Bits and Pieces

Between a bit of post-Squaduary burnout and getting ready to move, I haven't got much finished this month, hobby-wise. I've been working on stuff here and there, doing at least a little every day, and it is making progress, but not completing things right now, for the most part.

I did knock out the chests from the Rogue Trader box, tho. They were pretty fun to paint, with some cool detail, but it's not too fine, so I could work on them even when my hands were kind of shaky.

I also got around to another project that I've been thinking of for almost a year, since my brother got me back into MtG, and I picked up a couple of Battle Decks from Card Kingdom. One of them was their Dino-Might deck, which uses a bunch of Dinosaur Tokens. I've always felt that the word "token" implied something a bit more substantial than a card, so I wanted to make a few actual ones. At some point last summer, I got a cheap tub of plastic dinos from the hardware store's toy shelf, and finally got around to gluing them on to bases and getting some paint on there. I'm going to go back and do a bit more, clean up the bases a little, and mark on them that they're 3/3 with Trample, but I'm really happy with them. I took them to the Lady Planeswalkers' Society Battle Deck night last week, and everyone thought they were super cool.

I got my hands on some Atalan Jackals as well, and got them built. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do to kick the bases up a notch, since the diamond plate plasticard starts looking a bit bare at this base size, but they're really cool Models. If you look closely, you can maybe see that the plasticard doesn't actually cover all of the Leader's base. I'm trying to find a tube of the right size, and then I'm going to have her coming out of some big abandoned pipe, since the fact that GSC Bikers can use the Underground Tunnels to Ambush from leads to some really awesome imagery. I do sort of wish the kit came with a few more options for stowage and arms, because I want a bunch of them, and I feel like they're going to get a bit same-y pretty quickly, but they're still awesome. Looking forward to getting some paint on them, but that may not happen until sometime next month or in May, after the move.

Last night I finished the build on the main part of something using the Tectonic Fragdrill kit that I think is going to be super awesome. Need to make some space to set up enough of the other terrain to show it off right. Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Dauntless December: A Few Elucidian StarStriders

The last group of Models I did for Dauntless/Diabolical December, or at least, the last I got photographed. I actually finished them before the Ogroid Thaumaturge, but posted him first. For Dauntless December specifically, I painted up Voidmaster Nitsch, Knosso Prond, and the Galaxy's one and only Good Boy, Aximillion. (Voidsman Riguez is also included in this post, but does not count for Dauntless December, partly because he's just a squaddie, but mostly because the background describes him as being as much of a whiner and slacker as possible without getting sacked for it.)

I decided to change the Elucidian colour scheme to primarily white, since I haven't ever done much in white, and it seemed like a good chance to do some without having to do up a whole Army in white. I'm glad I made that decision, because not quite halfway through, and I'm already kind of sick of dealing with it.

First up is Voidmaster Nitsch. The sculpt kind of reminds me of John Wick, but with the white colour scheme, there wasn't really much I could do in that direction other than giving him black hair. I tried to do a bit of a wood grain effect on his shotgun's stock. Didn't come out as well as I wanted, but it did come out better than any previous attempts I've made, so I'm calling that a win.

I really wanted to do a pic in this pose, but couldn't get my camera to focus properly, and it sort of makes his cranial implant look like he's got cornrows.

Next up is Knosso Prond. The decision to go with a white colour scheme really changed the look here, but I like it. I also trimmed away the head she was holding, because it just didn't really feel right, and I liked it better as merely a counter-balancing part of the pose. I also had to perform some "breast-reduction surgery" because I couldn't deal with the fact that her nipples were sharper than her sword.

Dammit, just noticed I forgot to do the darts in the little holder on her left shoulder.

And now, what you've all been waiting for. The one, the only, the Galaxy's favourite Good Boy, Aximillion! I was a bit worried about getting his fur pattern to look good, but it was actually surprisingly easy. Very pleased how he came out.

Last, and least, the slacker Voidsman Riguez. He was my test Model for the group, which is why he's done ahead of the rest of the squaddies. I'm of two minds about my approach to new colour schemes, especially when they seem like they might end up being a serious pain to deal with. On the one hand, as in this case, I can do the least important Model first, in case I screw something up. On the other hand, I can do the most important Model first, so it will still be done properly in case I decide it's too much trouble and start cutting corners later on. What do y'all think about it?

His boots could use some touch-up. I'm sure Nitsch will have words with him about that later.

I like painting cigars. Trying to get the glow effect is fun when you only do it a little, but can become tiresome when you have to do a lot of it.

And a group shot to round things out

Incidentally, I didn't actually use white for any of this. After an article over on FLG a while back, I started taking Cavalier's advice and working just with off-whites instead. In this case, it's a Celestra Grey base coat, then Ultuan Grey over everything except the shadowed areas. As long as there are some strong contrasting colours, the eye pretty much reads it as white.

Well, that's it for Dauntless/Diabolical December. I have a few more minor things, some of the little gribblies from Rogue Trader, and then I should be done with my first Models of 2019. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!