Painting Progress – 20100729

I’ve knocked out a couple of Skaven Rare choices over the past few days.  Both of them, strangely, repaints… something I’ve sworn I wouldn’t do very often.  (Why repaint something you’ve already painted?)

I was pretty stoked about the wood effect I managed on the Warlord, and I’d had a 20% painted Doomwheel sitting in bits on my desk.  Last Sunday, I got the bug to put the wood and steel effect into use on it.  Shockingly, I was able to finish almost the whole thing in a day, wrapping it up the following afternoon.

It’s not all the way done, I suppose.  I’ve still got the banner to do.. but I’m having a great deal of frustration with those at the moment.  So, I’m leaving those where they are.  I’ll deal with them later.

This weekend, I got the notion that repainting the Warp Lightning Cannon I’d previously painted wouldn’t be too hard.  I banged out most of it in the day.  The only thing that really kept it from being “done” until today was the crew.

I think it came out looking really good.

I did something a little different with the Warpstone.  I think it ultimately looks better, but it’s not quite as striking at arm-length, which is unfortunate.

I did the usual Snot Green -> Goblin Green -> Golden Yellow.  Then I went a bit farther and threw in some Sunburst Yellow. before washing it with Thraka Green.  Then I washed it with a thin coat of Leviathan Purple on an impulse.  I think it made the green richer… but less vibrant.

I’d been half-considering what I was going to do for a Plagueclaw Catapult.  I’d run one last week (with an old Screaming Bell as a stand-in).  I haven’t been particularly het up to convert one up because 1) I need to focus on painting and 2) I’m not sure I like the unit (it was particularly disappointing in this week’s game), but the question of “how” had certainly been rattling around in my head.

Then, it occurred to me: Zvezda.  I’d ordered a Zvezda Siege Machines kit a long while back to use the ballista in my Harad army; it’d come with a catapult that I’d never bothered taking off the sprue.  So, I took it off the sprue.  Then I tarted it up a little bit with some Skaven bits.

Not going to win any awards or anything, but it’ll do.  It’s better than a proxy, at least.

Also, it was extremely cheap: ~$15 for a ballista and a catapult (plus some barricades).  That’s a deal and a half, even if it’s not perfect.

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m very excited about painting Skaven, now.  I love the new basing scheme (rocky vs. swampy grass), and the colors of everything this side of the flesh are perfect (and I’m perversely stuck on the Bronzed Flesh).  Time to start plugging everything into a spreadsheet and planning on knocking this stuff out.  Also: grinding Clanrats.