On My Painting Table

After letting my painting area devolve into a pit of despair, I finally decided to clean everything of. Gone are my magnetic paint pot wall boards, and in are acrylic shelving from the Container Store. Cleaning was long overdue, and my new workspace has already kick started my enthusiasm for modeling

One of my goals in painting my Ultramarines was to paint every entry that I had not painted before. This includes the kinds of units that list builders usually ignore. Last night I started on one that was new to me personally, but which has appeared in some competition lists. Enter the Thunderfire cannon! Exit casting quality. This is the worst finecast model I have tried to paint so far. (plenty have been returned) Sheer stubbornness lead me to try to paint up this guy despite the horrible cast. In the end the mini will sit nicely in the background lobbing shells at unsuspecting guardsmen or other hoard armies. I am even enjoying painting the guy, even though every other cable abruptly ends. There must be something to the freedom of painting when the quality of the mini removes all final product expectations. On the other hand, this guy was supposed to come with me to NOVA this year and the model looks like an amateur cast. I don't really want two of these things, but have I really painted it yet if the cast is so bad half the cabling details are missing?


Another really cool thing stole my attention partway through cleaning. NOVA is going to allow FW models at the event this year.

Can I get an amen!

This is a great change, and long overdue in my book. Half the fun of going to an event like NOVA is seeing all of the beautifully painted armies. This year we'll undoubtedly see great FW models as well. Three cheers for diversity. My Contemptors might even make a showing, though I might have to spend all my points on a Storm Eagle, Casteus Assault Ram, and Storm Talon instead. I just think that would look so cool. Especially if I could work in an allied force with a Storm Raven. Sure there would barely be enough troops. Sure it is not a competitive list. But how cool would it be to play a game where space marines ride into war air cavalry style.

So after this long pause to take these photos and write this post. What should I paint during the last half of the afternoon?