Warhammer Fest and GT Final

Just a quick congratulations to my mate Liam from Blue Warp Studios. He'd got through to the 40k GT finals at Warhammer Fest, following GT3 in February. He only went and walked away with Best Painted Vehicle, Best Painted Character AND Best Painted Army!

I know how much the latter means to him, even when he won three of the categories at Throne of Skulls the year I took home Best Painted Army it was cold comfort for the accolade he really wanted. He's now achieved that goal and I couldn't be happier for him. At my insistence he also entered the Golden Demon but did not make the cut, which is nothing to be ashamed of - he now knows what is required and I fully expect him to look at this for his next challenge. He'll enter in earnest no doubt and not display something already painted. I've no doubt he'll do really well.

Obviously lots of announcements over the weekend, I'm particularly looking forward to Adeptus Titanicus. The GT itself seems some attention though, by all accounts the terrain was not great and out of the 120 GT Heat invitations only 64 competed on the day. I was even told that some that lost on the Friday didn't bother coming back on the Saturday. I really hope the events team look into a reserve list - once you have your invite you have a time limit to book your ticket otherwise those that didn't quite make the cut get a chance to take part. I still probably would have been out of the running but far better to sell out your tournament than have it half empty [or half full ;) ]

Lastly, big up to Morgan Cole who won the 40k GT. I played Morgan in the Warhammer TV live Twitch feed and it was an amazing experience. It's been rather sad to see that some have subsequently felt he 'slow-played' during the final, using game turns as an indicator and also referencing our GT3 heat as yet more evidence. Having played against him I know that wouldn't be the case, we both played hordes, we both played as efficiently and economically as possible. In fact I was amazed at his tactical acumen under such time constraints.

Folk also seem to ignore that half the Chapter Approved missions score on continuously holding objectives each turn, so not having too many turns could put you in a disadvantage. Planning to just play 3 turns a game and getting all those objectives early enough so your opponent can't do the same would be more difficult than just playing the game. Regardless, Morgan had contacted me on Facebook on the Thursday night asking if I was going, he was far from confident of his army's chances - he certainly did not sound like a man who had meticulously planned to 'game the system'.

I know how difficult this criticism will feel for him, for those that played him and now feel aggrieved they should have raised their concerns at the time - the situation could have been resolved either way. The sad result is an online witch hunt with all sorts of folk chiming in without any first hand knowledge or experience. This isn't the LVO, there was no $5000 prize money at stake and there was no evidence of gamesmanship. My first hand experience tells me that's not how Morgan plays, that's not how he'd want to win, fingers crossed he won't let it get to him too much.

Terrain is everything - New display board

I started this display board the other week. This patterned sheet of hardboard was left at my Aunt's house when we cleared it after she passed away. It has a glossy finish to look like tiles and I hoped the slightly embossed pattern might still be visible when it was painted. The original plan was for one of these to be a platform in last year's Armies on Parade board but I didn't have the time or space. However, this one on its own will make a decent display for Double Trouble 3: Double harder [tickets still available]. With only 875pts to display, a 40cm square board will look far less empty than my 60cm square AoP board. So I added some Valejo Red Oxid paste and some sharp sand so the rockrete slabs weren't completely featureless.

I primed the board with grey and then Red Oxide Primer, trying to retain some of the grey underneath for variety. I also added a few toy packaging bits to look like metal debris, these are the things that usually have tie-wraps attached to brand new kids toys to keep them in place - keep your eyes peeled for them as they're really useful for debris.

I then followed the undercoat, stippling on Vermilion.

It's here where it came apparent the embossed pattern wasn't going to show but it's not too much of a problem.

With Double Trouble 3 on the 9th of June this was the perfect interval project. I have a deadline to do it and the quicker I finish it the sooner I get back to the Heirophant.

'nids part 254 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.9 - First chitin highlights complete

I finally got all the spots done, so thought it was worth a 'built' shot. I'm glad I did as it's helped reconcile the busyness of the spots, although it's also highlighted the discrepancy between the turquoise denisty on the big body plates versus the leg plates.

