Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thunderbolts and Bombers, very, very frightening!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
January Painted Models
This update is a bit later than I had intended but it has arrived. I painted 11 Sisters of Battle and 2 Imperial Guard Steel Legion models in January.
I have on the verge of being finished 9 GW Epic flyers, 5 Polish TKS tankettes, a Polish 4 gun 75mm battery with Staff, Command Rifle, and Observer Rifle teams (7 models), and a Polish 7TP jw tank. This batch would certainly diminish the shortfall but not wipe it out.
The smaller tank on the left is a Polish TKS tankette, a two-man tank with very thin armor. The larger tank is the Polish 7TP jw tank.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
January Painting Recap and January is gone!
I fell off the bandwagon again. This time it wasn't so bad and I've been trying to catch up.
I started the year off with the fancy idea of doing a foot guard army and ran two Steel Legion models through the test painting bin followed by a test model of a Sister of Battle for a friend of mine. All three models were primed white, basecoated, then dipped with brushcoat of Army Painter, left to dry and hit with Army Painter Matt Sealer to kill the shine.
Then I fell off the bandwagon again and spent quite a bit of time cleaning Blood Angel Space Marines only to wrap up the month by some rabid painting of 10 Sisters of Battle which I finished last night. Now the Sisters that I'm working on are for a friend who will finish the bases himself so that saves me a bit of hassle.
I also painted up about 30 Flames of War Early War Polish Artillery crew for the month but since they aren't glued onto the bases and finished with their guns and caissons, they'll be counted in February. As difficult as I make these models, I'm nearly tempted to count them as two models each.
Tony S. said he'd join in the challenge but I haven't heard an update from him and I highly encourage xNickBaranx to join in. For Nick, we'll go for 50 models,with works out to just 4. 3 per month. Nick is a great painter and I've heckled him for years since 1998 about getting his fantastic Angels of Absolution done. He still hasn't! You can find Nick here 2ndcitywarzone.blogspot.com
It's still early in the year to take on the challenge and catch up. Let the paint fly!
Photos coming soon!
I started the year off with the fancy idea of doing a foot guard army and ran two Steel Legion models through the test painting bin followed by a test model of a Sister of Battle for a friend of mine. All three models were primed white, basecoated, then dipped with brushcoat of Army Painter, left to dry and hit with Army Painter Matt Sealer to kill the shine.
Then I fell off the bandwagon again and spent quite a bit of time cleaning Blood Angel Space Marines only to wrap up the month by some rabid painting of 10 Sisters of Battle which I finished last night. Now the Sisters that I'm working on are for a friend who will finish the bases himself so that saves me a bit of hassle.
I also painted up about 30 Flames of War Early War Polish Artillery crew for the month but since they aren't glued onto the bases and finished with their guns and caissons, they'll be counted in February. As difficult as I make these models, I'm nearly tempted to count them as two models each.
Tony S. said he'd join in the challenge but I haven't heard an update from him and I highly encourage xNickBaranx to join in. For Nick, we'll go for 50 models,with works out to just 4. 3 per month. Nick is a great painter and I've heckled him for years since 1998 about getting his fantastic Angels of Absolution done. He still hasn't! You can find Nick here 2ndcitywarzone.blogspot.com
It's still early in the year to take on the challenge and catch up. Let the paint fly!
Photos coming soon!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
One a Day Painting
Many months ago, I wrote an article entitled Paint one model a day and shortly fell off that bandwagon.
Well, no more! It's the start of the new year and I have already painted three models with a large number lining up in the queue. I have been very busy cleaning and assembling models in preparation for fast pace painting.
So, are you up for a challenge like this? I know that you have piles of models waiting for some paint and this is just the challenge to get your armies ready for action. My friend Don is attempting to paint 3,000 American Civil War models for a large Gettysburg anniversary game.
At the end of each month, I'll post up details of all the models I've painted for the month as well as some pictures. I'll try to maintain a 30 model month average and we'll see what happens.
If you'd like to participate in this challenge, let me know and I will add a ticker into my sidebar with your details and accomplishments.
Well, no more! It's the start of the new year and I have already painted three models with a large number lining up in the queue. I have been very busy cleaning and assembling models in preparation for fast pace painting.
