ETL Done, Journeyman Begun

All done.  Except for static grass, varnish, squad markings...

After a bit of a forced painting march my ETL vow is complete.  I stalled out for a while in the second half, but I rallied with a month and change to go which is a much better showing than I had for the LPC.  My finish wasn't especially strong on this squad.  I missed models multiple times while going along the assembly line, though I did mostly go back to finish the models off, and the overall quality of the squad isn't quite as high as the Dark Vengeance squad, but it's still fine quality and well above a tabletop standard (as defined by my Legion on the high end and my Axis on the very low borderline).  I'd like to put in a second vow but will wait and see how far beat down I am by the Journeyman painting grind before committing.

Painting Delay Over

After far too long of a delay I got back to painting today.  Some good progress on the Dark Angels, but not quite at the finish line.  The reds are finished, while the bone/white/flesh bits and rocks on bases need a final highlight (and wash where appropriate). Silvers need finishing off and non-silvers have yet to begin.  Leathers are also starting from scratch, and then there's whatever details have slipped through the cracks.  Despite a relatively long list of things to do the squad is almost finished and should be off my painting list after the next painting session, which will be this weekend.  My ETL vow will be finished with the squad, which will free me up to dive into Journeyman painting.  Or to tack on another vow that I may already have (almost) ready to go.  Or both if I'm feeling particularly saucy.

Kayazy.  And Gormann.  And brush cleaner.  And Legion bits.

Speaking of the Journeyman league, games start on Monday with a Highlander tournament next Saturday.  With the IFP still waiting for a second strip and reassembly I'll be starting with the Kayazy Assassins.  The models aren't anything special but they've been primed for far too long. Plus I'll have to paint them if I want to use them in Journeyman games (which I do).  Conquest is still the big item on the list but considering that I haven't done anything past washing the pieces it's going to take a special effort.  I say this with the Journeyman league not yet officially begun, staring down six weeks and change of time to get it assembled, painted, and on the table, but I'm being realistic about my chances.  I've never assembled anything like a colossal before and want to do it right.  These two factors combined mean an extended construction period to come.  Painting the monster will be no small task once I've built it.  All of this will have to slot in between frantically painting other things (like full units of infantry), not to mention life in general.  Is this a workable task?  Absolutely.  Is it an automatic success?  Not at all.  I've had a lot of fun with Conquest while proxying it a couple months ago and it's a large factor in my return to the Motherland for the Journeyman this year so there's plenty of drive to get it done, but nearly a year of inertia takes some pushing to overcome.

Back To Painting

One step, but one very large step.

The gap between today and my last painting session is shameful, so we won't dwell on it.  Today I tackled the big hurdle in the second half of my (first) ETL vow: first armor highlights.  This is the single biggest area of controlled painting for the so-called Greenwing Dark Angels.  Base coating (as an aside, I need to either find a standard or invent one for base coat [basecoat] as I want to make it one word but grammar checkers complain when I do) is quick and easy since I don't have to be neat with it.  Since I switched to shading by targeted wash I don't have to re-establish the base coat anymore which was previously the biggest hurdle.  The second armor highlights are tiny edge highlights.  All other colors cover much less area and thus don't take as long.

First of the First

One squad down, many more to go.

More painting action today, this time with a happy ending.  I'm calling the first Dark Vengeance squad done in spite of the myriad teeny details that scream to me for satisfaction.  The most valuable painting lesson I've learned over the last year or two is that eventually you have to put down the brush whether you're 100% satisfied or not.  (Whatever lesson applies to sticking by your resolution to not start a post by running down your own work is still one that I'm trying to learn apparently.)

A Personal Painting Triumph

Look at those glorious, dark(ish) reds.

Sunday was supposed to be a painting day, but that didn't work out so well.  Turns out letting those painting juices marinate an extra couple of days meant I finally sunk a harpoon into my painting white whale, the ever elusive darker red.  I always knew it was possible, had an approach tucked into my back pocket in case the opportunity arose, but until this afternoon I never quite managed to do red in anything other than my usual bright(ish) hue.  With a supreme effort I kept the Bloody Red on the sidelines, only calling its number for the final edge highlight.  If I feel triumphant in finally conquering this seemingly easy to produce feat it's only because I am.  Ding dong and whatnot.

WIP Dark Angels, RIP Uncharted Seas

Green and mean.

 More painting today.  The focus was armor and the bounty was (relatively) great: a squad worth of green finished.  Previously I was unhappy with how the armor was going, but something clicked this morning and gave me a new perspective.  The work I had done before looked odd because it was incomplete.  With highlighting, and armor, finished the squad looks much better.  It was a rude welcome back to the world of painting for quality instead of speed, but after blitzing through Dust models for the past while it is satisfying to do work that is satisfying instead of sufficient.  The plan is to do the do the metals and/or reds on Sunday.  If I can get both done the squad will hopefully need only one more session to finish and I'll be halfway through my first EPL pledge.

Mostly a Place Holder

The vengeance, it is dark.

I may come back to flesh this into a fuller post in the future (probably not).  Mostly I need a place to link pictures from.  I've jumped into the E Tenebrae Lux (ETL) painting challenge at the Bolter and Chainsword as a goad towards getting my Dark Angels painted.  I'm starting small with two Tactical squads, one each of Dark Vengeance and Assault on Black Reach flavors.

Unpainted these many years, but on the road to completion.

