Painting day!

This weekend I had an unforeseen opportunity to get some long-overdue painting in on my primary army, the Arborian Rangers Imperial Guard regiment. I have roughly 25% of my infantry models fully painted and based, enough for a full platoon (30 guardsmen, 3 meltaguns, and 3 sergeants with power weapons). Part of the reasoning for creating this blog was to encourage me to paint more frequently, and so when I found myself with a few extra hours this weekend, to the painting table I went. I tend to paint assembly line style, using Vallejo Paints, Reaper Brushes, and an old CD as a pallete. Colors go in the following order:

1. Krylon Flat Black as a spray-on Primer
2. Reflective Green basecoat on flak armor and capes
3. Green Grey on the legs
4. Brown Violet on the arms and tunics beneath the flak armor
5. Charred Brown on boots, lasguns, belts, masks, and backpacks (quivers with the arrows clipped off during assembly)
6. A layer of black on non-las weapons (grenade laucnhers, flamers, meltas, autocannons)
7. A layer of Woodgrain on the lasguns
8. Gunmetal Grey on the bayonets, belt buckles, and metallic furniture on weapons
9. Flat Flesh on hands and faces
10. Based with Charred Brown and a 50/50% mix of sand and green flock

As you can see it is quite an long process to get the Arborians exactly the way I want them, but the end result is totally worth the time and effort involved. I am by no estimation a great painter (see my friend at GMM Studios for that). I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of converting all these infantry, a project that began way back in 2008, before the current guard codex and when Stealth and Infiltrate could still be given to your entire army. To get an idea of what is involved to make the Arborians, here the bitz used:

• Cadian Torsos
• Cadian Lasguns, Special, and Heavy Weapons
• Cadian Kneeling legs for HW troopers
• Cadian Webbing and Grenades (not very visible, but necessary to make the capes look good)
• Wood Elf Glade Guard Legs
• Wood Elf Glade Guard Capes
• Wood Elf Glade Guard Scout Heads (for the hoods)
• Maxmini Beret Heads for Sergeants and Officers