What's on my palette?

Wow, it's been over two months since my last confession! I've obviously been way busy getting the Four Horsemen done, but I've done bits and bobs on a number of other models. I've been working on a variety of Dark Angels all at once. Deathwing, Ravenwing, Devastator and Tactical Squad. The Deathwing have had metallics and washes done.

By spreading myself thin like this it will take a while for these to be complete [no change there then], but it does mean that when I do reach the end of each unit there should be about four units that are ready within a short while of each other. It feels less productive while I'm doing it, but it should be more rewarding upon completion. It also helps to mitigate the fact I still don't know my 'recipe' for each unit type. Essentially I'm making it up as I go along which creates inefficiencies.

Unlike my Tyranids which is so simple now, which is why I can't help myself and as soon as Blog Wars was out of the way continued on with my 11 Genestealers. This has revealed something to me, that it was not Tyranids that I hated painting years ago afterall, it was Genestealers. There were no gaunts back then so the 6 limbs on a Stealer is what is frustrating, especially because they're split into two bits [most arms/legs are though so thats really no argument]. Anyway, I have gone the extra mile on these not like the original Stealers I did way back when which are pretty much washed, with only very sparing highlights. These guys will have two sets and will follow the slightly grained pattern that I've adopted for some of the bigger creatures. Thoroughly mind-numbing, with a lot of effort that once again up close the brush work is really dodgy but from a distance looks quite effective.

I also nipped back to Element Games the day after Blog Wars and picked up most of the bits I'd missed, with the shop closing earlier than last time. My three bottles of Warpaint washes, two pots of Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering powders [so I can muck stuff up] some more flock [just for the yellow!], some bases, black primer paint, and some Red Oxide paste for even more weathering fun. This bundle of goodies cost me £28, which if I'd have ordered online would have had about £6-£9 worth of postage due to Royal Mail's fear of paint going through the postal system. Still, I didn't blink twice about the cost, which is odd as that's another Tervigon, which feels slightly more substantial than some paint and some pretty coloured dust! Still, most of it will definitely get used and the weathering powders are a new technique to master and hopefully make the Dark Angels a little more interesting.

So, BIG news, Armies on Parade is on. So I guess I must apologise for my prediction it was not going to happen. Daniel Grundy pointed out in the comments that White Dwarf was going to have an announcement yesterday. It seems it did, although they got their own dates wrong. According to White Dwarf daily:

*It’s worth noting that the Armies on Parade dates we put in this article are, sadly, incorrect. Armies on Parade will now begin on August 30th with the store Parade Day taking part on the 25th October. We’re pretty certain the Grots are to blame. Of course, if you know what you’re doing and you’re super-keen, feel free to start work on your board straight away. We won’t tell anyone. Promise.

Which does indeed leave a healthy amount of time for me to do what I wanted to do, but the big question is do I go ahead with project X? The drive and the ability is there, the really big question is the scale of the task. I currently find storing my 2'x2' display board quite awkward, now I want to create something more substantial. Having the room to build such a thing will be a challenge and to store it afterwards too will be a pain. Additionally if we do go ahead with the building work in the house that we have planned I'll no doubt need the space in the garage that I'll be constructing this thing in. More importantly this project at this time may very well prove confrontational with my better half. So I will have to manage that above all else.

Ideally I need to find a way to have the display modular so I can break it down into pieces but that is a logistical puzzle of the highest order. What I think I will do is buy the parts I need, new 2'x2' MDF sheet and the sundry bits of wood to construct the frame and see from there how easy it will be to continue on with my plan