Cloak Trouble

I've been having some trouble painting the cloak on my Space Marine Lieutenant as it is a huge piece of cloth without any deep sharp folds in it. I am trying to paint it in a blue-gray color, but with the huge area I'm having a hard time getting the highlighting to look right. It keeps winding up looking like it's got poorly-painted stripes on it. I don't have much problem with tightly folded or small bits of cloth like the Space Marine Sergeant's loincloth pictured below because they've got plenty of folds and ridges that can be highlighted, but this cloak has really got me bothered. I've just redone the basecoat, so we'll see if I can get it looking right this time.

I spent much of the day trying to get homework done but I took a break to work on this cloak. I've got to go play National Guard next weekend, so I won't have that time to do my homework. I need to get a little bit ahead during this week so I don't fall hopelessly behind after drill weekends.

My parents and my little brother stopped over tonight to see the baby and talk to us; mostly to see the baby. I played a couple of Mario Kart races with my brother on the Wii and my dad asked to see a couple of miniatures I'd painted so he could see the actual scale of the things I've been posting on my blog about. I think he likes the blog pictures better because they're enlarged a bit and show the details better.

The prices on the turret parts for a Razorback with twin-linked Assault Cannon go so high on eBay that I may have to select a different armament for my Razorback. The Assault Cannon parts apparently only come in the new Land Raider Redeemer/Crusader kit, so they fetch a steep price. With the current prices you wind up spending $16+ for a 35-point upgrade. For that price you may as well just buy a Razorback kit and slap the Lascannons or Heavy Bolters on it. We'll see how it goes. It looks like currently only one guy is parting out the Assault Cannon turrets and he's listing them one at a time about five days apart, so anyone who wants one is competing for the same auction. Maybe some other folks will start in on it and the price will come down. I also haven't looked at any bits resellers who may have a sprue I could use.