So, are you up for a challenge like this? I know that you have piles of models waiting for some paint and this is just the challenge to get your armies ready for action. My friend Don is attempting to paint 3,000 American Civil War models for a large Gettysburg anniversary game.
At the end of each month, I'll post up details of all the models I've painted for the month as well as some pictures. I'll try to maintain a 30 model month average and we'll see what happens.
If you'd like to participate in this challenge, let me know and I will add a ticker into my sidebar with your details and accomplishments.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Tournament Sportsmanship, The Way to do it Right
I've run my fair share of tournaments while I was at GW and beyond and have seen and experienced all manner of sportsmanship systems. Few are good and some are just plain dreadfully awful. For years, I've been pondering what makes a fair and unbiased sportsmanship system that would reflect a player's true nature and remove all manner of chipmunking.
Descriptors - This style featured a series of descriptions that a player could use to reflect upon their opponent and game and mark an appropriate score. For example, the sportsmanship card might say "My opponent was fantastic, I wish all my opponents were this much fun," or "We had a few rules problems that we worked through," or any number of broad sweeping statements to describe an opponent's sportsmanship during the game. Many will notice that this style was the Games Workshop Sportsmanship style used in Grand Tournaments during the 90's and early 2000's and was one of the first methods to judge sportsmanship in the tournament scene.
Checklists - The checklist system came into use from Adepticon around 2007 and GW borrowed the format for a few years. This format awards points by checking off any number of boxes whose descriptions might apply to a game such as "my opponent showed up on time at the start of the game," "Hey, my opponent showed up with his rulebook and codex," "My opponent brought his dice," "He measured and moved his models correctly," "My opponent was fun to play against." I've paraphrased these a bit but you get the idea. Half the points in this system rewards players for basic principles that are required for players to have a game, and the other half are so general that they fail to deliver substantial differentiation amongst the player's sportsmanship scores.
Up/Down systems - The Up/Down system is another variant that scores players as either fun to play against or not. This system fails to create substantial differentiation amongst the scores as well as most players will get the nod and get an up vote, unless they are a real bear to play against.
On the whole, the systems above evaluate one player at a time, and usually ignore previous evaluations of other players, while scoring a large group of players with similar scores and needing additional tie-breakers. If we must have sportsmanship, then these systems must disappear if we want real results.
Sportsmanship Ranking - I am of the opinion that this is the finest way to get realistic sportsmanship results if a tournament is to have sportsmanship. Using this method, a player ranks all of his opponents at the end of the tournament on a scale of best sport to least best sport (which in some cases could very well be a worst sport but that isn't always the case!). Players must remember who they have played and a T.O. should provide the players with a sheet so that players can record the names of the people they played.
When a player ranks their opponents, they need to take into account anything and everything that happened during their game, which the above mentioned systems may not always account for, and usually don't. As such, the ranking system takes everything into account and allows the player free reign in determining the results. Reminders to the players to evaluate the players, not the game result can help discourage dishonest evaluation. Only one player could be the best sporting opponent, there are no ties.
One might argue - What if both players are your best opponents or equally deserving of the highest mark? They aren't, you must dig deep, reflect upon your games, and figure out which is the truly the best and the other second best. There can be only one!
This system is less likely to be abused by chipmunking and open sportsmanship scoring (whereby a player marks his sheet in full view of his opponent hoping that his opponent will score him the same highest value) and creates realistic scoring. Irregardless, we know there are plenty of unscrupulous, malicious, manipulative, and unsporting players out there who's only way to win a tournament (with soft scores) is by being disengenuous to other players to gain the win. Don't be that guy!
I like to have opponent's ranked from 5 (the best) to 1 (least best and not necessarily a bad sport). Then simply add up the ranks to determine a score. If the tournament has a large number of players, then double or triple the values to create a greater spread of scores.
If you attend tournaments, encourage the organizers to use ranking systems in the next event and let's cut down on the sportsmanship abuse and put the emphasis back onto the table!
But first, let's go through some bad sportsmanship systems and show why they are rubbish.
Descriptors - This style featured a series of descriptions that a player could use to reflect upon their opponent and game and mark an appropriate score. For example, the sportsmanship card might say "My opponent was fantastic, I wish all my opponents were this much fun," or "We had a few rules problems that we worked through," or any number of broad sweeping statements to describe an opponent's sportsmanship during the game. Many will notice that this style was the Games Workshop Sportsmanship style used in Grand Tournaments during the 90's and early 2000's and was one of the first methods to judge sportsmanship in the tournament scene.