With the leg plates being much smaller you are seeing proportionally more turquoise on a plate than the big plates, but that's always been the case so I'm not sure what my point is exactly.

This is a nice little 'save point' though. Having pushed myself through the repetitiveness and not gone mad I don't want to tempt fate by jumping into more of the same.

Granted I'll be doing bonewhite highlights next, so it will feel different I'll take the opportunity to potter on with some other things.

Although I do hope I retain some more of this bone colour created so far. Usually I cover up quite a lot of it, which is a shame as the Valejo Sepia wash has come out really rich and I want to retain some of that.

Now I have actually done a little video of me picking it up and placing it down again so you can see how it settles and the support of the legs, but I haven't uploaded it yet.

It's really coming together though so as much as I'm trying some other projects at the moment I actually can't wait to crack on with it.

Don't worry, this will be back on the painting table very soon. I'm not putting it on the back burner forever, just need to do somehting else for a few nights. Anyway, some more pics...

And my painting log so far, again most sessions are one hour, 90 minutes max with a few 'half sessions' but 30 hours as a rough estimate of painting to date.

Right, now what have I been doing in the interval...?

Terrain is everything - Sanctum Imperialis Big Build TO DONE!

After my last Confession I'd assessed what was on my palette and distilled it down to the 'Big 3' which begs the question why I was suddenly building the Sanctum Imperialis from my Imperial Knight Renegade set... In fact, on the sprue this took up far less room but I suddenly had the urge to sacrifice valuable time on the Heirophant to finish this off.

Now I made some choices about construction, to get as much out of it as possible and match up with the smaller pieces of it I already own. However, despite not looking at the instructions or the pictures I've made an almost stock version of it, the main difference being it has the walls on both sides, instead of the front wall leading to ruins.

The balcony is also twice as big, running the entire width of the buidling. I used 'granny grating' to extend the balcony, which meant gluing was a challenge. I used Super Glue Gel, to bond it to the sprue 'cantilever' supports and various bits of cable ties to support it underneath. it should be sufficient for the load of a few figures. And the grating allows light to pass through unerneath - no shelter from the caustic rains of Ferron Proxima but it does look pretty.

Side views, so that you can see how wonky the balcony is - no plumb lines in the 40k universe - it's heresy!

So I do get a Big Build Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval, it was even on my Big Build list! Regardless I need to see how quick I can actually paint this and it's siblings...

'nids part 253 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.8 - "My God, it's full of stars"

Yet more 'highlights', I'm going to stop apologising for this now, it's a big model, there's only so much I can do so it's going to take a while and that means a lot of posts might not cover a huge amount of progress or highlight the same old process yet again. So lets just crack on...  I confess, although I had done some hard graft and fairly decent, consistent, highlights so far the model was a little underwhelming. Now I think Ive gone a little 'Liberace' on it. The spots and dots have been a key feature on my colour scheme since I first started.

Their primary function is as an 'interference pattern' to break up the expanse of blue on each plate. Given the amount I once again adopted my three sizes of cocktail sticks to create small medium and large dots without wrecking my brush and creating consistent circles each time. I may have gone OTT but they definitely achieve their function, as you can see below.

I'm a little dubious regarding the big circles. When you use the cocktail stick it does tend to make dots bigger than it's diammeter, thanks to the amount of paint you pick up. That siad this is as big a model as it gets and I was happy with that dot size on my Bastion/Skyshield/Defence Lines so I'm not going to worry too much about it.

I managed to do the entire body, legs and guns were limbs too far. I'm confident this is now better than it was and will look awesome but I accept it is way OTT, but as a centrepiece model it's supposed to be. I've actually seen a fair few Hierophants painted recently, very simply and I feel a bit sad folk didn't go all out on it.

I will at least know I gave it my all when it's done. Next up are its limbs, as mentioned above and then I may do an updated built photoshoot before I do the first set of bonewhite highlights. I want to do this in even stages rather than take the chitin through to finished and then play catch up elsewhere.

