Hey guys, I thought I'd finally post some progress on this thread before it ends up on page 2 of the project boards! So many great projects knocking about, with so much progress being made...well frankly, it's all been quite intimidating, which has led to me working very slowly recently.
Oh...and Destiny 2. That's sucked away far too many of my hobby hours recently!
I have, however, made some progress. Mainly on my Death Guard, but I've resurrected a project from earlier in the year and taken on a project that I didn't even know I would be doing until Tuesday this week.
So I'll start with what you guys already know I've been working on. Death Guard.
I won't lie to you, I thought I'd knock these out quite quickly. How hard could it be? Base coat, shade, highlight...right? Oh...but there's another detail there. And what about that doohickey? And you can't forget that thing there. Before you know it, it seemed like I wasn't getting anywhere. I'll admit that I somewhat rushed the last few elements of the last couple of miniatures. I'm happy with them as a squad, but I definitely will go back and re-do or touch up one or two bits on at least 3 of them.
Ok, so photos!
The whole Pustulant gang:
My favourite model in the starter set. Dynamic. Cool. Bells. What's not to like?
I enjoyed this guy because it allowed to work on a couple of different rust effects. Heavy for the blade, light for the chimney vent thing on his back pack.
I like this guy's 'Come at me bro' stance. He was the first guy I started working on. I'm not overly happy with the skin face thing on his shoulder...or with any of them in this first batch, but it's ok and works for me at the moment.
He's got antlers. Who doesn't want antlers?
Very Death Korps vibe to this guy. You really get a sense of the slow, implacable nature of these dudes with this model.
This was my first try in a long time at Plasma effects. I wasn't 100% happy with the result, but it is the right feel. I wanted the centre of the plasma coils to be eye-achingly white. To really stand out...mainly so I won't forget him half way through a game!! But also, it's a different vibe, a different texture, so I wanted it to look and feel different.
Ugh. This guy.
If there is 1 model in the whole starter set that I hate, it's this guy. I just think that the front of the model has too much detail. It's too busy. It's a bit of a mess. And I'm nowhere near happy with how he came out. Although I somewhat like the fly thingy.
From the back though? Woah! That's a great mini! WTF? How is the front messy and the back brilliant? I think it comes down to the fact that there aren't really any dominant colours on the front. There are a riot of colours, but nothing says 'I'm in control here'. From the back though, it's clear that the robe and armour are calling the shots. Green and purple. Everything else is a compliment or a contrast. As it should be.
So there you go. A decent start. Not where I want to be later on in the project, but I've explored some ideas and found several things that work.
I really want to put together a small, flavourful Death Guard force now. I'm thinking of basing it around 3 units of 7 Plague Marines with supporting characters and tanks. It doesn't need to be very good on the tabletop, it just needs to look good.
Well anyway, Tuesday this week, I was getting my car serviced and to kill time, I went into my local GW and did some painting. Turns out that today (Saturday) is the Store's Birthday. As such, there's a load of hoopla, free stuff and some little competitions. One of the competitions was to draw 3 random Plastic Clam Packs out of a big box, pick one and then paint it up. All in a week. I wasn't going to go for it, because I like to take my time over models...but something was itching at me and I really wanted to know whether I could achieve a decent result in just 4 days...especially given that I would be working the next 3 days, looking after my son and generally being busy.
So I put my hand in the Big Box and drew out the following:
Lord-Castellant | Games Workshop WebstoreNot a great start. I'm not a huge fan of Sigmarines to start with and I've painted a fair amount of gold recently by doing Celestine. I knew I could paint it up and it look ok, but the model didn't capture me at all.
Endrinmaster | Games Workshop WebstoreUgh. Any single other model in the Kharadron range would have been great...but this guy, I feel, is about the only duff model in the range.It was a proper let down to pull this guy out.
Blood Angels Chaplain With Jump Pack | Games Workshop WebstoreWell. I've not painted a Blood Angel since Space Hulk...and I really enjoyed that. Also, black armour...I have all the Deathwatch to paint from the boxed set, so it couldn't hurt to get some practice in. Finally, that pose is mint.
I had a winner.
I also failed to do anything but build it on Tuesday. Wednesday came and went and it was only undercoated. However, 2 hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning, and the story was quite different.
I didn't realise it at the time, but the Plasma gun on the Death Guard was a test-piece for this guy! Far happier with how this one came out.
Unfortunately, the black highlights are largely lost in these photos. All, the wings are far less striking than IRL. I was really happy with the wing...especially as I think it took about 6 or 7 thin layers to get the result where I wanted it to be.
There are a couple of things that I wanted to do, but ran out of time on. 1, clean up the bone on the helmet. 2, give him some eyes...It I tried to, but just beslubbered up the job, so I repainted them as black sockets and put in a gloss varnish. 3, 2nd and 3rd layers of highlighting on some of the black armour.
As it was, I got stuck in terrible traffic so I missed the deadline for entry...in fact, everyone had pretty much finished voting by this stage! I get on well with the Store Manager though, so he told me to enter it and let everyone know that they could take a look and if they wanted to change their votes they could...well a few people changed their votes straight away and a couple who hadn't voted threw votes my way, but most of the store carried on with whatever games they were playing and didn't even check out the mini...which was disappointing.
So, in short, I didn't win
I did come 2nd though! Do I think I would have won if everyone took a look at my model? Yes. Am I disappointed? Not really. The guy that won put stacks of effort into his piece and it really was nice. The best that he's ever painted for a competition. So I'm happy for him. More importantly, it gives me something to aim for next year!!
So what else is new on my Paint Station? Well, new and old first:
Celestine's Girly Gang:
These have literally been the only constant on my paint station since I first built them. I just fell out of love with them after struggling with Celestine...but I'm trying to finally finish them off now. A little progress on them has been made. Should be able to finish them sometime soon.
Finally, I'm trying to continue working through my Death Guard:
Great model. Also, Celestra Grey is the king of paints. Sorry Mithril Silver, you had your day. Celestra is just so easy to work with. Totally forgiving on you too. It's the bomb.
I should enjoy painting this guy a lot more than I am. Ugh.
Right! That's it!
Thank you for sticking with me. Sorry it's a wall of text and photos. I really appreciate you stopping by to take a look though. Hopefully you see something you like. Hopefully, if you don't see something you like, you'll let me know why!*
*And no, Cav, 'I want Eldar' is not a valid argument!