+ inload: Squats and an errant Halfling +

+ Mojo reignited +

+ A great catch-up with the PCRC last night and actually spending some time painting has got me enthused for hobbying again. It seems an age since I've shared some substantial progress in painting, but here we go. +

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+ Tryn-Eena +

I sat down and hewed away at squats with my brush last night, starting with the yellow helms. These started as Iyanden yellow before having Flash gitz yellow mixed in; and then Vallejo off-white. I wanted a slightly pastel tone (hence the addition of off-white), as I was planning to glaze it with the old Citadel yellow (Lamenter's yellow?). This would let me build up the highlights much more quickly, and avoid the risk of adding texture through lots of coats.

Once the pastel yellow was in place, I added a few layers of Gryphonne sepia and Agrax Earthshade to enrich the recesses before working in a dark brown (the name escapes me) in the deep recesses. Once all that was in place, I put on the yellow glaze to tie things together.

The reds were tackled in a similar way, building up with Vallejo flat red, then more of that together with increasing amounts of Flash gitz yellow. Pleased with how well the new ones [+viz-ref: above, left and right+] match the old scheme on the test model [+viz-ref: centre+].

Not a huge amount to do on these, beyond the faces and ticking in details, which I hope I'll be able to do over the next day or so. I like the slightly mottled, beetle-like sheen on the red as it feels quite different to a lot of my other armies – a halfway house between clean and shiny and battered and wartorn, which seems fitting for this faction.

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Overall, I'm much more happy with the group now – I think the yellow tweaks the nostalgia-gland just right, while the slightly more muted treatment of the red and greens means that they don't look too much like  a band of tiny Father Christmases.

In particular, I think the big white band on the medic's helmet makes it a lot more obvious who he is. Once I've got these done, it'll be onto the Theyn (squad leader) as priority, as he's essential. The others are optional, but I'll do my best to get the squad, as outlined in my earlier inload, complete.

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Separately from the above is this free miniature of the month – a Ratling sniper in the very early stages. I really like the miniature of the month thing; just strikes me as a genuinely good promotion that gets me to pop into stores.