Painting to a Deadline

Adepticon is less than 12 weeks away and I realised that I need to get off my backside and get my Death Guard Legion force finished for the Horus Heresy event (it might even be a good idea to have a game of Sixth Edition before I go.

So over lunch today I totalled up what Death Guard models I still had to paint - 23 infantry (11 of which are Terminators), a Spartan, a Javelin and a Vindicator. That will give me around 2100 points to choose my 1850 point army from.

In true Project Manager fashion, I set up three Steering Committees, wrote Terms of Reference, constructed a PID and submitted it to the Programme Management Office. Like Hell, I did.

Ignoring the tenets of the Contractor Work Creation Industry, I got out a piece of paper and drew up a schedule. It blocked out gaming weekends - Ruination, HomeCon, NZTC and ETC Practice Days - and then allocated a certain number of nights to each unit. It took 15-20 minutes and it gave me a workable plan. More importantly it told me if I realistically wanted to get it finished and have some practise then I need to start now.

Far better to do something as rudimentary as this than to wait until a month....hey a week....out and burn the midnight candle.

So here is my schedule and now I've just got to follow it.

With technology like this I may even do a display board!

Painting Checklist - The Reality

Lots of good discussion re the painting checklist

Here for me is the reality. If you want full painting points you don't need to be a master painter, you can choose to check just the following boxes:

This gets full points. 

For each point you miss full marks by you lose 0.71 Tournament Points. Each Battle Point is worth 0.6 Tournament Points. Therefore if you got only 30 out of 35 for painting you would need to make up 6 Battle Points.

In the lead up to the event you could spend an hour a night and get the extra 5 Painting Points e.g. Flock and and paint movement trays (2 points), make a Display Base (1 point) [and you can carry your models on it] - it doesn't have to be elaborate, apply a wash or highlight to parts of your models (2 points).

And you're there.

Painting Checklist

This is the painting checklist referred to in the Skitterleap Players' Pack.

Sam Whitt, the Umpire will be using this to grade painting. As you can see it is possible to get up to 45 points. However only 35 points is required to get a full painting score.

If you sit down with your army then you should be able to objectively determine your own score by marking it against the sheet. Realistically you should be able to get within one or two points.

I'd suggest using it as a checklist when planning your army for the event if you want to maximise your painting score.

When Sam comes to mark your army you should be able to have a discussion with him pointing to the various factors.

Hobby Update

So what have I got on my painting table at the moment.

Well first up I have primed all my Horus Heresy Death Guard for painting. That is a Praetor, an Apothecary and two Contemptor Dreads (both standard DG pattern - Multi-Melta/Power Claw). They will be worked through over the next month or so. I need to paint a further Tactical Squad and that will give me most of the 1500 points I need for Adepticon.

I have also started painting the model I got from Kromlech to use as a Great Unclean One/Nurgle Daemon Prince. Hopefully I'll finish this in the next couple of days so that I can use him on the weekend. The Kromlech models are really nice. I have ordered a couple of their Plague Reapers to fit into various armies.

Additionally I have ten Nurgle Furies to paint. If you remember I made these out of Plague Bearers with Gargoyle wings. Suspect that they will be reasonably quick to paint up and they will round out the Nurgle Daemons.

There are quite a few podcasts backed up on my iPhone. About half have Lizardmen reviews on them. It will be interesting to see whether the new models I've purchased for my Lizards have been a monumental fail. Still I'll probably only have to wait a week and opinions will have changed.

I've been very impressed by the iBook version of the Army Book and in particular the 360 degree views they give of the new models. They look like they will be a joy to paint. I have purchased two Bastilodons, a Troglodon and a box of Ripperdactyls. In the meantime, I am fixing a damaged Ancient Stegadon I had downstairs and it will be an Engine of the Gods in my list. Luckily Sam Whitt has fixed me up with some spare parts and I am waiting for some additional bits to arrive from a UK Bitz seller. Once I've got it fixed then I'll start painting it and hopefully this will inspire me for the new models.

So plenty to do......as always.

Painting Scores At Tournaments

One of the pieces of feedback to come out of the recent Horned Rat was some disquiet over the painting scores. There was a school of thought that there wasn't sufficient variation between the scores to reflect the variation in painting quality.

The basis for painting scores at Fields of Blood events over the past few years has been the premise that everyone wants to play against a fully painted army that meets certain minimum standards - the standard tabletop tournament army. The rationale for this is that we are involved in a hobby game and that this hobby aspect is a major part of the attraction for most players. However the tournament is not a painting competition and as long as you achieve a certain standard then it shouldn't impact your results.

Now this basis is significant. It means people can borrow or buy armies without being advantaged or disadvantaged. It definitely raises the minimum standard - meaning participants are encouraged to make the necessary effort to achieve the full score but are not disadvantaged if they can't achieve 'Eavy Metal standard. There is a school of thought that it also reduces the top end of the spectrum as there are no additional points on offer and instead that competition is transferred to Best Painted, Best Presented or Players' Choice or whatever the painting prize is called at the event.

When marking painting I use a variation of the Adepticon system that I first saw 5-6 years ago. This has a set number of points for painting e.g. 36 but there are 45 points on offer. Therefore as long as you have a fully painted, based army with movement trays you will achieve full painting marks. Implementing this scheme I believe has been instrumental in improving the minimum painting standards in the local scene.

However such a scheme needs to punish those armies that don't meet this threshold and I think that there was some evidence that that didn't occur at Horned Rat - all but one army scored full points and the exception got what many felt was a very charitable score. That however comes down to the individual judge marking the armies and how they decide to implement the painting system they use.

