Message to grasp: You have exceeded your reach

     So I kinda shot my mouth off yesterday with the whole "I want to nearly finish this batch" thing.  While not surprising, it's still disappointing.  In my defense I got a much later start on the painting day than I expected, and had less time to work with as well.  I managed to finish the helmets, if not the helmet's details, and got some black work done as well.

After a (partial) day's work.

     After I finished the helmets, I was going to do the greens.  As I was pulling out the relevant paints, I thought about how all the little blood drop pendants and vials are still unfinished on the first batch because I needed to paint the backing/lids/frames on them before proceeding to the green parts.  With that in mind, I pulled out the black instead and put down a layer on all the details that would end up black or are just fiddly.  Since I still had ready-to-use paint on my palette I went ahead and did some weapons until my paint ran out, hence the half and half state of armaments.  I want to finish all the details in this batch so that when they're done they're done done and not just done enough.  Hopefully laying the foundation for that now will help me hit that goal in the future.

The new clubhouse leader.

     In a surprise move, this marine has pulled ahead of the pack as my favorite of this batch.  Initially I didn't like the helmet as it's almost a Mk. 6 beakie but not quite.  Having started collecting, if not necessarily playing, GW stuff back when the RTB01 set was on shelves and current, beakie marines have a special place in my gaming heart.  (Pay no attention to the fact that I cut off most of the beaks to make proto Mk. 7 helmets.  I blame a picture of that technique that I saw somewhere that struck my fancy.)  The harsh angles of this helmet didn't sit right with me at first, but having put a couple coats of paint on it I've developed a new appreciation for it.  Those same harsh angles might as well be neon signs saying "Put your highlights here," which is very nice.  In another unexpected move, the beakie helmet's lack of hard corners makes highlighting something of a guessing game, which makes me unhappy with it.  A shocking turn around.  I need to settle on a marine to be the squad leader in case I want to combat squad the unit, though I doubt that will ever come up.  I also need to dig out my old Angels of Blood codex to remember how squad leader shoulder pads are done.  I'm fairly sure it's either a reversed scheme on the chapter pad or the company pad, but can't remember which.

     Future planning is to try and accomplish over the weekend what I wanted to get done yesterday.  Today and tomorrow have no room for painting, but Sunday should provide plenty of opportunities.  Despite yesterday's shortcomings, I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to finish the assault marines by the end of the month, leaving the entirety of March to figure out the Sanguinary Guard.  I also need to get on the jump packs for the squad.  There are a couple gaps that will require greenstuffing, and while I'm at it I want to fill in most or all of the Death Company crosses on the jump packs as they've caused me plenty of head-scratching and grief on the marines already.  I need to do something with them, as simply ignoring them isn't working for me, but I'm still at a loss for how to finish them.

     P.S. - I also forgot to mention something you might have noticed already.  While I like using the prescription bottles to mount the models while painting them, they fall over constantly because they're so top heavy.  While it hasn't caused any damage yet, it's just a matter of time before disaster strikes.  I decided to put in a stitch now, to avoid the need for ten in the future, and tried taking the caps off the bottles.  I lose a bit of utility this way, mostly when holding the model upside down, but the change is a good one.  My only real concern is that the poster putty seems to be soaking up the heat from my hands and getting a bit too soft for comfort.  It's still plenty tacky and I don't think it will be an issue, but it bears watching all the same.