I’ve been painting Necromunda because why not? Hopefully I’ll be able to play the dang game after the Quarantimes have ended.
I actually tee’d all of these up like a month ago but got really disheartened by how they were coming along. I’m glad I came back to them: I think they actually came out really well.
The Sumpkroc is based on a toad we see every night while walking the dogs.
I picked up the new Shiho Wolf Clan models for Bushido when they went up for sale during Adepticon, and knocked them out last week.
They’re a far, far cry from perfect (they’re pretty phoned in, to be honest), but “Done > Perfect” has been the theme for my 2020 hobby, and I kind of like the fairly limited palette here. They’re painted, now, and I can feel comfortable building the next round of Minimoto to put into the painting queue.
I live in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the suburbs around Washington, DC… and it’s freaking humid here. It’s not the most humid place I’ve lived (I used to live in South Texas), but it’s a certainly a notable feature of the area.
Something I hear (read, really) is “I’m waiting for better weather so I can go out and prime my models.” “It’s too humid to prime.” “It’s too cold to prime.” Primer doesn’t love humidity or low temperature, so if it’s cold or damp outside you can’t prime (or varnish) outside. You can’t spray aerosol primer (or varnish) inside because it’s toxic. What’s a hobbyist to do, besides just wait for a good day before they start a project?
This drives me nuts. It does’t have to be this way. Folks’ hobby velocity is stopped up waiting on optimal weather and it doesn’t need to be.
Keep your models and spray inside. When it’s time to spray: take everything outside. Spray your models outside, where the spray won’t poison you. Put the sprayed models into a tub, and put a lid on it. Bring the tub inside. Let stuff dry. Do this year-round.
So: I’ve switched over to airbrush priming pretty exclusively, but pretty much every model I primed from the beginning of this blog until 2015 or so was rattle-can primed outside in all weather and tub’d. Every model I have varnished in the past 15 or years years has been varnished outside in all weather and tub’d. If you want to see the impact of weather on my priming and varnishing, skim through my painted model photos.
The photo examples I have were just after it’d stopped raining: I’ll spray in the pouring rain, even, just not where raindrops will hit the model I’m spraying. The air was thick with wet after a rain.
This is my tub. I cracked it, so just duct taped-over where the plastic shattered.
I’ve also got a grotty piece of foam that I keep in it to hold my minis in place; I don’t want them whacking into each other while they’re drying.
I stick my dudes onto old Dullcote caps and empty P3 paint pots to hold while spraying.
“That’s varnishing, though” you might say. “I was talking about priming.” Fine. I grabbed a mispacked ASOIF Free Folk and primed him with a GW Wraithbone rattlecan. Note the lack of pebbling.
Here’s the model washed to help make the lack of pebbling more clear.
That’s it! You don’t need to wait for a perfect day that’s not too hot, not too cold, not too dang humid. Just spray your stuff and put it in a tub. Don’t let not great weather prevent you from painting your minis!
You know, before the Quarantimes began, I was in pretty good shape re: having a good backlog to work down and not really planning on picking up many new models.
Then the pandemic hit and two things happened:
1) All of my big Infinity events were (quite rightly) canceled. This just sucked the air out of my enthusiasm for painting for the game. I wrapped up a couple of models early on, but I haven’t really touched them since. My Kaldstrom box is sitting on a stack of boxes, untouched.
2) Games Workshop (quite rightly) closed their warehouse (for what turned out to be a bit over a month, 3/24 to 5/1). I became terrified that, Time Enough at Last, I’d have limitless time to paint models but no models to paint. Literally, I panic-bought an Age of Sigmar army. I panic-bought an Age of Sigmar army.
Once you’re back into the GW ecosphere (and that warehouse is open again), it’s very easy to stay in it. They’re always putting out something cool, and while inevitably that something won’t actually be a good game it’ll be unquestionably fun to paint… and that’s OK when I won’t actually get to play these games and can only engage them from a hobby perspective.
So: doubling down on Adeptus Titanicus. An Age of Sigmar army. All the Blackstone Fortress expansions. A Saga army of Skaven models. A bunch of Necromunda. A 40K army. Aeronautica Imperialis.
And don’t get me wrong: I’ve enjoyed painting this stuff. But I’ve got a healthy backlog now. I don’t see anything I’m really hyped for on the immediate horizon. I’m back to where I was in March, I think.
So, I’m going to try to go all of September without buying a single new mini. Wish me luck.
Closed out a couple of things and made progress on some old stuff.
Very close to being done with these Goliath Juves & stimmers. Painted up a test Shiho model that I’m happy with; made good progress on teeing them up.
Staycation ended yesterday evening, and I took a quick photo of where things stood when I had to go back to work.
I:
The Ogres aren’t entirely done: I still need to apply snow and water effects. I’m underwhelmed by how they look, but have reminded myself that the rest of the army was painted to get them done, not to get them perfect… so these will be adequate.
The Crimson Fists are coming along, I’m glad to have some of the Indomitus models finished, even if the Judicar is objectively the worst designed model GW has produced in recent years.
Looking forward to shifting gears and knocking out some Bushido before the wave of September Minimoto releases shift. I’ve got the two new Minimoto samurai in-hand, but have held off on building them until I’ve painted the Shiho.
Halfway through my vacation and here’s where we’re at:
Also: I’ve printed off a ton of Forest Dragon Warmaster Wood Elves.
Burning leave and (hopefully) avoiding burnout, this is what I plan to work on next week. Won’t get through all of it but I’m going to try.
