Day 3

OK, a quick post while I'm between coats of primer.

Late last night, I realized I need to get Graham's Cygnar done before he gets here on leave on the 19th. So in addition to the 29 Menoth models to paint, I have 12 Cygnar minis -- full Storm Guard, Lancer and Haley (the nice variant sculpt). That brings the total models to 42 for the month.

That would be true except I got a dwarf done for Lance yesterday in about 45 minutes. And, I've got a Warpwolf on the table as well. I am fairly confident I can get them all done; the strategy is to make sure every single model gets paint on it every single day.

The exemplars are all close to the same spot. The dipped unit of KE needs to get shoulder pads and tabards painted, and the good news is, I've decided on an armor color -- Reaper Shadowed Steel. A little less "plain" than Pig Iron and a different hue than Cold Steel, which will be used to trim all of my knights. The relic blades will be Radiant Platinum and maybe VMC White Gold. We'll see. Still trying to reduce the amount of gold used on my PoM models, saving it for solos, unit leaders, jacks and casters. My TFG have no gold on them and I like the look.

Anyway, pics.Graham's Cygnar "starter." Halberds are pinned and will be painted separate from the models. I will be able to paint the troops much faster this way. Not sure if I'll paint Haley and the Lancer before or after troops. He wants the "purtee" paint job on Haley.

The Seneschal with the KE leader's arm. I have 4 of these. They should not all look the same. I have had great fun playing with the macro setting on the Canon. This also means I must paint much cleaner.

My Errants leader. He helped kill Gudrun (both times) last week vs. Scott. This unit has deserved a paint job for about a year.

December challenge

So for some strange reason, I've decided to participate in the December painting challenge on the PP forums. This will be in addition to any commission work I do... just looking for motivation to get some of my stuff done. And there will need to be commission since tis the season to need $$$.

But here's what I'm planning on painting:

Faction: Protectorate
Points: 560
Model Count: 29
High Exemplar Kreoss
Blessing of Vengeance
Exemplar Seneschal
Exemplar Seneschal
Exemplars Errant [10]
Knights Exemplar [6]
Knights Exemplar [6]
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard [3]

My head isn't necessarily right at this point, but I've got the motivation to paint -- mostly because Scott has been painting like a fiend. That, and because I'm tired of not having painting Exemplars. So we'll see.

In other news, I'm officially a Press Ganger (ph34r!) and I got a new camera so closeups will be much nicer! I've had my Canon PowerShot SD 770IS for about 2 weeks and I've taken a ton of pics. It's small enough to fit in my pocket, it's 10 megapixels and it's tiny. Be afeared.

Time out

Not sure what my painting schedule is going to be for the next month or so. Wade keeps giving me Trolls, I'm painting Trever's Trolls now too and I've got a ton of Cygnar on my desk. And there's the ever-present Legion I need to finish. *sigh*

More importantly, I'm still trying to get my head on straight after receiving news of my grandfather's death. It wasn't a shock or a surprise; he was 94 and we knew the day was coming. But I wasn't ready for the call I got from my uncle on 16 October.

I thought I was OK and moving forward. Today felt like a normal day. Work went well, go things straightened out for the WM league and had time to check out the Press Gang forums. I eventually lost the urge to paint tonight, got online, then dinked around in iPhoto and decided to post of pic of grandpa. And after posting to Facebook, I realized that no, I'm not OK.

We'll see. I've gotten too good with the painting to quit. I'm just tired of fighting to be happy right now. I don't feel like putting forth the effort. The funeral is Friday, and I'll have plenty of chances to try and be brave for my grandma and mom while I'm back in the Bay Area.

I have been asked to write the obituary and will post here and in the normal blogging spaces.

And yes, I do have pics to post from past projects; that may just end up being a link to a gallery.

Just forgive me if this space get even more neglected.

Jen

Slacker, be thy name

No, I have been painting. I just haven't been posting.

Finished the Bouncer, Gnarlhorn and Woldwyrd. Currently working on Trever's champions, Wade's Mauler, Haley's Alpha and Woldwyrd.

I have pictures from everything I've painted in the past few weeks, just need to clear off space on the hard drive so I can import them. 

At least the work has been steady. I've definitely got enough to paint to get me through the end of the year. The next goal will be to make sure Wade is fully painted for CheeseMachine on the 19th, which means he'll need to finalize a list. 

Any how, I figured I better post something here since this space has been neglected. :P

Change in plan...

So Wade has picked up Trolls and would like me to paint them. That means Challenge II will be reshaped and rethought.

