Konstantinos and some Dark Elf testers

Evening all,

Life's been busy lately, and there hasn't been quite as much progress as I'd like on the hobby front. There's a decent reason for this however, as I've gotten a job and I've needed to take care of some stuff before I start tomorrow.
I was really hoping to have both the knights I've worked on lately done by now, but sadly it didn't work out. The Knight of the Holy Sepulchre has been difficult to work on, even if he is a joy to paint, and I've been less than willing to lower the paint standard to get him done.

Less so on Konstantinos, though. I'd like to get some freehand in on those shoulders, but for now, he'll do. Click for a bigger version.

I'm quite happy with him, but there's areas I'd like to have done better, in particular the sword. There's quite a noticable bend on it, but it's not something I can bend back I think - as far as I can see, there's a slight bit of damage there from when I cleaned him.

Still, as a high quality test piece for the KotHS, he's pretty nice I think. I got a lot better at painting leather and white while doing him, and that'll come in handy I think. The practice on white already has. Hopefully next update will be able to cover some progress with the KotHS.

Last update detailed the generosity of Maelstrom, and I've started on the Dark Elves. I've redone my list as I made some mistakes last, and I've decided on a block of 14 corsairs with a captain, a captain with a banner, 10 crossbowmen, 5  shades and 5 dark raiders as the starting 600 points. Once I find my list I might post it.

Proof I'm working on the corsairs:

I hope to keep more or less this standard throughout the unit, though there's bound to be some quality slippage once I crank up the speed. And to prove that I am actually able to work in batches:

(I'm working on the legs too, but they're pretty boring ATM and I couldn't be bothered to photo them yet. )

Dark Elf invasion

It's time for a brief (hah!) intermission from Infinity.

Recently some friends and I have been talking about starting a ninth age campaign. Originally, I was going to go with my old Warriors of Chaos. A while back though, Maelstrom sent me a Christmas package, including some DE Corsairs, Witch Elves and assorted bits.

When he heard about this, being generous as he is, he insisted on sending me, well, pretty much all of his old DE army.

You're looking at roughly 20 Corsairs, 40 Spearmen, 20-something Repeater Crossbows, 2 Repeater Bolt Throwers, 8 Shades, a command group of Witch Elves, 5 Furies, a Hydra with handlers, a Cold One Chariot, 8 converted/WiP Dark Riders, plus a heap of characters, including the old Malekith on Dragon. Not to mention the bits, bases and movement trays.

It goes without saying that I owe Si massively for this - I'll have to find a way to repay him, but so far he's been refusing payment of any kind.

I tried for individual pictures but my camera is awful at photographing larger groups of models, so that'll have to happen as I touch up the units before fielding them. You'll have to make do with grainy pics of the core troops and the characters.

Also in there is a small purchase I made while the models were making their way to Denmark - a bunch of the old metal Executioners, some oooold Dark Riders, and a Sorceress on Cold One.

Again, thanks mate. I've said it a couple of times at this point, but I owe you a solid for sure.

I've got another week to get started on these, as I start my new job February first and I'll have plenty to do then! I'll also be trying to finish the Knights as well - I need them for the escalation league I'm running!

Further progress on the Knight and his buddy

Tiny update here, as I've had a few hours to slap paint on these two.

There's also a new project coming, but I think I'll wait a few days until it's a bit further along to grab some pics. 

Konstantinos first, since he's effectively the tester for the Sepulchre knight. I've hugely enjoyed being able to test out recipes and so forth on this guy and then apply them immediately to the Knight afterwards, it's worked well painting wise and kept them from being boring. I think I'll try that again on the next models I do. 

His upper body is sorta done-ish with a few exceptions, such as the sword (the red'll get worn off during painting if I do it now, so it's the last thing I'll do before varnishing him) and the lights on the back piece. I'll be gluing his arm on shortly, I just wanted to take the opportunity to photo him and see if there's anything missing first.

Now, the knight might seem like he's been neglected, but that's only because it's not apparent how much time has been spent on that cape.

I've spent about 1½ hours on that little bit of the cape under his sword, and I still need to tweak the deepest shadows. Painting purple is a nightmare, but somehow I'm having tremendous fun with it. I'll admit I'm worried about freehanding the KotHS symbol on the chest piece though, I think that turned out well and I'd hate to have redo it.

As always, if you spot anything that could be better, please leave a comment. :)

Infinity WiPs

Since Maelstrom keeps nagging me, I've got a couple of WiPs to post. 

I've been plugging along on the Sepulchre Knight, trying to keep up a decent standard. 

Painting black on his coat has so far been rather annoying, so I think I'll go back over it afterwards. 

I'm trying something new to keep a decent level on this guy. I've got Konstantinos going at the same time, so I can test out paint techniques and such on him:

More to come - I think I might actually have some time to work on them tonight! Plus, there might be something GW coming...