Blog So, My Painting Blog, The Journey Starts....

Universal standard for base rims is brown or the classic goblin green

 

Skink Handlers done except for final basing details (shading, highlighting with a "dry" paint, and application of grass tufts), which has to wait for the mud texture paint to dry. Next up, my Blot Toad. I'm doing the easiest models first of the ten I need to get done. The difficulty level ramps way up from here (well, after the Toad).

 

Why the color change

 

I based these guys schemes off my Razordon and Salamander. I figure there are different castes of Skinks who do different things and who each have their own organizing colors. Basic Skinks I'm doing in Orange and Purple, Handlers in Teal and Yellow. I'll paint my Priest, Starpriest, Skink atop Troglodon, and Starseer in the same scheme, though I haven't determined it yet. And then I'll probably either choose another scheme or revert to Orange and Purple for the Skinks riding my Ripperdactyls and Behemoths (except the Troglodon).

 

I like my Saurus Eternity Warden a lot, but this guy is giving him a strong running for my personal favorite among the models I've painted since I picked up this hobby.

 

Ribbit

 

This model didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but I'm trying to get a lot of figures painted this week. I don't think it looks bad, but I feel like I could have done better if I'd taken more time. And had less caffeine! Anyway, that's five of the ten I need painted for next week's game, but it's the five little ones. Skink Starseer, three Ripperdactyls, and a Troglodon to go!

 

Guess you can always get back to him and improve what you don't like after the game. So don't worry!
And he's not looking bad at all.

 

Thank you, Tom!

 

Here's the thousand point army I plan to run next week. As you can see, I've left the hardest models to paint (I'm guessing) for last.

 

I've taken a quicken lookover of the models I have remaining. I guess the first thing I'm going to do is batch paint the Rippers.

 

That would be a good plan. Then the trog, then the floating dude.

Good work on the priest fyi

 

After considering the excellent advice I've been receiving over in the Seraphon Army Lists subforum, I've revised my 1000 point list in a way that both utilizes more of the models I've already painted and, hopefully, makes it more competitive. Here's a picture of the list, absent only a Skink Priest with Feathered Cloak I'll be taking delivery on on Wednesday at the shop.

While this revision means I actually have more models left to paint now (fifteen as opposed to five), ten of those are bog standard Skinks that I've had a lot of recent practice on. I'll be fielding them in a unit of forty.

I still plan on working on the Ripperdactyls this afternoon and evening, and, if I finish them, start the Troglodon tomorrow. Wednesday I'll work at the GW shop, so I'll probably just take Skinks with me that day. Thursday I'll finish the Troglodon, and Friday I'll finish whatever I haven't finished previously, including that Priest. Fingers crossed, anyway! (I'm probably vastly underestimating how much time it's going to take me to do that Troglodon.)

 

Good luck!

I also am very happy to hear you got your priest

 

Aaaar! I'll rip your face off!

I got tired of batch painting these guys and skipped a couple of steps ahead on one. I'm saving the Skink riders for last. This guy needs some drying time and then some layering and edging. Then I'll either paint his rider or move on to another model in the unit.

 

Well, dang. When I jumped online to post the pictures immediately previous to this I checked my email and found a message from one of my editors with a short deadline project. So much for getting all my models painted in time for each week's game over the next three weeks. Dang, kind of, anyway. Unfortunate for my hobbying, fortunate for my bank account.

 

One feeds the other I'm afraid.i know that siren song well

 

I finished one Ripperdactyl and Rider, except for final basing treatments (waiting for texture paint to dry), and find I have a question for you experts.

I've been basing all the models I've painted over the last two or three weeks identically, to try and provide a unity of look that my often disparate color schemes on the models themselves do not. See here?


Those models (except for the in-process Ripper) have a coat of texture paint (Stirland Battlemire) applied and the edges of their bases are painted in Macragge Blue. That's my first step. Then I glue on some "boulders," which are these tiny bits of cork I bought online. You can see them drying on the Ripper there. After the texture paint dries (I usually wait at least four hours), I wash the texture paint in Agrax Earthshade, let that dry, then go over the base with a dry brush loaded with Underhive Ash. Lastly, I glue on some tufts of grass.

Here's my issue (if it is one). The much larger bases the Ripperdactyls and, of course, the upcoming Troglodon, are mounted on, have a lot more real estate to cover. I'm wondering if just a scattering of boulders and a few tufts of grass are going to look too sparse, or whether I need to do something more.

The "something more" I have in mind is putting on some different kinds of grass than the tufts. Years ago, the very first Citadel products I bought were in a lot of gaming material I purchased at an estate sale. That's where I got that nifty painting station, for example. Something else in that lot was a tub of Citadel "burnt grass." At some point in the last couple of years, I also bought a tub of brighter colored grass effects at a local wargame shop for an RPG terrain project I never got around to. Those two products are shown here.


So, painting on a few drabs of PVC glue after the drybrushing step here and there on those larger bases and then sprinkling one or the other of these grasses on. Good idea or bad idea? I did that with my first ten, now made over "test Skinks" last year and didn't wind up liking the look much, but I think it's because it crowded those tiny bases. I'm not talking about coating them, just a few patches here and there.

Finally, for your edification, a warning about what can happen when you leave your hobby cabinet open.