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The Chicago GT is coming up in 12 days...and I have zero models painted of a Chaos Daemon army that I'd like to bring. I've been working on an Eldar army, but that's a long-term project. No shortcuts, meticulous attention to detail, sculpted bases, etc. With my current job, I've had the time to finish exactly three squads for that army over the summer.

So of course, wanting to take a new army to the GT circuit this year, I decided to start yet another project. Actually, this one started because everyone else said Chaos Daemons couldn't be competitive...which is like a siren's call to me. Thanks to some paypal cash (due in no small part to selling off the swag I won at the Gladiator this year), I had enough discretionary funds to buy yet another army. The only question was time.

Over one and a half months through August and early September, through judicious E-Bay sniping, managed to get almost all the models I needed. Assembling them as I went was relatively easy, and also gave me the impetus for some nifty (I think) conversions. However, that still left me with the pewter horde...two weeks before the Chicago GT.

While not a total crisis (after all, I could take one of my other armies), I thought it would be interesting to see if I could actually pull off the "speed painting" army I've chatted Damien Garcia up about (Augustus here on Dakka, and noted AdeptiCon Seminar Instructor). For those who don't know, Damien regularly speed-paints armies to ridiculous standards. I spent an evening a couple of AdeptiCons ago picking his brain over some late-night chow, and found my own painting speed increased significantly as a result...although I never really tried it on a whole army. Daemons seemed an ideal army for Damien's "Big Brush" method...relatively organic, but not with flesh tones. Not a whole lot of large flat surfaces. And consistent color schemes.

So here goes. A whole army in less than two weeks. Mainly relying on drybrushing with big brushes and washes, with fine details if time allows (yeah right).

First step...basecoating the models. Last Saturday, I basecoated all the models using spray paint. A few more models were built on Sunday, with the basecoating happening before I went off to work this morning (Monday). Which left me (when I finally got home) with this:

DAY ZERO

My Work Area


The Future Army

DAY ONE
I decided to start with the "blue" models. This would be the models that used "blue" as a base color - for me, the flamers, screamers, one of the soul grinders, and Lord of Change...and of course, the Bluescribes. Neatness mattered not at all at this stage - the only goal was to get the models the correct color, with appropriate highlighting and shading.

Drybrushing, overbrushing, and washing - gotta love it.
After a few hours of work (with TV in the background and few phone call interruptions), here's the results of Day One (washes are still drying):

Chariots, Flamers, Bluescribes, Screamers


Chariots, Flamers, Bluescribes, Screamers - from another angle


Soul Grinder and Screamers


The Lord of Change

Ah, I certainly do love those washes! Good luck man, hope you can pull it off!

Awesome. Daily updates I hope.
Gotta love that, thatll get me through the week and straight into vacation time.

Looking good so far.

AMAZING DUDE! Thats great keep posting!

Good luck getting finished. I think you've picked an army with a reasonable chance of success though.

Go C E N T U R I O N Go!

Excellent motivation to field them and best of luck for the 12days, there's no giving up!! And thanks for sharing the process here!

They do look surprisingly good, at this stage. That blue is lustrous.
This is going to be fun to follow.

Good luck. I suggest working off a strict plan/checklist and only having music on.

I am going to try to sneak in so I can see people's armies. I will pose as a curious hotel employee.

- Blackbone

What's your list look like?

Platuan4th wrote:What's your list look like?

That's the other tricky part...I'm not sure yet, entirely. The core is decided on, but there is some flexibility.

At its core, I'm going to include the models you see above - 2 Soul Grinders, 1 large squad of Horrors /w The Changeling, 2 small squads of Horrors, 1 medium-sized squad of Plaguebearers, and the Bluescribes. I'll also include four bloodcrushers, and at least some flamers.

There are two big questions in my mind right now.

#1 - Skulltaker, or no Skulltaker. He's a beast, no doubt about it. He's also as expensive as four more Bloodcrushers. Unfortunately, I don't have four more Bloodcrushers, and realisticallly won't by next weekend. So the question is do I take Skulltaker, do I use him to represent a normal Herald on a Juggernaut, or do I just use him to represent a normal Juggernaut (probably one with the Fury of Khorne). Right now, option A seems like a good idea, but option C does free up lots of points...over 100...that I could spend on another unit of horrors, more screamers, more flamers, etc.

#2 - Lord of Change, or 2 Tzeentch Heralds on Chariot. Actually, this one's much less of a question...I've pretty much decided to go with the Heralds. For coolness if for nothing else. The real question is whether I rush out and get a Great Unclean One to use instead of the Heralds.

I vote stick with the Skulltaker and 2 heralds. You only have 11 days right? Keep it simple and make sure to define exactly what you need right now.

How did you do the blue? It looks great!

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Ozymandias wrote:How did you do the blue? It looks great!

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Basecoat black.
Overbrush Regal Blue
Heavy drybrush of Enchanted Blue
Light Drybush of Ice Blue
Wash /w Asurmen Blue

Remember, the wash is still drying in the pics. They had a nice matt finish when I checked on them this morning.

yeah,
This is going to be great fun to follow.
Good Luck!
PaniC..

DAY TWO
Only had a couple of hours to work tonight. But with Rachel Maddow followed by the Shield going on in the background, I did manage to get a bit done.

