Painting Termagants (again)

Though I’ve only played one game of 40k in close to six months, I’m starting to get an itch.  Well, maybe not so much an itch, but at least I feel apprehension towards the idea of playing the game.  While that isn’t exactly high praise, it’s at least a start!

So, I started working myself up to speed by painting a couple of Zombicide models, which I’ve since finished.  So now, I’m moving on to Tyranids.  The irony isn’t lost on me that I started with something that actually took more skill and time per model to complete.  The thing is, that painting Tyranids en masse takes more than just talent–it takes staying power.  I wanted to see if I had it in me to knock out at least a couple of models before I started painting 30 at once.

Yup, that’s what I went ahead and did.  I’m not exactly certain why I have 30 ‘gaunts laying around, but sure enough I do.  I originally had paid a friend, Mitch, to paint these, and he eventually gave up and brought them back to me hat in hand, so they were partially started.  Mitch moved out of state in July of last year, so they’ve been sitting around at least that long.  If I sleuth around more, I recall he gave them back on the night of a MTG draft (which, after a bit of searching turns out to be Ixalan–which although I posted it on June 4th, it turns out the draft night was actually May 18th).

That’s a long winded way of saying that it’s been nearly a year since I got these back from a failed outsource painting experience.  I don’t even recall when I’d purchased these…

The good news is that they’re all armed with devourers, so they should shred up whatever opponent I throw them on the table for.  Well, that’s if and when they get painted.

For now, let’s call these decided a “work in progress.”  More to come on them eventually…

 

Zombicide Completion??

My previous post had me painting up some of the final models in my Zombicide board game, and this may prove to be the final post on the subject.  If you’re not up to date on the subject, I spent a few months in early 2016 (can it really have been that long ago?) painting up a few hundred models for a board game called Zombicide.  That included a great deal of Zombies, but also what appears to be about 72 character models as well.

Last post I explained that my goal here wasn’t to try to paint these to a super high standard, but rather to get a reasonable color match so that you could easily discern which figure was yours during the game.  This time around, I wound up painting up the Snipers & Handymen, and I think I kind of failed at my original goal.

Granted, I think with both sets of figures, you can tell who they’re supposed to be.  The colors are roughly matching, but rough is the right term.  It was really the greens that did me in, because I tried to paint their greens with a custom paint I had made before labeled as “ammo can.”  My thought was that it was reasonably close and it would work as a color for fatigues.  Clearly, it’s passable, but it’s not remotely close to the right shade of green from either picture.

Still, I think you can easily tell, based upon the hats and models’ stances, which models are which.

The eyes on the handymen give them a distinctly Anime vibe, but I’m not exactly sure why that is.  Anime figures have large eyes, so that makes sense–but I had even larger eyes on the gunmen, and they didn’t have that same feeling to me.

So yeah, they’re not perfect, but these are glorified equipment cards for a game that rarely see the table (though we do play Zombicide with some level of frequency, these particular cards are a bit of a rarity).  They also served as a little inspiration to get me into painting again–and maybe as a gateway to playing 40k one day.  I think in that regard, I can call these guys a success.

Zombicide Progress: Companions!

With the release of new models for Chaos Space Marines, my friend Simon has been incessantly texting us with unbridled excitement.  At first, it was cute.  We looked at him as a kid on Christmas morning: so excited for Santa; however, it never tampered down.

He’s since picked up quite a few of the models and is painting them like crazy.  Still, the endless wave of texts grinds on.  With these texts, I can feel my sheer hatred of painting wasting away.

Not completely, mind you–but enough that I thought I might dabble in a little painting again.  Recently I wound up playing Zombicide with the guys and got harangued for having eight unpainted models in my collection.  If you recall, I spent a good deal of time in 2016 painting up several boxed sets of figures, but I stopped short of completion when it came to figures I’d never used: companions.  So, what better way to dip my toe back in the waters than to start with them?

Of the eight models, there are four poses.  I toyed with the idea of painting them slightly different so that you could tell which belonged to which player, but then realized that was pointless because they’re identical in the game.  I started off with the gunmen and searchers, for no particular reason.  Actually, I wound up starting up a little bit of a base coat on all of them, but eventually stopped that and focused on these two guys.

Overall, I’m happy with how they came out.  My goal wasn’t to paint these to a super high standard, but to approximate the quality I’d accomplished with the rest of the set.  Originally, I’d set forth the game as a means of testing my ability to color match things, and while I’m a little off here and there, I think you can detect who the model is without too much trouble.

The gunman’s eyes are definitely on the cartoony side (my micron pen seems to have dried up during my painting hiatus), and the pants ont he searcher are a little too blocky.  He also looks a bit like George Lucas with a bouffant hairdo, but I think that’s actually somewhat intentional.

I haven’t figured out what color to paint the bases though.  Gray seems appropriate, but I want them to stand out at least a little bit from the characters.  I’d considered a hazard stripe theme, or maybe gray with a hazard stripe around the base–but that’s going to draw your attention to what’s essentially a glorified piece of wargear on the table.  Got any ideas about what I should do?

We’ll see if I come up with something before I finish the other four models.

 

 

Knight Titan Follow-Up – Sun Shots

Last week I posted one “last” blurb about my Knight Titans, but I also snuck out and took a few pictures of them back when there was sun in this forsaken wasteland (for those that don’t know, I live in Alaska, and though there’s little truth to the “six months of night” rumor, it is based in fact.  December is the darkest of our months, and the picnic table has long since been covered in snow).

Anywho, this isn’t a post on Alaskan winters, but rather the joy of sunlight.  Since the pictures of these guys in a lightbox turned out so well, I decided to try them in some natural sunlight.  It was a little blinding at the time (and truth be told, I suspect I was taking the light box pictures in the sunlight on the same day), but it was great to be able to get shots of them all together.

I’ve droned on for months about these guys, so I don’t have anything more to add, except I wanted to include a few more pictures and call these guys officially done.

Well, until those transfers arrive.

And until I get off my duff and work on their bases.

But otherwise, completely done!

Knight Titan Update – Finished!

Can it really be true?

Am I really done painting my Knights?!?

Of course, they’re not 100% done because they still have to be based (excuse the fact that one of them is on two small bases–I misplaced his large base early in the painting process and never bothered to go searching for it after the fact.  Rest assured that he’ll be on a proper sized base when all is said and done).

And on top of that, despite my normal disdain for transfers, I actually went ahead and purchased a few sets for these bad boys.  In fact, I’m softening on the idea of transfers altogether.  I think it was when I saw the backs of my Centurions and the sloppy Omega on the sergeant, that I toyed with the idea of replacing all of my hand painted omegas with transfers.

It’s weird to think that after so many years of utter prohibition, I could flip-flop on the issue.

Well, anywho, this post includes the photos of the finished knights.  Of course, the ones taking inside under “warm” lights look a little off, but you can click on the quick light-box photos for better pics.

The arms, as always, are magnetized, so they can be swapped and position freely between the models (which is why you see different armament on them between the various photos).

Looking at them now, I can’t honestly choose a favorite.  I’m keep on the one that’s hunched over (he should eventually be re-positioned to be stepping up onto something big–like a rhino or the like), but I really do like the “leader” with the two white stripes as well.  If I had to pick one that I liked least, I think I’d go with the one with a checkered knee-cap.

Why?  I’m not sure: maybe because his cowl is two colored?  I do find that a little off-putting.

Still, I’m very pleased with how they all came out.

You can click on any of the photos for large images (I particularly recommend you do so for those below as the light box does wonders for making models look better).