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Your house hunting stories are giving me flashbacks. Buying a house is a form of hell, but once you actually own it, it all seems worth it.

Your banshees are coming along great. I think you said that you're doing the armor with contrast paints-- is that right? If so, you're showing amazing control-- so many contrast painted models turn out blotchy, but yours are smooth as silk.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Your house hunting stories are giving me flashbacks. Buying a house is a form of hell, but once you actually own it, it all seems worth it.

Your banshees are coming along great. I think you said that you're doing the armor with contrast paints-- is that right? If so, you're showing amazing control-- so many contrast painted models turn out blotchy, but yours are smooth as silk.

The light at the end of the tunnel is what keeps me going. Once I have my own space, life will be better.

One trick with the contrast paints is something I do when I glaze my marines. Do the whole model, in one sitting, as quickly as you can. Try to have it be the final stage. If you take too long, parts will dry and you can end up with tide marks and edges, where you can see where you paused. You should keep this in mind when painting. Work in sections with natural boundaries. Like a leg that ends with a belt/tabard. Don’t just stop mid-thigh.

Another thing is do not touch the mini with your hands. Your skin has natural oils, and they can transfer to the mini. For very thin paints (like inks, glazes, and contrast) that require a smooth even coat, even a little oil can cause beading or otherwise mess with the flow. This might just be one of my persnickety painting habits, but I can tell when I’m painting spare bits that don’t fit on handles and I haven’t glued to a stick.

Great news about the house so congratulations, albeit somewhat tardy.

Your ladies are shaping up well and I like the effect so far on the swords which gives them a classic feel.

I'm impressed by the assault intercessor kit, although a little bemused at the inclusion of a tactical rock.

Good luck with the house Nevelon. Funny how real life can get in the way of good painting...but then we all require a roof over our head to enjoy this hobby.

CB

Ugh, is it Thursday already? This week has both dragged and flown by.

Not a lot of hobby progress this week. At the detail stage, so I can’t just slap a quick coat on during break, or in a pre-coffee state. I’d like to get them done this weekend. Which is not an unreasonable goal

House stuff is still ongoing and stressful. Roof failed the inspection, so need to get an estimate to replace/repair, and the first contractor flaked out and pulled a no-show, delaying the whole process. Hopefully have something by the end of the day. This should be the last roadblock. But the “roof over our head to enjoy this hobby” is what’s keeping this from happening.

On the bright side, I’ve started to think about space and setting things up. I should have a room dedicated purely for painting, and another rec room where I can build a 4x6 table and have space for minis. Even some built in shelves which would be nice for minis, although would need glass fronts. Will be nice to have more space. Eventually an airbrush, spot to leave the lightbox up, garage for priming. Looks good, just need to get there.

Sounds like a plan my friend. Just keep moving forward, you'll get there.

two words for you "Sprue Shingles"

Good Luck, once your in the house you won't think twice about the problems leading up to it. Still wish I had a dedicated area that wasn't the unfinished basement, but I have a few years till the kids are all out of here.

There is a time and a place for sprue construction. If I needed to re-do the deck, that’d be my go-to. But roofing is plasticard and rivets.

Forgot to mention I got a game in this weekend. Nids out again. Last of the crusade small missions, where you progressively score objectives, but they go away (and worth more at the end) I stepped back from my pure-WYSWYG self to field my termagaunts as a full 20 man devourer squad. They popped up with the trygon, put out a zillion shots. Strat to do it again. Killed a few marines. Not bad. Downside is getting them all within range of the big bug, and not fencing him in so he can charge. Might be worth just ignoring the tunnel and paying the CP to reserve them normally. The broodlord and the trygon continue to blend, but are glass hammers. And the big guy continues to flub his charge rolls, even on 3d6 drop the lowest. He leveled up, so I gave him a bonus to that roll.

The game was bloody as heck, with only my rippers seeing the end for me, and I think 4? battle-brothers. Victory for the bugs. Was interesting to see his reivers mow through the gaunt swarm. So used to them spanging blows off of marines, occasionally snaking a wound in, I forgot that their real job is cashing out gribblies.

So I cheeped out on the edgeing. I did it on the exarch, and realized it didn’t help that much over the contrast paint. So I just did the silvers for the rest of the ladies. Touched up what I noticed, which might not be everything, but is what it is. Down off the handles and ready to base. Glue drying on the tufts now, I’ll probably flock them in the morning.

So it’s 8 days until next month. Going to see if I can get these eliminators done. Not part of the battle company project, but a unit I’d like to field.



Next month is back to March, and Space Marine for the theme. I think I’ll try to get 5 assault intercessors done.