It's interesting that all the claws and spikes that have been painted black are already showing signs of wear due to all the handling this model takes to get it painted - that piece of foam comes in handy for resting it up and support. The rubber gloves help a bit too, but then they get snagged on a spike. Anyway, see you next week and I may have those 'built' pictures ready.

'nids part 252 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.7 - Chitin highlights on the tail and 2nd half of the body

I managed to get really focused to complete the final 19 chitin plates on the tail of the Hierophant. I honestly didn't think I'd do it but perseverance will out! It also helps they get progressively smaller as they go down the tail ;)

Vents also got done, well this side at least.

The striations still bother me as they're pretty chunky, especially on the smaller plates but then I remember these are first highlights and [even] if I could do them finer they'll be most likely covered up by second highlights anyway!

This is two nights on. Session 1 I did the left side of the head, mandible and two neck plates. Given how disappointed I was when I did this first time around I was quite chuffed as I felt I was 'to schedule'. What I seemed to ignore was I possibly did the 4th bigger shoulder plate too in that session, so I was actually behind schedule :( However, I didn't realise it at the time and so cracked on during session 2. So I was already a plate down and only managed half a big dorsal vent but I did do three plates and all the cysts. So a little behind still but it's still progressing.

And then last night's session - three of the biggest plates on the model and a few of the vents. I'm obviously still behind, this may end up taking a couple more sessions to finish up but I'll no doubt throw in the spots onto that second session and then first pass of highlights will be done.

Of course when I do the spots I'll also have to do the legs as well which might end up longer than 2 sessions, who knows. There's a bit of tediousness about this at the moment but thankfully I'm relaly motivated, at least getting these highlights complete before I flit off to do something else...

... which is lies! Because I've actually been multi-tasking this with another project at the same time. No, not the Armigers... nor the Razorback... even the Fire Firs haven't been touched. No what I have been doing is building my Sanctum Imperialis from the Renegade box set. Yeah! What the flip is that all about?! Anyway, I'll have some Big Build To Done! pics from that soon.

'nids part 251 - Tyranid VSG

Almost two years ago now, there was another one of my 'honestly not' diversionary tasks while the Dark Angel drop pods failed to motivate me. But what a task to get distracted inspired by - the Tyranid VSG. Although don't get too excited I haven't touched it since, I just got sick and tired of seeing the two posts about it permanently in 'draft' status.

Anyway, this was just two nights work in 2016 as I endeavoured to fill out some of the fibrous musculature on the containment spine. First of course I had to do spikes which were sculpted to match the Capillary Tower spikes on the Skyshield. I probably should have checked that post before beginning, it might have reminded me how fiddly DAS can be, even when applied to the curtain hook core. The clay kept slipping all over the place and it was extremely difficult to bring to a sharp point it just wouldn't play ball. I'm sure Milliput or even green stuff would have rendered better results with their adhesive properties.

After the two nights of effort progress stalled. The plan was to at least get the fleshy bits done, possibly the battlements too. However, I planned on doing a 'how to' video of the fibre sculpting and for that I need a willing child to hold the phone while I sculpt. The eldest helped with my infamous Chitin panel sculpt that I finally posted regardless of it's 'adult' nature.but I haven't been able to cajole him to repeat the process. The upside of losing interest in the VSG was renewed vigour on the Ravenwing Dark Talon, then 31 Genestealers, Land Speeder Typhoons, my Imperial Knight and finally back around to the drop pods, ultimately seeing them through to completion. So despite the distraction it actually kickstarted my efforts in the task I was actually trying to avoid... eventually!

Hopefully I'll one day film a set of fibres being sculpted, but finding time to do it is tricky and I'm otherwise occupied [as I have been for almost 2 years!!!]. Then I can move the spine onto completion and worry about sculpting the battlements or do the interface with the ground...

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 1. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. |

Tyranid Void Shield Generator Chapter 2. | part 1. | part 2. | part 3. | part 4. | part 5. | part 6. | part 7. | part 8. | part 9. | part 10. | part 11. | part 12. | part 13. | part 14. | part 15. |