2AM Painting Update

The battle continues as I’m still not done my two HQ choices for Astronomi-con Vancouver which starts in about 8 hours. Last year I stayed up 24 hours straight trying to finish my Chosen and the bases for my tactical squad of Nefarious Fire Chaos Space Marines. I really should have been done these models by now. I was lazy in not getting up and starting bright and early, I set an alarm but I just didn’t do it.

I never started painting until well after lunch time, when I spent about three hours painting purple flames…

The Sorcerer is even closer to being done but isn’t finished. His Force Weapon is done, but I kinda wish I’d painted it green or even purple. I wanted it to stand out from everything else in my army and by army I mean the entire Chaos Space Marine miniature collection which is considerable. No one has an orange sword until now…

The leather is also done. I’ve gotten worse at painting leather ever since my original pot of Snakebite Leather dried out. I had it from my original paint set, “Ork VS Eldar”. I still might have a few pots from that set, but I’ve been more ruthless in junking out old difficult to work with paint. The next pot I need to buy is Tin Bitz, all that Brass has really dried the pot out, maybe it’ll come back but I doubt it.

The skulls are the biggest challenge remaining. I tried Dhenab Stone on my last batch of skulls, but I’m not sure it combines well with my rusty red wash technique. I have a lot of skulls to paint on the Terminator Lord with 2 or 3 to paint on the Sorcerer. just ran back to my painting desk and painted three more skulls Snakebite Leather that I missed on the Sorcerer. He has more than I first thought. I’ve gotten good at painting skulls doing all the Chaos Space Marines, but sometimes it still is a struggle.

Drybrushing does work, but I usually do the skulls last or close to the end and I don’t want to risk it so I generally paint on my highlights and use washes. I have a new pot of Skull White for the first time in like a decade, well maybe not that long, but a long, long, time. t will make painting skulls easier. I still haven’t decided if I’ll use Bleached Bone or Vallejo Model Color Beige…

Now I’m going outside to get some fresh air. I’m going to walk to the Mac’s which is open 24 hours and buy a drink with caffeine in it. Yes I’m back to caffeine after having a beer or two. This is what it takes to compete at Astronomi-con Vancouver. Either that or you just start you army for next year, last year…