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Hey Folks,

I'm back into the hobby after a many year break. I thought it would be cool to track my progress from the starting point as I progress learning various techniques and just generally getting better. On average I'm painting, modelling or crafting terrain 2 hours/day after the kids go to bed approximately 4-5 days / week now. I'm aiming for 1 post / week for 52 weeks to see what progression looks like after practicing for 1 full year.

I thought it would be cool to track progress on a weekly basis and see the evolution. Also, I'm looking at this as a way to collect tips from folks to improve myself in the hobby, so if you see things that could be improved on; please make note of it and some detailed information on how to go about making those improvements.

For this first post, lets go ahead and put up where we are starting and what we are working with. I purchased the Age of Sigmar, Soul Wars boxed set and am prepping those for "table top" ready to be able to play games with the kids. Additionally, I'll be needing to build terrain, so there will be some of that in here as well.

My first models in probably over 5 years was this night haunt chain rasp horde. After finishing them, I started on the storm cast eternals. Notice that the storm cast are "purple-ish/pink". Its my daughter's army (she is 4). Anyways, I actually really like that color on them; it looks pretty cool.

Nice productive start DrCrook. What’s your recipe for the swords on the rasps? They look cool and grimey

gobert wrote:
Nice productive start DrCrook. What’s your recipe for the swords on the rasps? They look cool and grimey

Thanks, I'm using vallejo game color w/ Chainmail Silver first, then the hilt & knob is Bright Brass solid w/ an edge highlight down the center of the swords of bright brass and slight dry brush down near the hilt and from the center of the swords. I was pretty happy with how the swords turned out.

Welcome back to the hobby!

So far, so good, man. I like the purple and gold Stormcast. Makes them look regal. Your technique is solid, your color schemes look cool. I am loving the green base rims and straight green flock. A classic look. My only suggestion at this point would be to hit the rims with another coat of paint to even them out. Right now they are a little streaky, which takes away from the overall finish.

@youwashock ->; Great suggestion and an easy fix; I didn't do it this week; but I'll start hitting them next week on the rims.

So for week 2, I had to travel for work. I did bring some paints, but, I ended up going to the local jiu jitsu gym to train since there were a few black belt master gold medalists in the area. So for week 2, progress is really only reflective of saturday & sunday.

I ordered an airbrush and proxxon table wire cutter the week prior and they came in! I semi-organized the craft table and got to base coating a few models with the airbrush and cutting a million little bricks with the proxxon. I also was able to 'mostly' paint a single model after having airbrushed the base coat as a dark, dark purple.

Airbrushing is going to take some practice. The biggest pain points I'm having with it are proper thinning to prevent clogs. With a 0.2mm needle, it can be a bit finicky; but the detail is great. The challenge and trick I think is getting a good consistent flow control and understanding spray cone size and quantity of pigment in the cone for a specific amount of time. Aiming isn't really the hard part. If you get just a tiny bit of whatever in the nozzle, it really creates inconsistency and becomes hard to predict and control. I had been mixing the regular paints with flow improver directly in the airbrush pot, I think thats probably a bad idea; if doing fine detail work or wanting great blends, you will need to premix in another container, then remix in the airbrush. With those challenges, I can immediately see a variety of advantages if you can get good with it, but its definately one tool in the bag and not a complete solution.

Here we go with some pictures: