Oh my, it was a long break. So much stuff to do (not necessary hobby related), and this blog was sent deep into oblivion. The priorities unfortunately were somewhere else.

However, I haven’t made complete break from miniatures. I’m kind of addicted to painting them, so almost every day I sit over my workstation, lick my brushes and try to make something colourful. And during last few months I was able to paint quite a bunch of miniatures, and only gods know why I haven’t post them here. I was so overworked, and burnt out a bit, so the blog lost a priority, I guess.

Anyway, I have a few models to brag about, so prepare for series of posts about my recent paint jobs. Starting now.

First – latest squad for my Blood Angels army – Tactical Squad.

I painted them a few weeks ago, and back then I was fresh after a couple of games of Warhammer 40k. Shameful games. Shameful because my army was unpainted. What a disgrace! I was justifying myself, by saying I’m playing in friendly campaign. I was trying even to make a painting challenge out of it, but I suck at challenges, and whole thing turned so weak. Three games in the campaign and three times my Blood Angels weren’t ready for the battle.

After that series of games, I said to myself: No more! I won’t get involved in any games with unpainted models. Really, that was a bugger. Take a look at my latest battle report against Raven Guard. My Space Marines look so miserable. It was no excitement at all. And I lost as well – everybody knows that painted models fight and shoot better, right?

And now, there’s progress. Finally! Now I have: 2 tactical Squads, 1 Terminator Squad, a Rhino and two HQ (Sanguinary Priest and Librarian in Terminator Armour). Pretty neat!

I need to paint few other Elite Troops and some Heavy Support and Blood Angels are ready to go!

And these Tacticals were really great to work with. I paint Space Marines so rarely recently, so every time I go back to Astartes I feel excited. Such a simple sculpts, but with a pinch of brilliance. In my opinion, Space Marines are probably one of the best miniatures designs ever created. Shame on me, I don’t paint them on regular basis;)…

Well, when I was choosing the chapter to collect, I was following the sentiment (Blood Angels were my first WH40k army ever:), but I also was aware, I will need a tons of time to paint dozens of models in the very same colour scheme. Red is the colour I find cool to look, and paint – so the choice was obvious – Blood Angels! Come to daddy!

Recently I try to reduce amount of washes I use, and in this case I also do not overdosed them.

I primmed  a whole squad with Mephiston Red. Then some brush work with Mephiston Red to correct the gaps. After that I painted recesses and border lines with the mix of Abaddon Black and Mephiston Red.

Next step is glazing. Lighten areas I painted with Wild Rider Red and glazed it with Evil Moon Scarlet.

No washes was used during this process:). The only time I was using washes were metallic areas. Metals are still a mystery to me. I was trying to do highlights on metals without the washes, but the result was unsatisfactory.  For now I stay with my usual washing metals technique. It’s simple, but effective. And that what;s most important, right?

Next thing. I added few scratches on the power armours. Usually I don’t do battle damage (I prefer my Space Marines to be brand new:), but I went for some subtle ones in this squad. And I like the effect. I may go with this in further squads of Marines. Will see.

Plus. I keep to practice my hand lettering. My hand is more sure, definitely. Some day I’ll master it:).

As for basing. I’m a big fan of resin bases. They are easy to grab and use. No need for modelling anything. And as I just love to paint, at the same time – I’m not a big fan of sculpting nor modelling. So, resin is my friend. My Blood Angels are on Tech Bases from Micro Art Studio. Awesome stuff. Highly recommended.

The plan was to get going with Blood Angels force. Steadily building up the army, and at the end of the year I would be able to deploy fully painted army. However, the plan has changed.

The thing is, I got amazing bargain deal for The Empire Warhammer Fantasy army and I needed to rearrange my painting schedule. It is crucial that 2000 points 5th edition army will be finished until the end of July 2017. The plan is to head for BOYL 2017, and my Skaven aren’t that representative. The Empire will replace them as my no. one fantasy army.

So, sorry Blood Angels, you are postponed…

Until next time!