Improved Redos

A lot of painters have a tendency to repaint their older models that are nowhere near on par with the painter's current skills. It keeps the paint scheme cohesive, and it is a good way to erase how "bad" they used to be. There was a time where I considered repainting most of my Khador until a friend told me "Whatever you do, don't touch your first models. Those will always be special, no matter how bad they look."

As I took that to heart and started thinking about it, I realized that I couldn't bring myself to redo any models. Every model has a memory attached to it. My Winter Guard were my first experience with assembly-line painting. My Kayazy were the first time I deviated from the studio scheme (if only slightly). My blue Warpwolf Stalker taught me to test colors before committing to them because "Werewolf Grey" doesn't necessarily mean the color will be anything close to grey. Almost all of my Circle troops represent my continuing self-education in using washes without it looking terrible. On and on the list goes, making it impossible for me to fathom erasing those memories.

However, there will always be some models that I wish I could take a second crack at. I have some Doom Reavers coming my way soon, so I get to decide if I want to try freehanding their masks too (my previous ones looked a bit like hockey goalie masks). I'm going to paint another Khador battlebox for my Press Ganger application, this time with 100% less proof that I had no idea what I was doing. Still, there's one unit I've been wanting to paint again because I'm in love with models that have sniper rifles.

An old photo, but the blurriness almost does it a favor

My Widowmakers were my first "try hard" unit, and despite pushing myself they were still obviously done by a beginner. I'm still waiting for Khador to get a Widowmaker warcaster so I can field more than one unit, but until that happens I'm stuck with only having one unit. So imagine my joy when I got a commission to not only paint up pButcher, but also a unit of Widowmakers!

Ahh, shadows and highlights

Now I'm not saying that I sat these models down and said "I'm gonna make you feel so pretty," but I also wont insult your intelligence by denying it. Despite rarely feeling like a model wasn't fun to paint, Widowmakers (and the Marksman with the darker coat) are still some of my favorite sculpts. The poses aren't terribly dynamic, but I can just picture them standing at the outskirts of a battlefield, cold and confident after putting down an enemy with a perfect headshot.

Since this photo I've done some work on the guns' wood, but overall I'm thrilled with how they turned out. How happy? I went out and bought some premade tufts of grass by Army Painter because a simple dirt/grass isn't good enough for my favorite models.

As I said, I also got to repaint pButcher, who is one of my favorite characters in the Iron Kingdoms. My own model wasn't much worse than this one, but I was also able to paint him in the white scheme I'm loving more and more. I've also made a good deal of progress with doing shadows since then - I'm a bit miffed that the light is washing out the white, but it's there.

See how messy he is?

Now imagine how hard it is to wash that coat after each battle....

I'm feeling very chill after painting these pieces. I finished the Butcher tonight and just breathed a sigh of relief because I could see progress after a year, and I was glad to take some great models and finally do them right. Doing warjacks and such is one thing, but small models always have so much character to them and I always like the feeling I get when I do them justice.

See you tomorrow, hopefully with this month's giveaway announcement!

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