I did it! Fortunately, I was able to get in the hours needed in last Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and I got the second Heldrake's wings completed and assembled onto the body. Now both Heldrakes are finished, with the notable exception that I need to do some edge highlighting on both of them. I've decided that that will be a stretch goal, something I do if I finish everything else I want to in order to have 2,000 points of Chaos Space Marines and 2,000 points of Nurgle Daemons ready to take to Valhalla by Saturday, August 24th. If not, then I will do the edge highlighting after I get back from Valhall -- or, perhaps do it AT Valhalla, as a break between games, eating and hitting the hot tub. There should be painting space set up like there was during the May Valhalla, and as I'll be driving up there I'll have all my painting supplies with me, so if I can't get the edge highlighting done before Valhalla and the mood strikes me (and I'm not TOO sick of painting from getting ready to go up there) I might sit down and bang it out in a session or two while I'm up there.
By way of a re-cap, it took a total of 57 hours of work spread out over 12 non-consecutive days to get both Heldrakes primed, painted and finished assembly. I had the bodies and wings assembled before this time frame, so this is just the time it took to paint.
The last batch of pictures that I took of the first Heldrake didn't come out too great on account of the "head lamp" light that I've been using to improve the pictures I'm taking with my iPhone 3GS. As one commenter on Wargamer AZ noted, "the lighting issue is kicking [my] ass", and he's right. So this time, for the final set of pictures of the second completed Heldrake, I didn't use the head lamp and just relied on the lighting at Empire Games above a gaming table. Hopefully these will be a bit more appealing than the pics of the finished first Heldrake. A friend of mine at Empire, who does professional photography on the side, has volunteered to take a complete set of both of my armies once they're completed using his lights and a light box. I'm definitely going to take him up on that offer! I'm going to ask if, for the sake of spreading things out a bit, he'll do the CSM army once it's completed, then do whatever of the Nurgle Daemons I get done before I have to leave for Utah. Hopefully he'll consent to doing two shorter sessions, one for each army, instead of one longer one with both armies. I'll ask him next time I see him...
...Which wasn't tonight, as I ran afoul of the missus and ended up not making it in to Empire to continue working on the 5 Chaos Spawn that I finished building and got primed last Friday evening, even though she and the young'un ended up going out to a movie. She's a bit chuffed at all the time I've been spending at Empire, and there was some friction over the weekend, so I decided to lay low tonight and hope things cool down so I can get there tomorrow (Tuesday) evening and get started painting the Spawn. Not to be airing dirty laundry, but it's been a calculated risk spending as much time as I have working on my CSMs and Daemons every week, and it came to a head tonight. Problem is, I'll be leaving for 8 days of vacation next Wednesday, which means I won't be doing any work on my armies next Tuesday as we'll be getting ready and packing for the trip. So, hopefully she's cooled down a bit and I can get enough time in between now and next Tuesday to get the Spawn finished up, as I really don't want to be in the middle of one project when we leave for the vacation; I'd rather have one project completely finished, and not be thinking about it while I'm trying to enjoy the extended family time.
But, that's all part of managing my time around work, family and the hobby. My daughter is behind me all the way, so hopefully she'll put in a good word for me with the wife.
In the meantime, here are the rest of the pictures of the completed second Heldrake. Unfortunately, the two pics of the rear of this Heldrake are a bit out of focus, but hopefully you'll get the idea. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this guy!
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