Hobby Progress, week 43

Hey everybody,
Much like last week‘s exciting installment, week 43 hasn’t seen a great deal of activity on the little people front, unfortunately, though mainly due to the fact I’ve been suffering with a really bad cold. Fortunately that’s starting to clear up now, but still!

My Alpha Legion Recon Squad is finished, and I am quite happy with how they’ve turned out overall. The resin wasn’t my favourite thing to work with, of course, but I do like the look of the models from a tabletop perspective! I’ve not really done that much to them since last week, as it happens – the eyes, the lenses, and the base rims, that’s pretty much been it! The cloaks have been painted Abaddon Black, then shaded with Nuln Oil, then I went over them in a vaguely highlighting manner with a 1:2 mix of Abaddon Black and Kabalite Green, trying to give a really subtle suggestion of colour without being too overpowering. I think they look okay, anyway, so I’m happy to have them finished.

Omegon has also been finished off, same cloak treatment, the face has just had some attention from Doombull Brown, Druchii Violet, then a drybrush of Doombull Brown and Gorthor Brown. I might go back in with some Cadian Fleshtone for the final highlight, but I’m worried I might be overdoing it on that front, so I’m trying to avoid it for the time being! I’d also tried to brighten up some of the silver on the Contemptor Dreadnought, but on reflection, I don’t actually think it’s made a difference!

The only other thing I’ve been up to this week has been a return to some Necrons! After my game the other week, I’ve been feeling the need to complete these guys, so have started with the gold and the faces.

Forever, I’ve been painting Necron heads Celestra Grey then White Scar, and as time has progressed, I feel that it makes them look too stark. Plus, a lot of the faces have brushmarks on them because White Scar is so thin. I’ve been re-evaluating my colour scheme for these chaps, and I think I’ve missed the point of my original idea – the head is supposed to be Celestra Grey and Ulthuan Grey, with a faint highlight along the brow of White Scar. Hm. I’m trying to build anew rather than planning to strip the old models and start again, replacing them slowly over time, though I have five partially painted Lychguard so have gone back and repainted the faces as part of this ongoing project. The other five in the above instagram have also now been painted, so they’re ready for this Ulthuan Grey business. I’m hoping, anyway, that I’ll be able to get some nice-looking guys by the end of all this…

Finally, I’ve built up ten tactical marines for my Alpha Legion.

Remember last week, I made a kind of hobby-pledge to get myself motivated and inspired and whatnot? Well a couple of days later, my local GW hobby group had been talking about the new Burning of Prospero box and some non-40k players were thinking of getting into 30k. One thing led to another, and now a bunch of us are all going to be doing a different Legion, with a kind of paint-along event similar to the Tale of Four Warlords that inspired me initially. Only there’ll be about a dozen warlords… Well, anyway! The first step was agreed on Friday to be one troop choice and one HQ choice by 1 December, so I promptly built up this ten man squad, and have got them primed and ready! Aside from the sergeant, I’ve left off the combat blades as I want to visually differentiate them from the bolter-carrying veteran tactical marines that I have, but even with that aside, I’m expecting to get them done very quickly as my scheme seems to be really easy. Either that, or I’ve just gotten so used to it over the last few months that I can really just churn them out!

I’m fully expecting to have the troops painted within two weeks (I have an essay due this coming week, so I don’t expect much before Thursday!) Already having a chaplain built and finished, I’m therefore set for my store’s challenge, and so can devote the rest of November to my other project, the Rhino! I bought one yesterday, and already have the Legion-specific doors, so I’ll probably build that up if I’m looking for something to break up the degree this week, then I can just get going on that. Despite the fact that it’s obviously much bigger than anything else I’ve done for the Legion so far, the principle is still very much the same, so I’m not anticipating any severe issues along the way! Famous last words…

So there we have it, anyway. Things are slowly progressing, and hopefully November will see a lot of stuff finished and off the table – as well, hopefully, as some gaming action!