#ArmiesOnParade2022

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's #ArmiesOnParade and after COVID scuppered last year's attempt to Parade in store at my nearest Warhammer in Liverpool I was desperate to get in there this year. I've a lot more pictures from the day of the other entries but this post is my entry.

The original plan was to Parade instore and then take pics during the week for the online entry. However, I had done a test layout on the Friday before and the photographs were not great. It took almost an hour to setup and when I was at Warhammer in Liverpool the lighting seemed decent enough to take my pics and it would saving unpacking, setting up and packing them away again at home. I also remembered how much my back suffered in 2021. Following on from the last 2 year's I did another video to showcase, it helps a bit more than the pics alone. 

So, you should recall the theme was my Dark Angel Ravenwing  hunting a newly arrived infection of Death Guard and diseased Poxwalkers on Ferron Proxima.

I was much happier with the arrangement after the Friday night test run.

I'd been quite downbeat after those pics, shown at the end of this post.

However, these are still lacking some detail, which I think is my own fault for switching my phone camera to wide angle setting. I got a much broader view, but at the expense of detail.

Luckily the video managed to capture a bit more of everything and there will always be my showcase pics here on the blog. 

As proud as I am of my Parade I know it is not going to win Armies On Parade and I'm absolutely fine with that, so higher quality pictures is not going to change anything.

My sole purpose is to be part of the event and to showcase my hobby, which was an absolute blast on the day.

The only real annoyance was I had not put my Land Speeders in the test display so did not realise I'd only packed 2 flyer bases, rather than the 4 I needed. It was an inconvenience and I was able to hook them onto my Sanctum Imperialis so they look somewhat levitating.

Unfortunately I think the Death Guard suffer most from the images. So much of the grunginess and slimy details don't show up.

The Ravenwing faired a little better, certainly an improvement over the Friday night pics where everything looked so drab and mediocre. Yes, even with a bright red board and backdrop it just looked boring to me.

Positioning could have been a little better but I was much happier than I expected to be.

This was the best shot of the Poxwalkers and my now obligatory assassin, although next year if I do blood bowl team she may not fit in.

The Administratum building looked awesome but maybe overshadowed by the Talonmaster and Dark Shroud.

And my Attack Bikes.

THE most important thing - my participation pin. As you'll know there is a competitive element but the store had not received anything other than these pins and some gold pins which they gave to the overall, AoS, 40k and Youngblood winners. They mentioned it had been very close and I came 2nd but I don't know if that was just the 40k or overall category. It didn't matter to me as if entrants had been able to vote I would have voted for the ones that did win, certainly in AoS, 40k and Youngbloods. Those entrants will be forthcoming...

These were the pics I did on the Friday evening, which I wasn't overly happy with but I share with for the record and so you can see why it was better to take pics instore.

12 year anniversary

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been blogging for 12 years now!

That's right, 12 years! Who'd have thought it? And, in a couple of months I'll hit my 2,000th post the whole thing is surreal. As much as I'm using social media more for hobby related content and interacting with other hobbyists I believe blogging is still the best way to share what I'm doing and I've seen Twitter hobbyists also see the benefit of having a more bespoke space. With so many people looking at Elon's purchase of Twitter with dismay and the weirdness of Twitter maybe the humble blog will see a revival?

Regardless, I'm still here, still plugging away. My only issue is time at the moment - finding time to get down everything that's in my head that I need to extricate like the digital pensieve I've always used it as. The ability to write and post whatever I want and not be stuck to just a few characters or photo limit is a blessing, and a curse - I've never been good at editing my own content! 😂 But I heartily recommend it for all those wary of the new digi-social order. It may not be as popular and wide reaching as those other channels but the majority of the things your fear or despair most about them I've found are almost completely absent blogging. If you've thought about it, give it a go.

However, in the real world I'll be starting a new job in December, which may or may not have an impact on the blog, too early to say yet. I hope it doesn't but I really have to step up as I've been 19 years in my current employ so it's a huge leap of faith I'm taking and it will either be no different to what I'm currently doing or a massive culture shock. I'll be doing a 'What's on my palette' post soon, to try and take stock after the months of solid work I put in trying to finish my #ArmiesOnParade and #DreadTober commitments, which will also require posts. So there's still content expected. 

All that's left to say is thanks to those who follow, read and comment on the blog. As I've said many times I don't do this for likes, hits or any similar acclaim, but I appreciate the support I've had throughout the dozen years I've been sending my hobby missives out into the void. If you've taken any enjoyment in what I've done that's good enough for me. All I ever wanted to do was open up and share what I do, the fact it might help someone or inspire them gives me more joy than I could ever imagine. Thanks for keeping it going.

#DreadTober - Dark Angels - Ravenwing Attack Bikes, bikes and Primaris Chaplain - TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's still the fourth of DreadTober and my Ravenwing are TO DONE! I've had #ArmiesOnParade at my local store and will share pics soon, but for now, here are the bikes.

After completing the Bloat Drone my DreadTober stretch goal were at least these 3 Ravenwing Attack Bikes, so that was a relief to achieve.

I also had 2 Munitorum Containers, I did not meet that goal but finished one of them sufficiently that it did not look incomplete, I will in due course though.

I made compromises in the painting of the Attack bike and will highlight those in the white pics. But whatever shortcuts I made I'm happy with the result. 

The blending of the highlights might not be up to my usual standard, but I'm not sure it's that noticeable on the tabletop, so I can live with it.

I'm just glad they're complete and should I ever actually want to play I hope they get some use as I believe they're considered quite cost effective and useful on the battlefield.

I also got this lone biker done as he was the most progressed out of all the bikers and Black Knights I had.

