October was a bad month for miniature painting. I spent the first half finishing up what I should have finished in September, and then only managed to get started on two Crisis Suits, which are still half-painted. It wasn’t a total waste of time, though - I finally got all three vehicles from my Armored Interdiction Force box put together. Two Hammerheads (one with railgun, one with an ion cannon) and one Sky Ray are assembled, primed, and ready for painting in January or February. With any luck, I’ll have the new GW airbrush by then, and painting them will be relatively painless. Before then, I have the two Crisis Suits to finish, and then a unit of Pathfinders and their Devilfish.

On the console gaming front (my main reason for not having more painting done), I’m still working through Tales of Vesperia, which continues to inspire some ideas for a 4th Edition D&D game. The only problem I’m having so far is that there are no world maps available, either online or in print. At this point, I may just have to take pictures of my TV while I have the in-game map open.

September’s miniatures have taken a bit longer than I’d anticipated, mostly due to being distracted by both Assassin’s Creed and Tales of Vesperia (my 360 has been a major timesink over the last 30 days), but the detail work is just about done and I should have photos soon.

There have been a few things I’ve been learning over the last couple of weeks. First off, I’ve learned that trying to paint miniatures every night for a week straight is folly, at least for me. My fingers and eyes are shot after about three days, especially considering that I do all my painting between 8pm and 11pm. If I was taking vacation time and was able to paint them during the day, that’d be one thing, but nighttime is the best time to keep brushes, paint bottles, and miniatures out of my daughter’s tiny, curious hands. I need to get together with friends and do another mini building/painting get-together over a weekend.

The second lesson is that I still have a long way to go before I’m anything close to pro-painting quality. Granted, I’m only on the fourth group of minis that I’ve painted in years, so it’s only right that I should have a while to go, but it’s interesting to see how getting one set of details to where I want them makes other missed details pop out. I’ve become comfortable with lenses and edge highlighting (I can improve on both, but I’m happy with my progress so far), but now I notice things like my Fire Warriors’ belt grenades and the edges of their wrist guards and how rough they look. It’s a sign of making progress, so it’s both frustrating and reassuring at the same time. A year down the line, I imagine that I’ll have those details down just to find other things to improve upon. Miniature painting is truly a matter of practice making perfect.

Next week, I’ll be starting on my unit of Pathfinders. I’m considering trying my hand at some camouflage effects on both them and their Devilfish, so they’re a bit experimental. They’re also the first metal figs that I’ve painted in years, so I imagine there will be a different feel to them. This squad should go a lot faster, though - half as many figures, and the base colors on the ‘fish have been done for months and months.

This month’s painting has been a bit rushed - I blame the sheer awesomeness of Assassin’s Creed (yes, I finally got around to playing a year-old game) for delaying my painting for a week and a half. It doesn’t help that I’m painting three times as many figures as I did last month. The end result is that every night this week has been dedicated to getting painting done.

Progress so far
Cloth under-armor painted: 12/12 Fire Warriors, NA for Gun Drones
Armor base-painted: 4/12 Fire Warriors, 2/2 Gun Drones
Detail work: 0/12 FW (save for the face on my shas’ui), 0/2 GD

On a side note, this month’s painting has given me a chance to try out the GW Citadel Washes, and I have to say that they’re a joy to work with. I used the Badab Black wash on top of Shadow Grey cloth, and it gave me exactly the color and effect I was looking for. I’ve also picked up the Devlan Mud and Gryphonne Sepia washes, and I eventually plan to get the entire set (hopefully before they go up in price).

After almost two years of having Tau minis and not doing anything with them, I’ve finally been making major progress on getting them all finished. I’ve been painting more figs every month, and getting caught up on construction as well. Yesterday, I finally put together the Armored Interdiction Force (two Hammerheads and a Sky Ray) that I’ve had since last Thanksgiving. I just have to put together my Rapid Insertion Force (9 Crisis Suits, 2 Stealth Suits, and a ton of Gun Drones), and I will finally put together everything I’ve purchased so far (with the exception of a spare Piranha that I’m not planning on using yet). I’m still a long way from being done - there’s a lot of painting and basing and such to do yet - but the end is in sight, and that’s when I can look at filling in holes in my army. A couple of Broadsides and/or some Sniper Drone teams would give me a little bit of everything, and I still need to get a couple of GW’s Shield Drone conversion kits.

And yet, the itch to start a second army is starting to flare up, especially with GW putting out the Assault on Black Reach starter set. I could care less about the Orks (too many models with too many fiddly bits, in my opinion), but the Space Marines are tempting, if for no other reason than to have a second army to lend to friends who want to try the game out. The temptation, though, is one I should avoid for now - while I could get a decent Marine army for around $300 (Black Reach, plus a Space Marine Strike Force), I don’t really have the time to embark upon building another army now. At best, it’d end up at the end of the queue, after all my Tau, and at worst it’d end up distracting me from completing my current work. Maybe in six months to a year - by then, I should have more time and space cleared up for other things - but not right now.

Still, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a very nice temptation…

My August painting project, 150 points of Tau in the form of 3 Stealth Suits and 2 Marker Drones, is painted based, just in time. I continue to refine my lens-painting technique - I’m particularly happy with the ones on the marker drones. On the other hand, the few bits of cloth/fabric, on the upper arms of the suits (under the shoulder guards) didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. I need to work on my blending, and to thin my paints a bit more.

Over on Forumopolis, I’ve been taking part in a wargaming painting challenge. Since several of us are behind in our army painting, we each resolved to take an average-to-large army for our respective games (40k works out to 1500-1750 points), divide the army into ten roughly equal segments point-wise, and paint one segment a month for a year (with 2 floating months off as needed). I’ve been working on my Tau cadre, and as of the end of July I have around 300 points completed (I finished up 120 points in June as a preliminary month). So far, I’ve been pleased with the results.

I should have August’s minis up soon - a 150 pt. squad of Stealth Suits and Marker Drones are in progress as we speak. September’s minis - another squad of Fire Warriors, with some gun drones to pad out the points - are primed and ready to go. For more pictures, visit the Miniatures page.