Painting Update 3/26/13

March Painting Contest Update

I've been working on painting a Chaos Space Marine Terminator for my local Games Workshop's monthly painting contest.  As of last night I was able to get all of the base colors down on the model and ink it.  I am very pleased with how it's turning out.  It's a pleasure to focus on one model at a time as opposed to painting up an entire squad.  You get to see the results much faster.

Picture coming soon.

Painting Update 3/13/13

Here's a brief update on my Tactical Marines.  I was able to get a little further on these guys last night.  I started painting the guns and the backpacks.  These guys should finish up relatively quickly.

A Kind of Magic

Last Friday I had planned to run the introductory scenario for Call of Cthulhu for a few friends.  That plan ended up going the way of the dinosaur as all but one person cancelled.  As a back up, my friend Josh and I opted  to play some Magic.  It's been over a year or two since I've played any form of Magic and it felt good to get back into the game.  I'm not the biggest fan of constructed play so we decided to delve into the realm of limited.  We each grabbed six boosters from the Return to Ravnica block and built a deck from those.

We ended up having a great time.  I've been playing limited MTG for a long time and I've never really had any instruction on how to draft or assemble a deck.  I've done very well the past 12 or so years pretty much winging it.  On Friday, Josh told me something that was like flipping a light switch on in my head.  He said he had heard that a good framework for a limited deck would include ~18 creatures, 6 assorted spells, and ~16 land.  Throughout the past decade, I've been building decks that roughly meet these criteria, but actually hearing someone say this really was an eye opener.

Here's to many more games to come!

Painting Updates

I am getting to the point that there is nothing left to do on my Deathwing Terminators.  There are a few lights and wires that I need to paint as well as highlighting, flocking, and sealing their bases.  I need to pick up the paints to actually complete the lights.  I am extremely pleased with how these are turning out.  They have far exceeded any expectations that I had when I started painting them.  I was extremely worried about how painting something a bone color and feared it would come out either look too messy or just off.  Instead, they've turned into some of the best looking miniatures I think I've ever painted.

With this boost in confidence I started on a small batch of Tactical Marines.  I am using the robed models from the Dark Angels Chapter Upgrade sprue.  So far, I've painted and highlighted the armor and put the base coast and an ink on the robes.  The results look promising.  I've followed the color recommendations from Games Workshop for the Dark Angels Green scheme and it is actually a nice look.  It contrasts nicely with the robes.  My only complaint with the models is that there are some areas that are extremely hard to get to, so I will need to do some touch ups after I've completed everything.  Seeing how these guys have turned out really makes me excited to paint my Ravenwing Bikers.

Also, my local GW is holding a painting competition for March.  The entries must be chosen from the Elites FOC.  It can be an entire unit or a single model.  I had originally planned on painting a Dreadnought or a Dark Angels Veteran squad; however, in order to keep things interesting, I decided to paint a Chaos Space Marine Terminator.  I've played a lot of games against a father and son who have a Chaos Space Marine army.  They've become my favorite opponent(s) and every game we've had has been enjoyable.  The son with the help of his father has come up with a great background for their Legion and has dubbed them the Claws of the Forgotten.  In an homage to this, I am going to buy the Chaos Terminator Lord kit and put together a suitably sinister looking Terminator using the Lightning Claws.  I plan on using one of the hooded heads that I have from my Dark Angels and then paint him up using my take on their color scheme of red, blue, and gold.  After the contest ends, I plan on gifting the Terminator to the son.  He seems to really enjoy my Deathwing Terminators so I think he'll take a liking to this guy.  Pictures will be posted as work progresses with this guy.

One final thing of note, the nerds have been pressuring me to get into Fantasy.  With my slow painting style and a large inventory of WH40K models to paint, I've been very hesitant.  I've been feeling the itch to play so I decided to give it a go and try my luck at Ogre Kingdoms.  If I don't enjoy playing them, I know I will certainly enjoy painting them.  I have no issues at all painting skin, which OK has a lot of, and it's possible to field a 500pt army with only ten or eleven models.  It sounds a lot like playing a Deathwing force.  So, once my change jar fills up, I'll be picking up an Ogre Kingdoms Battalion.