A Bloody Month in the Trenches

This project was not the largest I worked on during my time as a hobby freelancer, but definitely the king of the hill in 2023. The commission consisted of over two dozen vehicles accompanied by a round 100 Infantrymen. A solid chunk of Warhammer collection.

Theme: ‘German Army from WW2 with Yellow and Purple markings’

The project started some time ago. Miniatures got properly built and undercoated in mass. Then awaited their turn in the painting pipeline.

A month ago the time has come and I finally moved in to start the painting process and topple this giant of a project. I’ve started by preparing a “test batch” consisting of one Vehicle and 10 line troops. I deliberately chose standard miniatures without some fancy gear and detail, to better represent the bottom line of what the customer might expect from the finalized army. Throughout the years I figured that it is better to manage expectations on both sides and positively surprise in the end, rather than the other way around.

The test batch passed the test and the further progress got greenlighted. I was good to go with ALL the rest of the collection…

I specialize in painting entire collections in one go – bulk painting. You can read more about the philosophy behind this in the article on my blog, but in general I find it much more rewarding, easier to manage and keeping my motivation up throughout the whole painting process.

The Solar Auxilia was not exception, although I split the collection in two between Vehicles and Infantry. On top of easing the space management when painting I also wanted to keep muscle memory focused on working with particular shapes.

Thus I started with heavy armor, painting one layer on all the vehicles at a time, before moving to the next one, 8-12 hours a day. What’s not to love about such project?

Once all Vehicles got done I moved to Infantry, restarting the whole process from Airbrushed basics, through base layers, washes, detail, basing etc. Such small resin miniatures are easier to manage but they have a lot of fragile detail. Because of that I have mounted each and every one of them on A-Case Magnetic Painting Grip topper. This allowed me to paint each miniature without touching the model directly, but also created space around each piece, necessary to avoid damage, when lined up on the desk.

It took about eight intense days to soldier through the Infantry, apply the finishing touches and finally be ready for the summary photo session.

The photographic session took a toll of almost three hours. This is the only part of the hobby I struggle with and do not like. Still a man gotta do what a man gotta do. Below you can see the results of a total of 30 days spent on the project:

And now the army has already been approved by the customer, thoroughly pre-packaged into small boxes, awaiting full packaging and shipping. Keep your fingers crossed for its safe international passage.

Thanks for visiting the project. If you managed to go through all of the above and still crave a bit more of the Solar Auxilia, here’s a full project gallery with unit closeups etc. https://scarhandpainting.com/gallery/horus-heresy-solar-auxilia/

Cheers!