The Cardinal Rule of Painting

I had a rare opportunity last week and was fortunate to have the week off of school. One would think I would be working on my E Tenebrae Lux 2013 vow, but I was drawn in another direction. I did a conversion of Mephiston back in October that I posted over on Bolter and Chainsword in my WIP thread. I thought the conversion was different enough from what everyone was doing with the Astaroth body and I was really happy with it.

Next, I had to paint him. Awesome, right? Wrong! I rushed through it to get him ready for a tournament and while I thought he was good at the time I never really finished him. A few days later (which is the litmus test for any artwork I do) I took him out and absolutely hated the paint job. Back in my Battle Foam bag he went where he sat untouched and unloved since last year.

Fast forward to the Kill Team Tournament I was in last month where I was being berated by one of my friends for never having any of my miniatures done. I paint fairly well, but my big problem is I always jump from project to project and I rarely finish painting anything. Not sure why, it's just what I've always done. Of course my plans for getting best painted at the Kill Team Tournament were foiled because I only got one model done (well, it wasn't really done...) so I wanted to finish something and claim with a mighty voice: "This model is done!"

Sternguard Update, How I Paint Red, Kill Team Report

Well, I didn't get all my Sternguard finished, but I did a pretty good job on my Sergeant, Brother Tyrael. Yes, I named all my models and I'm a dork. I also had a chance to touch up my mini display board. I need to push the highlights on this miniature a bit more and add some lighter colors to make it pop, but as is, I'm pretty satisfied. This is my most recent formula for red:

1. Prime with Army Painter Dragon Red
2. Paint over with a really watered down Mephiston Red. The main point of this is to get all the spots that the primer missed.
3. Wash with Carroburg Crimson.
4. Paint with Mephiston Red. Focus on most of the mini leaving Carroburg Crimson in the deep recesses (panel lines, between the different armor plates, between the joints, etc.).
5. Paint the raised areas with Evil Sunz Scarlet.
6. Paint over with Bloodletter Glaze to bring the colors closer together. This is as far as I got unfortunately.
7. When I continue, I plan on painting the raised areas with Wild Rider Red.
8. Finally, I'll paint a very tiny highlight with Bestigor Flesh. If necessary, I'll go over the miniature again with the Bloodletter Glaze.

E TENEBRAE LUX 2013: Sternguard

It's that time of the year again when Bolter & Chainsword hosts it's annual painting competition between the various Space Marine Chapter subforums to see which forum can paint the most models by points. The contest is closed to new entrants, but I did sneak in to make this my second time participating in what I think is great way to get people motivated to paint their models.