Cheers AP, it's nice to get some good feedback from someone who understands model balance so very well. Cheers for dropping by!
So, update time!
Never never never never never never never leave these projects so late! FFS! I got it done...but I was working til all hours the last couple of days and then again this morning and even doing some work in the store minutes before the painting comp! I should never have finished that Blood Bowl Ogre!!!!!!
I didn't think it possible last night, but I managed to finish everything to a reasonable standard. The only things missing are the hatch for the Dunecrawler, a servo skull on the Tech Priest Dominus and a base for the Dunecrawler.
First up, the Skitarii Rangers. These were 95% complete, I just had to add some detail to the bases this morning and add transfers and then add a very, very light weathering of the hems of the cloaks:
A rear shot to show just how light the weathering is:
The Skitarii Vanguard. Again, mostly complete, but I got them to 95% on Thursday night, so today was bases, transfers and weathering:
Tech Priest Dominus. I worked this guy at the same time as the Vanguard, so mostly finished by Thursday night. A few details finished off yesterday and the base completed this morning. I think this is a pretty cool model. A mini Belisarius. The robes were fairly simple, but an absolute treat to paint because of the depth of the folds. I'd happily paint another 10 of this guy:
The lighting washes out a lot of the depth of the robes, but it's quite a good transition from shaded Mephiston up to pure Evil Sunz Scarlet:
Then there's this guy. At 2130 last night, I genuinely only had the Khorne Red of the top armour, the Zandri Dust of the legs and a silver base on the Ranger crew done. It was not looking promising. I worked 4 hours on him last night and then probably another hour or so this morning. Holy beslubberballs is it a lot of work. I still haven't finished it (There's some underneath work to do) and it needs a base, but I was happy enough that it was ready to go into a comp.
I desperately need to drill out that Heavy Stubber barrel...
More work needed on the Skitarii's robes too...
So that gave me the whole gang:
Which in turn led to:
You don't necessarily need to know that of the 15 original Secret Santa participants there were only 5 total painting entrants. You certainly don't need to know that they were only judging AoS Vs AoS and 40k Vs 40k. You definitely don't need to know that there was only 1 other 40k entrant. Or that he was about 12 years old. You don't need to know any of that. I beslubbering won. That's all you need to know.
why the hell did I pretty much burn myself out to beat a 12 year old??!!!!!!! Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Still. It's led me down a path that I've enjoyed walking. it's also given me a really nice starting platform for a full Ad Mech army. In fact, I just cracked open a box of Sicarians tonight...
Sorry for the poor lighting:
Thanks for sharing this little journey with me guys, hopefully I'll keep busy and have more to share in the coming days and weeks. Cheers all!