Back in the Saddle, Day Five and Six Report

I don't know why these are becoming every other day reports, but that seems to be how I'm working at the moment.  I did get a TON of work done yesterday, and remembered to take photos this time.

More after the break:

So after flip-flopping back and forth between my Elves and Dwarfs, I've decided to go balls out on the Dwarfs and try to get the bulk of them done by the end of January.  To that end, I began work on all of the Great Weapon Warriors I have.  16 caped Warriors and 39 regular Warriors.  I also have a standard, 2 cannons and an Engineer on the table.

I began by painting every scrap of metal on the models Boltgun Metal.  Once I finished that, everything received a wash of Privateer Press Armour Wash, probably my favourite wash in existence.

I decided to work in two groups: the 39 Warriors, and everything else.  So as the wash was drying on the Warriors, I moved to the caped Warriors, the Engineer and the Standard (which I will be using for command in my Quarrellers, if I use command for them), and painted up the Boltgun Metal.

Returning to the Warriors (I'll reference the caped Warriors as Rangers from here on out, to make things simpler), I began my drybrush steps.  I start with Boltgun Metal again.  It's important to note that this was the most time-consuming phase.  When I drybrush, I scrub very, very lightly, for a long time.  This cuts down on the 'scratchy' or 'scoured' look you often see with drybrushing, and gives you a smoother finish.  It sounds weird, but you've done it right when you can't tell it's been drybrushed.  Like I said, take your time, brush very lightly, and work to make the 'centre' areas solid and crisp, to minimize that drybrushed look.  If I remember, I'll do a 'bad' drybrush in my next batch and have it side by side with a good drybrush.

You might notice the Dwarfs keep changing sides of my painting station.  I find this really helps me stay on track, and not forget a model in the shuffle.  I used to just have them anywhere on the the table, and just pick one up, do a coat, then put it down, but I kept missing models and I'd have to go back.  It's a little anal to organize them like this, but it does save time in the long run.  

So the next step was to drybrush Chainmail, then Mithril Silver.  Keeping with what I was saying before, you'll know you're doing it right if you tell really see a big difference.  Another thing to keep in mind: As you do lighter layers of drybrushing, try to cover less of the model.  By the time I'm doing Mithril Silver, I'm really only touching the tops of the pieces, where the light would hit and make it look the brightest any ways.  I don't dry the entire piece all over again, that would be even more time consuming than this step already is.

During the drybrushing, I took breaks periodically to work up the Rangers, Cannons, Engineer and Standard with the Armour Wash.  I was honestly hoping to get more done, but the drybrushing took most of the night.

  

So there you have it.  A very productive evening.  My goal for today is to sand and prime the 22 Quarrellers, since there is another brief break in the rain, and get the reds based on the 39 GW Warriors.  If yesterday was an indicator, I should be able to do it.  I just have to keep my momentum going.

If I don't post a Back in the Saddle report tomorrow, expect Part 4 of my Space Marine Tactica, and then a Saddle Report the day after.