/waveshand This is not the update you are looking for

So August wasn't the greatest paint month out there.  With Birthday stuff, foot issues, and general craziness at work I had limited hobby time.  Here is where I will put the disclaimer; those looking for the Nids and Warhammer 40k, this is not for you.  While the Tervigon did get some love, she only got a couple layers in on the lower skin tone, and I didn't get a chance to grab pics today at lunch :-(

 In a general sense, warmachine armies are poorly (if at all painted), compared to what you see in 40k.  I have been to large events like adepticon and local events.  3 slapped on colors, a splatter or 2 on the base and presto "expert " painted warmahordes is the standard.  There are of course the stand out players with greatly painted armies, but in general the quality is low.  I asked around and timing seemed to be the theme.  They didn't think they had time to paint well, so they quickly slapped paint on.  While I agreed it does take practice to get good at painting, especially highlighting,  I wanted to see if with limited time I could turn out well painted models (7-9 scale).   In this case I wanted to take my "8" model painted last time and get a 10.  So here it is, the final touch, now with strings...

...and with that, presto he tops the charts.  Seems simple, but very dramatic, especially in Warmahordes where model conversion is forbidden (at least restricted and frowned upon).  Little details like this really set your army apart.  Most people slap on 3 colors, but you go all the way to do string bows, you are scoring bonus points with judges.  The overall process took about an hour per model.  In actuality I spent about double that on each model, if you count the ink dry time.  My process was to paint to base layers and ink in 1 setting, then come back and highlight everything another night.  To demonstrate, here is the second of the solos at what I call the "base" layer.  This is the stage before inking/washing.

I actually hate this stage, everything looks lack luster and missing depth.  It is however a great example of an "expert" paint job in Warmachine.  No joke, this is level you normally see at events and I have seen it take best painted.  In general I am also avoiding black.  If I had a nickel for every Cryx army I see painted jet black with green eyes and "glowing" green parts I could afford a painting service.  You can paint "dark" and use color... simply amazing.

about 40 minutes and a bunch of highlights later

Really effective process, I used a similar technique on a unit of Banes last year.  There is a final guy in the unit, and he is at the second stage of highlights I think it is safe to say challenge passed.  Fast effective painting that is well more that 3 colors and put you in the running for best painted.