Terminator Squad - Part V

 

Marshmellow Man's worst nightmare.

It's been a little longer than I'd planned since the last post, thanks to a few health issues (amongst other things). So these Terminators aren't quite done yet, but they are very close. They've all just been given a matt varnish, leaving some metallics, spots of gloss varnish, a few minor details....and edge highlights.

From the start I've been planning to give these models final armour edge highlights only towards the end of the process. The matt varnish simply dulls everything down too much otherwise. Actually I already applied a "pre-highlight", which now I need to go over again - and yes, this makes everything take that much longer, but still works in batch painting mode.

A note on batch painting: again, this is something generally not for me. I don't batch paint, so it's not actually what I did. I only had three colours (reds) I was using, which stayed on the wet palette, and I did one model at a time over the course of a couple of days. It's the same concept of batch painting, but not done in one sitting. Actually that approach in general was done to bring all the models to a similar level of completion around the same time: the reds, blacks, metallics, purity seals. I just keep the wet palette handy and do the same part of each model at different times of the day. When it comes to individual details, there's actually not a whole lot left over and they can be finished relatively quickly (and with more motivation).

On the heavy flamer for example, I picked out a checkered pattern on the side just to break up the monotony of colours a little. I was inspired by painting schemes of Rogue Trader and 2nd Edition, deciding to give it a little bit of flair. As something unique I was also far more interesting in seeing how it would turn out (bonus for motivation), and with the model already mostly complete I could immediately see if it worked or not.

Ultimately, health issues aside, I think the adjustments to the process have worked, and I'll continue to see how I can tweak my painting pipeline to get through more models without reducing the quality of the finish. I also now have a reference to compare before/after final edge highlights. Hopefully not too much longer and the squad will actually be done.

-- silly painter