It did get me thinking about the wider scoring and the comment from some that they would prefer to see more variation at the top end. This is easily achieved. With 15 points for painting you could award 10 points for having an army that meets tabletop tournament standard with the other 5 points awarded for higher achievement. However you need to determine whether those points are based on standard of army or on painting skill. With the later how do you reconcile armies not painted by the player, be they purchased or painted by someone else.

As a TO I have a vested interest in an event being as inclusive as possible, while as a player I personally would be disappointed if someone got an advantage for work that was not their own OR was disadvantaged if they were excluded from all the points on offer. However I am interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.

My solution is to increase the number of painting trophies at future events to reward those that do make the extra effort. Of course these would be restricted to armies that were player's own efforts. The intention is to reward those that go the extra step and hope that wider recognition encourages more competition.

Tabletop World's Windmill Finished

One of my great loves in the hobby is high quality terrain and I don't think that there is a better manufacturer of terrain pieces than Tabletop World in Croatia. Over the past few years, regular attendees at the events I organise will have seen an increasing number of their pieces adorning the tables.

Late last year I bought their Windmill and this week after finishing a batch of Daemons I started to paint it.

Here's the finished piece:

I now have a few of their houses to do prior to Horned Rat Gobbo

Herald of Nurgle

Here are a few pictures of a Herald of Nurgle I've been working on.

Based on the Nurgle Chaos Lord and utilises the Plaguebearer Champion head from the Plague Drones. The banner is a Stormvermin banner with Nurgle symbol added. Base is still to be finished with tufts and grass.

Brush Care

Through the wonders of the internet and notably youtube I have discovered that you really should look after your brushes and they will last a whole lot longer.

I was very sceptical at first especially given how hard I am on brushes - but I am now a convert.

So why this "Road to Damascus" change in opinion? Well in the last fortnight I have bought two new products and they have completely revived my brushes.

The first of these is an ultrasonic cleaner.

I purchased this little beauty on Trade Me. It is an ultrasonic jewellery cleaner and I purchased it to clean my airbrush after use. While watching youtube I saw that it could be used to clean your ordinary brushes as well and so on Tuesday afternoon I put in all my mangy old brushes - ranging from 00 to heavy drybrushes. The effect was amazing. Later that evening it had broken down all the residual paint back to the ferrules. This allowed me to move onto the second step.

This is Masters Brush Cleaner.

I purchased mine from Ken Bromley in the UK. This is a soap and shampoo for your brushes.  There is a quick little video on how to use it here. The effect is amazing. My brushes are back to their original colour, shape and softness. 

I'm a convert.

My Updated Hobby Set-Up

Over the last few weeks I have been tidying up my hobby area and making it more "useful". This has included moving my airbrush upstairs from garage along with its spray booth. I've also managed to retrieve my Netbook so I can follow Twitter, read blogs and watch hobby videos and TV shows (currently Archer and Vikings).

L-shaped computer desk - Lynne has the computer side with another module against wall. On it is spray booth. Vallejo paints are in background having been replaced by the new Citadel range. Washes in the MDF rack on the desk.

Black leather chair we bought for Lynne's workstation but she decided was too big. I use it instead of it being wasted :-) Two lights. One is fluorescent daylight strip the other a long life daylight bulb. 

Storage in side module below spray booth, compressor below the lights hidden out of sight. Netbook to right of spray booth.

 End kitchen cabinet shelves I have purloined for extra storage. It has all my chemicals and basing materials. It also has a hairdryer for getting rid of excess static grass. Next to it is my most recent purchase, an ultrasonic cleaner I got off Trade Me (more on that in the next few days).

The shelf below has my current primed models including a Terrorgheist, Krull the Mierce Bloodthirster and a Nurgle Skullcannon. Next to it is the 40k Ork army that Jack is painting for me in payment for his World Eaters (it's been 3.5 years but I'm still hopeful!).

Ohhh Shinies!

The last 2 days have been happy mail days!

Here are some of the growths for my happy hobby collection that the worlds best postie has delivered recently...

After mucking around with cheaper knock off brushes for the last year, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and get the real deal...

All I will say for now is that I really wish I had gone the whole hog and bought this right away. The difference between this and the knock off I had is vast.

So Pretty... So shiny!

Grumbly Pete will be pleased I have bent the knee and purchased a tactical squad. With it taking so long to arrive however, I'll be cutting it fine for the deadline!

To echo my wife's words from last night, "that is far smaller than I expected!"

Meanwhile, this is huge! A great transfer sheet,  I am tempted to use this over the actual sons of horus shoulder pads.

A long time ago I purchased the first of these books, and it revolutionized how I paint my miniatures. I hope that this has even a fraction of the content of the first, it will be well worth it! Speaking of, one of you fuckers still has my first book, who did I lend it to again?

Last but not least, it's Peters favorite codex! Everyone knows how much he loves this.

Step by step Necron painting guide.

Hi all!

A few requests in various places have come through as to how to do different parts of my Necron army. As such, when the time came to paint another figure up for it, I took the opportunity to take some photos along the way and throw them up.

I decided to convert up a Destroyer Lord to go with the wraiths. Unfortunately the normal GW model just looks far too dated, so I threw together a quick conversion from one of the tomb spyders, and poached the idea for the conversion almost verbatim from Fatdamien over at WargamerAU. The result fits in far nicer with the new wraiths.

Click below for more of this clickity bad boy!