Start As You Mean To Go On

I was planning to begin 2012 here on the blog with a “2011 in review” post but that’s something which will take a bit of time to put together so I think I’ll wait for the weekend for that one. 2011 was a very interesting year for me hobbywise so I’ve a lot to reflect on.

That said, I wanted to get the ball rolling in 2012 by posting up the next completed mini in my Warmachine Cygnar battleforce – the first of a pair of Heavy Warjacks, the gatling-toting Cyclone:

My first league game with them is next week so I need to have the first 15 point batch done by then. Should be attainable as I am already a fair way toward finshing the second warjack – the Defender.

I was planning to freehand on some battle scratches and perhaps a Cygnar icon on top of the warjacks, but in the interest of speedpainting and getting them to table, that will have to wait.

Another passing comment before I get back to the brushes is that I tried out the Army Painter Matt Varnish spray on him (and the other finished Warmachine models).

Previously I have been using a brush on satin varnish and then Testors Dull Coting afterward. This was fine, but the brush-on part was a little time consuming, so I figured I’d try a spray on varnish to save time when batch painting.

I’d heard some warnings about the Army Painter spray leaving a frosting and “ruining” people’s paint jobs, so I sprayed lightly and with trepidation.

Luckily it didn’t wreck the paintjobs, but I can definitely see how a more liberal spraying would have done so. I gave it the slightest dusting and I began to notice little flecks of varnish stuff appearing. There’s a satisfactory matt effect to the paint but I am concerned that it won’t have the durability of a gloss/satin pre-varnish.

Time will tell.

So, if anyone’s got any good spray varnish recommendations, do let me know.

~ by Max Von Deadlock on January 5, 2012.