Never again will I have this many models on my painting table. I like to paint a few models at a time, I paint slow so even though five would be better as a legal squad size, I tend to paint in batches of four.
It is officially #MiniatureMonday and I took another rushed and poor photo and posted it to Instagram. I figured out why those photos were coming out so dark despite using a light box. I had the light on the lowest setting, so hopefully in the near future the quality of the photos I take will improve.
I upgraded GraphicConverter, I have the new iPhone 13 Mini, and I have another camera, I have tripods, lights, I may even buy another lamp or at least set up another one, as where my light is above my painting table is not optimal, it is too far away from the edge. I like to paint either on the edge or almost over my lap sometimes. I can of course hunch over more, but I’m not sure that is good for my bad back.
Also to start 2022 I got new glasses. Officially my vision has gotten worse every time I’ve had it tested in Calgary, so it isn’t my imagination, all those fine details, like campaign badges and unit markings I used to freehand on everything, I’m not sure how I did that. Nonetheless I’ll start with something manageable which is rebasing my Plague Marines and the observant will note the odd collection of models on the right.
That motley crew are going to be cultists. Four of them are old lead Human Adventurers. We used to use them as Necromunda hired guns, they were given to me by Thor as he deemed them not worth painting, now someone has gone and collected them all. I primed them in Wraithbone and will be testing out contrast paint on all that fabric. I’ll probably still paint some highlights and use some washes.
I also tried to spray prime over a dozen little plastic skulls. I thought that was a good idea, but they just flew around the box. It is best to glue the basing material to the base before you prime the models, that is what I did for the Iron Claw Space Pirates although maybe only one of those models is actually in that set. I also used some of my 25mm cast resin bases. I have a bunch that size, some of them are nicer than others, but I don’t need them for Plague Marines or Chaos Space Marines.
The Deacon from the new Redemptionists gang was hard to assemble. I followed the instruction but both Bill and I agree, the cage over the mask should have been left off for ease of painting. That is one reason they are primed black, is if I miss some details it will be hidden better. Gluing the Redemptionists together was difficult, the actual plastic Chaos Cultist was two pieces and the old models were one piece metal.
If I hadn’t slacked off this evening I might have finished painting the skulls, they’ll get the contrast treatment with some highlights and maybe some extra washes or glazes. I also have two Nurglings which will be painted using contrast paints too. I plan to put a Nurgling on the champion and character bases. That seems to be a thing and an easy way to identify them, but I have a lot of champions and character models.
A lot of my terminators have weapons that Blightlords can no longer have and the only way I could field those models is as a Chaos Lord. I have several primed Death Guard or Nurgle terminators, I’m not sure they are legal now, so someday I’ll have to get the regular Chaos Codex to see how the Diseased Sons due as Nurgle Renegades. But this year I’m focusing on using just the Death Guard Codex.
I had big plans for this blog update, I really did spend a lot of time painting and assembling models on the weekend. I’m slow and in the future I will only have 5 or so models to base or paint at a time. I’m going to get the big block off the table, then I might finish up some Nurglings and the Escher model only the fine details remain and maybe my new glasses and another lamp will help.
If you have thoughts on priming, basing, or the Death Guard codex you can leave them below.
Musk's Miniatures 
I think that I always glue my basing materials, and the model, to the base before undercoating the whole lot together. I’m old fashioned and still prime in white, though I have been saying that I should try black, everyone seems to be undercoating with black now.
Black was all the rage, I used to hand prime my minis with smelly primer back in the day. I know some really good painters swear by grey, but now with airbrushes and third party companies you can prime in a variety of colors. As long as you are spraying instead of brushing you’re probably ahead of the game. Most of this army maybe all of it was primed black so I need to continue that except for the odd model.