More DA Painting, Icarusmas

Green with envy.

First the boring stuff: painting.  When I said this morning that I'd be happy with getting the greens
done on the Deathwing tester, I thought that would include more than just the chest eagle.  That's all there is though, at least for the time being, but I will be thumbing through the codex, examining box art, and making use of the 360 view option on the GW site to see how they do things.

On second thought there is a bit more green than just the eagle.  I did the eyes and the "lenses" at the end of the arm cables in green.  Whether they stay that way is up for internal debate, though you can weigh in as well.  Next up will be metals and reds, which I think will take care of the vast majority of the model.  It's amazing what a little splash of color, even limited to the chest eagle and eyes, will do for a model.  The internet seems to be frightened of the Christmas effect when red and green are paired on a model, but my Khador scheme should show that I am made of sterner stuff, so I'm looking forward to seeing how a darker-than-usual red affects this model. 

More Deathwing, Upcoming Release

Armor finished, which is most of the model.

Work continues on my Deathwing tester.  As is usual in these cases, I spent way too much time on highlighting my initial model.  Will I carry this through to future models, or will my standards relax over time?  We'll all find out together.  Following my other pattern I think I went too subtle on shading and highlighting, but maybe less so than usual.  There's clear definition between the majority of plates and all the time spent on clean and even base coats yields better returns as more of it remains exposed.  One day I'll find something to try out the over the top cartoony style of black recess and white highlights.  I'd like to get this one finished today, but more realistically if I can get the greens done then I'll call it a success.  I might also try out the recent influx of greens on the regular Dark Angel tester.  For now I'm resisting the call of the Ravenwing.  One project at a time.  (HA!)

In other news I hope to have a copy of the new Dust Warfare expansion in my hands later today.  The new Axis models have been out for a while, but with no rules for them I haven't had any idea which, if any, of them I'll want.  At the top of the list are planes.  My local meta doesn't really do helicopters, but after one particularly gruesome game against one I'm a convert to the power of flight.  The plan is to hit Huzzah if/when books come in, see if the planes are worthwhile, then (perhaps) get the pair that have been taunting me from the shelf for many weeks.  Normally I'd make a large purchase like this through online channels as the discounts are too deep to ignore, but with the regional tournaments starting next weekend I'm not sure they'd arrive in time.  My biggest fear about Icarus is that it will be a game changer, much like Hades was, and that I'll run into some early adopters posing questions that I have no answers for, hence my desire to beat them to the punch.  Regardless of how things pan out it should be nice to have some new toys to play with.

First Timers: Dark Angels vs Chaos in 6th Edition

Most disturbing result on a search for "first timers"?  Could be.

Remember when I used to do battle reports here?  Neither do I, but it's going to happen anyway.  You.
may have noticed my gaming pendulum has swung back towards 40k lately and today was the maiden voyage of 6th edition.  This game has been a while in the making but the stars aligned properly so that EV and I could throw down, tabletop style

More Deathwing

I'm baby stepping, I'm doing the work.

Got a bit more painting in today.  Didn't have a whole lot of time so I didn't get much done, but despite that I crossed off my least favorite part of painting any model: re-establishing a base coat.  It's a vital step, especially on something that will end up a bright/light color, but it's a special kind of depressing to paint the same color on (most of) the same places that you already covered before washing.  With a base coat you can at least go fast and loose, splashing paint around with little care other than getting an even coat.  Post-wash it's all about leaving those little bits of wash showing in the crevices, while still trying to get that even coat.  I could probably save myself a lot of hassle by just washing the recessed areas instead of the whole model, but where's the fun in that?  It's all behind me now, at least for this one test model, so next time I can move on to applying the actual base (mid? true?) color (Bleached Bone, or its VGC equivalent) and see if the transition from Khaki to Bleached Bone works as well in reality as it does in my head.

Finished Hans, Future Plans

Ready for action, but still needs detailing.

I got a wee bit of varnishing in on Tuesday before the Snowquester hit, or missed, yesterday.  Since I didn't ballast the Ravenwing bases on Monday night the spraying was confined to a pair of Hans arms, but now I can field at least one (almost) fully painted walker for my Axis troops.  As I've probably noted before it still needs numbers/icons and basing, but it's as finished as my infantry is.  Despite having it be dry for about two days I haven't actually put a finished trooper next to the finished walker yet, but I'm confident they'll be consistent with each other.

I Like New Paint

Must have picture for post, even bad picture.

Gearing up for some Dark Angels painting in the near future showed a couple holes in my paint collection, namely a step between Dark Angels Green and Goblin Green and a better shade for Bleached Bone.  I visited the only local shop that carries Vallejo Game Colors, Victory Comics, so I could get painting without having to wait for a delivery.  I found paint, namely Scurvy Green and Khaki, but did I find answers?

Let's start with the good news: Khaki is exactly what I was looking for.  It appears to be just a darker Bleached Bone, more or less, which is all I wanted it to be.  Went on easy over my dark grey primer, looked nice when finished.  Very pleased. 

Striking While the Iron Isn't Humid

Not pictured: the author.

The weather over the past few months has been less than acceptable for spraying, so when a window of warmish (for the season) and reasonably dry weather opens it's best to take advantage of it.  I did just that today by varnishing the zombies and Hans torso that have been on the painting table for far too long, priming four Terminators and a Tactical Marine that come from EV's recently acquired Dark Vengeance, and priming/basecoating a full Wotan and a medium walker torso.  I considered arms for the medium for a bit but couldn't settle on either Luther or Ludwig arms while the Lothar arms won't be camo and thus need no spraying.  As if all that wasn't enough I also sullied myself by going into an actual GW to poke around at their Dark Angel stuff, namely FoC unlocking characters and direct order bits.  In case you're like me and have avoided GWs like the plague you'll be glad to know that it hasn't been for nothing.  The full court sales press is still on and even having an obviously disinterested party along for the ride is no deterrent.  I did confirm that I could get direct order only stuff (looking at you Chapter specific upgrade sprues) shipped to the store while also avoiding S&H charges, so my suicide mission was successful.  I will need to shower for the next 72 hours, continuously, to feel normal again though.