On the house front staggered past another roadblock. Got the sellers to agree to a credit towards getting the rood fixed. Negotiated compromise that’s under the estimate from the contractor, but it’s a seller’s market, and I’m over the barrel. But I can shop around once I’m in, and see if I can get something cheeper. Last stopping point is the title search, which is being done now by my lawyer. That should be clear <knock on wood> but it’s legal stuff that needs to be sorted out. Stared packing up stuff I’m not going to need in the next two months or so. Old game books were the first into boxes. Going to have to go and get more boxes, they fill up fast, and I’ve got a lot of crap. Hobby stuff and active 40k editions will be some of the last things. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep gaming and blogging with minimal interruptions.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend,
--Nev

Nice work on the banshees. They don't miss the edging.

Gals are done. Enjoyed painting them up. Not sure how well they would do on the table, but that’s not an issue at the moment, unless I want to start up a third crusade list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


And that’s a wrap for year 6! Keeping up my perfect entry record. High volume this year. 8 months I capped the 5 model limit, the one month that was waived I did 6, and last 3 were doubles. 52 total, ironically my yearly goal. 5 different armies represented, so good mix. And that’s not counting the fact that there were multiple schemes within armies. So wide range of things painted. Overall pretty happy with my work.

Great work Nev, a nice mix of models done and they look great. Congrats!

That's a solid year of work. The banshees look great-- back when I still played 40K, I treid to field tem in every game. They always underperformed for me, but they looked great doing it.

I’ve always enjoyed banshees. Never picked up any for my Eldar army before they went plastic (although did get a Jain Zar). My chaos fantasy army did have some old metals for when Witch Elves went bad. Swapped the pistols out for extra hand weapons. Whirrr ChopChopChop. Chaos Warriors were fun.

I think I only saw them on the other side of the table once? Maybe 3rd. Back when power swords just flat ignored armor saves. I did not allow them to live long, to the dismay of my opponent. Now? I think the math says that the 4 basic gals should kill one? marine, and depending on what the exarch is packing, she might get one herself. And then the marines fight back and do unkind things to the ladies. Looking at the DE leaks, it looks like their guys are all getting an extra attack. Hopefully when we get a new codex, we can also cash in on that. Eldar need the help. When a squad of Banshees plow into you, there should be body parts flying everywhere, and your armor should not help much. Right now the tabletop just doesn’t reflect that.

They are crazy fast, so I think they would work well as a disruption unit. Or grabbing objectives. But like most pointy eared gits, they just can’t take a hit.

Getting layers down on the snipers. Going quick. Let’s see if I can finish them in a week.

Plugging away. Gold work is next, then cleanup passes.

I might have ordered a little something extra to build. But only because I needed to grab one for somebody’s upcoming birthday. With shipping delays and me moving, I figured sooner would be better than later, and Amazon finally had them at a reasonable price.

Great job keeping up with finishing every challenge. I wish I could have done the same, but some months I'm just not feeling it, either the theme or whatever I chose to do that month just didn't end up jiving with me.

Banshees look great; I totally agree that it's usually not worth edge highlighting over Contrast, especially on non-characters. I edged my Phobos characters a little bit, but even there it didn't add a whole lot.

For the challenge, remember that you can change your entry at any time, or cut something down from a stretch of a 5 man squad to just one guy. Personally, I use it as a motivator to get out of the recliner and in front of the paint bench. Too easy just to revert to a vegetable and zone out all day.



Speaking of paint... Put the wash on these guys this morning, next up is a clean up pass for the whites, the apothecary white contrast, and then all the camo. Which should go fast-ish.

Started packing up old minis. Got my undead boxed up nice, and a chunk of my Eldar. If I’m not going to need it in the next month or so, things are starting to get put away.

Edit
Cleaning paint up is always a lot less stressful when you know a later step is camo. Missed a spot? Stripe goes there.

Next is the white contrast.

They look great so far.

And an evening doodling squiggly lines later



A few more touch ups needed. Like the blue wash on the shoulder, double check for missed bits, decal for the sarge, and bases. Almost there. Which is good, as I’d like to add these guys to my crusade force next time I add points.

Title search for the house reportedly is going to be done early next week, so I might be able to close as early as a week from Monday. Still a few more ducks to line up. Plus I’m not sure if I want to push it back a few weeks, just to reduce the time I’m double paying. Original close date was April 1. Something to be said for just getting this over with. Need to have a chat with my advisors.

Decal and flock left to go. Second pass on the black rim if I’m feeling fussy. It’s sloppy with one coat, but most of my army is like that.

