Primed and ready

Despite cold temperatures and snow looming for the afternoon, I got the assault squad (and a test model) primed this morning.  I've been using the bathroom as a drying room, thanks to the fan, to combat humidity, but this is the first time I've tried priming in the cold.  I used an AoBR bolter marine to make sure things would work, and when he looked ok I went ahead with the rest of the squad.

Progress, it is unstoppable.

Duplicolor makes a red Sandable Primer (Red Oxide) that I picked up the other day.  The cap looked a little brown for my taste, but I decided to give it a go as it would cut out the base coating step and save me a bunch of time.  It's fairly red on the model and I think it should work just fine.  I'm mentally refining the painting steps I want to take.  Depending on how the Vallejo equivalent of Red Gore looks on top of the primer, I'm planning on doing Red Gore, then Blood Red, then a wash, then a final Blood Red/Blazing Orange highlight.  I'll see how it goes on the test model before I dig into the squad itself. 

As I noted on the B&C forums, I took a good look into the 40k basing kit EV got me for Christmas yesterday.  The resin bits looked very appealing, but they all had some flash/sprue on the bottom and I'm reluctant to clean it up as I don't have much experience with carving up resin.  I'll pick EV's brain about it.  I'm sure it's easy enough to work with, but better safe than sorry.  In lieu of the resin, I put some mid-size slate chips on the bases before adding the ballast.  It's not much, but I like the effect, and it's a good step towards better basing.

Behold a better base.

I took pictures with and without the flash of the base.  Neither was especially great, but the flash distorted things too much for my taste, so you get the darker non-flash shot.  I hope to get some work in on the squad tomorrow, though the snow may throw a wrench into that plan.  I want to get some black primer for the Sanguinary Guard, but the Advance by my house hasn't had black Duplicolor when I've stopped in lately.  In fact, they only had the one can of red when I was there last.  I need to do some greenstuffing on the jump packs before I prime them, but I'm pleased with the progress I've made over the past few days.  While EV seems able to crank out an entire army in a week or two, my pace is more glacial than that and I'm approaching break-neck.  It's amazing what a deadline, even one that's months away, will do for you.

edit:  Forgot the to-do list.

5 Sanguinary Guard - built and based
Full assault squad - primed
3 jump pack meltagunners - box (one torso assembled)
Jump Pack Sanguinary Priest - box
various arms/backpacks/bits -box

double edit!:  Forgot to post about this guy.  Lightning claw chainfists?  A pair of them?  Hot.  I wish the Imperial Armor books weren't so expensive (the new ones are $65+, to say nothing of shipping from the UK), not to mention Forge World models in general, because they're so nice I'd love to have some, but they're just to expensive.  Maybe when I land that plush job...