Moar Armies on Parade

Armies on Parade was a month ago and I never really debriefed, mainly because as the event unfolded the actual result became less and less relevant to me. Leading up to it my belief that 'taking part' was reward enough was posted many times on Facebook where folk seemed disappointed not to win. Winning is a welcome but purely incidental part and as much as it's nice to win the 'hobby should be the winner' [© Toby Liddiard]. I saw plenty of examples of the best of this spirit during the weekend of the Parade, I also saw examples online of the very opposite, folk bogged down over arbitrary self-imposed rules or dismissing entries because it didn't fit what they perceived as an 'Army'. It was quite depressing actually, but I reminded myself this was the minority and promised myself I would eventually write a feedback letter to GW to hopefully move things forward in a more positive direction.

As you recall I entered twice and no this was not 'against the rules' as someone questioned me online. I think perhaps he thought I was hedging my bets, which would be true if I was intent on winning but not entirely true when my second choice store is renowned for it's hobby quality. That's like competing in a local Sunday league football match and also having a crack at the FA Cup final so you have greater chance of winning!

The Southport store had just five entries so the categories were reduced to Young Bloods [of which there were ony two elligible], Best Painted and Best Themed Board. First up was this Raven Guard/Custodes army that was really cleanly painted.

I really liked it and gave it my Best Painted vote. Amusingly the store manager suggested I could indeed vote for myself - to which I refer you to my recent politician comment!

As you can see it was nicely executed.

Simple, but really tidy and effective.

Anda a bit of terrain at the back for a nice vantage point.

Next an Imperial Knight and Ad Mech force.

Then a Tau army that was one of the Young Blood entries.

It was really quite a nice effort for a youngster.

This was the other Young Blood entry a well realised Death Guard force.

The quality and effort got my vote for the category and I was left to choose best theme. As much as I liked all the entries I kept thinking my own theme was truly the best there.

But, I don't vote for myself, so I voted for the Death Guard as this City Board had the most effort put into it.

Now I'm sure you're interested in the result and it would transpire that the Raven Guard did indeed win the Best Painted and the Death Guard did win the Young Bloods, but the best Theme was...

... a tie! Mine and the Death Guard. The Manager eventually shared  pictures of the two boards with his colleague to cast the deciding vote.

I was half a mind to happily concede at this point because I could see it meant more to the Young Blood than it did to me but luckily she chose in his favour anyway and what a potential impact on his hobby that success will bring him no doubt.

I think the kid with the Tau was disappointed I didn't win saying he thought mine was the best and the subsequent discussion about Armies on Parade was the highlight of the day as I hopefully convinced him of my view of the spirit of the event. 

But my Parade looked much better than I'd hoped and without AoP I'd never have got these pictures.

Also of note is their store front display which looked pretty impressive.

And the amazing calligraphy work in their hobby areas.

Not to mention this cheeky chap! ;)

Now, to Manchester and despite the last-minute reservations in Parading there the team really tried to accommodate me in the end, for which I'm truly grateful. Sadly, I only got to see two other entries [which were by members of staff] when I returned to collect the Dark Angels. There was this mixed Age of Sigmar force.

Which was undeniably impressive

Part of me feels the need to do a Sigmar Army just so I can take part in this category as it seemed there were very few entries during the Sigmar week.

And then this Chaos/Blood Raven Dawn of War showdown.

Gabriel Angelos facing down [up?] a Bloodthirster!

Oi, where's he nicked that Mace of Absolution from, thieving git!

OK, so I won a couple of awards - Best Monster/Machine and Best Painted but the certificates were the only prize I got so just to put it into perspective I lugged a double hobby case, an aluminium hobby case and a board and backdrop on three consecutive hour long train journeys to work. Then I carried them 20 minutes across Manchester with a friend and spent a further 30 minutes setting them up.

