PAINTING: Thunderbolts ready for action

After some umming and ahhing I've decided to call my AI planes done and move on to painting the rest.

I've been in this position before with other models and usually I push on, adding more paint then wishing I hadn't. Why add more when I'm happy with the way they are?

As you can see in the photograph I have added some identification markings to the tail fins. They come from an old Imperial Guard decal sheet I had, dating back to 1994. I'm not totally familiar with how Imperial Navy wings are organised but for my purposes the Thunderbolts are led by plane C and then are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc.

I will use more decals later, once the planes have seen some action.

So, I have now added the nine points to my painting point total for the year, bringing it up to seventy points. I have two Fightas, three Fighta-bommers, a Bommer, two Grot bombs two Lightnings, and two Marauder bombers left to paint. I'm going to count the Bomber and Marauders as two models each because of their size so the remaining models will add fourteen points to my total. That will bring me up to eighty four points for the year.

Will I get the other sixteen points painted to take me up to the magic hundred I'm aiming for? It looks unlikely at the moment, but watch this space.

PAINTING: Take two squadrons into the air? I just wash and go!

I did this painting a few days ago but I have only just got round to photographing the results.

I washed the metallic parts of the Thunderbolts with Badab Black and then slapped some Devlan Mud on the red tails and darker camo stripes.

I'm dithering over the highlight stage now. My normal process after the basecoats and washes would be a highlight layer but I actually quite like the muted, matte finish on the planes at the moment. I'm considering just adding some identification markings and calling them done.

I also washed my Ork planes heavily with Badab Black. This went over the whole model, red and metallics. Again, I think it's given the models a more subdued, gritty look which I'm digging, but I feel guilty for not completing the process.

When do you know how to stop painting a model anyway?

Comments and criticism are welcome!

GENERAL: New Year resolutions update third quarter

It's a whole ten months since I made my 2009 New Year resolutions, so I thought I'd revisit them for the last time this year and see where I'm at.

Finish 2000 points of Blood Angels Space Marines
Done!

Paint 1000 points of my Ork army
I have built all the models but haven't painted a single one. It now looks extremely unlikely that I'll even start painting the Orks this year.

Paint a total of 100 points of models over the year (the formula is in this blog entry)
I've now fallen behind schedule with this as I'm on 61 points. If I paint all of my Aeronautica Imperialis planes in the coming weeks that will add 19 points and leave me on 80 points. In theory some Orks would push me on to the magic 100 points but I'm not sure I'll achieve this.

Completely finish publishing my old battle reports
Done!

Finish my Blood Bowl league
Still on hold, it's looking unlikely I'll get around to this.

Finish my trench board and accompanying terrain
This has been delayed while I built my 40k Ork army and started painting my AI squadrons, but I still have high hopes of finishing by the end of the year.

Restart my News and Rumour posts
I've not kept up with this in the last few weeks, largely because I've been busy with other things and I've not been keeping up with the news and rumours. Also, Games Workshop have really clamped down on leaks so there just don't seem to be the rumours out there to report back on.

Switch domains
I had forgotten about this. I'm still skint so the incentive is there for me to do this.

Buy no more Games Workshop novels
I still haven't bought any novels but I've won a total of three across the year in competitions! My reading pile has reduced, though, so I'll keep to this resolution for the time being.

Review every Games Workshop book I read and review a broader range of Games Workshop products
This isn't going to happen in 2009. My reviews will have to wait until 2010.

Spend nothing at all on models
I buckled on this resolution when I bought some models for my Ork army. I have a lot of money in my New Model Fund, though, so I'm not too upset with myself. I think I'll loosen the purse strings a bit next year and start spending some of that cash.

Have £500 in the New Model Fund by the end of year
I've done so well in this regard that I've increased my target to £750. It will mean another blitz of stuff on eBay in the coming weeks but I've already got a selection of models ready to go and I'm confident that they'll pull in that last £80 or so.

I'm happy that I've already achieved some of my big resolutions, such as finishing my Blood Angels and converting my battle reports, and that I've largely kept to my spending resolutions.

There are some that I'm just not going to be able to keep though, such as painting my Orks. This isn't due to laziness on my part - the thing I've learned is that my goals will change over the year depending on my mood, Games Workshop releasing new games and models and even how busy I am at work.

It helps to have targets to push you on but you don't want so many targets that it puts you off even starting. I think I've felt a bit overwhelmed at times in the last few months so it's something to bear in mind when it comes to making more resolutions in 2010.

Anyway, I'll be back in late December or early January with the final recap of my resolutions.

PS - It's Remembrance Sunday today so I observed my two minute silence at 11.00am. I know that the idea is you remember those who gave their lives in the first world war, but I personally gave a thought to all of the pilots who gave their lives in the second world war.

PAINTING: Dogfight!

I had a day off work today so I knuckled down and got some significant painting done on my Aeronautica Imperialis models.

This is bad news for my Warseer Tale of 40k painting pledge. I promised to paint 1500 points of Orks in a year but I skipped the first two months while I put the army together. If I miss another month I'll be thrown off the tale. The deadline is in two days time, so today I should have done the minimum I could get away with and slapped some paint on a Deff Dread.

