Basing and Resourcefulness

Rather than actually finishing the painting of the Manticore, I chose to spend yesterday fiddling with the bases of the monster.  You might have noticed that I chose to use the plural form of the word.  I have mentioned that I was waffling over what system to use the model for and eventually decided that with a little bit of cunning, I could have my cake and eat it too.  This feels extra nice in lieu of the recent announcement of impending price gougin... I mean adjustment.

Obligatory magnets = miracles joke

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. 


So at this point, I'm back to actually painting models.  I need to finish the body, after which I can paint the alternate head, albeit in a much less ornate style.  The heavy detail will be reserved for the riders.  In summary, for the cost of the model, plus eight kitchen tiles and a dozen magnets, I can use the big guy in two game systems and three different ways.  I'm thrilled with the way he looks, but the cheapskate in me is happiest about that.

Hobby Update

Lately I've been keeping the number of irons in the fire at just two.  I began the week by finishing up a member of the Death Company clad in white power armor.  He needed a little cleaning up and a few details asked to be polished a bit, but it wasn't too much effort before he was finished.  I wouldn't call him perfect, but it's the best result I've had using that much white, and he's guaranteed to pop when people look at the squad.

My approach to the Word Bearers Possessed has been a little more workmanlike.  They're great models, but I think I bit off more than I could chew by trying to do ten at a time.  As it is, I'm up to doing the silver edging.  I'm making sure that I do at least some every day and that seems to be keeping the progress steady.  At the same time, I'm making more mistakes than I'd like to.  Every couple of shoulder pads has a little slip of silver paint that's just not in the right place, and it's starting to frustrate me.  It is also making me a little nervous as going back to repair the red might not yield the same result.

After a great experience painting the Manticore head, I jumped into painting the body pretty quickly.  That process turned out to be even quicker than painting the much smaller head.  I met with some level of success.  There are certain angles and certain parts where the color runs from dark to light in a smooth gradient.  Then there are parts where it looks like I painted a darker green next to a lighter green.  Again, it's not perfect, but I'm not exactly a Golden Daemon level painter anyway.  I have a few ideas of things to try to improve it.  Suggestions are welcome as well.  Really, I want to get him to a level where he holds up a little better under close scrutiny.  Once the greens are done, it's just a matter of a layer of black on the skin.  There won't be a lot of models in the army so if I can figure out how to achieve the right effect, I could keep the whole thing to a high standard. 

Hobby Accomplishments
-Finished the Death Company Shapechanger
-70% done with Possessed's Silver
-Manticore's green is painted

Hobby Goals
-Finish the Possessed Silver trim (by Wednesday) and decide what to do about the details to make them unique
-Try to improve the blending on the Manticore, apply the layer of black paint, and magnetize the Manticore's neck

Hobby Update: Ones and Twos

After wrapping up a bunch of Blood Wing projects last month, I've moved on to giving some of my other armies a little bit of love.

How could he not be awesome?

I am really hoping that whenever the new Chaos codex comes out that Possessed are just absolute filth.  I'm half expecting it as well.  In preparation, I'm grinding on what really amounts to two squads of five.  Initially, it was going to be one of ten, but I realized that when I was picking models for priming I grabbed both of the Aspiring Champion/Chaplain models.  It's not really a big deal, resulting in just a little extra black paint thrown around during basecoating.  For the other troopers, I put on their Mechrite Red, then applied the Scab/Gore Red mixture.  Now I'm up to straight Red Gore, then Chainmail.  There's a long way to go on everything, but it's nice to see things beginning to take shape.  I want to work out some unique details for each unit before I go much further, but Possessed are beautiful models and don't really need much added.

I promise there will be more colors

I've gone back and forth about what to do with the Manticore that I've had sitting around for most of the last year.  If I were to use it in the Widowmakers army, it would be painted in a more realistic (for a mythical creature anyway) style for an animal.  If I went with Chaos Daemons, I would be going for a more unnatural effect.  I still haven't decided what to do with the whole thing, but I thought it couldn't hurt to give the unridden head a shot and see how it turned out.  It would also afford me a chance to use some of the new paint line, since my greens don't get much of a workout currently.  I started off with a layer of Caliban Green on the mane.  From there, it's going to be Warpstone Green and then Moot Green on the more extreme lengths of the hair.  I want to really work on blending the colors well.  I have less space to do it than I'd like, but it should result in a cool effect.  Starting from black and going all the way to light would be a big change from the way I've painted anything in the past.  If all goes well, and I get close to the look I want, it'll definitely have an impact on my eventual decision.

Needs cleaning up, but looking good.

Finally, I'm still doing some Blood Wing stuff, but it is neither elite, nor is it red.  I procured the last Death Company models I needed following the tournament, did a little converting, and have begun working on painting.  Everything is primed, but the only model that's had major work done on it is the Mark of the Wulfen model.  I think this has a lot to do with how much I like how the model looks and how nice the new Ceramite White works.  Go out and try this stuff folks.  It covers black easily.  It covers red easily.  I'm not going to run out and start painting White Scars (or Knights), but I'm certainly more interested in trying to include it in various color palettes. As for the rest of the Death Company, they'll probably take a backseat to the Possessed, but I'm excited to be working with a new set of colors and a different style of armor.  For now, I need to focus on doing the rank and file guys.  It's so easy to get drawn into the shiny bits, but the bulk of armies really does get more time in the long run.

Hobby Accomplishments:
-Got initial basecoats on the Possessed
-Finished basing the Blood Wing
-Built and primed the Death Company and Astorath
-Closing in on finishing the DC Mark of the Wulfen
-Started working on the Manticore head

Hobby Goals
-Finish the DC Mark of the Wulfen
-Get the Red Gore and silver on the Possessed
-Work on blending skills
...so essentially more of what I'm already doing.

Hobby Update: In Which Things Come Together

One of the interesting things about HADD (Hobby Attention Deficit Disorder) is that, every once in a while, multiple projects all seem to finish at roughly the same time.  That can be in a number of different areas, whether assembly, painting, or converting.  In this case, it's over all of the above.

The Land Raider is "finished."  I guess I "need" to do a little clean up on the script on one side of a banner and do the second set of weapons so I can make it a Redeemer or a Crusader pattern, but I will proudly put it on the table and let other folks blow it up as fast as humanly possible.  Though it was definitely labor intensive, I ended up really enjoying painting it, and I'm even contemplating doing another one at this point, though I think that is a ways down the road if I ever get to it.

On the other hand, the Vargheists are finished.  Flat out.  I've never run into such a disconnect between models being good looking, yet utterly unenjoyable to work on.  I think they look great and I'm glad to have them in the army, but I'm done trying to improve the models themselves.

What I did really enjoy working on were the bases.  One of the guys at the local shop volunteered his bits box and I decided to go a little nuts.  The bases are built from various building sets, though it may have been mostly the basilica.  The plastic is quite thick, so it was a workout to get them into the shape of the bases.  In the end, definitely worth it as I think the look and the effect are very good.  They complement the models as well.  They'll be dark, but there are a few places I can add some splashes of color to make them more interesting.

I've also managed to assemble the Death Company models that I've acquired.  I'm planning on putting my tournament winnings towards the other half of the squad, and will likely try to score a Chaplain for them too.  The plan is to have nine painted in the traditional black color scheme, while the tenth will be in white.  A little deduction will tell you which one of these is not like the other.  The guy with no helmet will be in the opening stages of "the change."    He's got a little conversion done to him with a pair of ghoul hands.  His skin will be the same color as the Vargheists and his hair will be a light shade of gray.  I think he'll be quite striking.

The Word Bearers are also getting some love in anticipation of a coming codex release.  I busted out the airbrush and put on the initial basecoat of Mechrite Red, then began applying a 2:1 Red Gore/Scab Red mix in the traditional fashion.  Two of the models actually got coats of Chaos Black.  They'll end up being the Aspiring Champions for now, but we'll see what options are available in the new book.

Finally, I really enjoyed assembling a Chaos Manticore.  Of course, I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for.  I initially bought it for my Chaos Warriors army, but I'm debating using it as the first Daemon Prince for a 40K army that continues to occupy my interest.  I'm considering trying to do both, but I'm not sure the two color schemes will work.  Obviously, for the Warriors, red really is the only option.  For the Daemons, the scheme is going to be green.  Yes, they're complementary, but I'm worried about the beast looking like a giant Christmas tree.  Magnetizing the head will be easy enough, but I think I'm going to take some more time and consider the options before finalizing my decision.

Hobby Progress
-See above

Hobby Goals
-Get all the basing done for the Blood Wing
-Get the basecoating done on the Possessed

-Time allowing for it, work on the Chaos Dragon