Topic: A Tale of Four Gamers 2009

[lijah_cuu]

Have managed to loose all the momentum I gained at the weekend painting with the other guys. Have finished one more marine since then and am 3/4 way through a standard bearer. Taking 1h30mins to travel home from work at night leaves me knackered (especially as its only about 5 miles as the crow flies!) and time I have some tea i don't really settle down until 9ish.
Finish early tomorrow so I am going to force myself to sit down and paint!!!

[StraightSilver]

I know exactly what you mean, I have also struggled a bit this week. I also got a bit overconfident with the time available and am now worried that I am a bit behind.

It doesn't help that I absolutely detest batch painting, which is weird as I managed to do it with my Cadians.

Just for some reason my Space Marines look utter crap up until about the last highlight, and then suddenly they look OK!

I spent about 2 and a half hours last night base coating my 5 man tactical Squad, and it looks like I have done nothing to them at all!

I am also seeing Ultramarine Blue when I close my eyes, and I've only painted 1 and a half squads so far!

Still I only have 3 and a half marines and a Rhino to paint before 7th Feb so fingers crossed should be on target.

I think next month I will only paint my commander and another 5 man scout squad so that I can catch up a bit. That will be my HQ and 3 troops choices, and means that from month 3 onwards I can cherry pick what I want to paint.

Trouble is the more I look at the Marine Codex the more I fall in love with Scouts, and I made a discovery last night which has made me hate the plastic models a little less.

The new Scout Bike has 5 heads in the box. As each model only needs 1 head this leaves me 4 heads spare which I can use on my other Scouts. These heads are vastly superior to the ones in the actual Scout set and will allow me to make up squads which have a bit of variety.

I have also come up with some nice conversion ideas for my Scout sergeants, even though the plan was to do no converting work! i think it will be worth it though.

[lijah_cuu]

Well, managed to pull my finger out last night and finish off my standard bearer and get all the base colours on to the remaining couple of figures, i'll get the washes onto them tonight and a little bit of the detailing and hopefully finish them off tomorrow night.

I tend to work on 2 figures at time as I really don't like batch painting and lose interest really quickly if I have to do it. With two figures I get to do a little bit on the other model while the paint is drying on the first one.

Will post some more pics when I get home this evening.

[Fugitive]

This thread is great so far. Hope we will see some pictures of the guard models soon.

@ Chris Parsons - You may be a slow painter. But the end result is always stunning.

I tend to work on 2 figures at time as I really don't like batch painting and lose interest really quickly if I have to do it. With two figures I get to do a little bit on the other model while the paint is drying on the first one.

Thats exactly how I do it. I also feel that painting more than two models at once makes me stress and the finshed models come out looking worse than my usuall standard.

[dakota]

I may not have the best painted army....
But they will smell the nicest.

Sadly, for me too the painting has stopped. I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive from Wayland. As I've got my 250pts for this month that's a ok I guess, so instead I've focused on the bases. The idea was to follow the snow theme and do a base covered with snow flock, autumnal leaf litter and the occasional rock or piece of battlefield debris.
The snow flock came curtesy of GW, but the leaves where a bit of a problem. A while a go I heard someone mention paper leaves so after trawling the net, I found some really cool looking diorama leaves from plusmodel on ebay. These leaves look absolutely amazing. They're individually lazer cut and printed and just the job. Sadly, they cost £3.99 + £1 postage for well about 200. (seller cyberhobbies). Which is fine, but's about enough to cover a cavalry base with a scattering of leaves. To do an entire guard army....? Hmmm... No. I'm just too pikey to front 40 odd quid just on bases. That option was just too pricey, but they'll spruce up the odd base here and there just fine.
Then Chris mentioned oregano, and how there was a company that sold dyed oregano for basing, but that the ordinary stuff was just as good really. So it was off to the supermarket. After a bit of a shop about I found (as luck would have it) the cheapest nastiest bottle of oregano in tescos (spice cellar 39p for 12grams). This even had the right colour and the price was right!
So now i have loverly smelling herbal guard that make me hungry just to paint them.

[lijah_cuu]

Just a couple of quick pics of my work so far - just have to put the highlights and details on the last couple then I want to spend next week sorting out the bases and that'll leave a week or so for the rhino.
Once again, a bit brighter than in the flesh so to speak but didn't want to spend too much time fiddling...

[StraightSilver]

@ Dakota: Hmmm Vegetarian Imperial Guard! It's amazing the kind of modelling stuff you can find in the supermarket! I have been meaning to grab some pots of Oregano myself for exactly the same thing, and now that you've done the research for me I'll nip to Tesco and get some for my Death Korps! 

Talking of supermarket tips for modelmakers I may have another one for you too regarding snow. I am not a big fan of snow flock and have wanted to try another way of making snow for bases.

Apparently mixing baking soda/bicarb with PVA glue gives a nice, more natural snow effect, although it may be worth playing around with the mixture to work out the right consistency. But again it's a cheap alternative, and from the results I've seen actually better then flock.

