Painting has begun...the first session!

    At last!  After many month of collecting and building model, then worrying over a paint scheme, I have begun the painting project in earnest.  The squad above is the first, arbitrary, squad I chose to paint.  I'm beginning with the masses to sharpen my painting skills and to get comfortable with subjects that aren't in power armor.  My other two loves are Grey Knights and Dark Angels space marines.  The guard pose a new challenge for me.  LOTS more models to finish and a different scale and level of detail.  Also the nature of cloth and metal in the guard will develop skills and techniques that I didn't really use with my marines.

I started with a test model.  You can see him on the left in the front row above.  There is  a close up of the model below.  I chose to go with Vallejo paints for this project, almost entirely.  They cater to military color palettes and the quality of the paint and resulting finish is superior to what I was able to achieve with GW paints.  I am using the ModelAir line where colors are available.  These paints come pre-thinned for air brushes, which also make them great for the standard brush!  Smooth flow, no glopping, no thinning necessary.  I find I can paint more quickly without losing any quality - in fact I feel I'm gaining quality and saving time with less touch ups, etc.

The test model is incomplete.  It represents the planned color palette for the clothing only.  I didn't fuss with the details of weapons and equipment.  i felt these were goign to be pretty easy to sort on the fly.  For the bulk of the uniform, however, I can't speak highly enough about taking the time to choose colors and form a plan.  In this case, I start by basing the models in flat gray.  I then start painting with a wash of the great coat followed by a quick highlight.  I then paint the pants and gloves, and wash; paint the leg wraps, boots, and webbing, then spot wash those.  Next the armor, followed by the masks, hoses, and ultimately the equipment.  The process is yielding a reasonably quick table-top standard.  Some final highlights will round out the models, but my focus is on getting units DONE.  IN the past, I've gotten myself bogged down in perfection and details...I end up treating each model like its a special character and this takes too much time.  As a result, I have no complete armies after many years of play and hobby!

The picture above isn't great.  I was trying to illustrate how much I was able to accomplish in only three hours in a single session. I was very pleased with the progress and this helps build incentive to keep up with the project.  Life will always come first for me, but I've decided to really make a serious effort with these guys.  The models are fantastic casts and it's really a shame NOT to get them painted.  

I intend to update this blog with my painting progress and anything interesting I learn along the way.  I started this project with a fairly reasonable goal, but I've far exceeded that now by collecting and assembling a major force of Imperial Guard.  I'll detail the current force in a separate post. :)

Cheers, and thanks for reading.