SNIPERS!

I am pretty damn excited and I don't get excited easily.  But today it was a beautiful day and after a walk around the block Junior laid down for a nap and I sat out back with my paints.  I completed my Crimson Fist sniper sergeant yesterday (or was it the day before?), and thought I'd see how far I could get with the rest of the squad.  To my own amazement in two hours I as nearly done with FOUR guys!  Granted they already had the base colors on them from a month ago (or two or three months ago), but the rest went quickly.  I chalk it up to (1) having the sarge done so I had a template to go by, and (2) making an effort to keep my guys simple -- not that many colors, little to no extra accessories to mess around with, etc, and (3) having a simple system in place to get the painting done.  First I went through all four and get the base colors all lined up again (first coat ran over each other, only a few clean edges, which I decided is what makes them look good, having definite crisp edges to your colors like where boot meets pants, holster meets pants, etc).  After I had all the base colors looking pretty and solid (step 1), and ran some washes over the pants and a few other details (step 2), and then dry brushed everything that needed it (step 3).  One model after the next, same color assembly line style.

So that got me through about three hours, including completing the missile launcher marine, who is a metal model and not of the same manufacture, so his head was already there, no camo cloak on him (thinking about maybe trying to make one out of greenstuff for him).  All that was left was the three plastic heads and the goggles and scopes.  That little bit, the most minute details, took another hour alone.  I kept screwing up my skin tones and my paints are getting old and dry and thick so my teeny tiny brushes don't work well with those thick ones, and smply being a perfectionist when it comes to faces and colors and things.  At this point I was also getting EXHAUSTED.  My eyes weren't focusing as well, my hands were starting to shake a bit, and my patience was wearing thin.  I didn't realize how much stamina this took anymore!  I also made a last minute choice on the mohawk head, and so glad I did!

So once all done (though I might hit the mohawk with some orange highlights yet, and do that cloak...), I got a little camera happy.  I always do with these new-fangled digital jobbies.  You can take as many as you want and then weed out the bad ones!  Trouble is I don't end up weeding that many out.  I also sometimes name the pics, so these are: "group", "one shot, one kill", "camo"  "badass", and "questioing orders". (notice the pose doesn't really change, just the view.  yes, i know it's a bit much.)  So here they are, my new badass sniper squad!  (I'm so proud.  They ain't 'Eavy Metal matieral or anything but they're way better than I expected.  And without doing any tedious line highlighting, just dry brushing!)