These are just starting point shots.  I actually got more work done on these today, mostly base coating the AoBR squad green and taking a second swing at shading down (which is an awkward phrase at best, but nothing better has come to me just yet).  This time around I tried a wash (Army Painter Dark Tone, aka Badab Black) instead of a full-on paint.  The time invested vs results gained ratio is still too lean for my tastes, but it looks decent enough and doesn't take as long as layering 95% of the model to leave those black cracks intact.  I'll save discussion of work done today for when I have pictures of it, so for now use your imagination, then scale it back a few steps so you aren't disappointed when you see how they've turned out.

A Long Expected (Partial) Assembly

Finally on the road to the table.

Prompted in large part by a flurry of texts with EV last night, today saw the nigh-total construction of my long neglected Stormraven.  The impetus for this assembling was the dread Heldrake and attempting to find an answer for them that doesn't involve buying my own flyer or a large batch of Tau that I have no real interest in outside of killing flyers. While I think the Stormraven will do a reasonable job of fending off the dragons, I don't really like it as a solution for my Dark Angels mostly because it requires allying in Blood Angels and getting away from my plan for 6th edition (build some Dark Angels). Despite these misgivings I'm glad to get the Stormraven on the path to completion.  The red marines are getting a rest for a while, but that doesn't mean they have stopped occupying the place closest to my (40k) heart.  I'm the only person who likes the look of the model and I love the idea of a flying gunship/transport that gives unique flavor to the Blood Angels any random chapter can now field (except for Dark Angels of course).  Why all marines get the Blood Angels' special toy while the BAs can't field a Stormtalon is beyond me, but I'm sure there's some well thought out reasoning behind it.

Of course I can't just take the Stormraven, it has to have a minimum posse of a BA HQ and a Troops choice.  My initial thought was to load up on Death Company, plus a DC Dreadnaught, and top it off with a Chaplain.  Turns out that's really expensive, so now I'm considering something that is probably just as expensive: Dante and Sanguinary Guard.  The SGs got a bump this edition thanks to the nerfing of power weapons (their 2+ actually means something now), though their weaponry still leaves much to be desired.  Whatever route I end up on it'll be something with melee punch as I've had issues getting swamped in combat lately. 

In other news, don't let the long pause between posts let you think I haven't been doing other things.  I finally assembled the remaining parts of the pair of AoBR Tacticals, plus basing and priming.  I'll need to find a pair of missile launcher marines to join my BA Devastators now that the aforementioned Tacticals will be filling their primary roles, not to mention building a whole squad of Devs for my Dark Angels, but at least now I won't have Devs with Tactical markings.  While poking around at the Bolter & Chainsword I found a painting challenge that started a couple days ago and runs through the middle of August, which sounds like a great time frame to get some stuff finished.  I've noticed a large drop off in painting recently, aside from the speed painting that is Dust, and I wonder if it isn't related to the loss (to me at least) of Lost Hemisphere's Paint the Target (which may still be running in spite of the demise of the site).  I'll lurk along through the various B&C threads for a bit before making my move, but considering the personal success that was the LPC it's all but certain that I'll be throwing in my hat for this new (to me) challenge.

Painting and Dust News

What I did this afternoon.

Since 40k has been my most played game for the past month or so I figured it'd be a good idea to slap some paint on my budding Dark Angels army.  My plan was modest: dark green on the regular marines, blue on the Librarian.  Nothing excessive, not even (much) concern with leaving the black primer exposed in the crevices, just a quick base coat so I could prime the other squads and still be able to tell them apart at a glance. 

Of course things soon spun out of control, but we'll get to the soon enough.

Another Batch of Axis

It'll be time for basing soon as I'm almost out of unpainted minis.

The (painting of the) Axis war machine continues, inching towards total domination of unpainted models.  This batch consists of:

• Snipers
• Spotters
• Brain Eaters
• Grenadier X
• Stefan
• Ludwig arms
• Flamm-Luther arms
• Wotan arm shields

I had another unfortunate Dust experience this week, akin to the previous one.  My Wednesday opened up unexpectedly so I headed out to roll some dice at Huzzah but found no other combatants.  The group there has taken a couple body blows over the past few months, but this was the first time I showed up in vain.  This saps my zeal for reinforcements as I don't want to sink money into a game that I may have no competition for, which is unfortunate on a couple levels.  With the recent release of Icarus there are a couple builds I want to try out with the new units, Brain Eaters among them, but said builds will require another couple boxes to manage which, despite Dust's reasonable pricing, is more than I'm willing to put towards something that might sit on the shelf.  While this is, in my mind, a reasonable response to faltering interest, it also reinforces the problem.  If less people show up to play because less people are showing up to play then even less people will show up to play.  Quite the spiral.  I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but with the Caps making the playoffs gaming time might be scarcer than it already is for the next few weeks, which could be the deathblow for Dust.

The last few posts here have been pretty down, so I'll end this one on an note of optimism.  I cut it pretty close without really meaning to, but I bought in on the Arena Rex Kickstarter just before it expired.  It's a gladiator skirmish game that looks fast to play while having a reaction system, like Dust, to keep everyone involved throughout the game.  The models are few at this point and mostly in progress, but what has been shown is gorgeous.  One of my Warmahordes locals bought in as well, so this won't be another Dreadball-esque solo leap of faith, and there's still the option on the AR site to kinda sorta get in on the Kickstarter via Paypal.  There are playtest rules in the works for "summer," which hopefully is in the near future.  In other news I'm still fighting the good fight against including flyers and dedicated anti-flyer tech in my Dark Angels army, but with EV fielding a pair of (unreasonably brutal) Heldrakes that time may be winding down.  I considered an Aegis Defense Line at Huzzah this week but balked at the $30 tag as I'd mentally figured $20 would do it.  High prices from GW shouldn't surprise me any more, but they still manage it every now and again.

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

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.