Work-in-progress

Today I spent most of the afternoon applying layer after layer of paint to my plaguebearers.

I started with a Sotek Green base, then highlighted up3-4 layers up with Sotek+Ushapti Bone. This was really pastelly in the end.

I had a Secret Weapon gift certificate, so I picked up a few items, including 4 of their washes to try out. I mixed the Soft Body Black 1:1 with water and applied it liberally across the models. This stuff you have to be slightly more carefully with than the GW washes, as it will create tide marks more easily. It’s also slightly glossy at the end, which isn’t great.

On 3 of the models I mixed more water in, such that when you pulled your brush through it, it was transparent. This looked great on the model while it was wet, but didn’t look like anything after it dried. If I wasn’t doing a unit of 24, this probably would have been the right way to use this stuff – just with a lot more layers.

I wanted something else…so I mixed the Soft Body with some water and Fortress Grey and painted that into the crevasses of the models. This is just a slight tint of grey in some areas, which I like. Part of the inspiration for the colours of this unit is the bases that I’ve been painting – they are on completely different coloured bases – and I wanted to have that similar colour between units.

After that step, I went back and re-highlighted the tops of the muscles. Sotek Green, then Sotek+Fortress Grey, then Sotek+Fortress+Ushapti.

Right now, I’m feeling like there is just a single colour on these models…which there is. I’m thinking about bright orange swords…anything to make the unit more bright!

Painting these today, I’m going to be glad when they’re done. I remember now why I haven’t done a new army in years – painting model after model of the exact same thing is incredibly boring. I’m driven to finish it, and painting in a factory-line is the most efficient, but I just want it done, so I start getting sloppy at the end of the assembly line.

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote. I haven’t felt the muse tug at me to write, but have instead been working on actually getting some damn progress on these damn models. I felt as though the plaguebearers would never be started, let alone finished, so I hunkered down and I now have some middling progress to report on.

Considering that these same models inspired me to write a 3-part series on glue, I’m pretty stoked at where they’re at. Just some Rhinox Hide on the back bases, a black base border and some Sotek Green, really, but it’s more than that. They look harmonized. They look like the heads belong on the bodies, where that wasn’t the case before priming. They look like they might be Plaguebearers, and that’s all the difference. I played a game of Triumph and Treachery last week, and one of my many opponents said after deployment “Oh, those are plaguebearers? Oh, no.” even though I had mentioned their religious choices earlier in the evening. Muskie told me in the comments, months ago, that my worshippers of Nurgle looked a little Khorny. Now, in a slightly more greenish hue than mostly red and some metal, these could be plaguebearers.

I’m overjoyed at making progress.

In the meantime, Adepticon moved my cheese. I had a perfect 1200 point list written. When it was done, the Chaos Gods themselves would join hands and circle round it in song and praise. Then Adepticon threw a wrench in my plans by making my tournaments a mere 1000 points. The same perfection is no longer possible. I will have to make do. But know this – the Gods will have their due.