LWBG gets a job... a paint job that is. (Long post w/ Pics)

As you've heard me mention before, I"m seriously considering tournament play.  Getting the stuff necessary for doing so was easy.  I'm just a couple of vendetta kits and model purchases away from having a complete WYSIWYG army for which I'm very excited.  The only downside of trying to create a tournament compatible army is.... Dun dun DUUUN... painting all these models.

Don't get me wrong, I love this game, I like seeing other people's work, but dammit.... why can't I call my guys the "Gallant Greys" and play?

"But CommissarWes, painting your models is the true joy of this hobby!!"

That may be true but, you'll understand how I feel after reading my model painting resume:

• Name: CommissarWes
• Years playing W40K: 1
• Model Painting Experience: A few infantry models and primer
• Artistic Skill Level: Laughable
• Artistic Skill Comparison:  An ork boy with a 2x4 smearing blood on a wall.

With that in mind, I went to my local gaming shop and decided to buy actual GW paints instead of my usually cheapskate move and buying random cheap paint from Wal-mart, brushes, primer.  I told the manager of my plight and he gave me some pretty helpful advice and even showed me a few You-Tube videos with basic techniques.  I took his advice home with me with my new bottles of paint and began working on painting a vendetta.

I've already had my color scheme prior to starting.  I run my army as a penal army who wear the 'orange jumpsuits' with black boots, white or black tees and orange bandanas.  Unfortunately, "Jumpsuit Orange" isn't a color in the plethora of GW paint selection.

So the paints I took home were:

1. 2x Solar Macharius Orange (Foundation)
2. 2x Blazing Orange (Color) <also dubbed "OMG that's super" orange>
3. Skull White (Color)
4. Boltgun Metal (Color)
5. Elf Flesh (Color)
6. Chaos Black (Primer)
7. Chaos Black (Color)
8. Chainmail (Color)
9. Tin Bitz (Color)
10. Scorched Brown (Color)
11. Gold <whatever funky name they called that> (Color)

Disclaimer:  I have truly, honestly never painted any type of model in my life minus a few catachan models and a failed attempt on a hellhound.  I am quite proud of the result.  Any of you elitists out there who are all like "OMG... Why would you display this on the internetz", consider this your pre - "Get the fuck off my page" speech and leave... quietly.

I took the models to work with me on Saturday and spent the entire time painting my Vendettas and watching YouTube videos to learn.  (Yes.. my job is THAT boring on the weekends sometimes that I literally can go hours before work prevents itself AND that badass, that I can spend the whole non-working time painting my models. \m/  ).  Here are the steps I took:

• Primed - Chaos Black
• Painted whole model with Solar Macharius Orange foundation
• Painted whole model with Blazing (er.. Blinding) Orange
• Drybrushed Solar Macharius Orange foundation to dull the Blazing Orange
• Covered orange splotches on black areas with Chaos Black
• Painted all black areas with Chaos Black

I'm going to stop here for a moment because I got several questions already as why the my models look the way they do.  While I'm painting and putting in some details, I got to thinking.  This is Penal Legion.. they're stuff is going to be raggedy.   Then I realized.. these guys are going to look REAL raggedy.  So I went from drybrushing a little bit of boltgun metal to the corners for a little bit of wear to the most "angrily drybrushed scheme on a model I've ever seen" (quoting someone at a shop I go to).

• Heavy, Heavy, HEAVY drybrushing of Boltgun Metal using a bit of paint droplets here and there for "streaks and scrapes"

The weathering effect did not come out the way I expected it... It blew away my expections.  My rough draft immediately became the basis for my other 5 Vendettas.

I'm pretty happy how it turned out.  The only thing that the pictures here don't show is that on the engines, I put a coat of Scorched brown, topped with a layer Tin Bitz, with a light drybrush of Boltgun Metal on the ridges and Chaos Black drybrushed at the engine exhaust port for a burned look.