The final countdown

 Thought I'd do something a little different with this post. Since I have one model to paint in one week I'm going to track my progress on a day to day basis and see how I get on. Hopefully it will motivate me to get painting.

So this is my starting point. Primed with some black and gold which is quite lucky as that gold took more than a couple of coats. I have a rough idea of what I want him to look like and I'll work out the details as I go. It's definitely doable but wish me luck or scroll to the bottom and see if I made it.

Sunday - I took today off work for good reasons but they were cancelled. I decided not to go into work anyway and get in some painting. I got a lot done so it's been a day well spent. The horses skin is finished apart from his snooze which I think will be more pinky. The saddle and straps are also done if a little brighter than I would like. As for the armour I was kind of heavy handed with the dry brushing and as expected the black went where it wasn't supposed to so that will need fixing. The armour on the horses head was a nightmare so it's been painted over in black and I'll fix it another day. One rock was cut off, the other painted and I made a start on the hooves. Not a bad days work.

Monday - Starting to see some real progress now. I've tidied up a few areas and while I'm not overly happy with the black armour I am happy enough. Getting the red and yellow for the horse has been a big boost and really helps bring the model together, still not decided on what to do with the horses mouth but I'll get there eventually. So far the generals armour has been based and washed but that seemed like a good stopping point for today.

Some of today's painting time was spent in a more enjoyable fashion getting a space marine painted up. What started as a limited pallet turned into rainbow basing and dry brushing was the lesson of the day. Two brushes were killed but that's what old brushes are for and it was definitely worth the price.

Tuesday - I very briefly thought that the general would be finished today and to be fair he's not far off. If it wasn't for swimming lessons and housework I probably would have made it. I think there are some areas to tidy up and the feathers, which I've dreaded from the start, only have the base coats down so not too much at all left to do. Nothing is to a high standard with the armour especially being quiet rough but it is painted which I always count as a win. I would say one disappointing part is the skull on the horses armour but one part I am proud of is his face even the eyes look good. It took a couple of tries and his left eye could use some dark lining but there's no way in hell I'm trying that. Anyway back to 12 hours of work tomorrow so I don't think much will get done, luckily that's all I need.

Wednesday - As expected not much got done today. In the short space of time between finishing work and putting my daughter to bed I washed the feathers, stuck down some mushrooms and removed the model from the painting handle to black line the base. I returned to the model about half an hour later picked up the painting handle and the model fell down to the floor. Everything looked fine but when I started painting the head of the skeletons hammer came flying off. I can't find it anywhere but I'll have a better look tomorrow. I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time at work thinking about what I can replace it with. Anyway for painting I mixed a little red into a lot of yellow then added more yellow. I was hoping to get a smooth few layers of yellow to red but it came out as a peach colour. I decided just to go with it and hope it turns out ok. I had low expectations for today and I really exceed them I'm sure tomorrow will be better though.

Thursday - Today started by crawling around on the floor at 06:00 trying to find a tiny bit of plastic to no avail. After a hard day's work I sat down to take my boots off and there it was. It's now glued back in place and hopefully it stays there. So tonight I've tidied up a few bits and painted the feathers, not to my satisfaction but that was very unlikely, and that's him finished. Not completely as the base still needs doing but that should be quite quick then have all night to dry before the tournament on Saturday. The feathers really aren't that bad I'm sure in a few days I'll be happy with them.

Friday - well we made it one model in one week. After varnishing and basing he's ready for the battlefield. I knew it would be close but getting done the day before the tournament is closer than I would like. I also received an email from games workshop letting me know my made to order stuff is on the way so I'll soon (not likely) be adding a war wagon and some characters to the army.

Not much chance of me winning tomorrow but I'm sure I'll be able to buy myself a consultation prize.

Thanks for reading.