What Minis Are You Painting?

Barnes, those hunters look amazing. If I could justify the price of getting into AOS I'd totally be building a Sylvaneth army.

Thanks- I think they are probably the best thing I've done so far. I went for it on a couple of more advanced techniques/details and it paid off. My confidence level was pretty high after doing the Tree Revenants and Spite Revenants. I'm almost finished with the "fall colors" versions of those same models and they are looking pretty good. A more ruddy brown (Mournfang) with orange-y branches/vines and brown leaves. Then it's the big stuff- Treelord Ancient, Spirit of Durthu, and Drycha Hamadreth. BIG models, lots to cover on them. Should be fun!

I think Sylvaneth is my favorite army right now- I love the models, I like their fluff, they play really well. The only thing is that I need to get two more Citadel Woods kits (well, I have one unassembled) to make the most of some of their abilities. They can spawn terrain pieces and there are "spirit paths" that they can use to move between them. I played a little 1000 point game against a friend last week who has an old timey Empire army and I just crushed him. Those Kurnoth Hunters are FEARSOME.

Oh. I broke down and bought some Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable brushes- 00, 0 and 1. They were about $12 a piece on Amazon.

Here's the review. THESE ARE THE JESUS BRUSHES.

I am kind of blown away by them. Seeing as my "best" brushes were previously Citadel and Army Painter, these are truly a next level kind of thing. Everything about them is simply better. They load paint better, they move it better, the spring is better, the flow is AMAZING, and they keep a fine point much better. When these things are freshly loaded, it's almost like drawing with a marker. I did some of the finer detail on those Hunters and there were things that in the past I would have struggled with- teeny tiny vines, for example. I was able to completely cover things like this in one stroke with no spilling over. I've sort of struggled with the GW-style layering, but these brushes have made that technique actually easier to accomplish, especially if you use a little Lahmian Medium in the paint to increase its translucence. I tried it and was like "well shit, that's how you do this". They ARE better than the GW layer brushes, and they ARE worth twice the price- provided they last, which is my one concern. Good brush habits are essential with these- pink soap, dry them out, reshape every time.

Now, the big question. "Will these make me paint better?" The easy answer is NO, they will not. You will not be a Golden Demon contender switching to these brushes, unless you already have that level of skill and talent. The more complex answer is that I think they WILL give you more confidence to try more advance stuff and they WILL improve your ability to get a good result. If you have the right tool, the job is easier to do. You can swear by your dollar store brushes all you want and if that's all you've ever used, you might be able to get great results from them. But these brushes, I think, actually make painting easier. With all that said, I feel like these are better suited for painters that have at leastsome experience. The flow is such that if you don't already know how to control it, you might make a mess. And if you don't know how to treat your brushes properly (or don't care) then these may not be worth the money.

For my part, these are now my go-to detailing brushes. They aren't suited (at least at this size) for priming or basecoating, the Citadel L and XL base brushes are still the champs there and since that can be rough work I wouldn't feel comfortable using an expensive brush on those tasks anyway. They are also not that great for glazing or washing, if you need a fine brush for that the Citadel layer or shade choices are better. You definitely don't want to drybrush with these.

So yeah, the hype was real on these.

Hobby Lobby generally has 40% off coupons and carry a substantial W&N line of product. I will have to get some this weekend.

I finished more of my Arcadia Quest figs. I am realizing the benefit of glazes. It helped with the blonde hair on the one and the robe on the other.

Love the shading!

Make sure you get the Series 7 brushes, they come in a tube. They are actually watercolor brushes but they suit our needs perfectly.

I highly doubt Hobby Lobby would stock any Kolinsky sable brushes in store. Most stores stopped stocking them post-2013 CITES agreement fiasco and their MSRP ($25-30) is high enough that even 40% off would be more expensive than Amazon.

And see Barnes? My advice on paints and painting tools is great. You have the Kolinsky sable, the Vallejo primer, now about purchasing that airbrush setup...

NOT LISTENING!

Oh, look at this...

I just saw those. That is easily my favorite Stormcast model.

How many of them will you be adding to your force? After all, they are Order so should mesh perfectly with your Sylvaneth.

I have my Kill Team tourney tomorrow and am hopefully wrapping up my Vanguards tonight. I just need to paint the torso lenses, coat on the right arm (attached to the guns), seals/scrolls and the final highlight on the energy coils. After that they will be assembled and then just blue-tacked to the base because I cannot finish that part up in time.

They are really going in a new direction with Stormcast. The other new models are a Vanguard, who are more like scouts/assault marines. Lots of pelts. The captain is bare-headed- no helmet! There is also some other Gryph-cavalry and a pack of Gryph hounds. This is all stuff that Stormcast really needed to diversify their look.

I'll probably just do one of that guy...unless it comes in a pack with more. I may also wait to see what bundle package it turns up in though because right now I am having an ongoing spiritual battle with myself over getting the Tzeentch Arcanites. I _REALLY_ want to get enough for an army of those dudes, but I am sitting here with a mountain of unassembled/unpainted plastic including my big Seraphon dinos. Not to mention a Stormcast Start Collecting box. And I actually really want to get going on these High Aelves, I bought Thousand Sons and Ahirman Blue for them yesterday, doing that with white and gold. I also really want to get Skaven going too, doing a purple/cruddy yellow thing with them. I've been sort of painting the Warp LIghtning Cannon between coats drying on the hunters, that's a really fun model.

I like that they look fluid and active instead of the very static poses they are in now. All the Gryph stuff looks much better than the dragon based stuff of the first wave.

You need to build the Seraphon because I must have pictures of dinosaurs riding dinosaurs! I will live vicariously through your faster painting of all of the AoS stuff while I slooooooooooooooowly work through my Mechanicus.

They may have just broken me on Tzeentch. The Daemons of Tzeentch Start Collecting along with Silver Tower is a playable army pretty close to 1000 points...AND you get the exotics (Screamers/Flamers/Herald) for Silver Tower. Plus I've already got 3 Screamers and Flamers and a set of Chaos Warriors that are ready to serve the Lord of Change.

Two things are dumb though. One is that the Pink Horrors it has are the old beaked ones, not the handsy squiddy ones from ST. The other is that it doesn't come with Blue or Brimstone Horrors.

Regardless, for $65 at Doc's that is a hell of purchase for Silver Tower owners. I spent like $50 on the old Screamer and Flamer kits over the summer.

Really getting fired up about hitting Spire of Dawn now...

Take a breath, Michael.... are you sure you want to do this?

Stormcast Eternals - 50+ models
Khorne Bloodbound- 50+ models
Seraphon- 50+ models
Sylvaneth- 40+ models
High Elves- 30+ models
Skaven- 50+ models
Tzeentch- 20+ models before new releases

In for a penny, in for a pound...

Edit- about half of that is actually painted!

I'm thinking of picking up a nail polish rack to store my paints instead of the craft boxes I currently have. It's got a few advantages I can see versus what I do now: frees up some storage space, easier to quickly find what I want, and allows my wife to have the boxes to store her fly tying stuff.

I was thinking something like this:


Anyone have any alternative recommendations of good storage solutions?

On the painting front, I just barely finished up my Vanguard before the tournament although they still need to be based. The brown coats give them a gunslinger-like look that I am really digging.