Slowly but surely...

... I'm getting these little squiggies painted.

While it may not look like much, I can assure you, highlighting and blending 30 Squigs is.

I've gotten the blue done on all 30, and as you can see, starting to paint the mouths on the first 10. I'm taking this 10 at a time, doing the gums and teeth, since I was starting to go bonkers painting 30 at a time. The blue may need some touch ups here and there, but for the most part the front row of squigs are done (the riders obviously need to be painted next). Thankfully the mouth and teeth are pretty easy and quick to paint, so I'm hopefully getting to the riders soon.

Still, even a picture such as this is unforgiving - I'm starting to notice all the little blotches, errors, bad blends, etc - I need to remind myself that these guys are meant for the gaming table.

Let's take this up a notch.

After having almost completed the squigs in the planned colour scheme (at least the blue colour), I realised that I just wasn't happy with it. What looked pretty good on the smaller scale squig herd, looked a bit chalky and well, drybrushed on the larger squigs. So, realising that I wouldn't be happy with them, I decided to grab my brushes, colours, glaze medium and layer them all.

Unfortunately I've been held back by a nasty cold for the last 3 days, but before that I managed to get 12 of the critters to this stage, so it's doable - sure, it takes a bit longer, but this looks much much better, and is something I'm proud of showing people, rather than "well, it's a pretty nice result for how fast it is, right?".

This is MADNESS! No. This. Is...

... Batch painting 30 Boingrot Bounders and Squig Hoppers!

There's no two ways around it. Painting battle line, especially lots of them, is boring to me. But I'm determined to actually get this army painted, so I've decided to batch paint every single squig in one round. This way I won't get tempted to "save one unit for later", since none of them will be finished if I don't paint them. Seeing as I've managed to get them ready for the two final highlights in two nights (about 6.5 hours = 13 minutes pr Squig so far), I'm keeping a pretty good pace. My plan is to get in at least an hour or two every night, and I'll hopefully have them done at the end of the month.

Getting Squiggy with it...

Alright, no more excuses. I'm terrible at this blogging stuff. I'm a lazy painter, I only paint/build/convert when I feel like it, and there can be anywhere from a day to a year between updates. Oh well - it's a hobby, so I'll just do it whenever I feel like it. And now I feel like it. :)

I haven't done much hobby related stuff since my last updates. However, upon seeing the amazing new gloomspite gitz, I couldn’t help but start a new Squig themed army.

The army will be as follows;

LEADERS

LoonKing Arr-Durr: Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (300)

- General

- Command Trait : Fight Another Day

Da Wizard MurrLoon on da Walking Castle: Troggoth Hag (380)

UNITS

Da Squierz: 5 x Squig Hoppers (90)

Da Uvver Squierz: 5 x Squig Hoppers (90)

Sir Gawaaagh and da Knightmares: 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (200)

Sir Perciwaaagh and da MidKnights: 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (200)

Da Horsies: 6 x Squig Herd (70)

3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)

3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)

BEHEMOTHS

Aleguzzler Gargant (160)

BATTALIONS

Squig Rider Stampede (140)

ENDLESS SPELLS

Scrapskuttle's Arachnacauldron (50)

total: 2000 pts

I’ve bought, cleaned, assembled and based everything, except for the second unit of trolls and the troll hag (which will be converted from at WM/H trollbloods mountain king (on it’s way - it's gonna be cool, a shaman riding a giant stone troll to war - Merlin riding Camelot), and I’ve spent the last week trying out some different paint schemes. I have an unfortunate tendency to be way too ambitious with my painting, which results in my projects ending up infinished, so I’ve lowered my standards a bit, finding solace in the idea of “finished is a quality in itself”. 😊

Another dogma; almost every army or warband I've ever done has been muted, natural hues, not quite Blanchitzuish, but in that vein. While I think it's a great look, and I like the gritty realism, they just don't "pop" out on the table, and I wanted to try to do that for this army - therefore I wanted to try out a really vibrant colour scheme that would go POP on the table.

Above is the first finished unit. The blue is quite quick (about 20 minutes pr squig, being mostly drybrush and washes), the teeth taking a bit longer and the green on the grot being a bit time consuming as well, but I’m aiming for about 40-50 minutes pr Battleline model as a goal.