The Shelf Turns Red

I made a lot of progress today. The last week really put me behind schedule. I do believe that I did make up for it today. I have all but twelve XV-8's completed. I am still wondering if I should make them look like the rest of the army or keep them as is so they can be designated as a separate unit. If I do decide to paint them like the rest of my army I will have to get some more 40mm bases.

I got Farsights bodyguard reprimed, and repainted today. Considering the models came out around '02, the models are still holding up really well. The heads came out really well. The new markerlight heads really make the models stand out just enough. I really wish I would have discovered that conversion about five years ago.

I absolutely love the new color. The mechrite red really has a blood/maroon color that is closer to what I believe Farsight is supposed to be depicted in. Originally I wanted to follow the fluff about the 'breakaway faction" and use some sort of rust color. Then I saw another model that had been painted by one of the 'Eavy Metal' team and really liked that color. It was a deep red not quite a maroon but not quite a blood red. For two months I experimented with different colors with no luck. I ended up settling on a mixture of a black and red. Depending on the ratio of black to red, you can come up with a very deep rust brown. However now finding out that the Tau use some sort of crystalline armor, rust really isn't an issue now is it?

For my color scheme I am going to do mechrite red, black and a dark gray. Plasma will be a combo of dark blue and light blue. For lenses I am going to stick with light and dark blue, with some white. I have issues with using the standard paint chart. Way back in second addition, when the Deathwing Terminators first came out, they were, because of the fluff, painted in Christmas colors. Being bone white, trimmed in green with red highlights, they had everything short of a beard and eight tiny reindeer. In the dark future there is only war, and someone forgot to add the kick ass, foreboding, unchristmas colored terminators. Maybe for lenses I might try yellow. I will have to experiment and see how it comes out.

These guys below are the command section for my Nighthunter Stealth Formation. Supposedly the more experienced or veteran pilots use the smaller suit XV-22 instead of the XV-25 because of a smaller signature. In the game there really doesn't have any difference. I used to have six of these guys but I traded them away for another Devilfish and some other units. Besides the new XV-25's had just come out, so it made sense at the time. I was lucky enough to come across about 24 of the metal ones. If I really wanted to I could field two complete Stealth suit formations, if I was going with out any Rapid Insertion Formations.

The Xv-25's below came out very well. I was able to paint almost three times as many XV-25's than XV-8's with the same amount of paint. Painting the stealth suits really went quick. Much quicker than I had expected. I was will able to complete 30 stealth suits in just over an hour. I have six left I am not sure if I want to paint over or not. Jury is still out. Yes the antenna's are in different positions on the XV-25's. Forward on the top of the "helmet" means part of a 'Rapid Insertion" Formation. An antenna on the jump pack means the suit belongs to the Stealth Hunter Formation. The drone controller is a free floater.

Sometimes I will run one of these with some marker drones to stir trouble up in small games or in Apocalypse games run a team of three, put a positional relay on one, hide it and watch people get mad.

I also started painting the A-X-10 tonight. Its about half way done. I will post a picture when its completed. I have to say, that plane looks down right evil even partially painted. Its like a giant bloody wing just hanging in mid air.

Sooner or later I will have to make a decision on what to do with the models painted with the previous color scheme. Deep down I am hearing a call for new bases....