It wasn't too much of a stretch to add him to the pile.

Unfortunately I feel somewhat burnt out with all the effort and I really don't want to face the remaining bikers. 

I had to make the hard choice to get these done or not finish and the downside is I got them done, I just don't want to finish the remainder.

The Chaplain is such a great model and it formed a great centrepiece HQ to face the Lord of Contagion in my display.

Despite the Primaris size he manages to fit in with the rest of my Ravenwing, even with them being on the old capsule bases rather than the slightly bigger ovals they now come on.

I'm also glad the orange weathering powder looks OK too.

It's a worry it'll look too much like rust but I think it comes across as RED PLANET dust in the treads of the tyres.

I have a lone Zoanthrope I may want to paint to try to get something different done. It might help me get back to the Ravenwing.

But I've got a number of real-life things ongoing that I feel I might need to spend more time focussing on me for a bit, we'll see.

OK, I don't usually partake of the GREAT Big Major Project RUSTY Stamp of Approval but with this mix of TO DONES! it seems appropriate for the Attack Bikes.

While the lone biker scores me a GREAT Big Minor Project RUSTY Stamp of Approval for the 2022/23 Hobby Season.

And the Primaris Chaplain on Bike receives a GREAT Big RUSTY Stamp of Approval..

That's it for DreadTober 2022:

• Foetid Bloat Drone
• 3x Ravenwing Attack Bikes
• 1x Ravenwing Biker
• 1x Primaris Chaplain on Bike

#DreadTober - Dark Angels - Ravenwing Attack Bikes, bikes and Primaris Chaplain - All your base - BIG BUILD TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's still the third of DreadTober and  my Ravenwing need Red Planet BASE! I know my Death Guard are all tar based but there is still some Ferron Proxima red stone. My Armies on Parade board would have benefitted forms some transitional pieces with tar on the red but time escapes me.

These had been quite a daunting prospect - plain 70mm MDF bases needing to look similar to my various debris strewn biker bases.

One lesson I learned after putting my sand mix on the base on the right below was to add some tile adhesive grout to the flat areas on the one on the left and one above. Just a mound to break up the flatness that made it painfully obvious it was an MDF base. The two bits of rusty debris [made from a broken up plastic dryer ball] helped disguise the flatness to the right one in the end. I also tried really hard with Dirty Down Rust on those two pieces of debris, following Peachy's advice. I gave the pot such a shake, holding it up to the light so I could see no unmixed paint at the bottom - laid it onto a Vallejo Game Effects Dry Rust base and then heated with a hobby heat gun - still no rust! I'll get there eventually, silver base next time. This was weathering powder and Vallejo Model Wash again.

Primaris Chaplain base too.

And the lone biker.

I also did the bases for my Adeptus Titanicus Cerastus Lancer, a Tyranid Zoanthrope and most of the other 5 bike bases. However, they have a lot more debris and detailing on that I couldn't find the time to tackle before AoP. So, for now I just get a Great Big Big Build BASE RUSTY Stamp of Approval. 

#DreadTober - Dark Angels - Ravenwing Attack Bikes, bikes and Primaris Chaplain - highlights

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's now the third of DreadTober and with my Bloat Drone TO DONE! I'm back to my Ravenwing.

You should all be well aware I've found this project overwhelming - too much at once which made it much easier to jump to other projects and put this repeatedly on hold.

However, Armies on Parade and Dreadtober have given me additional motivation to push on through. As much as I think you should 'go with the flow' and paint what ever is your muse at that moment in time there are situations where you have to wade through the projects that you just can't get going on.

So, I focused on the Attack Bikes, the Primaris Chaplain on a bike and after some more highlights just one additional bike. That sounds odd but it made sense at the time because I'd done the first set of black highlights on it so it wasn't too hard to do the rest. 

The remaining 3 Black Knights and 2 bikers have a bit more work to do and so something had to give as I just didn't think I had enough time until AoP. After all the black highlights I decided to glue the sidecar on, which I soon regretted as I'd forgotten I hadn't freehanded the company number 2 on the right shoulder pad - that will be a ball ache to do now they're in-situ.

The 3 Attack Bike riders and the extra biker. Now the highlights appear extremely pronounced at this stage and ordinarily there is an additional black shading that goes on to help blend the highlights, but I didn't bother in the end...

In some areas it's painfully obvious that the transitions are stepped rather than smooth but when the rider is on and with the litanies inscribed on some of the panels it acts to blur some of the lines anyway.

Your eye can't easily parse the tones so it just smooths it all out. I may kick myself for not taking more time over it but I've lived this process and made decisions that I am comfortable with so I'm not going to beat myself up about the - #FinishedNotPerfect

Although I don't have Primaris in my Dark Angel force, this guy is an exception [alongside the Redemptor Dreadnought]. He's an awesome model and as a HQ I can totally accept he is significantly larger than the rest of his brothers and bikers.

I'm surprised how well he's come together actually. He may also work with my Guardians of the Covenant Primaris army, should I ever get round to them so I think the Ravenwing decal from the Indomitus sheet will still be valid.

Next update I need to do the bases for my attack bikes, all the eye lenses, glows for the headlights, rivets on all the bikes [not just the Chaplian], purity seals, litanies, vid screens and those darn freehand company numbers. AoP is this Saturday for me, these are actually completed now so I'm on to Munitorum Containers and catching up with Rings of Power. When it's done I'll have to do my online entry photo shoot and then maybe get the 5 remaining Ravenwing bikes finished. I must admit it feels really annoying to have to go back to a point that if I'd been able to batch as one larger group would be well behind me. But, I might have been overwhelmed again. So, better to have progressed with more to do than started and fallen and the challenge.