I then had to do the entire thing in reverse. I am extremely grateful for those that voted for me and honored to win, but if anyone thinks the primary motivation for this double effort is the two certificates at the back, then they're missing the 2'x2' expression of my hobby in front of it. I may have belaboured this point, but look at this way when we think back to the Cold War and all those Red Square Parades of Soviet weapons and armour, does anyone remember the bit where some guy won something at the end? No, you remember the endless sea of marching soldiers, freshly painted missile carriers, tanks and vehicles - the might of their army on display. This is the same, this is 40k Armies on Parade, not '40k Armies Winning a Prize'.

Next year, Parade your Army and damn the result!

Whats on my palette?

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it's been nearly 2 months since my last confession.

I feel like I've been pretty productive, although under close inspection it might not seem that way. I've completed the Deathwatch, my Dreadtober Genestealer Cult Sentinels and finished off some future containers. That's not actually a lot and I've still to do proper To Done pics/posts of all those. But these successes, such as they are, left me without an obvious project to jump into. I've flitted here and there between things I had started but progress has been minimal, or at least hasn't 'felt' significant. I feel a sense of 'raging ambivalence, or 'obsessive dissatisfaction' - I'm just not loving doing it as none of them have become my muse. But in reality whatever I've done will indeed pay dividends further down the line as they'll all be closer to completion when I do set all my attention on them [you know the drill by now].

Dark Angels Rhino and Predator 

The two Dark Angels tanks have received some panel shading with Dark Tone and had two sets of highlights on the metalwork. I've got another highlight, followed by some shade washes and then it'll be to focus on the green. There isn't actually a huge amount to do on these so they could be a quick win but I'm just not 'feeling' them enough to dedicate them all my attention.

Space Hulk Brood Lord & Trygon 

These two guys, as you know have just come on the radar. Right now I'm blissfully unaware of the horrors that await me painting all the Chitin highlights on the Trygon. However, much like the Dark Angels tanks I can visualise roughly how much work is involved to get these completed and although there is still the lion's share left ont hem for some reason I also see them as a quick win. I may split them to go 'between projects'.

 Ferron Fire Firs

After my can of Simoniz Red Oxide Spray malfunctioned I picked up a smaller 400ml can of Hycote. It covered both the Tyranids and then 80% of my Ferron Fire Firs so I've ordered another can of spray. This was very much at the forefront of what I wanted to finish before the can went bust, but the actual amount of work involved and just how much time it'll take me away from the other tasks means it may stall at the priming stage. Coupled with the fact games at my house are a rarity anyway investing my time and effort in something for no functional reason seems a little short-sighted.

Ravenwing Land Speeder Dark Shroud 

This has been sat on the shelf for far too long. As I wrestled with the magentising aspect a conclusion became essential as both the Dark Shroud and Vengeance platform are now viable. I solved the magnet problem by leaving the Vengeance Plasma Battery as push fit and just magenetising the underneath of the Dark Shroud relic to the top of the control station [I'll show it in future pics]. The urgency for this is it may form part of my GT3 Dark Angels list, should I take the Dark Angels. The single Land Speeder Typhoon was handy, but I think this would be a better alternative and offer more benefits for cheaper. Unfortunately GT3 is in February so I have 2.5 months to get this guy done and it's not even primed. It's doable but there's pressure involved which is both helpful and unwanted.

Rippers

What the flip? Yeah I know... This is so left field and off list I don't even have a picture to illustrate it. Bottom line I'm also debating taking the Tyranids to GT3. I have two lists at the moment, though pretty similar one is based on a Brigade and another on two Battalions. But they both require two broods of 3 Rippers [cheap troops] and I only have four Ripper bases. Therefore I'll need to make two up. I've one brood part painted already, my son did them around five years ago. The other will be a little bit different, a stop-gap solution to the Forgeworld inspired kitbash/press-mold version I'd been planning for ages. 

