Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Radical Change

After looking at how my armor has turned out, I realize that I am really unhappy with the colors I have chosen for the infantry.  My veterans are coming along great but my basic troops are not happening for me so I have decided to start them over from scratch with a new look & paint scheme.  It's not as much of a loss as one would think...only a couple squads.  

Besides the colors, I am a little unhappy with the way the replacement heads from West Wind have turned out.  They aren't as detailed as GW heads and are a pain to paint properly.  I'm not knocking West Wind, in this case their heads just don't inspire me.

The mech rough riders are coming along but will be delayed a few days while I re-tool the paint a little. 

Also, I picked up a copy of the 3 DVD set called Hot Lead.  Most of you are probably familiar with this item but I have to sing it's praises.  If you are new to the hobby, buy it.  If you are a painting veteran, buy it.  It has great info for painters of all skill levels.  It's organized & indexed perfectly so beginners can go through each section while veteran painters can skip forward to the advanced parts.  Like many of you, I have danced around buying this set for over a year.  I always wondered, "What's the big deal?"  Now, I know...


That's all for now.  If you know of any cool resources that others might find useful, leave a comment and/or a link and I'll compile them into a database that people can access from this blog.

The war goes on,
Hessler

4 comments:

Dencarion said...

wow that's a tough decision - especially knocking the heads.
I really feel for you.
What replacements do you have in mind (for the heads)?
Thanks for the tip on the DVD's - do you know if they're on amazon?
Cheers
Klaus

the other Kevin said...

It wasn't a tough decision for me to switch colors, though I have a couple squads still in the old scheme (they're my conscripts).

I assume you are talking about the Hot Lead at http://hot-lead.org/ ?
I learned a lot from that site when I got back into the hobby a couple years back. Somehow I missed there was a DVD available. Previews look really good, so I'm going to have to give that some serious thought. Thanks for the tip.

Col. Hessler said...

@Klaus: At this point I think I'll go with the Cadian heads. I'm also considering Pig Iron but they are being used by so many people these days that they seem to have lost a little bit of their character. The DVD is available at Amazon.

@Kevin: Yes, hot-lead.org is the guy's website but it just doesn't do the DVD justice. You can order the DVD directly from him or from Amazon. I learn best from seeing video or seeing someone in person. Looking at progress pictures is ok but I don't get a feel for the technique like I do when there is a video playing.

Karitas said...

I can strongly reccomend (as I've done it) supplementing the cadian heads with both FW and empire heads - even marauder horsemen (though those are a tad large and more suited to marines/scouts)

the flagellants, greatswords militia and pistoliers, and the archers all have a few good heads. hit up a bitz site and cherry pick the best ones.

It's even possible to mate then with cadian helmets (i've done that too :) ) and change things up with GS beards and hair :)