Finished - Khorne Cultists 16 of 30

I finished the minis that I basecoated last week. The detail work felt like it took forever but they are turning out well. Today I basecoated another 6 that I hope to have done by the end of the week. That is not likely though and it will likely take me two weeks to finish them. 

Finished - Primaris Psyker

Finally finished the Primaris Psyker and I am not thrilled with the end results. 

My last post showed him with base colors and wash. The next step (because washing is never the last step) was to touch up the colors that got overpowered by the wash. The mini was left looking like a muddy brown mess but that is just the base that I work up from. The picture in the left section reflects me touching up the base colors as well as a reworking of all the gold areas a bit. 

After the retouching, all that needed to be done was details and highlights. That's easy to say but detail work takes as much time as the rest.

Normally, my skills and equipment are the limiting factors to how a mini turns out. As much grief as we as hobbyist give GW for their minis, they produce finely detailed minis of consistent quality. You don't fully appreciate that until you have an inferior product. 

On the table now - Primaris Psyker

As a side project, I am also working on the metal recast Primaris Psyker. The picture above reflects all the base colors being painted and the mini washed in Agrax Earthshade. 

Finished - Khorne Cultists 10 of 30

One third of the way there, boys. I photographed these minis in a new way and it looks awful when it is posted. Fortunately, that does not affect the way they are painted. 

I felt bad about taking such a long break from painting when I had a commission on the table. I was sick this past week and didn't feel up to painting. Now I am a week behind. I just had detail to do on these three but wanted to wait until my head was clear. 

On the table - Chaos Cultists 16/30

As promised, I got my base coat done today and did no other painting. Trying to regroup from being sick this past week. This weekend is looking to be busy and I think I will fall behind.

We'll see. 

Finished - Sonic Dreadnought

Glorious! I finished the Sonic Dreadnought and I am pretty pleased with the end results. 

I decided on gold trim rather than black and that necessitated alternating pink and black armor plates. I have already talked about some of the things that I dislike about the model in my previous post and the large armor plates was one of them. I could have broken up the armor plates more with some freehand, but I stink at freehand. It would have also not fit in with the established pattern of my Noise Marines. 

I think that the mini turned out as well as it could have and still fit in with the themes of the army. 

I am very proud of the base. I decided on Ultramarines as the Dead Dread on a whim. The Emperor's Children and the Ultramarines never had any beef or direct conflicts that I know of. I kind of just wanted to paint dead Smurf. 

Finished - Khorne Cultists 7/30

I am back into painting and blogging after an almost 9 month hiatus and finished these three Cultists from months ago. It was like a Fallout 4 pregnancy. Greg contacted me again and asked if I could have his 30 Cultist project done by June. That being more than a year after we agreed to the Paint for Minis exchange and more than 4 months from now. That is 30 minis over 120 days which works out to a mini every 4 days. 

I think I can handle that. 

Back in the day, I painted an entire Company of Blood Angels by having a "Marine a Day" system. While I would not precisely get a Space Marine painted every single day, I would try to get 6 or 7 minis finished each week. The goal will be to get 6 Cultists painted every week. I usually have three days off a week (Wednesday and Sat and Sun). My goal will be to get all of the base coats done on Wednesday and the detail painting done on the weekends. 

Let's see how this goes. 

On the table - Sonic Dreadnought

I have finished my base colors for the Sonic Dreadnought and it is coming along well. The pink has dried p but I remember the formula. It was 1 part Mechrite Red to 2 parts Bleached Bone. That gets painted over a Mechrite base then washed Carroburg Crimson then touched up with the pink mix. 

The goal was to make the Dreadnought match my Noise Marines and the Daemonettes. I am sad that there are so few armor plates to paint. The plan was to alternate plates pink and black with gold trim to match the Champions but with so few plates, I had to alternate more than I wanted. I needed more black on the model. 

I am liking how it is turning out so far. 

Recasts Received!

I got the box from the last post in the mail and I am not completely disappointed.

The Thunderwolves are resin recasts of the plastic kit but are pretty good quality. It is hard to tell if any bits are missing, as they came clipped from the sprues in a bag, but it all looks like it is there. It looks like they will go together the same as the plastic kit and once painted no one will know the difference. I really only wanted one wolf to round out my collection. Single wolves go for $14-$18 on eBay but I would not have gotten my choice of extra bits. For a little over twice the price of an eBay Thunderwolf, I got three times the minis (and bits!).

The Primaris Psyker was a real surprise in the he was metal. I was shocked and thought he was legit GW metal but the hastily cleaned mold lines lets me know that this is a recast. As much as we love to rib GW about letting garbage minis out of their warehouses that need extensive cleaning before they can be used, they at least try not to send actual garbage out. Regardless, I like metal more than resin and on a mini that has a staff, I am going to have fewer breaks because of it. I was sad when I realized that this mini was so close to retail, but the metal makes up for it.

The last mini that I am going to write about is the Emperor's Children Sonic Dreadnought. I love this mini and have wanted it for ages. It also rounds out my Cult Dreadnought/Helbrute project. I got it with Chainfist and Blastmaster. While there are no real rules for this wargear, I will either fudge it a little in casual games or use it as a proxy for Power Fist and Las Cannon.

Overall, some of the prices were a little high and there is always some uncertainty in dealing with a China recaster and not using Paypal. The guy that I emailed with said he would send a tracking number but never did and never cared to explain. It did not take the 8-16 weeks that it can sometimes take. Overall it is a pretty neutral experience.