From the painting desk: Weekend Binging and Dremel Trials

This has been a ridiculously good Saturday for me. To the right, you'll see my progress on the Cryx Nightmare. I only just started it late last night, so I'm pretty stoked to be this far along on it. It's mostly down to details (runes, rib bones, chains, etc). It's a very fun model to paint. I've always been fond of the look of the Cryx Helljacks though, and Nightmare here tops the list.

In addition to this progress, today has seen a pile of other progress and fun. I got eSkarre primed, all my remaining Legion models trimmed and cleaned, did some minor conversion work on Thagrosh and the Deathstalker to position their arms a bit better and did some generic cleaning up of my painting desk.

Today was also movie day with my wife; we saw Bolt in 3D which was immensely fun. I also watched Babylon AD (not terribly interesting), and probably half a dozen episodes of the A Team on Netflix streaming (I love it when a plan comes together).

I got a little bit of a test run with the Dremel today when working on Thagrosh. I have to say, the Dremel is pretty sweet. Just some quick notes on my experience so far:

• Getting the drill bit aligned is very important so that it doesn't have a warble to it.
  
• The recommendation of sticking the bit into wax first seems unnecessary as my bit never got hot.
  
• Letting the Dremel do most of the work and not pushing very hard is very smart.
  
• Starting a very minor pilot spot for the Dremel helps in making the drilling process much smoother.
  
• The Dremel makes for a much straighter and cleaner hole than using the pin vise.
  
• I'm going to need to find a way to enclose my drilling efforts to prevent metal dust from spreading around. It's not a huge problem, but with more drilling will cause more shavings and dust, and although my new super mini vac is awesome, I'd like to prevent any waste being thrown around if I can.
  
• The Dremel is WAY easier and safer than I was expecting, and I'm sure my hand will be thankful for it doing the work.
  

On the Legion front, I'm still kicking around what I plan to do with them for sure. I'm focused on finishing Cryx and Trolls before starting Legion, so I still have time, but it's starting to weigh on my mind more to make a decision. I really did enjoy the color scheme for the Nyss mercs I painted, so I'm likely to stick with that for the troopers. However for the beasts, I'm still undecided. I'm definitely going with a rocky/snowy basing scheme though. Ok, that wraps up this edition of "From the Painting Desk". It's nice to be back in full swing of painting again. Just enough time to squeeze in some more work on Nightmare before I turn into a pumpkin and fall asleep. Happy painting out there!