Duelling Paintbrushes: Mission failed

Well, it's now November, which means Duelling Paintbrushes is over. And, as predicted in my previous post, I have failed to achieve my original target. It comes as no surprise, but unfortunately I didn't even really get very close. By the end of October, I had painted a Sorceress, 10 Cold One Knights, and 15 Spearmen. I had built commenced painting of the two mounted characters I needed to do, but they were nowhere near finished - and I had only just managed to complete the assembly and undercoat the 12 Crossbowmen. Not exactly covering myself with glory, there. Oh well.

Those mounted characters only got started very late in the process. I didn't really have the right models on hand. I knew I had a Malus Darkblade model kicking about (minus the old goofy cow-like Cold One he came with), so I figured he would do the job of a lord character. But I hadn't really worked out how I was going to make a BSB. When it came to the crunch, I ended up using a Cold One Knight's legs, a Corsair's torso, arms and head, and some extra spiky head-pieces from one of the Knights. The sea dragon cloak took some chopping and green-stuffing to get it to sit OK over the saddle, but it worked fine in the end.

Malus has traded in his ancient (and rather terrible) Cold One for a newer model.

My converted BSB. I was pretty happy with the pose, in the end.

I couldn't find a more exciting weapon for him, so he just stuck with a normal Corsair sword.

Sea dragon cloaks are not made to sit on Cold Ones. A bit of chopping and covering my handiwork with green stuff and the problem was solved.

By the end of the month, these guys had a couple of base colours on them and nothing else to speak of. They were probably about 10% painted. Not really inspiring, and certainly not usable. However, last night (November 1st - otherwise known as the day after the challenge was over) was painting night and I was determined to improve the situation. I was up until after 1 am (trying to multi-task between painting and constructing army lists for Warhammer World Series), but I'm calling these guys finished now.

My Dreadlord and BSB, ready for battle. They both have different coloured mounts from my regular Cold One Knights, to help them stand out.

Malus is one of those shy guys who hates having his photo taken. Or the photographer is rubbish and forgets to check if you can see his face. One of the two...

He's not of the same calibre of some of the newest Dark Elf models, but he stands up OK. Never liked the severed head look, though. Find something better to do with your off-hand, you silly elf. If I'd had more time, this might have gotten converted.

I did bend his cloak down a little to reduce the silly effect of it sticking straight out backwards. I needed a little green stuff up near the joint to hide what I had done. Nothing major.

He's outta here. Things to do, people to behead.

The finished BSB. Still happy with the pose. He probably could have done with some slightly more showy armour or weapons, but he looks different enough from a regular Cold One Knight.

As is usually the case at the moment, I left the banner bare. I can come back to it later if I feel inspired.

He doesn't rank up really well on one side. Poor planning, hard at work.

And if I then cheat and include the 2 characters in my overall shot for the end of Duelling Paintbrushes, this is where things stood by the end:

Even with cheating, the target proved too much. It seems I am busier than I used to be.

So even if I cheated an extra day to knock off the characters, I still fell short by an entire regiment. At this point there is no way that these Crossbowmen will get done before Warhammer World Series, as I will be too busy painted up odds and ends for a wide range of armies. But being undercoated, hopefully I will be abl eto make myself sit down and do them once the madness of the tournament is past.