Edit 2-26:
Flock down, will try to decal over lunch, and that’s a wrap for these guys.

And done.

Was feeling the ETB nature of these guys. Some of the detail was a little off. But they painted up quick and ready for duty.

Sweet camo work. Fast, too. Banshees turned out good. Love the summary pic. Lots of good work.

Wow, not entirely sure how I lost track of this one. Awesome stuff going on here!

Definitely looking forward to painting some eliminators myself.

Finished banshees look great and quick turnaround on those eliminators. Hope they prove themselves on the battlefield. I kicked my squad of the roster for now. I really love sniper units, but they never give that love back in-game

Great job on those banshees Nev, the basing works really nicely with the scheme too. The camo on your Infiltrators look great too and it's nice to see a marine that isn't a highlighter in a camo cloak

youwashock wrote:Sweet camo work. Fast, too. Banshees turned out good. Love the summary pic. Lots of good work.

Of all my competition summery pics, I’m probably most proud of this year. There might not be any “Wow” amazing work this year, but I think overall a higher level then I normally do, with a huge volume, and nothing I look at and go “that was bad, I phoned that one in"

GrimDork wrote:Wow, not entirely sure how I lost track of this one. Awesome stuff going on here!

Definitely looking forward to painting some eliminators myself.

I’m still here, plugging away. Consistency and persistence are two things I have going on in my favor. Looking forward to painting the rest of the ones I have. I think the full kits should be better, but I’ll find out when their time for the bench comes up.

Viterbi wrote:Finished banshees look great and quick turnaround on those eliminators. Hope they prove themselves on the battlefield. I kicked my squad of the roster for now. I really love sniper units, but they never give that love back in-game

I was just reviewing the rules and was thinking “Wait, why am I excited to get these guys to the table again?” It might just be that I was on the receiving end of them in 8th with my Eldar. My Warlocks eating headshots, even when out of LoS and pulling shenanigans, hurt. But while they got a point of S on the guns, they lost a lot of perks, including the sarge’s buff. Camo cloaks make them a little tougher, but compared with a 5 man intercessor squad with the stalker rifles, you have less wounds, and no obsec. Concealed positions is nice for some maps, but normally these guys want to live in the deep backfield. The cherry on top is that my games these days are crusade games vs. The Boy’s Salamanders. Marine characters are sniper resistant at the best of time, and his captain requires AV levels of firepower to get wound in on. He fields a phobos Lt, who is a little softer, but worth investing a 5 PL unit to counter? Of course, as crusaders, I could upgrade them to headhunters, or battle tested.

But the most important reason to get them to the table is I like the way they look. Which tends to override mediocre rules.

Tyranid Horde wrote:Great job on those banshees Nev, the basing works really nicely with the scheme too. The camo on your Infiltrators look great too and it's nice to see a marine that isn't a highlighter in a camo cloak

I’d like to say that the green grass bases were chosen due to my deep understanding of color theory, to pair with the red of the hair. But it’s just the way I base my Eldar. I agree that it does work out nicely. Still miss the old flowers I had, these tufts are not quite the same.

I agree that camo cloaks over bright armor does seem a bit odd. I was actually a bit worried on these guys. While the colors are the same, I tried to use different brush strokes on the armor vs. the cloak, to try to differentiate them. One problem with real/effective camo is that it makes the mini just look like an indistinct blob. I kept the shoulderpad chapter blue to add a little pop. There weren't a whole lot of other places to add interest to the guys.

Those Banshees are great. Nice basing.

The snipers also turned out well. I like quick method. And their bases really bring out the snow camo feel as well. Great stuff.

So these guys are going to be my entry for the month. I wanted to do the assault intercessors, but it looks like I’m going to be moving sooner rather than later, so opted for the easier paint. No edge highlights. Not going for a total speed paint, as there is still a lot of crap going on I need to tend to, but will try to get them done ASAP.

Also in the news, game last Sunday. Swapped back to my Ultras and up to 50 PL lists again. Solid win for me. His AV fire was cold early, and dead later. He got first turn and with it landed one wound on my pred. Total, army-wide damage for the alpha strike. I hit back pretty hard, and the rest was downhill.

Did not help that his captain, who has the relic nano meds to stand back up after death on a 2+ rolled a 1, so they failed. This is the second time they did that.

I'm so envious of your real game, Nev. Glad you won, may the dice be ever in your favor. I think you've picked a nice squad to work on, given your heavy schedule. Looking forward to seeing paint on them.

Awesome, glad to hear you're getting in games

May be painting some of those myself soon so I look forward to the inspiration