Weekly War Diary #2: Complete Lack Of Progress Report

Well, not actually zero progress but nothing really worth commenting on. I ended up painting the Skinks in a very, very crap way before breaking, paint-stripping the lot and investing in a copy of How To Paint Citadel Miniatures: Lizardmen.

I have to say that I like these ebook How To Paint guides a lot more than the paper ones. The stage-by-stage images are a lot easier to follow when you can press the “next” button and the image changes before your very eyes. In the paper version its more like a comic strip and sometimes the subtler effects can be a bit hard to distinguish, especially since layering is used to describe about five separate techniques.

Anyway, the purchase is paying off. Although the guide seems convinced the Citadel Spray Gun was a good idea it didn't take me long to work out what base paints to use since my spray gun went in the bin months ago.

One Week Hobby Challenge

Okay, so my second attempt to complete a unit in a week resulted in a second failure so let's streamline this down a bit. Its 40k's turn on the Challenge so I'm going to paint my copy of Kaptin Badrukk, aka my Ork Warlord Kaptin Thunderguts Snarla. 

One Week Hobby Challenge end of week review

(Okay, long story short: when I looked at these pictures on my laptop while I was writing this post they looked fine. Now I look at them on my desktop as I post them they look far too shadowy. Hopefully they look okay but I really need to get one of these daylight bulbs people on hobby forums enthuse about and maybe that'll solve the problem once and for all.)

A productive week. Not only did I get the Glade Lord finished for my One Week Challenge but a few other bits and pieces along the way. I've got a head of steam up now and hopefully I can carry that momentum forward and get more done next week.

This week's models, in order of completion:

Model 2015.1: Astra Militarum Silvik 23rd "Fixers" Guardsman with lasgun
(Statuesque Miniatures head conversion)

Test model for my Astra Militarum regiment the Silvik 23^rd “Fixers” using the Statuesque Miniatures heroic scale female heads conversion set. As previously noted the head doesn't have the right connector to fit the torso, at least for any pose other than ironsighting so I'll need to learn to sculpt a join before doing any more.

I think a darker grey for the flak armour would compliment the grey better in future, though. I'm rather proud of the red edging, though.

Models 2015.2 and 2015.3: Orks Gretchin with grot blasters.

These Gretchin represent something important to this project: easy victories. Small, simple models that can be dashed off in a session or two. Its a nice feeling to finish something and it gives you a boost to your momentum. Since between the twenty-strong Gretchin mob, Mek Gun crew and other random Grots I've got about thirty that I can stick on one side of the painting table one or two at a time just to chip away.

Model 2015.4: Alvin Callum, Inquisitorial Acoltye with laspistol

The first of my Inquisitor's warband: Alvin Callum,Imperial Strategist and former scrivener for the Avalon Free Press' devotional pamphlet The 700 Wonders Of The Imperium. He's a polymath recruited by my inquisitor to act as his mission operator. His strategy commission was part of a longterm undercover assignment. I've been using this character for over ten years in every Imperial army I've ever had and its actually a bit of a treat to myself to finally make a model for him.

Models 2015.5: Wood Elves Glade Lord with great weapon and Asrai longbow

The main event, of course, is the Glade Lord I was painting for my One Week Challenge. Its a lovely model to paint, at least once you've worked out where the loincloth ends and the cape begins. I “highlighted” the armour using a shade since its far too delicate for me to even attempt it with an actual brush. I'm really going to have to work out some background for this guy as I want to use him a lot, I absolutely love this model

Model 2015.6: Mehendri Korendorf, Vampire Counts Necromancer

 

I've been using this Necromancer model for the better part of a year with it very nearly almost completed and I took the chance to finish him off. I'm not entirely satisfied with the pale flesh method I tried but I really didn't feel like repainting it.

Model 2015.7: Orks Mek Gun Crew Gretchin

Another Grot, this time crew for my Mek Guns, and probably my favourite of all the Grot sculpts. I like the little welding mask and the comical little pose. It also have me a chance to experiment a little with what I wanted armour plate to look like in the army. I didn't want to go with any of the usual Orky colours and the blue-green of Stegadon Scale Green suits my idea for a navy theme.

One Week Challenge #2

If there's one thing my Ork army needs its more heavy armour, plus I want to try something rather larger than a single character. The Meganobz seem relatively simple: once I've got the green flesh and the armour painted there's just the details to fill in. Also, they were a birthday present (well, three of them were) and it seems ungrateful not to have painted them. 

One week hobby challenge, one day later

Its not going too badly, I might actually finish the Glade Lord tonight. What's better is that as well as getting quite a way into painting the Glade Lord I've finished up three other models (a couple of Gretchin and my female Guardsman proof of concept model) and got some layers on a few others. All the time, though, I've been making steady progress on the Glade Lord because that's what I want to get done in a generous time limit.

I think I might have finally found a decent motivational method.

The Glade Lord is also really enjoyable to paint. Its deceptively simple, I got the base colours and inks done in an afternoon. It has a lot of large, block areas and it all divides up nicely into clearly defined areas. Plus the way I'm doing the armour is dead easy: Balthasar Gold followed by Sycoraz Bronze and done, maybe a little Runefang highlight. 

One Week Hobby Challenge: model selection

As a spur to get some momentum behind my painting I've determined to start and finish a model within the week. funnily enough, even the process of choosing a model, one that will give me maximum enjoyment in painting, has been quite fun.

The photo even came out well, now I just have to work out how that happened.

Its going to be the Wood Elves Glade Lord with Great Weapon, a lovely sculpt that's aged very well. Its nearly ten years old, it made the transition to resin very well with all that lovely detail on the armour and the quiver. It also has a lot of different materials to paint: armour, cloth, wood, the steel blade, the hair, so I'll be getting a lot of practical experience for the rest of the army.

Time for a shout-out because I'm not painting this completely on my own initiative: I'll be making a lot of reference to this painting tutorial by The Apathetic Fish on Youtube. He does great painting tutorials and I recommend them to anyone painting GW miniatures. Not only does he explain himself well, working stage-by-stage so you can follow along, but he generally uses GW paints. I realise there are probably better paints out there but the GW Citadel range is what I have easy access to and I imagine that's true for a lot of hobbyists. Its useful not to have to stare at the screen trying to work out what GW paint corresponds to the colour on screen and hoping it'll layer the same way (which it usually won't because chemistry). This way is just more useful to me.

So I have my model, I have a list of techniques I want to test out, I have seven days to do it and once its done I'll have either 151 or 79 points of my Wood Elves finished (can't decide whether this will be a Glade Lord or Captain).

Begin!