For Now Blobs Of Black, But Soon...

Well, it seems The War Store is out of Infinity starter sets, and I know for a fact my FLGS doesn't carry the game, I've decided to start painting my Anima: Tactics miniatures again. Since I'm currently out of dark red to start with, my initial faction; Church is out as I'm going with a red, black, white, and gold color scheme. My Samael force is also out as I was going to go with dark red and deep purple for their colors.

A touch miffed, I went through my Saga I & II book to see if there were any miniatures that didn't require red in their color scheme. It turns out Kujaku Hime and Takanosuke (the sword carrying girl and leaping ninja respectively) have no red in their paint scheme.

Takanosuke will be a great miniature to get my feet wet with, as, being a ninja, he has a lot of black cloth accented by a touch of purple. Kujaku on the other hand will be a lesson in bringing up a black primer to light colors, as she's all whites, pale flesh, pink and pastel purple. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated by her. I probably should have primed her in white, but I didn't have any at the time, and I tend to prime in batches...

Well, it's off to get as much of a start as I can before work. Let's see how good I can paint when I try.

I Want a New Drug



I couldn't think of anything else, so have some Etna!

 I've been plodding through painting my Dark Eldar, when it hit me; I'm plodding. I'm not enjoying painting the miniatures like I should. When I paint MalifauX, Song of Blades and Heroes, or Anima: Tactics, I enjoy painting the minis. I remember painting my Confrontation Alchemists, too. They were a blast, and I spared no detail on them.

This just isn't possible with a 40k army.

Not for me any way.

What is the common theme of these mini games I so enjoy painting? They're skirmish scale. With maybe ten miniatures per side, I can lavish each one with the attention it deserves.

When you look at my Dark Eldar, you can tell there is a bit of a hurry when I paint them. Highlights aren't as crisp, occasional shading is missed, and certain reas (like eyes) are a bit "outside the lines".

Now, a portion of this can be attributed to the injury my hand sustained since I last painted a miniature to true "showcase quality", but deeper than that, I'm hurrying myself. Symptoms include, but are not limited to;

-Sloppy paint jobs
-Rapid fire unit completion
-Dipping minis
-Poor conversions
-Looking at painting as a chore

I've been exibiting all of these signs for a while now, and I can only think of one thing to bust me out of this slump. I need a skirmish game, ASAP. I've been looking for a good skirmish system for a while, and since I can't find an opponent for MalifauX, Anima, or Song of Blades and Heroes, I figure I'll look at Infinity. I'll still probably lack opponents, but damn if those models aren't sweet. The factions look like a cross between Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed. If these models don't inspire me to paint, and to do it to the best of my ability, none will. I'm just tired of forcing myself to turn out sub-par results, and with my financial status the way it is, I may have to stick with skirmish systems weather I want to or not. Right now I'm having trouble saving up for a Venom, let alone the rest of the army.

Don't get me wrong, army scale games will always have a place in my heart, but right now 40k may have to go on the back burner. Sorry to Demitra, but between time and money I just may (note I said may) have to drastically slow down the slow-growth project.

Triumph Over Wyches & More

Well, I've finished painting my first Wych squad. They're darker than the rest of my army, but that's because I have a set paint scheme; jade green armor, black bodysuits, purple cloth, brown skin, white hair, red drug injectors and bronze weapons. I like that the squad looks different than the rest of the army. They're part of a Wych Cult that's not part of the Kabal proper, so they ought to stand apart from the more heavily armored warriors.

My Haemonculus units (the Haemonculi themselves as well as their Wracks) will have a more dominant purple in their coloration, as all of them wear long skirts that, being made of cloth, end up purple. I think that this differentiates the units enough that you can tell that they're from different parts of Dark Eldar society, come together to make a whole.

As to weather or not their transports will have differing color schemes, I don't know, but I'm leaning towards no. At most I'll probably wind up giving them different decals on their sails, but I may just wind up giving different sails different meanings. The double sails will carry the Kabalite Warriors, the single sails will carry the Wyches.

Finally, the humidity here finally cracked enough to let me Dullcote my minis! Hurrah! the trick I learned in an article on the G.W. website (see, it's occasionally good for something) worked. For those of you who are curious, once you get the decal to adhere to the model you go over it and the surrounding area with gloss varnish. When you go over the area with matte varnish (Dullcote in my case) the seam around the decal disappears!

Now to work up the drive to paint my second Wych squad. Maybe after I finish this next essay. Yeah, that's it.

Victory Over Reduced Hobby Time

Well, as you can see I've been busy since my last post. Five more Incubi, another Harmonculus, and my second squad of warriors are all fully painted. Now they're just waiting for an end to the overly humid conditions here in Virginia to get a layer of Dullcote on in order to prevent their paint from rubbing off during play.

I just won my third Haemonculus off of eBay for $6.50, and since G.W. no longer produces the miniature that's quite a relief. the new Haemonculus runs $18.50, and I'm sorry but that's quite a bit of money for a hunk of resin, beautiful though the sculpt may be.

All my army really needs now is three Venoms, two Raiders, and three Ravagers. Once I have these models I'll be up to 1,750 points, and once the Wrack miniatures come out I'll grab two boxes of them and a couple more Venoms to bring the army to a full 2,000 points.


...Now to get those Wyches painted. I'm just not looking forward to painting them for some reason, but with nothing else to paint for a while I'll just have to suck it up and get cracking.

Not Dead, Just Busy

Well, I've gone back to school after an 11-year absence, and I can't believe how one little class has cut into my modeling time. Since my last post, all I've been able to do is pick up the last of my plastic squads (before the next G.W. price hike), texture the bases of two squads, and prime those same two squads.

Now, seeing as G.W. has just announced the increase of the prices in their range again, this is where the old me would enter into a rant about how they're abusing their fan base, how they're pricing me out of the game, and throw my support solidly behind another game.

Not so much this time.

Around here, if I wanted to play another game, the regular groups meet on Tuesday evenings (MalifauX), and Saturday (Warmachine / Hordes). Those are times when I work, so unless I want to quit my job and find another willing to accommodate my schedule (unlikely) all I can do is sigh and just grab what I need before they increase the prices. Thus the two Wych squads in the picture I bought despite not needing them for a few months.

In other words, I've quit quitting Games Workshop. Not out of choice, but because if I want to get a regular game in, it has to be G.W.

In the end, the comparatively heavy workload of a six-week class will limit my painting time, which will in turn limit my posting, so let me apologize for that. I will continue painting and posting, it just may be more sporadic than before.