaps. That plus a little bit of scraping on the excess superglue and I'll really be in business. I used tinted auto glass from a wreck that happened outside a friends house. It's a very dark surface, which means I have to be conscientious of ensuring some sort of contrast in the lower parts of all the models. In this case, it will end up being a few brighter coats of red on the claws of the monster. The surface is also reflective, which gives it an otherworldly quality that I think will be excellent for a daemonic army.
To the left, you can see the standard Fantasy base that I use on all my Warriors models. It's not the most complicated process, but having to drill into the marble can be a rather delicate extra wrinkle. I ended up drilling three separate holes for each spot on the base. Once the holes were finished, I sunk three quarter inch magnets into each hole. It's enough attraction that I can turn the model upside down and wiggle it a little without it falling off. I'm hoping that never turns into a victory condition in a game. I added a couple pieces of glass in addition to the usual marble. The original plan was to have a few shards on the model itself, but I've backtracked on that. They're already glued down, so I'm going to roll with it as best as possible, rather than trying to re-drill the holes. 
