Heresy & Heroes

It’s been a busy week or so. Hunting for a new job has intensified, the social calendar has been plenty busy and to top it all off, I was hit with a particularly unpleasant bout of food poisoning too. However, all of that has not stopped me from doing a little bit of work on my Blood Angels Praetor.

Now, when I say “a little bit of work on my Blood Angels Praetor”, I really mean that. Here’s where he’s at at the moment:

So I have done the grand total of… one leg. And I’ve started on the other. But I have many reasons for the somewhat slower progress than planned. Firstly, I got the fear that the way I was approaching the armour made him look a bit Thousand-Sons-esque. Red and Gold, you see. Now, we all know the Boss ranks of the Blood Angels like a little bit of Gold (in the same way that Tony Montana liked a ‘little bit’ of cocaine), so it makes sense that it’s there, but combining it with the red did making it look a little bit Prosperoean (Prosperen? Prosperoish? Prosperoian?). I feel that has been remedied with some of the embellishments though – the flames and the hip plate – but it did make me stop and think for a little while.

Another thing that has been bothering me are the dangly bits. No, not those (cheeky). But the bits that hang down from his belt (still cheeky) and shoulders (hmmm… not cheeky unless you’re particularly talented). I can’t quite decide what colours to do them. Black? Black and yellow? Black and red? Yellow? …still not sure on that. If you have any ideas for those dangly bits, or even a better name for them than ‘dangly bits’, please let me know in the comments below. It’s amazing how making decisions like that can slow you down though. Just having to take time to think can really slow your progress. It requires coffee, pondering and procrastination and it really isn’t conducive to one’s labours.

And that hip plate. I’m trying to incorporate those touches of the 2nd Ed box cover guy, and this is the main symbol that runs across that guy, but dear Emperor was it tricky. Not only is putting a white spike in a black stripe on a yellow base a shape-based pain in the trouser seat, but with a cloak and a wire in the way, the natural angle of paintbrush approach is totally cut off. It involved a great deal of doing, redoing and at least a couple of words you wouldn’t repeat in polite company.

There’s still a lot of touching up and finishing off that I need to do on this leg – want to bring out a bit more of that gold, tidy up those flames and a few edges, but this gives you an idea of where I’m going.

Now, I said earlier that I had done a “little bit”of work on the Praetor, but the base is another story. That’s now done and waiting patiently for the big chap to stand on it. Here it is…

I didn’t know I could weather like that! I’m really happy with this one, to the extent that I’m a little annoyed that I have to cover it up by putting a miniature on top of it. Lots of sponges and washes and technical paints applied with various methods. It’s really going to give the praetor a setting to stride over.

And I’ve kept that nod to the 2nd Ed box cover here too. The little bits of barbed wire, the broken masonry, the skull. I’m really happy with that little bit of scripting too. If the whole model looks as good as the base when I’m done, I will be very happy indeed. Maybe even ecstatic. Who knows. Will update.

So, there you have it. Slow progress but progress nonetheless. Hoping to have a bit more time to work on this in the coming days and have something a bit closer to completion to share with you next time. And now that my calendar’s a little less full and I can go for longer than thirty minutes without rushing to the toilet in pain (never eating the burger from that pub again), I may even have a chance to get it completed by the next post! Fingers crossed. And if you have any ideas, comments, questions, other things… perhaps a recipe for a strawberry cheesecake or a favourite haiku, please add it/them below. Onwards!

P.S. Here’s the 2nd Ed box cover guy for reference for you to see what I’m blathering about if you don’t know: