New Recruits (Hobby Time)

There hasn't been quite as much playing this month as some, but we have found some spare moments to do some crafting - mainly painting and a bit of building.

Firstly painting.  During the course of the year, I acquired four 'fresh' human mercenary type models (these apparently old IMEF models ones from Reaper) and maybe 20 OOP Dark Eldar in various states of completion.  Well now they're all painted (awaiting basing this weekend) and ready for action.

I hit the mercenaries first, using my 20-year-old paints plus a couple of new additions upon finding that some 20-year-old paints don't necessarily work like they once did - fancy that.  I based them in grey, coated them in red, highlighted in orange, and did various detail bits using the standard metals etc.  Good fun.  Perfect?  No way!  Tabletop-ready?  Absolutely, especially in these parts.

It was fun finding the time to zone out whilst zoning in and just put some paint onto something.  Learned some new skills and I imagine that things can only get better from here.

I approached the Dark Eldar differently again.  Firstly a black base coat then, trying out my Aldi airbrush for the first time, (attempted to) applied a bronze to everything but their weapons and faces.  Dry-brushed with a copper and then a little bit more discretely (at least on some models, I was finding my skills) with some gold.  Did some red/yellow/orange things on their hair and metal on bits of the guns and they came out fine.

So a few hours of painting over a handful of days and we've now got a whole new force/faction all but ready to join the fray.  Interestingly enough it is only once I took photos of the models did I really notice some gaps in the initial airbrush work - there's a lesson to be had there.

Finally, on the terrain side, we've now added some more Aussie-sourced items.  One of the guys at the club asked why I didn't seal and paint my recent Banksia... I thought about it some and came to the conclusion that I might as well give it a try on my newly acquired flora.  Pretty basic basecoats, followed by simple poster and acrylic paints and... wow, I (and the family) was surprised at how good they came out.


A bit of colour makes them almost seem alive again.  Dead simple, cheaper than chips and worked out a treat.  Thanks for the suggestion Brent!