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Stellar work, as per usual. I like the choice in Avatar too, he is a cool model.

Thraxas Of Turai wrote:That is some really good progress, one mini a week is a very sensible and achievable goal. Even if you miss a week or two you still have a good amount of leeway to catch up. The Betrayal at Calth Ultramarines are looking great, and more Eldar will be great as well.

There is always room for creative accounting with these things.

Sir Samuel Buca wrote: Stellar work, as per usual. I like the choice in Avatar too, he is a cool model.

Thanks guys.

I highly recommend the 1-a-week goal to anyone daunted by painting. It really is quite reasonable and achievable. Especially when I apply my accounting cheats to it, where a bike counts as 2, and a vehicle counts as 4. But in a year, you can get a robust battle demi company painted. 3x10 tactical, 5 devs, 5 assault, and 3 transports for the tacs. 52 model equivalents by my math, just shy the captain/chaplain. Solid force on the table, reasonable points, and most importantly, doable. Obviously, different armies have different compositions, but all but the gribliest horde should be achievable.

And while I do call it a one-a-week, it really is a 52-a-year goal. Because there will be weeks that get missed. Vacation, sickness, holidays, binge watching anime, computer games, etc. Things come up. That’s one reason I do quarterly checks to make sure I’m on progress.

On the topic of progress:


Working on getting the base coats down. About half done. Half of the blacks on the orc are going to be silvered, his boots will remain. I’m going to base silver and black wash things like his helmet and shoulder pad. This gives a subtly different finish then the black w/ silver drybrush. I just didn’t want him being too uniform. He’s going to have a dirty yellow shirt and grey pants. Not sure on the glove color, probably a shade of brown. I’m planning on 2-3 different ones for straps, hafts, pouches, etc.

Hope everyone enjoys your weekends.

Bonus marital tip: If you get married in 2000, it’s really easy to remember how long you’ve been hitched. Strongly recommended for those you looking to tie the knot.

Yeah looks pretty solid to me Nev. Keep it up

Man, basing makes all the difference... those units look great! Cheers on your mid-year accomplishments.

I may have you try your advice with the weekly painting goal when all my things arrive - will definitely need to find a mature way to balance the hobby with university life at any rate.
Also ah man! I'm going to miss that little mk.VI dude, but your mini which you're changing the avatar too is lovely and will be a nice representation of how far your hobbying has come. Its scary changing such a comfortable avatar, but also quite refreshing, I changed my one the other day in fact, and sort of miss the old sergeant man, but its nice having something new

I mentioned that I was almost out of snow flock. What will one tiny bag cover?



Quite a bit. 85 guys by my count, on a few different sized bases. And still some left over. The WL is there on his grassy base, just to prove that I am working on the Eldar as well. And not just the snow based rangers. While in absoulte terms, that seems like good progress, I’m still not halfway done with what I need to do. Getting there though. I do need to resupply. I checked out Michaels, as I heard they had a better selection then my local AC Moore as far as hobby stuff was concerned. That was incorrect. They probably had 95% identical stock. The only thing they had that even vaguely peaked my interest was a slightly wider array of paint pens. Almost picked up a .2mm blue to go with the black one I own, but decided against. Would have got a white one, but didn’t look like they had that size and color available.

In other news, I cracked open the tub of simple green and wrecked my hands scrubbing for a few hours this morning.

Lot of work, and there is still a lot of stuff in the nooks. Plus the paint that was under the superglue looks to be pretty solidly on. Will take a hobby knife and do some gentle picking and scraping later. Once my hands un-claw.

Lot of bases done, whoop. I hate stripping models, don't envy that chore.

 GrimDork wrote:
Lot of bases done, whoop. I hate stripping models, don't envy that chore.

I think I might be halfway though the batch. The green guys seem to be holding their paint better. I changed out the simple green for a fresh dip, hopefully that will loosen things up a bit. More power to those guys who buy, strip, and flip old minis. I’d kill myself trying to do that. This will probably be the last time I voluntarily strip minis. If I need to do it becasue of a bad prime, that’s one thing, but this is a major PITA.

In painting progress, I snapped a shot of the paintbench. Still in the sloppy basecoat stage.

Coming along

Yeah I agree I can't be bothered to strip stuff for almost any reason. If I mess something up? No, I meant to do it like that. Bob Ross. Happy accidents. All that.

 GrimDork wrote:
Coming along

Yeah I agree I can't be bothered to strip stuff for almost any reason. If I mess something up? No, I meant to do it like that. Bob Ross. Happy accidents. All that.

I’ve had accidents come out better then I intended. Or have had them grow on me. Bust mostly I just look at mistakes and think of what I should have done better. Even if part of me knows I tried that, and just wasn’t up to the task. I try to take a zen-like acceptance of what is. I work for table top quality anyway, not display pieces. Arms length is a very forgiving distance.

