2017's Painting Challenge

Happy New Year!
I do hope that those who are reading this will have an amazing 2017.

Just a quick blog to get going with the 2017 painting contest. At my local gaming club (WS10), they have a number of exceptional painters. I, of course, am one of those... :-/ HA! I'm not! Anyway, there are a number of painters at that club who make me feel really bad about my painting skills and each month over the course of 2016 the club did a painting challenge in which people 'pledged' a set of figures to paint over the course of the month. Now, I started this very enthusiastically but after the first 10 minutes of painting a model my interest suddenly waned. 
My painting skills are at best, lacklusture as I don't really have the time to dedicate to getting better or indeed painting a full army of anything. I think the last army I painted was an Empire force full of about 100 horsemen around 8/9 years ago but even that was rushed and not taken very good care of.

One thing I have found myslef being good at is drybrushing. A technique within itself but one that many people categroize at the 'lazy' way to paint. Nevertheless, I can wrack up a unit in an afternoon! I keep promising myself that I'm going to get better at painting but every time I see tutorials online there are a number of things that hold me back - excuses being one of them. You know the old scenario - no the right paints, haven't got the right model, can't get things done in the time you have, etc. Yep, I've used them all.

I've decided this time thatI would try and get on the painting bandwagon again and see how long it lasts. Like I've said in previous posts, I'm hoping to get more stuff painted and ideally, I'd like to have fully painted armies for each of the AoS factions - something that I don't think I've ever had! Along with that will come the great sort out of random crap that I really don't need. I've got some Guild Ball, Malifaux and other AoS bits and pieces that I need to get rid of in order to streamline and consolodate what I have.

Right, the painting challenge! It has been the wisdom of Stu (@CaptainHelvetos) that in addition to a 'pledge' painting challenge that this should take its course:

"In January you will need to build and paint a Champion / HQ model. for the next 9 months your choices for the unit to commit too will be decided by a dice roll! this is explained below.
AoS (D6) 40k (D6)
1-2 Follower (Battleline) 1-2 Troop
3-4 Retinue (non-battleine) 3-4 FA
5-6 Hero (leader) 5-6 Elite / HS
November will allow a special unit to be painted of your choice whether it be a large behemoth or LoW etc ready for the Port Maw game or AoS big game."

Seems fair, right? Well, here we go - my painting for the coming 9 months!

I'm going to be doing a Death army and a Stormcast painting project. In fairness, the Stormcast may get done slightly quicker, depending if I need them to go to tournaments! But the Death is a long term project which I'll be building up slowly.

I have seen the most amazing Black Coach on Twitter today by @tinracersteve which is just incredible. To be fair, I was thinking about buying the Nighthaunt box but I didn't know what to do with the Coven Throne. Now I do! Take a look at this:

Great, right?! Anyway, on with my feeble attempts. 
So this month it's a Champion/Hero/Leader choice so I've elected to paint a Tomb Banshee and a Lord on Dracoth. 

Here is what I've got so far:

 To be fair, the Dracoth has had a bit more work to it but I've just taken it after I did the scales... one by one...

Here's the progress throughout the day:
Dracoth:

So far, I've got the scales done, the armour plating and the skin. I'm in the process of doing the bones and the Lord himself. I've painted the cloth and the reigns a very light blue but I am slightly unsure about their overall impact on the model. I may have to revisit it and get it maybe a deep purple to be in keeping with the beast himself.

Now on to something which I'm actually quite proud of despite it being only 45min/1hrs worth of work - Tomb Banshee.
Here she is completed (in case you forgot from the top photo):

I saw a 'step by step' guide by a guy called Martin Grandbarbe on an Age of Sigmar group on Facebook which showed off his ghostly painting and I went to back to that - 'I haven't got the right paints.' kind of scenario but then I thought, I could do something similar with what I've got.
There I went, step by step to create her:

I really liked Martin's style of how he painted the robes almost fading into the bleakness and I thought that would be something I can replicate. What I can't do/haven't done yet is the really bright ghostly white he did for his models, especially in the middle but I'm happy with the outcome I've produced.

In case you were wondering, here is Martin's work:

So far this month, I've painted by Hero for the Death Force and am nearly done with my Dracoth... all this in one day! Roll on February!!!

I'll keep you updated on my progress.
Thanks for reading.

I'll see you soon!

@geekphotoguy