Movement trays

Another task that may present itself should I choose to take the nids is the adoption of movement trays. There are no two ways about it I'll probably end up with a couple of big broods of Termagants and I need to be much quicker than I currently am to fit in a full game and movement trays may help with that. These from www.lasercutarchitect.co.uk seem like the best solutions to me. You have the Tervigon/Trygon brood tray and four random blobs of 10. They're about £8 each but will still require a bit of sanding, basing and painting to be truly happy and I haven't even bought them yet...

Regardless it's another task and I need to find a way to manage the projects and prioritise what I'm doing. GT3 is only 2.5 months and if my post-Christmas malaise hits like usual I could find things very difficult to get done in time.

'nids part 225 - Trygon & Genestealer Broodlord/Patriarch - BIG BUILD

While I've been busy playing games I've been far from idle, flitting from one thing to the next but most of my projects came to a conclusion with AoP and those that are 'ongoing' didn't immediatley catch my attention, the Rogue Trader Predator and Rhino have just started to take my interest but before that I needed to build some stuff. One of those things was a long ignored, almost forgotten Forgeworld Trygon, with no reason to play the plastic one I already had there was never a reason to tackle this. I'd also been put off by the many tales of it's difficulty.

However, Trygons are now cool in 8th and although mine tends to get shot to pieces reports of multiple Trygons [plus tunnel units] swamping your opponent being effective made it worth my attention. At the very least getting it built puts it in the realm of possibility and in particular using it to create a slightly more dynamic pose than the plastic version. In actual fact making the pose, so the tail was raised was the hardest part of the build. Interesting BW filter effect too, almost looks like a 3D Studio Max render.

While I was at it I finished basing the magnetised Space Hulk Broodlord. Sadly, I didn't go for a load more skulls on the base. I actually have a spare Space Wolf wolf skull I could add but the broken pipe with slightly over-sized joint came out OK to try and already ties both bases together.

And it's detachable so I can use it in Space Hulk [should I ever get round to playing it] and DeathWatch Overkill too. I'll probably do the same with my remaining Patriarch from my second Overkill box. Next up I should probably look at What's On My Palette so I can manage my projects...

Oh, and look, I found my 2017/18 Big Build artwork, so I get two!

NMTBW Painting Competition

Alex continuse to run four painting competitions - Best Conversion, Best Character, Best Vehicle/Monster and Best Army. The one caveat is you can only enter one categroy, meaning we don't have a single person sweeping the board - Liam. Although amusingly Alex did suggest everyone should see which category I was entering in and then choose another one. Amusingly this may be the 4th or 5th time I've entered into Alex's painting competition and NOT won something, perhaps my reputation exceeds my achievements ;)  Anyway, Best Conversion and this amazig scratchbuilt Taurox.   

Then these brilliantly converted Tyranids who were made by Graham Sanders.

I'm well aware of Graham's kitbashing skills after  facing his Squats in Blog Wars 7

The Zoanthrope 'jellyfish' made out of aquarium ornaments were particularly cool, hence why he won the category.

Tanks and I think this is a Land Raider Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer painted up by my second round opponent Thomas Capper.

Cleanly painted replica of the Renegade Knight from the much missed game... Renegade Knight

A nice Dune Crawler.

Daemon Prince

Domitar-Ferrum Class Battle Automata

Ben's Leman Russ, which went on to scoop first prize.

Best Characters

Liam - 'going big or going home' with his Mortarion, which went on to win.

My display in best army. I really need to look ata a smaller display board for these events

Nick Thrower's Dusk Knights

An amazing Alpha Legion. These colours speak to my love of high contrast, yeloow and black with orange, yummy.

Toby Lidiard's Custodes. Toby scooped the prize by one vote, putting me in second. Which when I mentioned to Ben I voted for Toby's army he suggested in future I might not want to vote for what I think is the Best Army as they're my direct competition but I'm a fair believer in Toby's mantra "let the hobby be the winner".

A great selection of armies and it was interesting during the voting when someone asked if you could vote for yourself. I pointed out to them that it must be acceptable, politicians always vote for themselves in an election so feel free to follow their example... he promptly started to look at other candidates ha, ha :)