GW Newbury Painting Competitions

Well I got the Chaplain finished earlier in time for the painting competition at GW Newbury.  There were two categories I entered.  The Chaplain was for the hero painting competition organised by GW nationally and the Assault Squad was for the local competition.

In terms of votes, the Chaplain did a little better than the Assault Squad.  Perhaps they were a little two shiny for most people, although I did get some very positive comments about them.  However, they were up against some very good models - well done to all the winners.  At least I can say mine were all done with the new paints and these were certainly my the best painted models I have ever done.  That is probably as much to do with the time and care I have taken over them, as with the new paints.  I do now have a lot of the new yellow and red paints, so I should make use of them and get some more Howling Griffons ready for battle.

Whilst finishing the metal on the Chaplain, I was a little unhappy with the overly reddish tint on the Gehanna's Gold colour, so I softened it with some Sepia wash.  I was then pleased to see that the gold dry colour is called Golden Griffon.  It fitted very nicely!

Getting there slowly

I had a quick 800pts game at the club on Tuesday with my guard against one of the boys there, who has a nicely-painted vanilla SM army with a couple of dreads.  It was Dawn of War - Annihilation, and I got to set up on the halfway line, which pushed him right back.  The walkers proved to be easy points, and the only point I conceded were from my Veterans, who failed to turn up by the time we had to finish.

I also went along to GW Newbury's Vets' Night again yesterday to do a bit of painting, and am nearly there with the Howling Griffons.  I did the bases with Zandri Dust and applied some 'Ardcoat all over.  I want to give the bases another coat and tidy up a couple of bits I had missed and then I will concentrate on getting the Chaplain done, hopefully by the end of next week.

Having researched a bit of the background for the Howling Griffons, I saw they had a run in with the Soul Drinkers, so I picked up their Omnibus yesterday too.

Last tweaks

Back to the grindstone today after holidays, so updates will be less frequent now.

I think the Assault Squad is nearly done, although I will probably redo the base edges.  It is currently sepia wash on a white undercoat and so it has followed the laws of gravity and only really covered the bottom half.  The textured paint on the base was a little less textured than I was hoping.

I have also got started with the chaplain.  Strangely, I have started with a white undercoat, with a Nuln Oil wash, Abaddon Black base in the plates and Dark Reaper layer on top.  I quite like the effect so far.

Finecast chaplain problems

The Finecast chaplain with jump-pack seemed to be a good character to lead my fledgling unit, but I have not had the best of starts assembling him.

It is a clear April morning, so it was a little chilly out in the shed just now.  I noticed that the crozius arcanum was a little warped, so tried to flex it once to see if it would bend back into shape.  It snapped straight off just above the hand.  Then the feet almost broke off as I was gluing it to the base.  Finally, the detail on the jump-pack has not come out very well, as there are two big air bubbles right on the top corners of the air intakes and one of the skulls on the side is just a blob.

I know they suggest applying heat from a hair-dryer or hot water makes Finecast easy to reposition, but this seems far too brittle.  I wanted to use him for the painting competition, but he seems to be doomed to disaster.

This chaplain is my third Finecast purchase.  Logan was fine, although his cloak keeps coming off.  I have also bought some LOTR dwarfs / dwarves and the extended weapons on those seem a bit weak.

Howling Griffons progress

Just a quick update today.

The red quarters are done on the Howling Griffons, apart from the Bloodletter Glaze, which I forgot to get.  I must say I like the light, dusty effect with the new drybrush paints.

I am reasonably pleased with my painting skills on the quartering, but it does need a lot of concentration.  Not recommended with kids around, like I had!

The red now seems stronger then the yellow, but I think I'll finish the rest of the model, to see if I need another coat of yellow layer and glaze to make it a bit deeper.

I have now also tidied up the white of the weapons, before I apply a metallic wash.

Mitorian XIII vs Space Wolves 1.5K

Well I got another game at Veterans' Night last night, but not against Quinn's Grey Knights.  Instead I played Dan, who was also at Carnage.  I added in a couple of squads of my own - my almost finished Ogryns, some Penal Legion and another Infantry Squad, and also borrowed another combined squad from Eli to make up the gap.

We rolled Spearhead and Annihilation.  I realized quickly that I had a lot more Kill Points on the board, so mobbed up a couple of the squads together.  Dan had three squads of Grey Hunters in a Rhino and two Razorbacks, two squads of Wolf Scouts, three units of Long Fangs with a mix of missiles, plasma and lascannons, with Njal as HQ.

I got first turn and immobilised the transports first, as I was expecting him to race forward and get into combat.  However, he was happy to stand back and shoot with all the Long Fangs.  My Penal Legion got Assault 2 weapons and did well to help me take out a plasma squad.  The Leman Russ also soaked up a lot of fire before it succumbed.  The Ogryns lost their transport, so were late to the party with the Wolf Scouts vs the Conscripts, but they did get in a Furious Charge, which was fun.  However, the final tally was 10-2 for Dan.

Dan told me at the end that his army was designed with infantry guard in mind, but I learnt a few things against a canny opponent.  I wish I had brought my Executioner along to take on the Long Fangs and I should have run more squads forward to get the Long Fangs engaged in combat.  Even with their counter-attack rule, it would have tied them up from shooting for a bit.  The Ogryns and Penal Legion did give me some more options though, but more tanks and armour would have been better than more cannon-fodder squads in this battle.

Howling mad!

Having got as far as the yellow basecoat yesterday, I have now decided to abandon the Imperial Fists idea for Howling Griffons instead.  They have a red-yellow quartered scheme.  I doubt my sanity at times.

First off, I wonder how many red pots I will need for this?  Secondly, I've never done quartered armour before and I hope my lines are straight enough across the whole squad.  I will also need some transfers, which I think I can get from Bitbox.

So far I have done a shade and a layer on the basecoat on the yellow quarters.