October: The Big Build

Fall is unmistakably here and the temperatures in Indiana have dropped back down to reasonable levels. I gaming terms, this usually means it’s time to get busy priming. Over the last few weeks, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing; assembling and cleaning all my purchases this year and getting everything primed before the weather gets too cold.
Recently I’ve enjoyed working with plastic both with Space Hulk and the GW kits I bash together for Necromunda, but with Malifaux taking up more of my time and Puppet Wars now being injected into the mix, that means a lot of working with metal. The good news is that I can pin just about ANY joint you can think of, and I’m almost done. The metal work would have to be my least favorite part of this hobby though. It goes slow and is dirty and just when you think a model is done, a change in lighting shows you a mold line you missed and its back to the drawing board.
Then there’s priming. I’ve decided to go back to priming everything white. Back in the days, I shifted to black because I was a less skilled painter and it was much easier that way, but now I think white is the way I want to go. There’s just something more fulfilling to me in painting a white model than a black one. When it’s done, it really feels done.
Oh, and by the way, I recently ran out of my usual Army Painter white spray and had to make due with some GW white primer. Never again. I’ve heard all the arguments for years and I’m sorry, but GW white primer sucks. End of story.

Puppet Wars
Since GenCon I’ve been asplaying a lot of Puppet Wars and I’ve been slowly working on the painting and assembly. As is always the case, the project seemed like a reasonable endeavor until I realized that my collection had grown to 52 Puppets (with a few more on the way).
Still, the little guys are just as much fun to paint as I had hoped, so I’m making the most of it. Even as a slow painter, I can get one of them done or nearly done on a good night.
I didn’t have any idea where to start with these guys, so I just picked up a puppet and started working. The first was Bette Noire.

My goal for Puppet Wars is to make the models look like they’re made out of things, so I will be steering away from the realistic fleshtones and subtle effects I’ve been working on with other projects. In this case, Bettes arms have been fashioned of old bones.

I came across an interesting problem with Bette. These models are so small, using straight black eats the model up too quickly. So instead, I’ve been using more Charadon Granite with a small highlight.

Next up is Convict Gunslinger. I wanted to get him painted quickly as I had just finished his Malifaux counterpart and the Gunslinger is proving to be one of my favorite puppets in the game.

That's about it for now, but there will be much more to come.
-Nick