Finished - Invader Core Survivors

These finely detailed miniatures combined with the last post means I have the whole core box done. I learned a lot and now have a killer recipe for bone white armor.

This is historic in that this is the first Zombicide box I have ever finished. Black Plague will be the next once the commission zombies are finished. Currently sourcing a painter for Green Horde and that will be done. 

Then it is all the flipping stretch goals and guest boxes. At the speed I paint, I have years worth of painting to do. The speed painting and contrast paints helped me finish all the aliens from Invader but that won't work on the heroic Survivors. Gotta do detail painting.

Finished - Zombicide: Invader Swarm

So I am an elitist snob when it comes to painting. I know this. I think that people that use airbrushes as a final step are cheating themselves. Army Painter is for people that seem intent on ruining models.  Agrax Earthshade is a tool in your toolbox and not a Swiss Army knife. And Contrast paints are for people that don’t want to learn how to paint properly and are ok with meeting the basics of table top painting.

Then I had 100 aliens to paint and I didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the last two Zombicide games and have to conscript out the bulk of the painting. I ran across so one that was painting the Workers with Contrast paints and got good and fast results. I picked up some contrast paints and was done with my first 5 before I knew it. A few weeks later they were all done. I haven’t completed a base set of Zombicide yet and this one was done in a blink. 

Here are the lessons I learned at my old age for batch painting:

1. No fancy basing. Be basic. Even the 5 step process for the Mars bases is better than the 3 colors with 3 stages each on top of the clay bits for wood and stone. 

2. Three colors is too many. Think big swaths of color. Don’t paint more than 2 materials different colors. Who cares if he is wearing a brown suit and hat. 

3. Learn to love dry brushing. If I ever start edge highlighting a horde again, shoot me.

4. Use washes to make different tones of color. A corollary to point 2 above, I used washes to make shading and add more color to these models rather than painting a different color.

Goodbye Space Cowboy

I did something for the first time in my almost two decades of painting and playing 40k. I sold a whole army. Tau were my first in 2004. The guy I played with most played Blood Angels and wanted to get out. So I bought his army and started BA in 2005. Somewhere around 2007 I started Grey Knights as a small auxiliary force that grew into an army. After that I started Chaos, Necrons, Space Wolves, Orks, Genestealers, and Knights. Never sold an army.

Until now.