Qrab's Chaos: Trolls, Thugs & Tragedy (197 pts)

It turns out February is not only the shortest month of the challenge, it's also turned out to be the cruelest month. 

Readers might assume from the tone of the introductory sentence that what follows would be a mulligan post, but those readers would be wrong! While there may only be 28 days to work with this month, I was feeling good after December's output. So, rather than play it safe and paint five Marauders, I decided to to push myself and paint the larger group of models among those I had left. This meant 10 Thugs with long bows, a standard, and a musician (132 pts) as well as a single Troll (65 pts).

The Troll known as MM40/02 TR6

At some point in my youth I purchased a single blister of Marauder Trolls (MM40/02, to be exact). For the life of me I cannot remember why, since at that time I was trying to build an Empire army, which does not allow for trolls. Regardless, the two trolls in that pack have languished for many years, so it feels good to finally put some paint on at least one of them. (While rummaging through my storage unit, I happened to find his blister companion, so I may paint a second troll soon).

Paint-wise, there was no way in hell I was going to replicate the scheme used for the catalog model. Instead, I kept it pretty simple by starting with VMC Deck Tan for the skin that was then shaded and highlighted multiple times until I was happy. To break up the monotone look, I decided to paint the glove to look like it's a collection of various scraps of cloth scavenged from defeated enemies (similar to how the clothes on the Marauder Giant are painted). I think it does the trick of bringing some color to the model.

Once finished with the Troll, it was time to move onto the MB10 Marauder Chaos Thug Regiment. Now, I remember when these were released, but I don't think I ever saw the models outside of the photos in White Dwarf. I picked up these models from eBay a few years back and have been looking forward to painting them. There's something about these sculpts that remind me of Wez and Golden Boy from Mad Max II: The Road Warrior, one of my all-time favorite movies.

Wez and Goldy.

Maybe it's the models' outlandish hairstyles and primitive weaponry. Or, perhaps, it's the assless chaps worn by the unit's Champion, Leader, and Musician. Regardless, the studio paint job for this unit is way more colorful than my typical style, and I think it actually detracts from the miniatures' appearance because it obscures the details.

Therefore, when it came time for me to start on this unit, I went with a range of blacks and medium browns to give the appearance the models were wearing a variety of leathers & furs and used a lighter brown for the wood. Red for the cloth and fletching added a bit of color. Finally, I added some individuality to the models by painting each one's hair differently. And to do that, I went old school and broke out a few classic GW paints in the hex bottles! Bought in the 1988 (or there about) and still good 30 years later.

They don't make 'em like they used to!

Everything was going so well; I was on track to finish everything with time to spare. Even catching a fairly nasty cold that kept me home from work for a few days didn't slow me down. By the day after Valentine's day, everything was painted and ready for the final step: clear coating. Typically, I do this in two stages. The first stage consists of a coat of Krylon Crystal Clear to give the models a nice hard shell. The second stage is to cover that with a coat of Golden Archival Matte Varnish, which removes the shine from the first coat. I've been doing this two step process for years without incident.

Until this time, of course.

I suspect it's because the can of Golden Varnish was almost empty, but something went wrong and four of the ten models were covered in goopy patches that did not cure correctly. It would be one thing if the four affected models were Troopers. While that would have been irritating, I probably could have lived with it since you really can't see the defects from table top distance. But the fact that the Champion and Musician were affected the most really pisses me off because when you look closely (like, say in a photo for a blog post) you can definitely see that's something is wrong. Believe me, this blog entry would have featured close ups of assless chaps had the varnish cooperated.

So, for the purposes of the Challenge, I'm posting some group photos that show I've painted a unit of Chaos Thugs. But, once the challenge is over, four of those Thugs are going to soak in some paint stripper and will get painted again.

The front rank. From this distance you can't tell that two of the models are fucked.

The back rank. The two on the right have a date with a chemical bath.

The whole unit. The leader's hair painted to look like flames.

So while I'm happy that I met my personal challenge to paint 11 models in the shortest month, I'm disappointed that four of those models need to be repainted. I'm going to take a break from painting for about a week to clear my head, and then get stuck in to finish the last five models of the Marauder unit to finish out the challenge.