Plenty of progress (plus pictures)

As the title implies, I got a lot done today.  I built the meltagunners and Sanguinary Priest, their jump packs, and am in the process of basing them for a potential priming in the morning.  I also did the test mini and think I've decided on an approach to painting the red for these troops.  Plus I primed the Sanguinary Guard this morning, so it's been a good day.

The day's building, plus an in-progress test.

Pinning metal bits is probably my least favorite part of the hobby, and I've been putting off assembling the meltagunners as a result, so it's nice to get them finished.  In painting news, I wanted to really use the AoBR to test things out, so I tried alternate ideas on each half of the model.

The beginning.

I started with Bloody Red on the left and Gory Red on the right.  I put a layer of Bloody Red on top of the Gory Red and also on the raised areas of the already Bloody Red side.  Unsurprisingly, the results were similar.

After the first round.

Since both roads led to the same place, I scrapped my idea of not washing some of the mini and washed the whole thing with Devlan Mud.  I had been considering quartering the model, but I didn't really think it would look any better without the wash.

After the wash, before the highlights.

I split the mini up again but kept things similar.  I applied a reaffirmation of the base coat/highlight with Bloody Red on both sides, then followed that up with an Orange Fire highlight on the right side.  Once again I went back over the Bloody Red half with another coat to firm things up.

After highlighting.

I decided I didn't really like the Orange Fire side as it was just too orange, but since I had the orange on the palette I thought I'd give it a go on the Bloody Red side.  I had knocked the orange down a bit with the red, maybe 3-1 orange to red, and since that was too much I knocked it down a bit more for the Bloody Red side.  I ended up with something like a 3-2 red to orange.  The effect was nice, but I thought I could get a bit more out of it, so I took the original 3-1 orange and gave it a second highlight.

Highlighting: another picture.

I think this shot gives a better look at the differences, especially in the greaves.  The transition was too stark on the right, but the left half works for me.  The effects are subtle without disappearing, and it was pretty easy to do so I think I can go through the troops like this in a timely manner.

I think I have all the models I need assembled now, but I'll double check in the morning.  I'll also get my case squared away and make sure that everything is in one place.  I'm basing some Devastators along with the other pieces, in fact I should go and sand them now, which I think means all my models will be at least primed, and at worst I should have 4-5 sore thumbs sticking out.  I'm taking it in bites though, which is working so far.  To-do list as an outro:

5 Sanguinary Guard - primed
Full assault squad - primed
3 jump pack meltagunners - assembled, being based
Jump Pack Sanguinary Priest - assembled, being based
various arms/backpacks/bits -box