Duelling Paintbrushes: Emergency paint salvage

Last night I was painting away on the unit of 15 Dark Elf Spearmen for Duelling Paintbrushes when there was something of a mishap with my old pot of Bleached Bone paint. I took the lid off, and found that all of the paint that had been residing in the lid had remained sitting on the pot itself. Somehow it had come cleanly away from the plastic lid and formed a dome-shaped semi-rigid container of old paint. This wouldn't have been a real issue, except that it had also taken a fair amount of liquid paint with it. This meant a waste of usable paint, which is something I abhor. So, it was time to take some emergency steps to reduce the waste.

Eh, what? Don't think I've seen this before. At least, not for a while.

First up, I made a point of trying to speed up the painting of the Spearmen. I applied the bone colour, gave it a wash, and only waited for it to partially dry (it was dry on the raised areas where I wanted to paint) before going over it again with a bone-coloured highlight. So that was 2 swings at the potentially wasted paint.

15 Spearmen, now with bone-coloured robes and shields. Add a little red and flesh, and these guys will nearly be done.

When this was done, I could see there was still a lot of usable paint going to waste. So I looked around for what else I could paint. The 12 Crossbowmen to be included in Duelling Paintbrushes were not yet undercoated, so they were not an option. Not only that, they would really have needed their armour done first as well, and I realised that there were not even fully assembled yet! They still need magazine for their repeater crossbows and quivers to hold their additional ammo. So they were (and still are) a long way from ready.

So then I looked into the case of Dark Elves and found some other likely candidates. These were not models destined for Duelling Paintbrushes, thanks largely to the fact that they already had some paint on them at the start of the challenge. Of course, this was also the reason they were ready for the bone colour on their robes, so I guess such a compromise was inevitable. 

That's right, you're not meant to be involved here. You should feel bad.

This guy seems more defiant about the situation.

I grabbed 10 Crossbowmen with painted armour and bases, and a couple of loose Spearmen whose armour had been done, and started throwing bone paint at them before it was too late to use it. Once this was done, I gave them the sepia wash, as it's always best to finish a painting session with a wash rather than leave it to the start of the next session, when you'll just end up having to sit around, waiting for it to dry. By this point it was well after midnight, so I finally headed for bed. Not all of the paint had been salvaged, but enough that I didn't feel too bad at the loss.

How they looked at the end of the night.

10 partially painted Crossbowmen, none of whom belong in Duelling Paintbrushes

And a couple of Spearmen in the same boat.

All of this means that I have wasted a fair amount of time painting models that are ineligible for Duelling Paintbrushes. Poor planning, really. But they will contribute to the same army, and need to be done sooner or later anyway. After looking at the state of the Crossbowmen I am actually meant to be painting for the challenge, I am starting to wonder whether I will need to cut my losses and finish these bonus ones instead. Technically this would mean me missing my target and failing at the challenge, but I'd still have painted models to show at the end of it. Time will tell how I approach this particular balancing act.