Thursday, April 25, 2013

Back from Adepticon, setting priorities...


Well, it has taken a little while, but I'm finally caught up on things after arriving home from Adepticon on Monday. Sleep was, of course, the big one, and I'm pleased to say that crashing out on the couch each night after the girls were in bed has been very nice. Adepticon is a long show, with long hours and terrible pillows, so sleep isn't always the best. The greatest thing that I find that helps me power through such a great event is the interaction with my fellow painters, gamers, vendors, and enthusiasts of all stripes. Conversations about all manner of toy soldier related excitement can only be a good thing, right?

I spent four days taking photos of various types of historical gaming action, covering: Flames Of War, Black Powder, Bolt Action, Hail Caesar, Warhammer Ancient Battles, and SAGA. Over 220 photos that will end up illustrating at least four (possibly more) articles for Wargames Illustrated! Very pleased with that result.

I also had four entries for the Crystal Brush painting comp. Originally I was reluctant to enter, but decided to take a shot at the last moment (ie: I found myself splashing blood on the bases of my Lamenters at 11:00pm Wednesday night before leaving on Thursday). I entered my Lamenters Sergeant on Sci-fi Single, my Mechanicum in Squad, my Dreadnought in Vehicle (shown above in one of the CB official photos), and my Bridge Guard in Sculpting. Sadly none of them took away a trophy, but it was heartening to see a significant increase in the number of entries this year (200, over 125ish last year). Congratulations to all of those who took a trophy : )


We also ran our second Guns Of April game, our First Day of Gettysburg "what if?" scenario. I've just written up a report of the game for our GOA blog, you can check it out here. It was a lot of work, and not without its issues, but we all had a great time and are already looking forward to next year : )

I also took two seminars. The first was by an old friend from Australia, Victoria Lamb, the owner of Victoria Miniatures and the primogenitor of Object Source Lighting (so that's the class I took). The second was by Roman Lappat (aka Jarhead) from Germany, co-author of the wildly successful mini blog Massive Voodoo. I've been enjoying the MV crew's work for years, s I couldn't pass up a chance to sit in on his theory class. So many wonderful things were covered in the class, I just hope one day that I'll take the time to apply all the lessons learned to a competition entry.


On my way home I started sketching out a diorama I have been wanting to do since Games Day last year. Thankfully I hadn't already started because the things I learned in both classes have meant that I'm going to have to put A LOT more time into it all. Here you see the genesis of the piece. Perhaps I'll have it ready for Adepticon next year?


It should be a lot of fun to work on.

So, priorities then? Over the next two months I'm going to be working on:

• My Mechanicum army - my 2013 entry for Armies On Parade
• A FOW army commission
• The Malifaux Relic Hunters crew

Then for July I'm going to work on:
• a couple of Golden Demon entries
• possibly a Tau commission

And in August I'm going to work on:
• a Primarch for a friend of mine attending the Horus Heresy Gaming Weekend in Warhammer World.

Stay tuned for the progress ; )

Cheers
Dave


13 comments:

  1. Sounds busy as usual Dave.

    Sadly, our GD got cancelled down here, about a fortnight after they posted it up!

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    1. Sorry to hear that mate. Looks like they're trimming back all around the world. Only four or five this year.

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  2. Beautiful Lamenters FW piece. Your work never ceases to impress me! The competition at the event must have been insane for you not to have won with that, eh?

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    1. Thanks Grant, yep the competition was quite stiff, lots of lovely stuff.

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  3. The sketch for the diorama looks very good. Waiting to see it come to life!

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    1. I did the sketch on my iPad, my first attempt at sound so. It was fun to sketch it in black first, then try out different "lighting" effects by switching out the different colors.

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  4. Dave - I've been meaning to get in touch with you, but life is difficult. Having an idea of what this diorama is all about, I'm exceptionally excited to see it coming together.

    I hope our plans for collaboration can come to some sort of fruition soon.

    Looking forward to seeing more from you!

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    1. Hey Mol, good to hear from you. I'm still hoping the same thing. I understand busy, so whenever you get a chance we can start to get the ball rolling. I plod away on other stuff in the mean time ; )

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  5. Dave,

    Good to get to sit with you for a bit at Adepticon! I'm looking forward to seeing how your knight turns out. The Lamenters looked awesome as usual and I'm excited to see the rest of the Mechanicum group coming together.

    Drew

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    1. Thanks for bringing him in Drew, much appreciated. All the best with your family, they sound like they'll keep you busy (in the best of ways).

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  6. The diorama is intriguing. How well does Roman speak English? And, not to quibble but wouldn't Victoria be a primogenitrix? ;)

    Good to hear it was a good time. That is what these things should be about.

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  7. Ronan's English is very good indeed. It was fun discussing a very creative, almost musical, subject - then asking him to say a particular phrase in the native German which is, of course, not at all musical.

    But yes, good times all around : )

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