WIP Wednesday: Marine Progress and Scheduling the Hobby

It's been a couple weeks since my last #WIPWednesday post, and that might be the general schedule going forward as it sometimes feels like I don't have enough to show from a single week. That went double for the last two weeks as my weekends were devoted more to gaming than painting. That's not to say I didn't make any progress though.

Last time I mentioned I was considering finishing the Librarian Dreadnought to take to an RTT. Clearly I didn't finish him, but made a little bit of progress. I blocked in the blue, gold, and bone parchment, and added some washes. Next steps will be blocking in the metallics and figuring out something fun and interesting to do for the halberd. I'm thinking a purple might be cool, but have struggled with making purple work in the past, so I'll need to hunt down a guide for a deep, beautiful purple.

As a little bit of a batch, I blocked in the gold on my second contemptor as well as the Intercessors I've been working on. As a last touch, I put down a bit of gold filigree on the shoulders. It's all fine line work, and this is just the base, but I hope to bring it up with some careful use of wash and silver highlights to make it pop and make this thing look a bit more extravagant.

As I mentioned, my last two weekends have been devoted to gaming, so my painting has largely been short sessions early in the morning or late at night. When I get these sessions, I often like to focus on steps I can start and finish then. For one of these, it was simply adding a wash to the bone elements I'd laid down previously.

Quick side-by-side comparison

Washes are something I was once told are "cheating" - and while it can feel that way sometimes, there's no competing for the speed at which a wash can help bring depth to a model. Forgive the soapbox for a moment, but I see washes, like any painting technique or method, as a tool in your toolbox. In this case, I could create the same depth through careful layering up from a base coat and blending in the shadows, but that's like using a screwdriver instead of a drill to assemble a deck; it works, but it's going to take significantly longer and no one else will notice or care.

With the wash down, the models have a lot of depth and nearly look complete from a tabletop height. I still need to paint their accessories and gun casings, as well as add a highlight to the bone and metals, but they're coming along.

To that end, in another session, I simply painted their kneepad yellow. This will be the squad marking for this unit, and yellow is notoriously difficult. I put down three very thin coats and I'm still not totally satisfied with them. Lastly, I took a quick shot at the one exposed face in the squad.

For this guy, I put down a base coat of Cadian Flesh, highlighted with Kislev Flesh. I followed this with a careful line wash of Reikland Fleshade. I also did a thinned application of Carroburg Crimson on the lips and his scars. Finally, I mixed Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade and did a very light wash on his hairline and eyebrows.

Mostly small scale steps for this week, but I'm fairly happy with how they're going. Inspired by Bryan, I started putting together a schedule for my 2019 hobby, largely based on events I'll be attending. While I still need to flesh it out a bit, it should help me focus on the units and models I need to paint. It also is giving me a realistic view of what armies I can choose from for some events, meaning I can better focus my practice on those armies, rather than flitting around from one concept to another.

Roughly, my schedule is looking like this:

• May: DeLaWarr -or- Warzone: Atomic Empire
• Blood Angels -or- Tyranids
• July: ATC
• Blood Angels -or- Tyranids
• November: Warzone: Atlanta
• GSC

The plan for my first two big events is to take either my Blood Angels or Tyranids. In both cases, the likely slate of to-do models is pretty small, and I have the time to likely get both ready. For the Blood Angels, my main goals are to finish the Intercessors, Contemptor, and Librarian Dreadnought I have been working on. For the Tyranids, I think I would lean toward the Kraken Stealer list that Adam and Nick ran with good success at Warzone: Atlanta. For that, I would mainly need to paint 20 Genestealers and 2 Venomthropes. There's some wiggle room in that list, so some other things that might appear would be Old One Eye and Deathleaper. 

Currently I have about 11 weeks until the first of those events, which should be plenty of time to methodically work through that list of models. My goal for this week is to finish the Intercessors, and then finish the Librarian Dreadnought next week. I think that is doable and will keep everyone posted in my next #WIPWednesday update.

To close, let me know what you are working on and feel free to share some pics!