Yesterday's news today

So close I can taste it.

The second batch is now (mostly) finished, thanks to a heroic bit of drive last night and this morning to get them done.  I finished all the actual painting last night, save one ring at the bottom of the base.  I'm holding off on this so I can keep the minis on the medicine bottle tops and handle them as little as possible.  This morning I did the static grass and Micron pen-ing, the latter of which I did a pretty horrible job of.  All that remains is that bottom bit of base, decals, and varnish.  A trip to Michael's is in the works to look for decal solvents/setters, though I'm not sure when I'll be able to go.

Meltagunner the First.

I've been considering my painting order during this last batch and have come up with some alterations that I hope will make the process quicker and easier.  I've been doing the armor first, at least up to highlighting.  Next is the helmets, followed by "whites," greens, blacks, and metals.  Basing is done at the end.  To try the paint inside to outside idea, I'll still start with a bit of the armor, namely the collar and shoulders that are around the helmet.  The eyes are next, followed by the helmet.  Armor ribbing will be next, and then it kinda breaks down.  I'll probably end up doing the armor last, or at least after all the details that aren't part of the armor.

Meltagunner the Second.

Anonymous chainsword guy.

My method of painting black is also under consideration.  Instead of trying to highlight the black, I'm going to paint it a mid-to-light grey and then give it black washes until I'm happy with the result.  I don't know how well this will work on a meltagun, but for a chapter badge I think the results will be good.  If it's also easier than the way I do things now, then so much the better.

You know who.

In the immediate future, I want to get that last strip of base painted and a first coat of gloss varnish on the models tonight/tomorrow.  After that progress will depend on decal accessories, humidity, and time.  This last one looks to be in shorter supply than usual over the next few days, but I've gotten enough finished on my LPC vow that losing a few days won't hurt too much.  I'm more than halfway done, if you don't consider jump packs and wings.  The remaining models are a sergeant, a squad leader, and the Sanguinary Guard, so there will be plenty of new stuff to keep things interesting.

All these pics are from last night, if you've been wondering where my scribblings are.  I had a purity seal and a half (which turned out ok), four squad markings (which did better than before, but still not good), and two big name scrolls.  These last two were very bad, which was disappointing after how well the first one did.  They'll look fine at arm's length, and this is effectively a learning project, so I'll keep them as is.

Rebuilt and improved.

There was a bit of a disaster yesterday.  The to-be-painted sergeant took a tumble to the carpet.  I was amazed when he popped off his base, but when I looked closer it was a tiny contact area where it broke.  This makes me wonder how secure my other marines are since most of them also have the "on one foot while running" pose.  I put a pin in the foot, then ran it through the base and greenstuffed around it.  This should make the join stronger and also add weight to the base to keep the model from tipping over.  It turns out he has a shoulder pad that has "Sanguinius" sculpted on, along with a company badge, so I can scratch that itch.  No sculpted chapter badge though, so I hope I have some yellow decals.

This is a poor time for it, but no time for improvement like the present.  I want to post once a day here and generally step the blog game up.  It may take a while to figure it all out, but it's something I want to work on.