List thoughts, plus more painting

I was thinking today that perhaps I could trim some fat out of the devastator squads and bring in something else.  Running two full squads and combat squading to four groups lets me shoot at lots of targets, but I wonder what those points look like against three squads of 6-7 with 3-4 missile launchers.  Number of targets per turn would drop from four to three, but those three would get hit harder.  I also thought about bringing in a Baal or dread, but then I got to thinking that if I bring one I should bring a bunch which would alter the basic concept of the list.  I didn't have my codex handy, so it was all idle speculation.  I also got to thinking about an army with Astorath and Death Company coming out of a Storm Raven with a DC dread.  Happy thoughts.



Going into today's painting I had intended to highlight the red, but then I thought that if I did the other colors first I couple highlight the armor and clean it up at the same time.  I did the helmets with the GW foundation yellow and base coated the black and future metal parts.

Base coating: the group shot.

I did a pre-wash layer of A lightish Vallejo yellow, either Sunblast or Bald Moon.  Then I hit the helmets with a Devlan Mud wash.  After that I working the yellow up.

Finished group shot.

I went back with the same Vallejo yellow to even the base out.  Then did a 2:3 mix of a lighter Reaper yellow (I don't have my paints handy as I write this...) with the Vallejo yellow for a first highlight.

Getting close to finished.

After that I tried a 4:1 mix of Reaper:Vallejo, but I the contrast wasn't enough.  Instead I went with a 2:3 mix of Vallejo Dead White with the Reaper yellow and touched up the sharpest corners.

Like my holders?

Still wondering about time invested to results gained, but I am happy with the results so far.  I still have to do the metals, a green for the company badge and other molded single blood drops on the armor.  For triple drops, like those on the helmet of the marine above, I'm going to make them red.  I also have all the vials/blood drops/chalices that hang off the armor and the little details I missed the first time around. The end is in sight though, and it's a nice feeling.

As you can see I finally found some things to mount the minis on while I paint them.  The blu-tac went on easy, held the models securely, and let them go with little fuss when I took them off for transport.  I'll still want at leat two more, so I can work on groups of five at a time, but for now it's good to be able to hold and twist what I'm working on without having to worry about rubbing the paint off if I change my grip.