Stupid Confession time: I’m a bloody slow painter. It’s a stupid confession, because that’s already public knowledge. If it wasn’t for things like Templecon looming over me and demanding I represent for the Lost Hemisphere by playing fully painted, I have no idea if I’d ever be able to get anything other than solos and warcasters painted. Like many painters, I just generally do not enjoy painting units. Part of the reason I play Warmachine rather than Warhammer is because the idea of painting 30+ of near identical models just saps my will. Ol’ Cleverclogs Bloke thought “Hey, the units pretty much cap out at 12 models, no worries!” but no, over the years even the idea of painting a 5-man unit just makes me groan compared to the joy of being able to lavish attention on a single model like a solo.

Regardless, dice have been cast, and if I’m planning on playing Incissar Vyros at Templecon, then I need to have my Dawnguard in fighting trim. To that end I set myself a goal. By the end of the Christmas break – after I’d had five days off of work, albeit days suffused with Christmas festivities, family time, and Gdayclan traditions like doing jigsaw puzzles on the kitchen table – I wanted to have the Invictor unit completely finished.

Guess what I did over my Christmas break? 😉

It started with a bunch of Dragon Forge bases from their Ancient City Ruins series. I chose the series because it looks sweet, paints quickly, and after the Kickstarter a month or so back, we’ve got even more nifty sculpts incoming – including some suitable for water effects – that I’m planning on mounting more Privateer models on.

iPhone photos are iPhone, but a few different colours, some washes and some tufts, and the bases were good to go. You’ll note I didn’t do the rims – that’s always the last thing I do, since I need to mark base arcs as well.

Me being me, I got all excited and did the Officer model from start to finish. Yes, tabletop quality – I’m not in line to win any painting contests, but I’m happy with where it’s at. He because the prototype for the rest of the unit, and helped me plan out which colours to paint when in the process.

Before long, this shady bunch were standing around all armless and stuff, and those without helmets were pouting because they didn’t have any faces, really.

So I did them next. This is where the unit was at Saturday night. Still needed their gunblades attached, and all of those tiny power nodes needed to be picked out. Thankfully, Sunday was good to me, and while I admit that I’m writing this at almost 11 PM….

We have a full unit of Invictors ready to hit the table at the FLGS!

The Officer much prefers his photos to be taken with a real camera. It helps highlight his overbite, which he’s oddly proud of.

Pensive grunt is a little pensive. He misses his snugglebug, and hopes she’ll send cookies to the front soon.

And of course, the bases look awesome too.

I’m waiting for a shipment for 50mm bases to mount my Destors on, so I guess that means Sentinel Unit 2 is next on the table, unless I briefly distract myself with a Soulless Escort first…

Templecon’s only a smidgeon over a month away. GET TO WORK!