Games Day Chicago Bound

A quick roll call to any who are heading up to Chicago for Games Day!  I'll be up there, entering my Xenos Inquisitor into the Golden Demon, and hoping to meet anyone who sees me with my shirt on!  Of course I'll be wearing a shirt, but I meant the shirt pictured above!  A friend and I will both be wearing one... I'm the guy without glasses... who kinda looks a little like the cartoon at the top of the blog... kinda.

I also encourage everyone who attends to visit the Heroes of Armageddon table in the club tables area, and would like to extend my thanks to everyone who donated.  It's an amazing sight to see what our community can do when we pull together for a cause like this.

Time to finish packing... See everyone there!

- Tim

Finished Xenos Inquisitor

So my first competition level figure is finally complete. "Complete" being a bit of a relative term, mind you. There are still quite a few freehand elements I'd love to put into this miniature. However, I also know that I need practice free-handing details on a fig, so rather than mar the finished figure with practice, I'm leaving it be so that it doesn't potentially hurt the overall figure if I do the freehand poorly.

The roller coaster ride of painting this figure took 4 days in total.

WiP Conversion: Xenos Inquisitor UPDATE 2

Let me tell you, when people like Chris Borer and Mathieu Fontaine tell you that they can spend 40 hours on average per competition miniature, they weren't kidding!

Currently I'm about 10 - 10.5 hours into the painting of the Ordos Xenos Inquisitor for my Golden Demon entry. If you include the time spent converting and sculpting, as well as the time spent on the base during my vacation, I've got over 20 hours worth of work in him.

Let's see where that's gotten me.

WiP Conversion: Xenos Inquisitor UPDATE

Vacation is over, and the Inquisitor build is complete! Above is the bare model and base, awaiting primer.

I ended up spending most of my time on the base, trying to create a story of sorts in his little 28mm environment. So let's dive into that first...

"Investing" in Your Hobby Future...

This was the first Forgeworld model that I finally assembled, painted and actually used in an army, much less a game of 40K. Note that I didn't say this was the first I ever bought! The first I bought was a Grey Knights Dreadnought... About 7 years ago. That I lost about a year later when I moved.

Losing that Dreadnought didn't really teach me a lesson though, as the next year I bought at least 4 squads of Red Scorpion upgrades, and some various other bits and bobs at a Games Day. Those ended up sitting in my Bitz Box for 3 years before I finally found a use for them

But I DID use them eventually, and for my Centurions even!!!

That got me thinking though, did I "invest" in the future of my hobby, or just waste money?

WiP Conversion: Xenos Inquisitor

I've always been enamored by the Inquisition, particularly the arm of the Ordos Xenos. When the new Grey Knights codex came out, I knew I had to finish a conversion I started quite some time ago.

The fun part about this? I'll be entering him into the Golden Demons in Chicago this year! It'll be my first foray into the competitive painting arena and I wanted to start small, get my feet wet so-to-speak, and see if I can't feed on any advice and criticisms I hope to receive from you, and by talking up some seasoned vets and the judges at Games Day. We all need to start somewhere, eh?

Let's take a closer look at some work in progress shots and see what you think so far.

Deathwing, Black Templar Style Update 2

The Devastators are done! It always surprises me how much more time Terminators take me to do than a powered armor marine does. They aren't that much bigger, and the painting premise is the same, but it usually take me about half again as much time to paint one Terminator as it does to paint one standard marine.

I approached the two Dev Squads armor the same way I did the Terminators, in reference to the black to granite shading, highlighted with the 1/1 ratio of granite and bleached bone mix for the highlight. Once I finished that, I dove into the tabards...

Deathwing, Black Templar Style Update

It's been a few weeks since I first posted about this project, and I wanted to share an update! I've gotten the last three Terminator squads done, and that includes the "Command Squad". The squad that Belial accompanies, really, that also has the Apothecary (shown above) in it.

Using Charadon Granite as the mid-color for my blacks really has paid off, I think. The black has a bit of warmth and life to it that I like. Pre-mixing the highlight also has saved me quite a bit of time and it's nice to have the consistency of a standard paint pot color in a custom mixed color.

On to the updates!

Tools of the Trade: Painting

I wanted to conclude this impromptu series with what you might find in my toolbox for the painting aspect of our hobby. More than just brushes play a part in producing a quality paint job on a figure, and we're going to touch on what I think you need to stock your own proverbial toolbox with to get the most out of your hard work and hours of dedication.

Brushes

Let's dive right into the meat of the matter with what brushes to use, and when to use what style.

Tools of the Trade: Miniature Photography

No, I'm not talking about a 28mm scale camera... Though a working model at that size could be cool! I'd make some comment about cameras the size of pens like the old spy movies... But we've already got those. What I'm talking about is how you take pictures of the projects you are proud of.

Let's take a look at some of the ways we can improve the pictures we take of our miniatures and models, and the tools we'll need to do so.