Painting Continues to the Surprise of All!

Somehow, I've already managed to get some painting done in 2026! Most of this post is works-in-progress but in an effort to keep my momentum, I thought I'd take some photos to share where I'm at. Plus, I have to document completed figures vs purchased figures for my one and only goal for the year.

First up, four battle sisters (to be fair they were started in December):

Their completion brings me up to two 7-figure squads - which was my target (decided upon after reviewing PDFs of the 2nd ed. 40K Sisters of Battle codex, 2nd ed. Codex Imperialis, and 3rd ed. Codex: Witchhunters, as well as FUBAR 40K 3rd Edition, and FUBAR 40K Boarding Actions - Boarding Parties)

I have four of my Christmas gift Orc Boar Boyz in progress: 

The fellow on the left is closest to done - although I see I missed the wrappings on his shield arm - his shield is in-progress. The others have been base coated only, with no touch-ups or highlights.

For their skin color, I wanted something to blend in with the others I have that were painted by a previous owner. To that end, I'm using Delta Ceramcoat Medium Foliage Green as the base coat, and picking out raised bits/edges with Delta Ceramcoat Leaf Green. While it's no Goblin Green of yore, I think it has a nice cartoonish look, which was my objective.

Most of the boars have lost their tails,  which is typical for these older figures. Unfortunately, the few that did have tails, also are now without them due to my not so nimble fingers. I wonder if the more recently produced boars have this problem. It's OK, I may make tails for all of them from wire later, or I may just call it a badge of honor for these veteran sculpts. 

Finally, I started in on my other Christmas present, seven old school (90's sculpt, metal) Plague Marines:

As a reminder these were painted by the previous owner - but somewhat sloppily. 

I've begun putting base coats on bits they had left as primer or that have been worn down to bare lead again and on the weapons (I don't think they should be the same color as the rest of the figure). The previous owner used a fairly glossy and thick varnish, making blacking out the weapons more annoying than it needed to be, but I don't want to strip the figures either. I know I want to keep some of the coppery colored state, but there are definitely details I want to pick out in non-metallic paint! 

In any case, the biggest thing that needed addressing was the basing. The figures came mounted on their original 25mm slotta bases. That size base doesn't fit in with the rest of my science fiction/40K collection.

On top of that, the figures are tiny compared to the modern Primaris-era figures.

 To make up a bit of the height difference, I followed advice I'd seen elsewhere and:

1. Clip them free of their old 25mm slotta bases
2. Clip the tab (that goes in the slotta base) off the mini (thereby depreciating the figure on the collector's market. Fortunately, I'm not a reseller.) 
3. Use cork or other basing material to give some height to the figure. 

I don't have any cork, but I have plenty of foamcore sheets available. So, I peeled off the paper from each side, which left me with just the foam. I then broke and tore the foam into roughly rock-like shapes and glued them to new 32mm bases (3d printed, cheaply available on eBay and Etsy). 

 

Here the weapon-size difference might cause some to balk at fielding both on the same table, but that doesn't bother me as someone who fields 1/30,1/32,1/35 figures with 1/37,1/43,1/48, 1/50, and 1/56 vehicles on the same table regularly. I will keep them in separate units however.

The foam stones were primed with Delta Ceramcoat Raw Sienna, then a light coat of Folk Art Desert Sand, followed by a wash of Citadel's Aggrax Earthshade. Once dry, they were given a 1st highlight with very watered down Folk Art Desert Sand. I will undoubtedly apply another layer of the Desert Sand, less watered down, on the flat bits and edges.

Tufts and such will be added, but I'm currently out of them. 

I think Nurgle bases need a little Nurgle's rot on them, but I prefer to spend my money on other things than a very limited use Citadel technical paint. Previously, for my Nurgle's Rotters Blitz Bowl team and my modern Plague Marine figures, I mixed my own, but was way off the mark with the end result. This was my third attempt and it by far my most successful in terms of matching the vision in my head. 

It's still not a great match for Nurgle's rot, but it works for me. For now. And I've painted over my existing Plague Marine bases with it (see above size comparison photos)

I really should do a better job documenting my steps, in case anyone else finds themselves in the same boat. While I don't have specific ratios, what I can say is, I found a YouTube video that was inspirational and showed me my previous attempts were off because I relied only on green paints. Yellow appears to be key.

So for this mix, I started with Apple Barrel Lime Sherbert and Delta Ceramcoat Pale Yellow in roughly equal parts, and a huge glob of PVA to make a viscous puddle. The result was pleasing, a bit like pastel Easter candy, which is not at all like any kind of rot. Unless you count the tooth decay that follows eating too much candy and not practicing good oral hygiene.

Enter Reaper Pale Saffron. 

This color is very close to yellow mustard (like the kind you may have in your fridge) and it pushed the mix into green slime territory, which was good enough for me! How much Pale Saffron? I have no idea. That's the part I wish I had documented.

The rot was then coated with gloss varnish to give it a wet look.

Finally, just for fun, I've officially "converted" my white Solido Pz IV  to an Adepta Sororitas tank with some spare decals:

 It's been a busy two weeks!