T-minus 24(ish) hours

While I have not quite finished today, I should have little problem getting everything done tomorrow.  Decals and two more coats of varnish notwithstanding, the assault squad is finished.  I blutaced on the jump packs for the three marines needing decals and took a final pic of the squad to put up on the B&C.  Again not considering varnish, four Sanguinary Guards are done.  I have a head scroll and base skull to do, which I plan to finish tonight.  I also have two wings left to glue.  And then there's the banner.  I'm not so sure about the washes after further inspection of the box.  I think it will work in places, but I'm not sure it would look right doing the whole thing in that manner.  If things work right tonight, I'll only have the banner to do tomorrow, plus gluing a final wing and varnish.  The finish line, it is in sight.



This brings up the matter of what is next on the list after my LPC vow squads.  I have a couple options to choose from.  I could paint up a warcaster or two for Warmachine, or at least assemble and prime the minis that have been languishing in blisters for months.  I have a number of in-progress pieces that I could finish off as well.  Considering I started this blog with Warmachine in mind, it would be nice to "get back to my roots."  Going chronologically, Iron Dwarves are next.  I have three cruisers and a battleship that are half done and a couple new ships have come out since last I played Uncharted Seas.  There's also the Imperial Humans that represent one of my more colossal hobby failures.  Having started them as the opening volley in a forum painting challenge, I never even finished the starter box, much less the three month plan I set forth.  I've been thinking about doing them in Altdorf colors, red and blue, to keep the red theme going and also to pair them with my (theoretical) Empire army in the same way Khador and the ID are intertwined.  Speaking of Empire, there's that to consider as well.  I got a model to use as an Arch Lector a while back that I could at least assemble and prime.  I also have many already assembled models in various stages of completion.  The Ork Shootas that I started months ago are all but finished as well, to say nothing of all the boyz I assembled.  And there's always more Blood Angels, but I think I'd like to do something a little different for a bit, though I could do a Sanguinary Priest or something like that.

(Close enough to) done.

All those options are based on plastic in hand.  The Grey Knights are conspicuously absent from the list because the new codex hasn't even been released yet, let alone the new models.  I've been considering purchases for these new challengers for a while.  The codex is a given, and I'll probably stop by the FLGS after work on Sunday to get it.  For actual minatures I've settled on a pair of options.  First is the "what looks cool" approach.  This would be a box of termies and power armor marines, plus Draigo and Crowe.  I like this idea because it's all the stuff I want to do for GKs, plus I'd have bits for a BA Librarian and TDA Priest should I want to do those models.  I'd need a plastic terminator for the Priest, but that's not a big factor.  The downside is I'd be getting everything I want up front, plus I'd have a bunch of neat individual bits that would probably require more bits to be game-ready.  The second option is the practical approach, either Draigo and two boxes of terminators or Crowe and three PA boxes.  The idea here is to make all the buys count and be able to field a usable, albeit small, force.  I'd be boxing myself in somewhat with this approach, plus I'd be stacking choices and ensuring that I'd be painting the same things for a while.  These plans are subject to change with an actual reading of the codex.

Really just the banner now.

I've also had a few Blood Angel thoughts, again in two basic flavors.  First is a Stormraven and a Furioso.  I like the Stormraven model a lot, although I can see that I'd be painting it for months.  The dread is almost required to run with the bird, and while I have an ancient metal multimelta/CCW dread I'd want something geared for melee.  The other option is an Honor Guard and/or Vanguard Vets, aka Death Company boxes.  All the lists I've made lately have had the meltagunning Honor Guard, so it'd be nice to actually have models for that choice.  The Vets are essential to a DoA army, which I've also made lists for lately.  Unfortunately I'd really like to magnetize the Honor Guard so I don't end up with 30 different models to have one squad with options, and I'd like to have a drill powered by something that isn't my hand to do the magnetizing with.  I'd also need a bunch of bits for all the options.  That said, I am considering just gluing the meltaguns in as it's a configuration I can see running often.  The Vets are the same case only more so.  I could do the power fist/storm shield setup from those lists I just mentioned, but to have any sort of massed power weapons would require bits I don't yet have.  In general, I'm not sure I want to get more Blood Angels after having just finished a batch of them.  I'd also like to adopt a "paint twice as much as you buy" policy to encourage me to plow into my backlog.

Randrom close-up.

EV has advanced the idea of doing another slow-growth "league," this time with 40k.  I'll put links in for his lists and other things when I have a bit of time and a familiar computer.  He's talking about Dark Eldar to break up the power armor monopoly.  I like the slow-grow format as a concept, and it would work pretty well with the approach I want to take with the GKs.  EV's mention of something other than marines reminded me of the orks I have, and it would be the "better' choice to go with the models I have on hand already.  Of course the "best" choice would be to engage with the Blood Angels so I could have a fully painted army of some sort instead of half a dozen in various stages of completion.

It occurs to me this far into the post that I didn't say anything about how I dealt with the rain and varnishing.  The rain has been constant, if of varying intensity, all day.  I got impatient this evening and decided to test a single jump pack.  When I prime in the cold, I keep everything inside as long as possible and minimize the exposure of paints and models as best possible.  The real key seems to be letting things dry inside, where the humidity is controlled.  With this in mind, I figured that it should work the same way in the rain, so I went out on what passes for a porch here and sprayed quick like a bunny, then came right back inside to let them dry.  When the test pack dried without fogging, I figured I had figured it out and did the rest of the packs.  When those also didn't fog, I did the wings as well.  This let me handle the pieces as much as I needed to while removing paperclips and gluing them to their torsos.