Warhammer 40k Update
Thin your paints.
Or just use contrast paint. That's been my biggest takeaway from the last several months of cutting, glueing, priming, and painting. I promised an update on my army, so without further ado, here it is, my battle ready army - painted, based, and mustered into a fighting force of potent synaptic power:
I am very proud of this accomplishment, so if you'll indulge me for a moment, I'd like to show-off just a little bit. Pictured here, is my Hive Tyrant:
and the massive Norn Emissary:
The Norn was hours of work, a labor of love in which I painstakingly followed WarHipster's tutorial for contrast painting the beast, found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dL_mOY-M1g. There were some components of the tutorial (specifically a lot of the edge highlighting) that I skipped. Part of getting better at painting miniatures for me has been learning what I can and can't do without more practice, and I pushed myself to my limits with the Norn
My Hive Tyrant I'm particularly proud of though, as his colors and paint job was my own independent take on a Hive Fleet Leviathan Tyrant.
Next up, here's a close-up of my swarm of hormoagaunts, a unit of bug/raptor/hunter things that likes to smash into infantry with tiny little plastic claws:
I've played several games as well with my friend Sam, and as of now the Emperor has been protecting his Astra Militarum army from the onslaught of the Tyranids quite well. I'm hoping to take my army to the local game store soon now that it's all painted up and see how my swarm stacks up against other factions.
Among the different components of Warhammer (hobbyist/painting vs. gaming), both come together beautifully for me. Being able to relax, put a podcast or audiobook on and paint for a few hours is a really relaxing way to spend a weekend. You can see how much improvement I've made in a close-up of my Screamer Killer and Neurotyrant (now being sold by Games Workshop in the Horros of the Hive kit)
At the same time, the theorycrafting, the optimizing of what units to take and when to do what, the social aspect of getting to stomp around a table and blow minis up (in the imagination, of course) with someone else is a genuine treat.
I'm not sure where I go from here in the hobby, though there's rumors of a Hachette Partworks magazine run that is very tempting. Perhaps I'll do that, or maybe plan what models and paint scheme to use for my next army project in 2025 (yes, I plan that far ahead with my hobbies, and yes I know that's weird).
If I end up just biding my time and planning, fellow fans will understand what I mean when I say that my next army will be for the Greater Good 😉.