Anyway mate, do you want me to upload your photos from Saturday onto Photobucket so you can post them?

I think we need work in progress shots of all 4 armies. Although our first game is soon, aaaaargh!

@Lijah_Cuu: Mate your Plague Marines are looking better and better! That Standard is lovely, you have done a really nice job on these guys. I also can't wait to see some work on the bases too. I think having them done will make the PMs really stand out. I have a pretty big bottle of water effect if you need to borrow any over the weekend (never did make those rivers!). I am also looking forward to seeing your Rhino painted up too.

@ Fugitive: Cheers man, glad you like 'em.

And as for me, well I am lagging a bit behind to be honest. the worst thing is I am painting solidly for at least 2 hours every night, but just don't seem to ne making headway. Plus with working Saturday as overtime I am missing about 8 hours painting this weekend.

This means sacrifices, and so for this month's models I am going to have to cut a couple of corners. I have decided therefore to not bother painting the interior of my Rhino, which is a shame as I wanted to leave the hatch open at the back, and the Rhino interior is actually quite nice too.

But I have to accept that this challenge is about getting an army actually finished that I can game with, and it isn't essential to have the hatches be able to open (although it looks cool.. ), so I will have to glue them shut and get painting.

I know from years of painting Guard that I can get a tank done in 2 days, so the Rhino should get finished next weekend.

It's the Tactical Marines that are giving me a headache though, they're just so boring to paint, and this month I am only doing 5! Not looking forward to month 4, when I have to paint a 10 man squad plus Rhino!

Anyway no pics from me as yet, as what I have done so far isn't much to look at, but I reckon I may have some progress to show on Monday.

[lijah_cuu]

Cheers mate!
Will take you up on that water effect stuff and swap you some decal fixer if you want.
Just ordered it this morning so should get it on monday along with a new airbrush and some masking liquid.
I have so much trouble with transfers and hopefully this stuff will help fix those pesky decals on your sm shoulder pads as well as get rid of the excess around it. (hopefully without taking all the paint off in the process!)
Didn't actually start painting until 10pm last night and ended up doing a hour or so as by that time i was nice and chilled out.

Going to finish them off tonight I hope and then will be able to relax with a fine selection of cheap wines..

[StraightSilver]

Cheers mate, that sounds like a good idea, have been meaning to try out some decal softeners / fixers for ages. I can never get the buggers to fit on curved surfaces so have been freehanding my Ultras so far.

Using Decals would speed things up nicely!

I have two types of water effect, fast and slow so I'll bring them round. I am working Saturday though, but shouldn't finish late so I'll give you a call.

I must admit that getting this month's lot done and chilling out will be lovely! Poor old Lauren's been a bit neglected bless her!

And cheap wine, hmmmmmmm..... 

[kototama]

Ok, looks like I'm definitely moving so we are already packing and sorting. We start moving on the 6th of feb so the chances of my making the 1st game are not looking too good at the moment. Will have to try and find an excuse to slink out for a couple of hours on the day and hope er indoors doesn't catch on........

Given the move and the inevitable lack of time that goes with it I've gone slightly insane this week and am trying to hack through speed painting the first 750 pts of my army. The results are rushed but they are starting to look painted (hopefully enough to satisfy "must be painted" requirements), still loads to do though. Any thoughts I had of attempting layering have gone out the window (like dakota, my painting methods are as old as Chris is), so as long as I can stand 3 or 4 feet away from them and not notice any blaring errors I'll be content.

I must say (being a bad workman I have to blame something), these grey knight figures are the worst I've ever come across for flashes, mould lines etc. Every time I take a brush to a model, I find another bit I missed (and I spent as long going over them as basing and undercoating them). I gave up on some of the mould lines as I was starting to destroy the models by removing them.



Given I am mass painting anyway, I'm working on 16 GKs (2 x 8 man squads) though this is more than I can field in ToFG, so ony 12 of these will form my two troops choices, my long term intention is to use 8 man squads.



I'm still undecided on my HQ but suspect it will be a GK hero and have started work on him anyway - still like the idea of an inquisitor and retinue but cannot decide. May add one as a 2nd HQ later on.



Still not happy with the lava bases, but am now risking spending too much time on them so for now they stay as they are. I've done the rest using the same method as the original 8. I may try heavier black drybrushing to try and improve the contrast between the upper and lower parts of the lava. Chris, you're the expert, any ideas? I've done them using a white base overbrushed by scorched brown, blood red, one of the yellows (can't remember which one - they're all crap) and chaos black. I experimented by dropping red ink over one and it looked dreadful (also tried one of the new washes [baal red] but that was even worse - these new washes are useful and for certain things are superb but I still prefer the old inks).



On the subject, does anyone know anywhere that still sells the old inks? I could do with getting some more of the black and brown inks. I reckon I've enough left for the rest of my grey nits and whatever the next army I do is, but will be pushing it after that - once the knights are finished I've another four armies lined up for painting (one of the side effects of moving is finding all the boxes of figures and sprues you forgot you'd bought - this week has seen a lot of "oh, I'd forgotten I already had one of those...maybe I should keep a list of what I buy......oh, there's the list I wrote last time I moved......").

[Jonik]

In my oppinion a complete, all over, slightly watered down badab black wash would do wonders to the armour, and it should blend the shades better too. I've found the washes more than a suitable replacement to the old inks.

[moc065]

I don't know Jonik, I kinda like them as is... with some touchups to finish them out.

CaHG

[kototama]

In my oppinion a complete, all over, slightly watered down badab black wash would do wonders to the armour, and it should blend the shades better too. I've found the washes more than a suitable replacement to the old inks.

I'm intending to run badab black along the seams etc at some point but might try an all over on one and see what it looks like - thanks for the suggestion. I was also intending to add a layer of adeptus battlegrey but having tried one it looked dreadful. If I had time I would add another couple of layers to the armour crossing from the granite to battlegrey but the timescale on this project will not permit. Looking at the photos again, there really is rather a lot left to do on them.

I think the new washes are superb for some things and have found some lovely combinations, but I still prefer the heavier contrast you get from the old inks - it can take several coats of the washes to achieve the same as a single coat of the old inks. I also find the washes tend to froth a lot (particularly the sepia and green washes).

I guess this comes down to painting style & patience - I came back to painting figures a year or two ago after a 15 year break and now find I lack the patience to paint to a higher standard (by my standards that is!- I'll never achieve the sort of quality that Chris manages - the stuff he paints on a bad day with a hangover using a toothbrush far exceeds anything I could ever achieve!. 

[lijah_cuu]

Bit of a quiet week for me so far, have a ruddy awful cold which hasn't helped but have managed to finish my plague marines and base them up. Will post pics tomorrow once the water effect on the base has dried properly.

[lijah_cuu]

As promised! Once again the quality of the pics isn't fantastic but hopefully you get an idea of what i've done.

[dakota]

Wow! those are truly excellent - nice work with the bases too.

[lijah_cuu]

Still feeling pretty rough so stayed in all day yesterday and made a start on the Rhino. i ended up putting one more layer of paint than I should of and was really annoyed with the results so spent ages trying to sort it out ans then had a real mare with trying to weather it.
I've also noted what a rubbish job I did of putting it together!
So this what i've got so far:

[kototama]

Those plague marines look really good as does the rhino & I'm not looking forward to locking horns with that lot. I used water effect on the bases for my tyranits but looks like yours have worked a lot better. I look forward to seeing them up close.

My stint of insanity has finally drawn to a close and I've finished the first two troops & HQ choices. Far too many late nights, (justifiable) verbal maulings from er indoors and 'help' from my 4 year old (bless him - he loves to watch and help - would make a better job of them & show me up something rotten if I let him......) but they are done, so 750pts worth in a month. Granted this is not saying much when you compare the number of figures involved for the others (particularly the madness that is IG), but I'm relieved they are done.



I'm still not entirely happy with the bases but needs must. The bases for the HQ have come out slightly better though (providing you don't look too closely!)



I've quite enjoyed the momentum gained storming through this lot - this whole project definitely works. If we do another one after this I might actually start reducing the size of my backlog instead of increasing it for a change. 

[Jonik]

They look much better there - badab black wash?

[StraightSilver]

Hey guys,

Well I have also been painting away, and despite being a couple of days behind schedule I reckon I should be finished on time. Which means that not only is the format of the challenge working, but means I will also have a fully painted army in 6 months time if all goes to plan.

After 20 odd years of painting having 1 finished army ain’t bad is it! 

@lijah_cuu: mate those Plague marines are awesome! Your best figures so far, and your painting has come on leaps and bounds in the last few months. The bases really do finish them off nicely, they do look really swampy, and I love the Rhino too. Those Forge World bits really do make these guys stand out, and although expensive were well worth it!

@kototoma: I can’t believe how different your Grey Knights look since last time I saw them! They are rally cool, the grey works so much better than the usual silver ones I am used to seeing, and the red works very well with it. And I love those bases, I think you pulled it off brilliantly, especially on the Terminators! The highlight on the grey worked wonders, and I am impressed that you got these guys painted so quickly.

I have to say that I am dreading playing you guys though as my little squad of Marines is gonna get slaughtered!

Right so I haven’t been idle either. To finish my 250pts I just need a 5 man Tactical Squad with their Rhino Transport. Obviously still a little bit more to do, but I have just over a week so I am confident they will be finished:

Rhino.







Tactical marines (bolters to be painted and glued on!)








[

Overall I am very happy with these guys, especially the Rhino which has turned out better than expected. It’s the first time I have tried out weathering (exit ramp) and I am pretty pleased with it.

The marines also turned out OK, and considering the time I spent on them will more than suffice. I am actually looking forward to doing some more on this army, which considering I said I would never paint Ultramarines is a good sign.

Let’s see how they game though……