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This week in my Hobby Streak (What is Hobby Streak?), I was sort of in a transitionary period. I am not currently working on any particular army, so I was kind of digging through my Pile of Shame (see a video on my Pile of Shame here) and looking for bits and bobs to paint while I wait for a new army to dig into. The things I found were Adeptus Mechanicus (I had the Combat Patrol box), the miniatures from the A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) wargame, and I’ve been repainting some Space Marines, trying out different color schemes.

Hobby Streak Day One: Adeptus Mechanicus Onager Dunecrawler

There are things that I absolutely love about the Adeptus Mechanicus, and things I absolutely hate about it. But what I love is the retrofuturist aesthetic: what people seventy years ago thought the future would look like. You can see this especially in the vehicles, and the Onager Dunecrawler is no exception. I loved painting this thing. Walkers are a particular favorite of mine when it comes to science fiction, and the 50’s era ray gun vibe that you get from this weapon combined with the perfect Adeptus Mechanicus iconography really work well. I’m also quite fond of the base which was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I had previously based my Adeptus Mechanicus stuff with the Citadel Armageddon Dunes, and I used that here, too, but I knew that I would want something to break up the big surface area. So, I just walked outside, looked in my garden for a couple of rocks, washed them, and superglued them down. No need to paint them (I gave a little drybrush to bring out highlights, but the rocks I picked matched the Armageddon Dunes well). A couple of Army Painter grass tufts finish it off.

Adeptus Mechanic Combat Patrol Box (Buy in USA | Buy in UK)

Citadel Armageddon Dunes (Buy in USA | Buy in UK)

Army Painter Grass Tufts (Buy in USA | Buy in UK)

 Day Two: Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii

These guys continue in the same retrofuturist aesthetic and the helmets give a nod–which I have to think is intentional–to Marvin the Martian. These four finished up the squad from the Adeptus Mechanicus Start Collecting box, and were based really easily with Citadel’s Armaggedon Dunes and Army Painter grass tufts.

Day 3: Adeptus Mechanicus Kataphron Destroyer

As much as I love the previous two Adeptus Mechanicus models, I really hate this one. Ad Mech is so hit-and-miss. Some of the models are so perfect and some are such strike outs. I’m not sure what exactly this one does wrong that makes me hate it so much. It might be the tracks, or it might be the not-quite-cyborg look. He doesn’t look like a thing that could exist–that body does not look like it could hold that gun. I don’t know. I painted one, even though the Start Collecting box came with three, and didn’t even bother assembling the others.

Day Four: Space Marine Reivers

These were one of the interstitial days I was referring to. I have an army of Space Marines that I had previously painted to be the Rock Badgers, but which I decided I was going to repaint to be something else. This is not an unusual thing for me. Even with armies I really like, I’ll usually paint them, play a bit, and sell them on eBay so that I can get something else to paint. I’m in this hobby almost primarily for the painting, so I don’t hold onto painted armies very long. (There are exceptions, but this is typical.)

With these guys I primed them with Vallejo Beasty Brown spray paint, with a zenithal from above with Army Painter’s Desert Yellow. They turned out a lot better than I expect from a job that I considered to be kind of throwaway. Based them up with Vallejo pumice texture paste and then added Army Painter grass tufts.

Space Marine Reivers (Buy in USA | Buy in UK)

Vallejo Spray Primer (Buy in USA)

Army Painter Spray Primer (Buy in USA | Buy in UK)

Vallejo Pumice Texture Paste (Buy in USA)

Day Five: Black Templars Marshal

Bit of a weird one here. I didn’t buy the original Black Templars box, but I wanted the Black Templars Marshal and the Black Templars Emperor’s Champion, so I bought them on eBay. But I must have inadvertently clicked the button twice because I ended up with two Marshals. So I painted on in the color of my main army (the Knights of the Grail, which will probably be repainted, too) and then had this leftover guy to play with. I chose green just to practice with it. Overall happy with him, though he was kind of a rush job.

Black Templars Marshal (Buy in USA | Buy in UK)

Day Six: A Song of Ice and Fire Dothraki

I have been interested in the game A Song of Ice and Fire for a while now, wondering if the models were going to be good quality (because honestly, I haven’t seen many of them painted up.) I admit that I never watched more than one or two episodes of Game of Thrones, so I don’t know if I was getting the look of the Dothraki down the way it was meant to be. (I Googled some pictures and there didn’t seem to be any specifics that I was restricted to.) I added some war paint because I saw a picture of Jason Momoa with it, but otherwise I just played. Pretty happy with how they turned out, enough that I’m going to paint the rest of the box. The base is just more Vallejo pumice texture paste, Army Painter grass tufts, and Static Scenery Model flowers (I’m not sure if that’s the name of the company, or just the Amazon description of the product. The package is all in Japanese.)

A Song of Ice and Fire: Targaryen Starter Set (Buy in USA | Buy in UK)

Static Scenery Model Flowers (Buy in USA)

Day 7: A Song of Ice and Fire

On Day Seven I didn’t have time to paint anything, but I was sitting in on a Zoom meeting for an hour, so while I listened I applied Vallejo pumice texture paste to all of the bases of the A Song of Ice and Fire models. I’m really looking forward to painting the rest of them.