I'm still here!

So I must admit I've been a little sloppy with my updates, that is not, however because I haven't been making progress. In fact I think I've made quite a bit. As I write this I have completely finished my Spears (apart from the basing and attaching shields) and am about 77.58% through my Silver Helms.
Although neither units look as good as I'd hoped I still think they look ok.

What I realised while painting all of these old kits is that the minis are very unforgiving when it comes to painting. Their details aren't great and there are a lot of ridges and inconsistencies in the sculpts. There is also a lot of areas that seem to blend into each other so there is actually no definition between areas like cloaks and pants. As a result I think that one needs to be an exceptional painter to make them look really good. Because the sculpts on newer kits are so good and so well defined techniques like drybrushing and washes work really well, which helps a mediocre painter like me. This is however only a theory of mine and I'm interested to hear if anyone else finds this with the older minis.

The other thing I struggled with was getting depth into the metallic armour colour I used. I've both drybrushed different layers and used the spray and wash techniques (which I've used for Duelling Paintbrushes) and in either case I've found it hard to get great depth in the metal colours.

I also have to apologise because I've gotten so caught up in my painting that I never actually took work in progress photos for the minis, I do have some finished products here (minus the shoulder pads which arrived post these photos, and I'm too tired to take more) Hopefully I can update you guys again tomorrow.

Slow and steady...

Come at me bro/Dark Elves

So FINALLY I have finished my 15 Archers!!!!! Well...99.67% of the way. I still need to do bases and put the Transfer on the banner, but I'm doing that for the whole force at once.

I have to admit they took A LOT longer than I expected. I think there were a couple of factors that contributed to this;
1. Primarily I underestimated how much work they actually needed. I made a commitment to myself before taking this challenge that I wanted these models (the whole 1000) to be the best I'd produced yet, as such I modelled a lot more details on than I normally would and decided that I would paint all of the details. This is something I often don't do to save time and also because previously I didn't have the confidence in my ability to pick out details etc without ruining other parts of the mini that I'd already completed.
2. I lost a lot of time through work, bad news, and unexpected visits. I think overall I would've lost at least a week's worth of painting hours.

Overall however I'm really happy with how they turned out, and have definitely think they are amongst the best units I've produced, and certainly are the best Archers I have.

I decided not to go the extra highlight of Red just yet as I liked the contrast at the moment. That may change as the I complete more units. So I guess the next step is to start on the Spears. As I've said before I think these guys will be a lot quicker as 87.65% of the model is covered in armour which I've sprayed and washed already, so hopefully a week from now they're done too.

Now for my closeups!

I became a little attached to this guy, ended up being my favourite

Progress!

So what an experience it has been so far in DPIII! At the end of the day, regardless of whether I'm successful or not I have definitely had some fun so far! I promised earlier on that I would share my list for World Series once Hobby Fiend and I had had a chance to balance them. This hasn't occurred yet, but I thought I'd share the primary list, and also what I'm hoping to expand it too.

So here's the 1,500 as it stands;

Prince: Ogre Blade; Dragonhelm; Dawnstone; Potion of Foolhardiness; Elven Steed (Ithilmar barding); heavy armour; shield. 256

Noble: Sword of Might; Enchanted Shield; Golden Crown of Atrazar; heavy armour; Battle Standard. 134

Mage: Dispel Scroll; Level 2 Wizard, High Magic. 145

20 Spearmen: Sentinel; musician; standard bearer. 210

15 Archers: musician; standard bearer. 170

8 Silver Helms: High Helm; musician; standard bearer; shields. 214

15 White Lions of Chrace: Guardian; musician; standard bearer. 225

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70

1,494 points

And here is where I want to get it to;

Prince: Giant Blade; Dragonhelm; Dawnstone; Elven Steed (Ithilmar barding); heavy armour; shield. 271
Archmage: Book of Hoeth; Talisman of Endurance; Ironcurse Icon; Level 4 Wizard. 310

Noble: Star Lance; Enchanted Shield; The Other Trickster's Shard; Elven Steed (Ithilmar barding); Dragon armour; Battle Standard. 170
Mage: Khaine's Ring of Fury; Level 2 Wizard. 145

8 Silver Helms: High Helm; musician; standard bearer; shields. 214
30 Spearmen: musician; standard bearer. 290
5 Ellyrian Reavers: musician. 90

20 White Lions of Chrace: Guardian; musician; standard bearer (Banner of the World Dragon). 340

Frostheart Phoenix 240
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
1 Great Eagle 50

2,400 points

Of course I have a lot of this stuff ready to go, but if I continue to enjoy the new colour scheme and consistent painting this much then I'll probably end up fill out the whole list.

So anyway the last week or so I've been working almost exclusively on Archers. It's been a difficult week, as due to circumstances out of my control I've lost at least half my planned painting time. My original plan was to have them finished last weekend, which didn't happen, however I'm confident that by the end of Sunday this week I'll have finished the Archers and made a good start on the Spears. I'm not too concerned given that I think that the Archers will definitely be the most time consuming of the units due to big areas of colour and in particular white.

My plan for the Archers was to do the red completely, as this was the biggest part of the model. Hobby Fiend gave me a really good 3 stage technique for the Red, which was Memphiston Red Base, Devlan Mud Wash, Mephiston Red or Evil Suns Scarlet Highlight. I changed it just a little as I thought it was a big jump from one to the other, so my 2nd paint layer I went with a 50/50 Mephiston Evil Suns mix. I'm not sure that this has ended up a little dull, but there is scope for more highlighting, I'd love to hear thoughts.

Mephiston with a wash

Washed and Layered with the mix
plus some other base coats

After I did the red I went about complete all the other basecoats on the model. I'm not sure if it's the right way to go about things, but I find it useful because it gives me the chance to clean up any mistakes I make along the way. It's served me pretty well so far. I've also finished the White on one mini as a test, I normally do a base, wash and then 2 layers, but I tired to just go white over the base here (I think the base is Ulthuan Grey, not sure though) and I'm quite pleased with the result. Again I would like thoughts. I like bold colours like that, as long as the contrast isn't too great, as I think a cartoon type colour style can really pop on the table top.

You can see in these pictures a little clearer that I've also completed the hair. I'm planning to do the white on all the rest of the unit last, as I think a neat and bold white is really striking and also because it's really hard to patch white if your brush slips while doing other colours!

Finally I've made some progress on the Spears as well. I've managed to spray them with chainmail and wash them with Badab. These guys I anticipate being much quicker to complete as most of them is already done from the spray.





Guess it's time to get back to painting now. Hopefully now that this crazy work week is nearly done I'll be able to keep you all up to date a little better.

As always feedback is appreciated.