103 Painting By Numbers Part I

This is a post about really basic painting.

I noted before that I take very a basic approach to painting the massed ranks of the (soon to be reorganised) 2/24th Cadian. This post constitutes the first part of a step-by-step to explain how I do this. This (below) is the first stage of two - painting the model:

Over the last year, some folks have been kind enough to note that my army looks okay. I reckon it does too, with 'okay' being the operative word. Someone pointed out that two feet away was the optimum distance for viewing, and my boys look fine from there: all based and uniform. If you're a new convert to Guard and a faster painter than me, this is a stonkingly simple paint scheme. Please excuse the photos: some were taken at night with a flash.

I use the following colours for the painting stage; more-or-less in this order:

Chaos Black spray primer

Catachan Green

Dark Angels Green

Bolt Gun Metal

Tallarn Flesh (foundation)

Skull White

Shining Gold.

First, the models are assembled and undercoated, using Chaos Black spray. I don't currently base them first although I know I should. That's in future plans.

Next, all cloth, webbing pouches and rifle furniture get painted Catachan Green. I'm not too particular:

Then all the armour, helmet, shoulder pads and greaves are painted Dark Angels Green - a little more neatly:

Bolt Gun Metal is next. I use it for rifle details, chest/helmet aquila, belt buckle and the buttons (etc.) on webbing pouches:

Then it's the marvellous Tallarn Flesh foundation paint: hands and face:

Now we go back to black and tidy up boots, webbing straps/belt/buckle, rifle stock, muzzle; sometimes an opened mouth:

Details now: Skull White for eyes and teeth:

And the final stage: small dots (blue/brown) for pupils; maybe a slightly darker flesh tone for the bottom lip (if I can be bothered); Shining Gold for the rifle aquila, and - importantly - I go back and tidy the Catachan and DA Green bits:

And there you have a basically painted Draxian infantryman. I know there are better/faster ways and means, but I've done half the army like this now, and I'm loathe to change (except maybe for earlier basing).

By the way - since taking the final photos of this process (eg: the first one in this post) I've noticed that the helmet aquila and the muzzle (not shown) needed tidying. They've been done now.

Thanks, all,

- Drax.

102 Bookkeeping

[Interestingly, one of very few words containing three consecutive double letters.]

Hey, all.

I've been working on the step-by-step of how I paint my guardsmen (!) but until that little gem is ready, please let me share part of the Draxian thought process with you.

This is the Fourth Book of Arcane Scribblings. Books II-III, you may note, are bound to it:
Each volume is an exercise book (nicked from work) in which I try to write all GW-related thoughts, and where possible, I always use my trusty collection of Bic 0.7mm propelling pencils - seen above (covering my contact number) and below, tucked into the flap of the plastic protective jacket, alongside a handy flexible protractor and ruler and some odd notes:The illustrations in the remainder of this post are simply for...er...illustrative purposes.

Now some of you may have seen my scribbling book before, but I was discussing the forthcoming codex rumours with Col. Corbane earlier, and mentioned that I loved the paperchase involved in organising and reorganising my tabletop forces [this is not yet the time for my half-baked speculation, but I've a feeling the Cadian 24th will undergo significant restructuring]. This in turn led me to thinking about what it is I scribble, and why and how I do it.
Why and how I do it:

I use my book of scribblings to keep my thoughts in one place. Certain pages are earmarked, and certain others (eg: those with my standing OrBats on) are used constantly for reference. I'm usually out at work from 0730 to about 1700-ish, but by the nature of my job (teacher) I tend to work after dinner - usually until about midnight. Because work takes up a vast amount of my thoughts (I guess, teachers are notorious for having difficulty 'switching off',) I really, really like to empty my head before going to sleep.

So I go to bed (trying not to wake Mrs. Drax), light a candle, re-arrange the dog so I have at least some space to myself on the bed, and then I settle down to scribbling and I empty my head. I like rules, lists and numbers (I'm a boy) and I can quite happily fiddle with such minutiae until I start to nod off - usually about 0100-ish. That way the thoguhts in my brain as I doze are happy ones of numbers and FOC permutations rather than about the kid in my year group (grade) who's just been kicked out of home, or the vast amount of marking (grading) I have yet to get done.

The 'how' is everybit as important as the 'why', and it's a lovely pattern to be in. As for the 'what' - well, I cover all the following: post-battle notes; force organisation plans; painting records; future plans; army lists, wish lists; conversion sketches and plans; minor fluff; painting ideas; missions; house rules and clarifications. Some of this stuff can be seen on the images herewith.

Until I moved to Devon, I also played D&D once a fortnight with the world's best DM, and just as with my GW stuff I must've read and re-read the beautifully produced D&D v.3.5 rulebook time and time again before bed.

The books have been all over the world with me; they travel very well and the earliest entry in Vol II is 28/09/06.

Does anyone else do anything similar?

Pure escapism?

Convenient scribblings?

Mindless ramblings?

Thanks for indulging me.

- Drax.

(who should've got more work done tonight!)

097 Here At Last...and ultimately disappointing.

Well,

I used the objective marker that I was going to save for this post in my last one, Post 101, so Now for Something Completely Different.

This post is not 40K related.

Whilst I was in the middle of posting yesterday, I was interrupted by the two young lads from the cottage next-door-but-one asking if they could play with Cadfael. As I stood out in the garden watching them exhaust my poor old hound, I asked them if they had any pets (we don't see them much). It turns out that at their dad's house they each have a guinea pig.

The guinea-pigs' names?

Squeaker and Bonecrusher.
Bonecrusher?

- Drax.

[Normal service resumes later this week.]