Checklists - The checklist system came into use from Adepticon around 2007 and GW borrowed the format for a few years. This format awards points by checking off any number of boxes whose descriptions might apply to a game such as "my opponent showed up on time at the start of the game," "Hey, my opponent showed up with his rulebook and codex," "My opponent brought his dice," "He measured and moved his models correctly," "My opponent was fun to play against." I've paraphrased these a bit but you get the idea. Half the points in this system rewards players for basic principles that are required for players to have a game, and the other half are so general that they fail to deliver substantial differentiation amongst the player's sportsmanship scores.
Up/Down systems - The Up/Down system is another variant that scores players as either fun to play against or not. This system fails to create substantial differentiation amongst the scores as well as most players will get the nod and get an up vote, unless they are a real bear to play against.
On the whole, the systems above evaluate one player at a time, and usually ignore previous evaluations of other players, while scoring a large group of players with similar scores and needing additional tie-breakers. If we must have sportsmanship, then these systems must disappear if we want real results.
Sportsmanship Ranking - I am of the opinion that this is the finest way to get realistic sportsmanship results if a tournament is to have sportsmanship. Using this method, a player ranks all of his opponents at the end of the tournament on a scale of best sport to least best sport (which in some cases could very well be a worst sport but that isn't always the case!). Players must remember who they have played and a T.O. should provide the players with a sheet so that players can record the names of the people they played.
When a player ranks their opponents, they need to take into account anything and everything that happened during their game, which the above mentioned systems may not always account for, and usually don't. As such, the ranking system takes everything into account and allows the player free reign in determining the results. Reminders to the players to evaluate the players, not the game result can help discourage dishonest evaluation. Only one player could be the best sporting opponent, there are no ties.
One might argue - What if both players are your best opponents or equally deserving of the highest mark? They aren't, you must dig deep, reflect upon your games, and figure out which is the truly the best and the other second best. There can be only one!
This system is less likely to be abused by chipmunking and open sportsmanship scoring (whereby a player marks his sheet in full view of his opponent hoping that his opponent will score him the same highest value) and creates realistic scoring. Irregardless, we know there are plenty of unscrupulous, malicious, manipulative, and unsporting players out there who's only way to win a tournament (with soft scores) is by being disengenuous to other players to gain the win. Don't be that guy!
I like to have opponent's ranked from 5 (the best) to 1 (least best and not necessarily a bad sport). Then simply add up the ranks to determine a score. If the tournament has a large number of players, then double or triple the values to create a greater spread of scores.
If you attend tournaments, encourage the organizers to use ranking systems in the next event and let's cut down on the sportsmanship abuse and put the emphasis back onto the table!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sculpting Wolf Lord Final Pictures
It's been a rabidly busy few months and I've finally gotten around to sharing the final photos of the Wolf Lord that I was working on.
I hope you have enjoyed this model.
More sculpting madness to come in the future. I've got a bunch of great ideas that I'll be working on next year.
I hope you have enjoyed this model.
More sculpting madness to come in the future. I've got a bunch of great ideas that I'll be working on next year.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Sculpting
I took on a commission recently to sculpt a 13th Company Wolf Lord based off the new plastic Daemon Prince model. My job is to kit him out with hair aplenty, a new wolf greave on the right forearm, and a howling wolf head.
The model is coming along quite nicely and you'll notice the basic structure of the head and mouth.
I've dabbled a bit with a 54mm style head. I am happy with most of the features but the eyes gave me a lot of trouble. The eyelids don't look quite right, so I will have to try a different technique.
While I am sculpting away on these projects, I am attempting to sculpt on plenty of Blood Angel iconography onto regular Space Marine Terminators in an attempt to bring them up to the outstanding quality of the Space Hulk Blood Angel miniatures. Pictures to come!
I've dabbled a bit with a 54mm style head. I am happy with most of the features but the eyes gave me a lot of trouble. The eyelids don't look quite right, so I will have to try a different technique.
While I am sculpting away on these projects, I am attempting to sculpt on plenty of Blood Angel iconography onto regular Space Marine Terminators in an attempt to bring them up to the outstanding quality of the Space Hulk Blood Angel miniatures. Pictures to come!
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