Journeyman Painting Log 5

Ready to stab some folks in the face.

The final leg took longer than expected, as usual, but the Kayazy are now finished.  Once I abandoned the idea of having them simultaneously stand out from and conform with the rest of the army things progressed at a pleasing rate.  There were a couple painting sessions between now and the last update, but somehow they didn't seem significant enough to warrant a post or didn't fit in with an existing post (read: battle report).  It's appropriate for assassins that they should be slinking along in the shadows, their progress unnoticed, then spring forth prepared to do violence.

I like this sculpt the most.

The good news doesn't stop with a painted unit.  I checked the humidity when I got up this morning: >85%.  With the forecast prophesying doom (read: feels like 100+) for the rest of the week I didn't have any hopes of varnishing.  Imagine my pleasant surprise when I checked again after finishing the arc markings: 51%, well below my 60% cutoff.  You probably heard the sonic boom as I sped around to collect Sorscha and my varnishing setup to take advantage of the unexpected development.  (Sorry Dark Angels, you'll have to wait until next time.)  While I've been eager to finish the Kayazy so I could field them and reap the painting points for the Journeyman league, I didn't expect to be able to do so quite so soon.  Combine this with my long-simmering desire to get away from high DEF infantry, plus a more recent drive to step outside the Khadoran box I've built for myself, and the timing of finishing the unit is a little unfortunate.  Of course I haven't actually gotten to work on new lists that I may not have painted, or even in my collection.  It's also not a hardship to field Kayazy as they're plenty nasty if not particularly new tech.

Not so fond of this sculpt.

What's next for the painting table?  Probably a merc or two while I consider.  There's a unit of Demo Corps that have been waiting quite a while for paint, which would also get me some bonus Journeyman points.  Beast 09 is ready to go and Drago just needs spikes and basing to be ready for priming.  There's a fistful of merc all stars ready and waiting, with a few literally on the painting table already.  All of this is just glorified stalling though.  What I'd really like to dig in to are IFP and Conquest, but neither are built.  The IFP are ready for gluing, though I'll probably be pinning some hands, so this one is realistic.  Conquest has been washed but no more.  No mold lines/sprue marks have been cleaned, no glue applied, and I don't have any great ideas for that monstrous base.  Considering I got Conquest at the end of last year's Journeyman this is extra shameful, not to mention that it's the single biggest reason for the resurgence of loyalty to the Motherland.  The sheer size of the thing combined with my unfamiliarity with resin, to say nothing of indigenous laziness, are proving to be...colossal...speed bumps.  While I know that all I really have to do is get a start and things will proceed with nearly Newtonian certainty it's getting that initial push that's the real issue.  The plan to get past that now is to get the IFP together and then roll into Conquest.  We'll see how well that plays out.