I picked up the Bouncer on Thursday; the Drakhun is pissing me off. As long as I still get it done as a going away gift for Graham (who is at basic as we speak) I will be happy. It just doesn't feel like the right model for the contest. The Bouncer has been inked and I have until Tuesday afternoon to make him look all purtee and stuff.

I still have most of Wade's Legion to paint, but the addition of Trolls means I will have some much-needed cash coming in. It also means I need to start writing invoices so I know what I've charged him. He's the best client ever; it's cool to work on retainer.

Anyway, I thought an update was needed since I haven't posted anything in awhile. I think the next pics will be of the Gnarlhorn and Bouncer. Maybe even Ol' Rowdy, but I'm not sure when I'll squeeze in painting for me.

Based

In an amazing act of patience, I threw down basing materials on all of my Trolls -- 11 small bases, 32 medium bases and 2 large bases. Also based the Gnarlhorn and Ol' Rowdy (who is amazing!).

There will be a priming party and then the Trolls will be ready to be painted. I'm not completely sure where they fall into the grand scheme of things; my Cygnar and Protectorate deserve to be fully painted, but Trolls are Teh New Shiny (sic) and bright pink is appealing at the moment.

Then again, I've got the Cryx and Drakhun to paint as part of the next Challenge, which will start at some point.

I may make the next Challenges less rigid than the first one. I'm not sure. It was a lot of painting, and right now, it's nice to have been able to relax the past few evenings. And I've started doing stuff with my Flames of War army -- I've gone from having very few tanks to 8 that need painted. We won't talk about the state of my first rifle company, or the fact I have a second company that needs to be glued and based. Yeah, too much pewter.

In other news, I should have the bits from PP tomorrow (I hope) or Thursday. I can make the Cygnar Bokur and get beer mugs for the Scattergunners. Yeah, I need 4 more of them to fill *that* unit and 2 more Kriel Warriors for a full unit there. The caber for my thrower seems to have gone missing; I blame cats. It is around.

Procrastinating on posting pics from Sunday's tourney. I have been hit with a major attack of the lazys. There's also the fact I have gotten into another fantasy series -- the Pendragon Cycle -- and would rather read instead of playing on the 'puter. 

I plan on focusing on models that will earn me $$$. I think I'll jump on the Gnarlhorn tomorrow after I prime it. I may pack it, and the Drakhun down to work tomorrow night since it's 40k and there is a strong likelihood  I'll be there late.

Readings and sleep call.

Day 13, the conclusion

Madrak is finally done. I think after painting the beasts in the boxed set first, he is the one I'm least pleased with. He is a little rushed but looks OK with the rest of the box.

Anyway, I've got the Madrak progression from today and the pics of the finished box.

Base coated. I really didn't like this.

Wasn't much better from the back, either.

 But then, there was ink!

And we hated it a lot less!

The finished product.

I like using Arcane Blue for glowing runes.

Yeah, this is a lot better.

The battle group. Say cheese.

No, you can't take his chicken.

Purple mohawk needs a name.

It's the axer! With orange mohawk.

This model was a lot of fun to paint.

Hey, he's got a buddy in his bag!

It's Smiley, my favorite.

Smiley likes to kill things.

So the lesson from all of this? I can paint fast when I have to. Inks and washes are your friend. And I need better/brighter lights for the ghetto-ass light box. Or, I need to pick up some light blue poster board and use that for the background. That would be the cheaper answer to buying new lights.

I'm anticipating the painting desk will make my life easier. Things are sort of organized. I've got more room to work, the painting light and access to all my paints and inks.

The frightening thing is seeing how much stuff I need to assemble. I've got tons of Menoth sitting around, Cygnar I stripped and Trolls. And Cryx. Yeah, scary. 

So, with Challenge I complete, here are the models on deck:

Challenge II

• Vayl
  
• Striders
  
• 2 Bonejacks
  
• Helldiver
  
• Kraye
  
• eMadrak
  
• Pureblood Warpwolf
  
• Drakhun (for painting contest)
  
• Gnarlhorn Satyr
  

Some of these have paint on them already. I started Kraye, then got distracted by something or another. He's got a decent base coat. I was going to paint my 3 Grundback Blasters, but would rather get more of Haley's beasts painted for her since she's in the league. Striders and Gnarlhorn have top priority right now. I have a few paid gigs that may come in, but I'll deal with those as I get the models on one of them, and the money on the other.

Battlebox Beatdown is tomorrow morning. After that, it's time to start planning for October's Cheesemachine Tournament -- the cheesiest 350 you can field.

/end Challenge I