Armies On Parade - a look back

A few of you have noticed that despite all the excited build-up before Games Day, I haven't mentioned how things went for my Mechanicum army and its massive display board (seen above).

I've been mulling over the many possible ways to describe the disappointment I felt on the day when my army failed to place, but haven't really been able to put it into words properly. If I was to give you a full rundown of the conversations I had on the day, it might sound like sour grapes.

One thing I will say is that at the show, I did point out three armies that I thought would score well with the general public, and pointed out the particular reasons for their popularity. Surprise, surprise, those three armies took the trophies. At least I can pick a winner ; )

With all the work that went into this year's army, and the over the top display board, and the money involved in shipping it around the country, etc etc etc, I'm going to take a break from the AOP competition for a while. I can certainly then concentrate on the quality of my painting and see if I can succeed again at the Golden Demons (which improve in quality every year).

Here's a look at my army from 2012 - my Procession of Morr.

And my 2011 entry - The Artillery Train of Nuln.

Cheers
Dave

The Display Board

Finally I've had a chance to put together a few photos of my Armies on Parade display board.

Initially I had the idea for a bridge and triumphal arch when I saw the excellent artwork spread in the 40K rulebook of the approach to a temple on Terra. The scale/scope of the architecture was simply mind-blowing. I wanted to grab a little bit of that feeling and squeeze it into a 2' x 2' area.

I didn't take many photos during the construction process, and those that I did take were with my phone, so the quality isn't quite the same as my usual shots. I hope you enjoy them.

This was roughly 40% of the way through the construction. Each element had been designed by me and then rendered and cut on my friend Thomas' laser cutter. To reduce costs, the bulk of the structure was built out of MDF, and then clad in 1mm sheet styrene (plasticard).

Areas requiring precise detailing, such as the deck of the bridge, were etched from acrylic, which deals much better with the heat of the laser than sheet styrene can.

Additional detailing, like resin sheeting of grating texture and strips of plasticard, were carefully added to increase texture and depth in the final piece, essential for something this big.

Curves underneath the edges of the lower arches required careful filling (with expanding foam) and then cutting, filling, and sanding. Thomas looks on above, as the expanding foam amuses us both during a late night construction session.

Curious about the overall height, I asked my two little treasures to stand beside the display : )

The eagles on each side can be removed and replaced with any other design I might like to come up with. And the arch is a separate piece, so it could become and excellent objective for an Apocalypse game. Versatility (as much as possible) was always in the back of my mind.

And here the Bridge Guard stand tall, performing their task.

Cheers
Dave

Armies On Parade: The In-store Edition

Well, as I announced, the North American Armies On Parade in-store event was yesterday, and  attended White Marsh, my closest GW store (and the store I've competed at the last two years). 

Above you can see my army on its display board, haloed by the searing sunlight just beyond the store doors. It's a tall display, which certainly drew quite a bit of attention ; ) With the height on the store tables it also elevated the bridge deck (and therefore the army) to roughly eye level for 95% of the attendees.

As with the previous events, I had only one competitor. This time it was Roz Mario (left) and his Orks. Here I am with Roz, our "medals" tucked inside GW lanyards ; )

Roz brought along a ramshackle horde of predominantly Ork vehicles (there were a couple of Big Meks and Grotz). He had certainly put a ton of work into some pretty cool conversions. His Stompa had no less than three Deffkoptas circling it, and one poor Grot had been given spotter duty at the top of the most rickety crow's nest you've ever seen.

Roz's Bomma included an homage to Star Wars, with on Orky R2 unit poking out behind the pilot.

 
Dredds, Kans, and buggies were the order of the day, however, and they all looked very Orky. I swear that had the buggies driven too fast, their (former) Land Speeder canopies would have been torn off!

During our pack up time, Roz asked if he could snap a shot of his Stompa marching across the bridge. I was only too happy to oblige, noting that it could have passed under the arch (as long as it didn't mind losing the lookout Grot! I also couldn't help snapping a photo of Roz snapping his shot.

So, there it was. a fun day to end a busy (and at times stressful) run at the 1st prize. Thankfully I made it on to the next stage - Games Day in Memphis in four weeks time. Now I just have to work out the best way to ship the display ; )

Cheers
Dave

Getting There...

I've been working pretty hard on completing my display board for the Armies on Parade event this weekend.

I invite you all to come along to Games Workshop White Marsh this Saturday, June 29, between 4pm and 5pm. Come along and vote for the best army on display.

