Old Ruins

I mean that title in both senses... So last night I sprayed down Whirlwind #1 again and the various other stuff with it and then sat down and found myself in a bit of a quandary. What now? I don't feel like assembling another Rhino frame for Whirlwind #2. I don't feel like digging into one of the Predators. I don't feel like gluing and cutting foamcore. But I want to do something so what should I do? The answer was actually staring me in the face. Many, many moons ago, I acquired a bunch of 3rd Ed. ruins, drybrushed on some white and fortress gray and that was it. They were bland and boring but serviceable. Now I'm looking at them and thinking about how bland and flat they are. Well, enough was enough! I decided to pretty them up for a new millennium. And since it wasn't all that complicated, I managed to get a bunch done. Basically I painted either snakebite brown, golden yellow, bleached bone or a combination thereof onto all the brick areas, trying to give it a more desert stone look and then drybrushed them all with space wolf gray. I'm not jumping for joy over how they came out, but they're quite a bit better than they were before.

A funny thing is that to my eye, the brownish color seemed flat and blended into the stone but looking at this picture, they look decent without being garish or overwhelming. In fact, for the past weeks that I've been posting these pictures, I find that I may be kinda blah about how the thing itself came out, but once I look at a picture, I'm happy with the outcome. It looks like I've come up with a standard operating procedure for the future. Whenever I paint something, I take pictures of it. If I like the pictures, it's fine. If I don't, back to the drawing board or painting station until I do like it. Brilliant!

I took a look at the box for GW's Mines, Bombs and Booby Traps. A bazillion resin markers for fairly cheap? Not bad, guys. I think I'll pick one up when I have money again. I already want to get a Blastscape to add to my craters, a Battlescape and some Defense Lines. And yes, I do have a soft spot for the other buildings. Sure, I don't need a Bastion because I can make equivalents much more cheaply (and have) but for the most part, I've been very satisfied with GW's buildings. Their minis I'll find for as cheap as I can, but their buildings I'm actually willing to pay full price for because they're usually worth it.

The plan for tonight is to start gluing the templates for short walls and towers on foamcore so that I can start cutting in the next few days and then, with the time remaining paint up Whirlwind #1. Not that I'll have much time after that, but if I do, I think I'll start assembling Whirlwind #2. That's the plan, but then again, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Let's see what I actually manage to accomplish...