Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Assault Squad Mekata Painting in progress!

After what's been a bit of a hiatus, I've actually been able to slop a little paint around! Rather than try and paint in the heat of the hobby loft in the afternoons after work, I've shifted my schedule around a bit and started getting up an hour earlier than normal and bang out a color or two each morning before work. Has actually been a rather relaxing way to start the days!

Since I've been doing a color or two a day in an hour or so rather than a half a dozen or more in one big go, I've taken to snapping a picture when each session is complete. This is the basic Vallejo Dark Fleshtone with a heavy drybrush of Red Gore, which is where it all begins. Super quick and dirty, I use a big ol' beaten up brush and don't worry too much about slop as it'll all get cleaned up in later steps.

Then the upper surfaces are given a further drybrush of Blood Red. The upper surfaces of my fingers, the desk and the old shirt I was wearing also got a layer of Blood Red when I fumbled the bottle. Whoops! Suffice it to say, getting the red on is not a fastidious or tidy process.

The final step in the red is to tie it all together and tone it down a bit with a thorough wash of Carroburg Crimson. In general I'll leave the models to sit and dry for a good long time at this point, as I've learned I'll otherwise inevitably put my finger on something and smear it/smudge it.

Next up is all of the metal on the weapons, the various joints at elbow and knee, and the backpacks. Pretty basic Vallejo Gunmetal followed by an Army Painter Dark Tone wash. This stage really starts to sharpen up the models, as the metal goes down carefully covering any slop from the earlier red stages.

Finally it was time to start picking out the details in Vallejo Glorious Gold, followed by a Reikland Fleshshade wash. Once the wash is thoroughly dry, the upper areas are touched up with a little more Glorious Gold. The gold does down right over the red, which I find brings a nice warm tone to the color - I find gold to be more translucent than one may expect, the under-color will affect the final tone of the gold significantly.

So far so good. Still a ways to go of course, over the next few days they'll get the ivory and blue treatment - it's definitely felt good to get painting again!