This should be my 10,000th post. I’m getting verbose in my old age. Thanks for putting up with me everyone!

I always did prefer Chaplains to Librarians...

If Simple Green is anything like Dettol, you're a brave man, I'm developing scales on my right hand, middle finger from all the stripping I've done using it lately. Buy some gloves Nev! Can't wait to see the repaint though.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
If Simple Green is anything like Dettol, you're a brave man, I'm developing scales on my right hand, middle finger from all the stripping I've done using it lately. Buy some gloves Nev! Can't wait to see the repaint though.

After the day of work, I did notice some problems with my hand. Skin was tight and a little tingly, and then peeled a bit like from a sunburn afterwords. Fine now. But that might have just been from working 2-3 hours in the stuff. Gloves might be a good idea, but I was having trouble keeping a grip on all the little bits as it was.

Now that some of the guys are dry, I took a good look at them and tried to clean them up a bit more.


Should I toss them back into the drink? There is still paint in a lot of the cracks and crevices. Not a lot, but I have no idea how much detail will be lost once I put a primer coat over it. Thoughts and opinions? Still new to the whole stripping thing.

And a little slow progress on the paintbench:

Got the brown wash down on the captain, a few more random coats on both of them. It’s progress. Not sure if you can tell, but I put the new gemstone green on the eyes and plasma pistol. We’ll see how it looks when all is done. Not that different from a green ink. Glossier, but that’s kinda it’s job.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend. And happy Father’s Day to my fellow Dads out there.

You might use a bit of acetone (nail polish remover) on the metal figs. It works instantly and is a very powerful paint remover. DONT use it on the plastic minis as it'll melt them.

Looks like they're coming pretty clean. I'd say put the paint down but I'm definitely not a veteran salvager.

I’ll have to check if The Wife has any nail polish remover. I don’t think she uses nail polish, but might have some stashed away. If not, I’m sure I can grab some at the store.

Spent the lovely summer day driving hither and yon across the region. First stop was a hobby store specializing in train stuff I had heard good things about. About half an hour west of me, but worth the drive. As it happened, they were having their annual 20% off sale. I drooled over the racks of plasticard and assorted flocking, but just walked away with a giant thing of soft snow. After a quick stop home to cool off (no AC in the car) I headed up to my normal FLGS. They were running a 40% off sale on Pathfinder hardcovers, but none leaped out at me. They had just restructured their paint and hobby supply section, one nice perk of which was the overstock bin of $3 each paints, or 5 for $10. Picked up the blue and black I burn through a lot of, a nice bronze, pot of liquid green stuff, and a nulan oil the guy said probably shouldn’t have been in there, but sold me anyway. And then some more tufts, as I wanted some nice green ones, and was most of the way through my winter dead ones.

Overall, the day’s damage was about $35. Not bad for what I got.


And now I don’t have an excuse for getting more basing done on my Ultras.

Little experiment today. I’ve not been happy with the tone on the Drakenhoff Nightshade. Not the rich sapphie I’m used to. So I tried putting down a layer of Guilliman blue glaze on the latest captain.



All of these guys were basecoated in Macragge blue base paint.

Left to right, they were washed/glazed/inked with:

Drakenhoff Nightshade
Guilliman Glaze
Blue Ink.

I think the glaze comes closer, but is still not there. I should probably attempt some combinations of washes and see if I can get closer. Could the glaze over the shade give me what I want? Or add something like Nulan oil?

Thoughts?

Edit:
Also in the news, almost done with the old captain. Working on his backpack now. In addition, I glued some rocks and tufts down on another tac squad, will give the new flock a spin. On the down side, today was The Boy’s last full day of school. He has two half-days left, then my summer of being a semi-irresponsible parent begins. Hopefully I can neglect him enough to keep up the pace of my work.

Did a little basing this morning with the new flock.


4th Squad, the captain I’m working on, the back half of a dev squad (the 9th) and a bunch of guys from the spares shelf. I would have done another tac squad, but I hadn’t put rocks/tufts on their bases yet. I made a little too much of the glue/flock mix, and didn’t want to waste it. Once it dries (and I glue a backpack back on) the 4th will get their glamor shots in the light box. One nice thing about having the giant tub of flock was the ease of swishing the wet glue base through flock for the extra layer. I did the same technique with the GW flock, but had to dole it out in very small amounts as there wasn’t much of it. Nice to be able to shake out a half cupful of the stuff and just dredge the mini.

While still white and snowy, there is a noticeable difference between the woodland scenics and the GW stuff. GW was more little filaments, WS is more grainy. Not a bad thing, just different. Yes, this means my bases are not going to be uniform. Whatever, I’m not going to re-do my old ones. Here is a close up of the new stuff:


On the topic of bases, I found another mini I had based with the old stuff. Another chaos warrior was over at the side table after being cleaned up after a RPG session. So add one more to the count of guys I had done with the old GW flock.

Really a fan of the middle captain, always loved that helmet and you did it justice. Base looks good, I'm just not a fan of winter snow bases. I think it really detracts from your amazing painting.

You did a good job with the winter base... though you might consider painting the top of the base something other than black before you add the snow. I like the white actually as it reflects the white in the marines' colors.

Lovely job

With the GW flock, the glue/flock paste I smeared on the bases was opaque enough that I didn’t need to put down a while layer. This stuff seems to be a bit more translucent. I suspect that going forward, I’ll put down a white coat of paint on the base top.

And some day make the polar fortress for them to defend. I do like the blue on white look of Ultras on snow. Looked into picking up an arctic 4x6 battlemat, but frankly I have better things to do with $100. Tempting though.

While I’m at it, here’s the 4th squads official pic:

Very nice!

Classic beaky style. I think the beakies and studded left pauldron things were always my favorite.

Did a little more basing. Also, another 10 tac marines (6th squad) These guys have a layer of white under the snow. Close up:

(LT on left has white layer, captain on right does not)
Now these aren’t completely dry, so the white PVA might go a little clear. I’ll check later to see if there is any significant changes. It’s not a major issue to slap a bit of white paint on top, but is another step. Much faster to bang these guys out with the new flock. I should do some guys in green on the Eldar side of the fence. Also, my scouts.

While I should be spending more time painting, I can’t fault the time I spent on bases this week. Was it just last weekend I picked up the new flock? I think I’ve based roughly the number of guys in the the last week then I’d done previously. OK, maybe not quite that many, but 3 tac squads, a dev squad, and probably a dozen guys from the swap shelf/assorted HQs. Next time I build a list for 40k, it’s going to be fully based. I should have enough done at this point to make a viable force.

All the Tacs in my company are based, and one of the dev squads. Plus the Captain. So I need to do 2 assault squads, the other Dev, and the command squad. One dread is also without a base, so should get something. Plus the chaplain.

And when I am done with the company, I’ll need to start working my way through the vets and other assorted HQs. I prepped the bases for the librarians, but ran out of glue/flock paste before getting to them all (I did the TDA one).

And at some point, I need to paint some more. I’m not fond of the way the orc is coming along, and he’s scaring me away from the bench. Not a new phenomenon. I should start painting something interesting to get me back in the grove. Or just keep riding the wave of basing, because frankly, that needs to happen.

I was just going to post a link to my Ultramarine gallery, but realized that would leave this post without any pictures. So here’s the 5th and the 9th squads:



Hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Busy one here, today is The Wife’s birthday, so have a number of things planned for today/tomorrow.

You sick of me posting more pictures of based squads? I hope not!


For those of you who’ve been reading since the start of this blog, you’ve seen these guys from start to finish. Fully magnetized. All JPs, the flamer arms, and both arms on the sarge.

Those will make a fine representation of the Ultras on the tabletop!

Looking good. Yay for magnets, got a soft spot for them.

I keep on looking at that “count all your unpainted minis” thread over in the discussion section and wondering if I should take a tally. But that way lies madness. I did however, take the camera out for a spin this morning to shine some light into the dark recesses of my basement.

A while ago I posted a pic of a box of old blisters inthe the Flashback Friday thread. Actually sorted through it a bit.



Ah, grenerdear. Not the best detail, but some of the earliest fantasy minis out there.
Got some old boxes as well

Plus a shoebox full.

Some Reaper and Ral Partha


and Warzone


And then a whole lot of clan wars:



I think I have some more basic infantry primed for clan wars, and even some painted. Plus another oni (they came two to a box)

Lot of this stuff is mildly water damaged.

But there is also some more GW stuff lurking about.
WHFB 6th edition starter. Orks are untouched, empire I took a stab at.




Very old orks, both plastic and metal



LotR guys? No idea I had them




The recent old stuff drop



And boxes of assorted stuff, mostly fantasy.


...and that’s not counting the stuff in my primed pile, or the odds and bobs sitting on my workbench. Which is mostly some SM stuff still on the sprue, and assorted RT eldar stuff (and some guardians)


I couldn’t even hazard a guess to how many minis that is. Hundreds, at least. Enough to keep me painting for a long while. Of course, I have no interest in painting a lot of it. Need to lighten the load one of these days.

Really fun stuff in there! I know we've had this conversation in other threads, but I recognize so much of the RT stuff in your boxes, and I'm kicking myself for letting as much go as I have. Lightening the load is good and all, but I wish I had a few of those classic figures back in my possession...