The Big Guns - Leman Russ 2

I did two things last week that I'm proud of:

• Finished my second Russ


• Went on a two-day backpacking trip over ten miles and up 2,000+ foot elevation in the desert and managed to not die.

First, the Russ, Cruento Universum. For this one, I did much the same as the last, with bloody symbols and chains.





I added some scrolls with green stuff, though the writing on them didn't turn out as clearly as I'd have liked. I think I'm going to try some skin parchment on the Chimeras instead of actual paper, since it seems to turn out better in the painting stage.

I also created a sort of 'skull bin' in the back, where they might throw their trophies for cleaning and sorting later.










One of the things I experimented with on this one was to do careful highlighting of raised edges with Boltgun Metal. To my delight, it added exactly what I was looking for: a very beat-up, worn feel that I felt was missing from the first Russ. I'm in the process of adding it to that one as well, and now I'm finally happy with the way the vehicles in this army are going to look.


Here's a shot of Cruento Universum and Turpis Infinitus together.



The backpacking trip I mentioned is somewhat off-topic, but since it's a) the reason why I didn't get a chance to take pics of Russ 2 until today, and b) the reason I've got a lot of time to paint this week, I thought I'd post about it. I volunteer with a friend's Boy Scout troop every once in a while; I like the outdoors, hiking, camping, all that good stuff. So on Thursday, when I got a call that they needed another man to go with them after an Assistant Scoutmaster had dropped out due to illness, I said, "Sure!" On Saturday, we hiked out into the White Tank Mountains, west of Phoenix, Arizona (where I live). The weather here this time of year tops out at about 90F at mid-day, with humidity averaging 5-15%. It's dry. We hiked up and into the mountains, and after about seven hours, reached our campsite, where we spent the night. In the morning, we hiked back out.

That's me, on the right. I'm probably not smiling because I'm realizing how out of shape a computer geek can get and what a stupid idea it is for me to try something like this.

Anyway, I'm now sore all over and have the worst blisters imaginable on my feet, meaning I can just about hobble around the house until they heal. So I'll be using that as an excuse to do as much painting and blogging as possible over the next week. Hooray!

Here's the view from the top of one of the (many) peaks we crested.