Army Swap Month - Wrapping Up

April was the month for stretching out and trying new armies on for size. Most of the Freshcoast 40k crew participated in a model swap, trying each other's paint schemes on for size. The rules were simple- everyone offered up a single already-assembled and based model, on a 25mm or 40mm base. Participants were encouraged to offer up a model that represented the overall character of the army. Whoever got your model had to paint it up to match your army, without any advice or how-to from the other person. Since we all have some form of Marine army, we tried to stick to our xenos armies so April would not be a power-armor fest. Results after the break.

First up, tau4eva painted an Eldar Warlock for cerberus.

In addition, he painted a bonus Harlequin for cerberus.

cerberus got in the action by painting a Black Legion CSM for Phil.

In Phil's first post at FC40k, he paints up a Lictor for Mike aka muggins.

In a super detailed post, Maelstorm painted up an Ethereal for tau4eva.

Next up, dustin painted up an ancient looking Necron C'tan for maelstorm (who apparently missed the rules about model size...)

Muggins did up an Ork nob for yours truly...

Speaking of yours truly, I got the honor of painting up the super cool 25th Anniversary Model recreating the Rogue Trader cover. This model came courtesy of Chad, owner of our own Gamers Sanctuary. Chad joined us for the model swap, and since he doesn't have a 40k army, he offered this instead.

Finally, Chad painted up a sweet daemon model for dustin. It's posted on our Facebook page, a place you all should check out, by the way!

Since Chad couldn't make his own blog post, here's his write-up of the model:

...the model I received for the model swap is finished. This is a Chaos Fiend that I painted for Dustin. Normally, when painting a model, I kind of pick up a 'vibe' from the model and that tells me how to paint it. Sadly, I received no such vibe from Dustin's model. Maybe the Warp was obscuring my painting 'Zen-ness' but whatever it was, I just couldn't quite get a bead on what to do with the skin.

Over the course of the paint job I tried to pull-off a kind of 'infection' look with the black but that just wasn't working for me. And the skin, for whatever reason, was also really hard to work with (also, why does this creature only have boobs on one side?!?). On the whole, I would have to say that I am not particularly pleased with how this model turned out so, Dustin, if there's any other model you'd like painted, I'll do it for you to make up for this one ;D.

On an up note - I have felt like I had kind of been hitting a painting "Wall" so-to-speak. I had reached a point where I couldn't quite seem to pick-up on any new techniques. Well, happily, with this model I had a "Painting Breakthrough". I feel like I've finally gotten the hang of subtle color transitions. Sadly, I achieved this breakthrough on the last part of Dustin's model that I painted (the horns) but, the fact that I was able to very subtly and smoothly transition the horns from a dark, burnt brown up to a light, almost ivory color has made me very happy.

Dustin, I'm serious about that model. You bring me something cool and I'll paint the hell out of it for you (or into it, if it's Chaos). Thanks for letting be a part of the painting swap guys!

Chad, incidentally, is an awesome painter whose work has placed and been featured in No Quarter, the official publication of Privateer Press. Thanks Chad for participating!