#ArmiesOnParade2022 Instore Parade

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been at my local Warhammer store in Liverpool for #ArmiesOnParade I can't recall the last time I was instore for the biggest hobby event in the world but even pre-Covid I was often Parading in absentia. It was more convenient to parade at my work Warhammer but this time I was going to my nearest, just one train journey and the store is literally in the train station. No hoofing board and countless bags across the entirety of Manchester city centre. Anyway, here are the entries, first up a mother and son team.

This is Frank's goblins, everything he did himself, the only entry in the Young Bloods category, which is sad overall but brilliant for him.

For a young kid like that the first time they enter and they win will have been so exciting. He was already full of ideas for next year and planning on coming back on the Sunday for gaming practice too!

Brigette's Saurus Parade, a nice simple board. 

Well thought out though with the darkened area where the Lizardmen are walking just the right size to contain all the figures - well planned.

I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't get the name of the guy who's board this is. We had quite a long chat from the moment I started waiting outside with the rest of the entrants. 

He'd decided last minute to give it a go and I fully support a small display like this and even going to the effort of a little background card.

The great thing about a small board is it forces you to look closer and then you notice things like every single marine has a freehand custom Chapter badge - a cog with 3 scimitars/swords inside, oh and it's on a quartered background. It's difficult enough to paint a decent circle, then to make it a cog and THEN to paint 3 curving swords inside it! Not only could I not do that, I wouldn't even contemplate it

This Nighthaunt display was very deceptive. I think the standard Nighthaunt colour scheme feels somehow 'easy' despite me being unsure I could replicate it. I have quite a few Nighthaunt models I will one day paint, when I can settle on a style and have free time.

Close inspection showed that the scheme was rendered exceptionally well. I think my issue was the colour of the board, it perhaps felt too warm. I think it works in the close-up but the full board seemed odd. I wonder if a grey or dark brown, scattered with autumn leaves might have had a different impact.

Don't get me wrong, I think it was stunning and if I could have voted for a specific category I'd have given it best painted for sure.

I just think the initial vibrancy of the board overwhelms the models... says the man with a bright red board covered in black and grungy dirty brown and orange figures! 😂

I believe it won best overall and I think best Age of Sigmar board, so my opinion is irrelevant anyway as it was well received and rewarded. 

I had never seen those scythe handed wraiths before, which was a surprise.

I had not realised how big that Mortis Engine is. One day, when I have the time I will look forward to painting that thing.

And here's where you can see the level of detail and care shown to the models - clearly some masking has gone into airbrushing the Necromancer's cloak to get that effect. Fascinating result.

And to what I would have voted for best Warhammer 40k Parade - these Orks were awesome.

So many conversions and a great display board.

Absolutely no shame in losing out to this board, as soon as I saw it it felt 'next level' to me'.

I always say boards are optional, but if you are into the competitive side they are necessary and here's one that's bespoke.

It's still probably playable in a gaming sense, if you still use 2'x2' board pieces that is but unless you're also preparing a bespoke display board how can you compete against such awesomeness.

And the painting was excellent too.

Consistent throughout, with loads of weathering and battle damage - a huge amount of effort.

And although one could say that's one technique repeated over, and over again [whereas the Nighthaunt had many different techniques] just look at the attention to detail here. So many conversions, which is another consideration worth recognising and the detail in that standard bearer is awesome. A worthy category winner.

I felt bad about this, because that's my backdrop to the left, that somewhat obscured Adam's Necron civil war display. In my defence I set up first, the store Tau display was already in situ and I didn't want to obscure that, even though it wasn't entered in the comp.  

With hindsight I would have suggested we swap places, or I may consider creating a single edge backdrop in the future. I always do a corner board but I think it may be time to paint one from scratch and have a different arrangement.

Regardless Adam's small display was cool and interesting how he'd chose it as two Necron Courts coming to blows. We had some interesting discussions about the event.

Alongside the Tau display there was another store Parade for these Space Wolves.

Lots of interesting detail and a straightforward layout. 

Maybe that's something I should think about in the future?

Is that the fancy Command Land Raider you can only get from Warhammer World?

And the Tau display.

Again, good use of terrain as everything rises up from front to back.

Tallest models displayed on the platform for added height and presentation. I love these examples as it shows how simple but effective your board can be with a few bits of gaming terrain and just your army.

And in comparison my own display is incredibly busy with limited focal point.

You've seen these pics already, I only share them again here for context alongside the other entries.

Although I am proud of my entry I'm well aware of its flaws. I think next year may be very different and may actually be  a couple of my bloodbowl teams... not sure. OK, that's the AoP coverage for this year. I do have another post I want to write about my overall opinion of the event, from announcement last year to now, but I should probably wait until the online awards stream has been done on the 26th November to give the full insight. Either that or I add my preliminary thoughts and hope it goes some way to capture the entirety of #ArmiesOnParade2022 rather than just the 'best of...'

Talking of capturing more of the hobby, here are some of the Warhammer Liverpool displays. The Genestealer diorama is from a hobby event 'Battle of the base' I think it's called. You buy the large base and are free to model, convert and paint whatever you want in that space - a mini AoP almost. I may well give it a go next year. Also, the Warcry terrain, those trees are amazing and the contrast paint is so effective on the bamboo, just had to take pictures.

 

More pics of the Warcry terrain.

And a pretty awesome Alpha Legion 30k force.

See you next year for #ArmiesOnParade2023

#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