This week in Immoren: Fresh Start approaching

Fresh Starts is now less than a week away and as it stands I am nowhere near to achieving my fully painted lists. Grissel's battlegroup will be finished, as will the Whelps and the Feralgeist which is in the bag already. 

As well as the periodic procrastination, which I have to say is far less frequent than it used to be, I have had a lot of work for University and done a lot of hours at work. Add to this twenty years of actually being frightened of painting for fear of ruining the model and this has been one hell of a challenge for me. However, I am pressing on, and for a beginner I am happy with the results so far. 

The problem that I have always faced is that I've tried to achieve the standard equal to the best of the Games Workshop, and more recently the Privateer Press models. The paintwork coming both from those studios and from the most accomplished of the freelance and expert amateurs meant I had no idea how to compete. 

Friends (and one in particular) have always pointed out that unless I paint, I won't improve and if I don't improve, I won't achieve these high standards, but my own need for perfection has held me back. 

However, a couple of days ago I had an epiphany. Again it is one that many of my friends have been pointing out for years: I only need them to be a decent tabletop standard! I know, right? I'm just intending them to be used for me to play with, not to photograph for glossy magazines of internet online stores, so even my ridiculous perception of a good standard is surplus to requirements. 

This actually happened due to my recent interest in Malifaux. The one thing that I've noticed over the last few months is that even though there are far less models on the table, many of the Malifaux gamers use a more sheer highlight to contrast the deeper shaded areas of their models, and again despite the lower figure numbers, it still looks strong on the table top. 

If we go back to my Trollbloods, I painted the Slag Troll first and although I enjoyed painting the model, I put a great deal of effort in to blending, highlighting and shading, and although I'm happy with the result, it was very labour intensive. 

Conversely the reds I've on the rest of the battlegroup were achieved a lot quicker. I simply based with Sanguine base then applied a Red Ink wash. I then used a highlight of Sanguine base and Skorne Red before applying a much more sheer highlight of Skorne Red and Khador Red Highlight. I had initially thought that the Khador Red Highlight looked too orange in its bottle, but now realise that it isn't intended to be used in isolation, but rather as a mix. Personally I am very happy with the result. 

I am off work this week, so hopefully I shall be able to plough through and get some progress achieved. If nothing else I must remember to apply facings to the bases. 

Finally, opinions please: for the bases, the brown as per the slag troll's base, or should I do a grey stone effect base?