I worked on two base colors today - the pinks and the browns. The wash was still wet on the Plaguebearers when I took this picture, but the Horrors were pretty much dry.



Horrors of Tzeentch


As you can see, I painted some of the Horrors blue to represent the models with the Bolt of Tzeentch. I suppose I should have tried to model them two on a base ... maybe I will do that. What do people think?

Plaguebearers of Nurgle


Decided at the last moment to go with a much different wash than with the others. With the others, the washes were intended mainly to blend, so I used a shade of wash complementary to the color. With these plaguebearers, I figured a contrasting color would work better, so I chose the green wash. I 'll see what I think after it dries, but I like it on initial viewing.

Interesting effect on the Plaguebearers. I would have thought to paint green and then wash brown, but you painted brown and then washed green? It looks good.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Ozymandias wrote:Interesting effect on the Plaguebearers. I would have thought to paint green and then wash brown, but you painted brown and then washed green? It looks good.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

TY. Actually, went snakebite leather - vomit brown - rotting flesh - then washed thraka green.

Like the effect myself.

Oh yeah, I figured this would be useful information - and I'll add it to the future updates:

Day 1 Time:
About 3 hrs.

Day 2 Time:
About 2 hrs.

It would take me forever to paint that army.

Too bad I spaced out when you and Damien/Augustus were talking about the big brush method at Denny's.

Jeez...you did all that in 3/2 hours, respectively?

Wish I could paint that fast.

So...Blue Horrors...any opinions? Keep them as-is, or figure out how to make them 2 per base.

2 per base would set them apart nicely I think, and it's not a huge undertaking...

unless you make the extra ones out of greenstuff and toothpicks.

I think the 2 per base thing is great, if you have the time. I also really like the blue one being the bolt. Good thinking.

You're painting an army in 12 days.
You don't think you're torturing yourself enough already? : )

One to a base is fine. You're separatihng them by color. That's good enough.


Eric

The main thing I'm worried about in terms of doing 2 blue/base, is that the horrors have very small connection points. Basically, i'd need to pin them onto the base, and I'm not certain if that's possible.

Might be worth taking a look. I've gotten really quick with the dremel and the pinning, and repainting 4 of the pink horrors blue is No Big Deal (you're talking 5-10 minutes at most).

Besides, tonights plan is my kryptonite: the color red. There's only six total models, and they'll need some time between coats.

DAY THREE
I'm feeling pretty good about the progress I'm making. The biggest problem I've got is on nights like tonight...actually got home by 7:30 or so, and could get right to painting. But after about two hours, I pretty much finished everything that I thought I'd set out to do...which leaves me with something of a dilemna...do I start on another color, and put myself in a position where I have to stay up REALLY late to finish all the models that require that color...or do I call it a night. I'm also limited by the fact that I'm using washes on pretty much everything here so far (it really helps blend the dry/overbrushing together), and the washes need time to dry (as do the large brushes I'm using.)



Soul Grinder of Khorne



I really liked the idea from the first Daemons Batrep of having a Grinder of Khorne and a Grinder of Tzeentch. Voilla.

Bloodcrushers of Khorne...and Skulltaker on a Juggernaut



Here's the only reason this took me two hours tonight...after doing some initial painting, I discovered that it was simply too difficult to paint the bloodcrushers in an assembled state. So I had to snap off all the riders, and then go over all the models again. I was only on stage 2 (of 4) so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was kind of annoying. Anyway, I think I'll leave them unassembled until the detail work is done.

Blue Horrors of Tzeentch


2 per base Blue Horrors was an idea that kept gnawing at my brain. After the frustration of having to repaint the bloodcrushers, I decided I might as well go for broke. Turns out the connection points were just large enough to drill and pin, so it was maybe 10-15 minutes of work to double-mount the horrors.

Of course, then I had to repaint...but that went pretty quick too. And I think that the blue horrors definitely look better two to a base (and makes them distinctive from the pink horrors).

Here's another picture, just to show off the four main colors I'm using.



Anyway, at this point, everything has its base colors on, with the exception of the "centerpiece" models. I still haven't exactly figured out - A) How I want to the discs of Tzeentch and B) How I want to do the cloaks and clothing on the Heralds and Changeling. I know pretty much what I want to do with the Soul Grinders (or the lower, more mechanical halves to be precise.)

Hmmm awesome work thus far. I am really impressed with the numbers you are putting up for this. It would take me ages.

I have to say though that the brushing and the washes on the blue, purple and green/brown seem to work a whole ton better than that red on the crushers. I mean its great, but compared to even the defiler in the same colour they don't look as good. Is it the photo's not doing them justice?

Are the juggernauts going to be washed again?

Noticing that myself. I think another highlight and wash might be in order. I highlighted up to orange, but I think highlighting to a yellow may be necessary.

Like I said...Red's my Krytonite.

Okay, it bugged me enough to give it a try. So add another half hour to today's total.

I highlighted the Crushers up to a yellow, and then washed them with Badab Black. I'm liking the results so far (after letting it dry for about a half hour) but we'll see if I still feel that way in the morning. I think that will work, especially since I'm planning on doing detail work in brass/gold.




And here's a better picture of the Grinder, for comparison. This one is only highlighted up to an orange, and that washed with Baal Red.