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.

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.