Instead I painted my AI models. This is taking longer than I expected because the models are quite detailed and I want to do a decent job on them. When I finish both my Navy and Ork squadrons I will still have my Planetstrike terrain to start.

My current plan is now to drop the Warseer pledge but still paint the Orks, albeit after my other projects, probably after Christmas. That gives me about eight weeks to paint my AI squadrons, and build and paint my Planetstrike terrain.

Anyway, onto the aircraft!

I began with my Thunderbolts, adding some Calthan Brown camo stripes over the basecoat. I mixed in some Bleached Bone for the second coat. I also painted the tails Mechrite Red, then added Blood Red on the top.

After I took this photo I washed both the camo and tails with Devlan Brown wash. I also washed the metallic bits with Badab Black.

While the Thunderbolts dried I moved onto my Orks. I drybrushed the lot with Boltgun Metal and then went over the top with Mechrite Red, followed by Blood Red. You can see the basecoats in the photo below.

And the photo below this is with the Blood Red coat.

Once I'd painted all of the planes red I moved on to the markings. I used dags, checks and flames in different locations on each plane to individualise them. I used thinned down Dheneb Stone which gave good coverage over the red.

The checks were the hardest to do but because the pattern is on an Ork plane I figured I could leave it a little rough.

I painted the cockpits Gretchin Green. It had to be green really, given that they're Orks.

Since taking that photo I've washed all of the planes liberally with Badab Black wash.

So that pretty much completes my first two batches of aircraft and once the wash is dry I can start to actually play out some dogfights.

ARMY BUILDING: AI initial squadron lists

I started painting my four Imperial Navy Thunderbolts first as I imagined them to be the core planes of my Navy wing. I had originally planned to paint my whole IN wing together but then I realised it would be better to paint up a handful of Ork planes next, and then when they were done I could try the models out in some small games while I got the rest of the planes finished.

So I drew up some basic squadron lists from Tactica Imperialis for my IN and Ork air Waaagh.

Imperial Navy
Thunderbolt, additional weapons load
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt
84 points

Ork air Waaagh
Fighta, additional weapons load
Fighta, additional weapons load
Fighta
Fighta
Fighta-Bommer, additional weapons load
82 points

The Ork aircraft are cheaper than the Imperial aircraft so have five planes to four, have more additional weapon loads and come in two points cheaper overall.

I have no idea how effective any of the wings will be until I get them on the tabletop.

Righto, back to the painting...

PAINTING: Thunderbolt assembly line

I spent a couple of hours painting my AI Navy squadron last night.

As soon as I began I realised that this was going to be a big job, not the twenty hour blast I had previously assumed. The problem is that the kits are heavily detailed despite their small size and I couldn't bring myself to just slap the paint on and call them done. I want to do the best paint job on these models as I can.

I started with the four Thunderbolts. I am painting them in a desert theme to match the desert terrain I will probably play most of my games on. I thinned down some Iyanden Darksun foundation paint to use as the initial base layer, going on over the black undercoat. Next I mixed in some Bleached Bone and went over the planes again, this time concentrating on the raised areas. The Thunderbolt front left is at this stage while the others are one stage behind.

Once I'd added the Bleached Bone/Iyanden Darksun mix to all the Thunderbolts I washed them all with good old Devlan Wash. It did exactly what I wanted it to do, turning the parchment yellow basecoat into a deeper, warmer yellow-brown. It has also picked out all of the lines between the plating.

I had originally thought I'd go back over the planes again to tidy up the edges but I'm loathe to start mucking about with wash as I really like the finish it has given. I might start working on the other colours first while I'm pondering my options.

SPACE HULK: Space Hulk unboxed

It's a wet and windy day up here in North East England, so much so that a ridge tile blew off the roof and hit the windscreen of my car earlier. Once I'd moved the car - the windscreen was miraculously unmarked - and took a look at the weather I decided I'd spend the rest of the day indoors, earning brownie points with my girlfriend by not hiding out in my games room painting my AI models (I plan to paint them on Tuesday night and possibly take a day off work next week). We curled up on the sofa and watch some telly but it wasn't long before I felt the urge to scratch my gaming itch. But what to do?

I sneaked off to my games room and brought Space Hulk back into the living room. For an hour or two while I watched Life and In Treatment I clipped the models from their sprues and popped the card components out.

The game is every bit as impressive as I've heard. The card corridors and rooms are the thickest I've ever seen in a board game and the graphics are superb and very atmospheric. The models are excellent, dripping with detail. I'd heard a few complaints that some of the Genestealer models were fragile and broke easily when removed from their sprue so I was extra careful. They all came free in one piece.

I timed my egg timer to check how close it was to three minutes. It came out at 2:47 which puts a bit more pressure on the Marines!

I plan to paint all of the models for Space Hulk at some point in the future - the Terminators slotting into my Blood Angels army and the Tyranids into a Cities of Death themed 40k force. I'll have to check out other blogs and forum message boards to see if anyone has successfully managed to incorporate the non standard bases onto 40k sized ones.

So I'll pack Space Hulk away for now and watch a bit more telly, perhaps leafing through a copy of the latest White Dwarf magazine.

Lazy Sunday afternoon indeed...