Part Six – almost ready for battle.
I can't believe it's been six weeks since Adam and I opened our copies of The Island of Blood and started our respective Skaven and High Elf forces. There are only a few weeks to go until we'll be taking to the tabletop, and duking it out, and having almost finished painting what I have, my thoughts have turned to what else I might add in before then - Adam on the other hand has been looking worriedly at the pile of Clanrats on his paint station. Here's a look at what we've painted so far as well as what we've managed to do over the last week.
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Two units of Sword Masters & Lothern Sea Guard, a Prince on Griffon and a Mage - not bad, I reckon. In fact those that know me (I'm renowned for taking ages to paint armies, often dropping one and moving on to another before the basecoat has had time to dry) think it's a miracle. That just leaves me with the Ellyrian Reavers to finish and the second Mage to paint. I really should finish them this week but there's new High Elves afoot, and my spare time may well be used up trying to acquire a few of them to add to my army. If I'm successful I'll show you them on Friday.
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Here's a quick hobby tip: batch panting miniatures saves you time because you don't have to swap colours or wash your brush as often. However, different areas can require different sizes of brush to paint - large areas are best painted with large brushes as it stops brush strokes, but near the edges where one colour joins another it's easier to use a smaller brush. If you look at the Ellyrian Reavers (I painted them using a Large Drybrush) you'll notice that there are bits missing around the edges of colour. During my next painting session I'll be neatening them all up using a Standard Brush.
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I've not painted very much this week but I did play in a tournament. It was held in Cardiff and I designed my army list around the contents of The Island of Blood sets I was already painting and added in some models from my old Skaven army. The Warpfire Throwers and Poisoned Wind Mortars were on top form, burning loads of Dwarfs all weekend, and I came 10th out of 64 players; not too bad considering it was my first try with the army! So, with a couple of weeks to go I only (only!) have sixty Clanrats and a Rat Ogre left to paint. No problem...
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I did, however, manage to just about finish painting my Battle Standard Bearer. Last week I showed you a work-in-progress shot of him. I've now highlighted the model and added some shading to the recesses of the robes. I now just need to do a little bit more work on the banner - it's such a big area that it needs more edge highlighting and some kind of free-hand design so it really stands out, which will give me something to look forward to once I've waded through those sixty Clanrats. Did I mention I have sixty Clanrats to paint?
