March to War – 6th Update
We’re half-way through February, and that means half-way through the challenge. That means that we should be pretty far ahead with what we’re doing. There should be lots of shiny models covered in paint to show off. Read on to see just how much we’re lying to ourselves and just what’s been going on over the past fortnight!
Dave:
Another fortnight, another March to war post. We are now half way through the 3 months of the challenge, and I have come to a bit of a realisation, which may not be a revelation to anyone who has been following out efforts so far:
I am not going to finish 2018 points.
Told you it wasn’t big news.
That doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop though, far from it. This challenge (and the previous ones too, if I’m honest) has been a great motivator for me to actually plough through the mounds of sprues and piles of resin and metal that are clogging up all of my available storage space, and I will continue to post up everything that I finish for your viewing pleasure.
So, without further ado, here’s what I’ve been working on this week:
The last few weeks I’ve been working on my Sylvaneth force for our upcoming Age of Sigmar games. I’ve had these guys in a box for a while, and now I’ve got them together, I’m kicking myself for not getting them together sooner. I was worried that the conversion work I did before the last update would look crude and stick out (I trust myself to fill gaps in kits, and patch small areas, but sculpting cloth areas is out of my comfort zone), but now the paint is on, I feel like it’s all come together:
I sprayed the models with Vallejo White Surface Primer, followed by a few thin coats of Citadel Baneblade Brown. I then washed all the bark areas with Army Painter Strong Tone wash diluted about 50:50 in Army Painter Quickshade Mixing Medium to try and reduce the ‘coffee staining’ that can often occur with washes when applied neat. Once that had dried, I used a technique that was new to me on the bark – Drybrushing. Yes, I had never drybrushed models before, not on this scale, at least. Having done it now, consider me a convert. It was so easy, and works very nicely to create a subtle texture to the bark of the Sylvaneth. First, I used Secret Weapon Miniatures Light Dust to drybrush all of the bark areas, then followed that with a much lighter drybrush of Secret Weapon Miniatures Weathered Wood (which is a cracking, grey-white colour), focusing on the raised edges to… well, weather the wood. If you’re also a drubrushing n00b like I was and want to know how to do it, Mike put a video on our Youtube page, which you can check out here.
The bark is the only area of the model that I have actually finished, so the following is what I have done to the army so far.
The skulls and antlers (or horns) on each model, which was done with my old favourite: Citadel Foundation Dheneb Stone (you could use Rakharth Flesh if you aren’t a dinosaur like me, but , although they are close, I prefer the colour of Dheneb – Vallejo Game Colour Heavy Warmgrey is a close match), washed with Army Painter Soft Tone, again diluted with Quickshade Mixing Medium. The cloth hoods that cover the necks of the Sylvaneth were basecoated with a 50:50 mix of Citadel Rhinox Hide and Khorne Red, then highlighted with Citadel Foundation Mechandrite Red. There isn’t really any red paint in the current range that is the same as this colour, it’s quite a muted, dull red, the current range is much more vibrant, but if you’re following along at home, then the closest is Mephiston Red – Vallejo Game Colour Heavy Red is a good alternative:
The ethereal weapons wielded by a handful of the army were painted with two thinned coats of Citadel White Scar, then covered completely with a thick layer of Waywatcher Green Glaze, being careful to wick up any areas where the glaze pools too thickly. I’m not convinced about this effect, I was chatting to Adam about it over our first AoS skirmish (report to follow soon), and he thought it looked good, but I might have to get the opinion of the other chaps at B&B, and see if they have any better ideas.
The basing was a bit of a botched job, to be honest. I had an idea of how I wanted them to turn out, but I got a bit carried away in the moment and started without getting all the components ready. I caked the first Kurnoth Hunter’s base in Stirland Mud before I remembered my plan. I wanted my army to look like they were marching through the ruined swamp that used to be their grove in the realm of life, and I planned to have half buried skulls, puddles of PVA glue and, most importantly, absolutely buckets of Stirland Mud. I sketched in outlines on about half of the army’s the bases with a marker to indicate where the puddles should be (and scooped up some of the Stirland Mud I had already put on the first hunter’s base). I cut several skulls, from an old project, in half then pressed the halves into the Stirland Mud on some of the bases, giving them a little wiggle around so that the edges got some of the paint of them, and looked more like they were buried in the bases:
So that’s all my progress for this update, comes in at exactly 500 points assembled, although I’m not ready to call it painted yet. Looking forward to getting back to my workbench and cracking on with the Sylvaneth now, I’d love to have them ready to show you in a fortnight’s time.
Mike:
“Aaaaarggghhhhhh!”* That’s the sound of my internal monologue thinking about how much painting I have to do.
*(Feel free to read in a fitting accent. My accent of choice is a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Do it!”).
Right, anyway. I’ve not progressed much further than the last update. At least in the painting stakes. I had a massive deadline this Monday and all my time was spent making sure that I got that right. (I was working ten hour days, except for Saturday when I had both a football and a rugby union break.) I did manage to get some done though…
I have now got up to the metals stage with my Dark Angels Tactical Squad. I’ve given all the metal bits a basecoat of Citadel Leadbelcher, and then shaded them with Citadel Nuln Oil:
Then with the Deathwing Terminators, I decided that batch painting 15 was probably a bit too much. So, I’ve decided to work on 5 of them, that way when it comes to the next 5 it should be quicker because I’ve worked out the colour schemes. That means that I’ve finished edge highlighting with Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh, and started on the Leadbelcher bits:
The Custodians are also coming along. All the gold armour is finished and highlighted. So, I started work on the underarmour bodyglove and weapons casings with Abaddon Black. Unfortunately, I had a bit of an accident. Custodes are pretty rock solid, and it takes a lot to kill them, but I’ve found their weakness: Grey cotton M&S Jumpers (other jumpers are available); when taking mine off the other night, the sleeve caught my Custodes on the table and dragged them off. They unfortunately landed vexilla down, snapping it in half, and snapping the end guardian spear. Naturally a break like this buts a bit of a spanner in the proverbial spokes of your interest for something, so painting them has slowed down a bit. Although a touch of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement later and the parts are now as solid as when they were one piece (I hope – they seem good with a bit of rough testing):
Building on the Knight Warden has come on quite well, and I’m now at the posing stage for the framework. Once that’s done, I’ll start painting the silver. The armour plates will be done afterwards as a sub-assembly:
As we’ve started playing some Age of Sigmar at The Brush and Boltgun I decided that I would finally jump in and get that Dwa- Duardin army I’ve been hankering over for ages. Fyre Dwarfs?! Yeah! The Start Collecting! sets from Games Workshop are brilliant value, so I bought two…
Here are my assembles Vulkite Berzerkers, Auric Hearthguard, and a Grimwrath Berzerker and Auric Runesmiter. My first 500 points:
That’s all from me. Hopefully in two weeks I’ll have put loads of paint to the Dark Angels!
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