Journeyman Update 2

Looks nice, takes years.  

To borrow a phrase from one of my favorites, we've always been painting Errants.  These little bastards are the gifts that keep on giving...an unending list of things to paint.  After a decent Tuesday of painting I thought I was on the last leg.  The whites and reds were done, leaving only the golds and blacks (and yes, also the inevitable overlooked bits and basing).  I rolled into Thursday feeling good about my chances of finishing the unit in advance of today's Paint the Target due date.  This confidence was misplaced.  Much suffering ensued.

Full disclosure: I was trying something new.  More fuller disclosure: the new thing was a different shade of brown.  I've been using the brown undercoat for bronze/gold approach for a while, but until yesterday the brown has been the VGC equivalent of Snakebite Leather.  This has served me well, but I wondered if a darker (some might say Beastial) brown would look better.  Fast forward some four hours of laying down brown so I could paint over it with bronze (and then highlight...) and something had to give.  I had an emergency backup plan in my pocket in case I ran into this very scenario consisting of one step: abandon the group and finish a single model.  Somehow the bronze and gold went on quicker than the brown, there wasn't much black to do, the base went as bases do, and I was able to get a model close enough to call it finished without any major psychotic episodes.

The bad news, of course, is there are nine more of these guys to do.  Plus the UA.  And a solo.  Ugh.

Journeyman Update 1

They paint soooo sloooooooooooooooooooooow.

The journeyman league started up this week and I'm already behind.  Not in the league standings, where I'm doing well, but on the painting table.  You might recall my grand ambition to have the Errants (perhaps the UA and solo as well) finished before the league began.  That hasn't quite worked out (thanks Olympics!) and now here we are in week two and I've just had my first good, meaty session with them.  Things are going, if slower than hoped for, but I have managed to learn one vital lesson: painting Errants sucks.  All the detail, all the cross-body arms, all the mans, everything is bad bad bad.  Things are surely exaggerated by the relative lateness of the takeoff and that I'm in the part of the process that takes the most time while yielding little visible progress (love basecoats and layering up), but it's still painful.  The good news is that I'm doing my penance now for running the Errant boat, so when my opponent's tears inevitably begin to flow I can say "Hey man, it could be worse.  I had to paint these bastards."  There's only (only!) another two or three layers for the armor, so hopefully things speed up soon, though I know all the gold will be a slog.  My only solace in these troubling times is that each layer I do is one less to do in the future.  The plan now is to finish the Errants this week.

On the gaming front the picture is much rosier.  Thanks to a case of mistaken identity and some poor dice I went 3-0 in the first week.  The list worked more or less as expected, and I even managed my first scenario win in forever.  I ran Reckoner/Vanquisher last week and now I'm not sure about making the move to double Reckoner.  The 4" of auto-fire is real nice, even if it is shorter ranged on a slower chassis.  I might press my luck this week and stick with the list as is.

Journeyman Photo Hoster

Really just need a place to put a picture, but we'll do a tiny post at the same time.  The Journeyman league starts in a week, which means it's past time to get everything put together.  I'm close with just the Errant UA, Repenter, and Wracks left to assemble.  I've even got a start on the Wracks.  There's also a second Reckoner, but that can and probably will wait until the rest is together.  The Errants are about to hit the painting table, a bit behind schedule but still on pace.  Still waiting and hoping for spraying weather.