Cheers
Dave

Another teaser post

Just a quick post to show you there has been more progress on the display board for my Armies On Parade project. Here are a couple of lovely golden statues to stand atop the... ahem, never mind.

Please excuse the flash from my phone.

And here are the first eight Bridge Guard painted and standing on part of their... ahem, never mind. ; )

Cheers
Dave

Bridge Guard - Now with 5% more paint!

And by 5% more, I mean that I have one out of 20 painted.

This past weekend was a very busy one, with it being Father's Day here in the US (and other countries too I hear). My two lovely daughters and my wife took me strawberry picking for the day! We managed to pick almost 20 pounds of strawberries in about an hour and spent the rest of the time running around, playing on slides, and having a leisurely lunch. When the girls were napping I had a chance to work on my display board, getting some of the details in place, but I still have a TON (or TONNE depending on where you are) of work to go on it. Photos of the board will be revealed after the in-store Armies On Parade event.

Anyway, I finished up this guy late last night. I hope you like him : )

Here are the other 19, all on their "painting bases" ready for their primer coat. The greenstuff on their gauntlets is to correct my atrocious sculpting on their hands. Next time the hands will be better, I promise!

And as a little added extra, I've put a few different pieces of kit on their backs. Some are plain, some get grenades, some canteens, others pouches etc.

Anyway, I must get back to it!

Cheers
Dave

The Bridge Guard have arrived!

Some of you may remember this post from April about my first sculpted figure... The Bridge Guard?

Well, today a package arrived from my friend Chris Borer (famed Slayer Sword winner and the guy behind Full Borer Miniatures). After he did such a great job on my casting last year, I managed to cajole Chris into casting up my dude for this year's Armies On Parade project : )

*squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

Once again Chris managed to replicate all the flaws in my sculpting perfectly ; ) The brownstuff seen on the figure below is primarily to correct problems with my sculpting for the hands, a pretty crappy job really, but it's all about learning, right?

Anyway, I now have 20 of these to assemble and get primed.

Time is ticking!

Cheers
Dave

Volsinii Imperator - complete

Well, it took a little longer than I originally expected, but asking advice from various folks (you, my kind readers, included) have made for a piece all the better for it.

When last we spoke, I was uncertain about the "face" of the Knight and was contemplating an icon of some kind. Over the weekend I was in Austin for WarGamesCon and spoke with Mondel "GAR" Garcia, who sent me down a different track. We chatted about brightening up the front of the plate, and deepening the shadows to make it pop more. While most of the shading was done with thinned brown, black, and green, GAR suggested adding in some blue (the complimentary color of the "orange" brass). It certainly worked well and I'm pleased with the final results.

I hope you like them too. Enjoy the rest of the photos of Volsinii Imperator.

Cheers
Dave

More WIP on the Knight

Here's the current state of play on my Knight. The brassy bronze is finished, the silver metallics are almost complete, and a number of the details are complete too.

While at Kublacon, I asked the opinion of a few painter friends and the answer to the "dark or bright" question was, not truly surprisingly, "Both". I've approached it all as another, slightly zenithal, thing. Imagining a stronger light source from above, my upwards-facing surfaces are bright silver, while the shadows are quite dark/matte. As you gone further down the model, the metallics become less bright, perhaps with only a thin, glinting edge here and there.

These last two shots show that idea a little more, but also show the soot-blackened exhaust pipes and the rivets picked out in shiny silver.

Back to the grind ; )

Cheers
Dave

We are Legion...

I've finished off the updates on my old servitor horde. They all have their new sickly, pallid flesh, brassy bits with patina, and awesome Dragon Forge Tech-Deck bases. There are 35 of the suckers in the picture above, along with two Techpriest Engineseers to oversee them.

A I was going through and touching them all up I realized that no two are identical. They are built from a pretty even mix of the eight different bodies that have appeared over the years (shown in the photos above) but have been given enough arm swaps that they are all different. This pleases me : )  The ninth body in the photo just above is one of the old Skullz promo set of Ad Mech guys.

Here's where I'm at with the painting on the Knight. All the armor plates are close to where I want them, and the rest of the metallics have been painted with Boltgun Metal and washed with subsequent layers of Secret Weapon Amethyst, Agrax Earthshade, and Nuln Oil. It certainly is quite dark.

Off to the San Francisco Bay Area today to attend Kublacon, should be fun. I might even enter their painting competition ; )

Cheers
Dave