#paint log

"By the Emperor, what happened to #2 ? Half painted and still in pieces !" "Relax #1, I'm just trying to see if it's easier to paint some parts before assembly." It actually is, though it makes holding the little parts (and not losing them...) more difficult ; good thing I have rather small, slender hands, I guess.

Little Ultramarine #1 is ready ! I didn't manage to lay on the Agrellan Earth thick enough, as the paint was behaving badly. I'm beginning to suspect a big part of the problems with paints is that the not fluid ones don't fit well with small pots. There's not enough of it to swish it around correctly so it doesn't mix well. Now on to give #1 some reinforcements !

Shading done. I might have been over enthusiastic on the Drakenhof Nightshade... On the other hand I rather like the grimy look it gives. Except that stuff managed to get not enough where I wanted it to go, but rather well on mold lines on the power plant I hadn't seen before. This is where I'll be frankly departing from the GW tutorial for this set, as it doesn't show how to do highlights. Probably because there's no appropriate paint for this. I'll attempt to mix Macragge Blue with (urgh) Ceramite White, though I think I'll try to give a quick dry brushing with the blue first, as I have layered the shade on a little thickly.

Also, as a supplementary note on the kit, since I forgot : maybe fully assembling the mini before painting isn’t the best method, as it makes some parts hard to reach.

Little marine 1 is now all blue. It took 3 full layers and a few touch ups to the large areas and some hard to reach spots I'd missed a little. Overall the colour is not bad if not quite as vivid as I'd like, but more layers would mean losing details, and hopefully the washes and other finishing touches should help with that. Overall, as I suspected when first opening the paint pot, I'm not super fond of Macragge Blue for painting Ultramarines, ironically. I find the colour too dull. I also was wary about it being too light, but as I thought, the black primer showing through takes care of that. I wonder how it would look on a lighter colour, though ? PS : now that I'm watching it, the picture somehow makes the colour much more vivid, and about what I'd be aiming for. So, don't be fooled, it actually doesn't look like that.

Marine number one primed. I had to apply two layers, as the paint was very runny at first, despite shaking the pot. I suspect it would be better to stir it up, there were suspicious paint clumps and inconsistent texture that the shaking did not get rid off ; the pots being very small might cause this. I did better on the second layer as I knew what to expect, and so took small dabs at the paint blobs to mix them up with more runny parts. Mini is now drying under a glass to protect if from stray cat hair ; this might take longer than I expected, as it still feels a little sticky. Base coat will have to wait :/

Itsy bitsy marine number one is ready to be primed. I can so far confirm the kit is pretty much idiot proof : all the bits are lettered and numbered, so there's no risk of accidentally using the wrong ones if you follow the sequence. The only thing that could be slightly difficult is the removal of the bits from their plastic prison - and to not mistakenly cut the sprues that you need to clip parts with ; I still managed fine with an old, mangled pair of cutting pliers (note to self : buy a new one). Residual undesirable bits from bad cutting were taken care of with a nail file (a smaller one would be more convenient). Mini got a nice scrub with an old toothbrush and soapy water - be careful not to let bits fall down the sink if you do that - to get rid of any grime and residual plastic dust from filing. Got rid of 1 cat hair (I knew it...) after a quick toweling, now mini is drying before being primed - by hand, as the kit's paint is in a pot, and anyway it's more convenient as I'll be working inside.