Jawaballs needs models!

Ok folks it is trading time.

I am looking for some loot.

Old style "Bulky" IG storm troopers.
Hell Gun x5
Meltagun x3 Does one exist with a mask?
Sgt that can be converted into a standard bearer.

The thing is, I only want guys with masks, and I only want unpainted.

What else?

Unpainted IG Chimera on sprue is fine, hell, even WELL assembled is ok.

Coteaz, unpainted.


You know what kills me is that I owned all these models at some point but sold them off in one of my purges. Damn me.

What do I have? Cash of course, but also trade.

NISB Necron Ghost Ark
NISB Land Raider Crusader
NISB Sang Guard x4
NISB Flesh Hounds of Khorne box set
NISB Zombie Regiment
About 100 assembled zombies, not painted.
Open but untouched Lizardman Stegadon

Jawa Bases and Painting Tutorials

I could just buy every thing but the Stormtroopers but I figured I would try to turn some of this stuff rotting on my shelf into something useful.  Plus I need to get a grip on my spending. Lets keep this to just guys in the states. I don't feel like filling out customs forms.  I really only care about the troops for now, so if you have em but don't want my stuff throw a price at me!

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead: Season 2, Part 2, Episode 2

Well it took me almost a week to sit down and write about last week's episode. Mostly because I was on vacation!  But also, the episode left me feeling a little flat.

Why?

Well it continues to be characters with well defined "character" defying that character in order to create plot/drama.  They avoided this pitfall in the first season, which was a character defining season. In the first half of this season, they allowed those characters to do their thing when faced with certain situations. Now that they have used up the situation, they are left with forcing the characters to do things OOC or Out Of Character.

Now, this is not to say that characters don't evolve.  A great example of evolution of character is Rick/Hershel.  Last episode you saw them both transform right before your eyes. Rick became the leader/decision maker, (In his own head) and Hershel popped a cap in a dude.  Both of those things were month in the works.  And especially in Hershel's sense, were major direction changes for character.

But that is not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about stupid Lori getting into her car and not only leaving her son alone, but not even telling him she was going, and driving out after Rick, only to get herself in a wreck, which would force Shane to have to come get her, then lie to her, and create more drama.

What happened in this episode? Well, Rick insisting on saving the dudes life.  Why was this out of character? Well the guy has a pretty well defined sense of wright and wrong. He has rigid morals. Black and White.  2 minutes before the guy's legs were impaled on the fence, he was shooting a high caliber rifle at Rick and narrowly missing him.  That makes him the bad guy.  Rick is a COP.  I won't pretend to be able to speak for all cops, but most cops I know would pretty much be ok with letting that dude die to zombies. He played a round of poker with the devil, and lost.  He fired on Rick!  Rick not only risked his own life to save the dude, but risked Glen and Hershel.  Bull.

Sure we can say that this was Rick's predetermined morals taking control. He could not leave a guy to "Bleed Out" as he put it.  (Not that he would have had time to bleed out any way, those Z were like 30 feet away.)  But just five minutes earlier he executed two bad guys for just thinking about shooting at him.  Now he was going to risk death by making Hershel amputate a leg with a pocket knife while Z are coming down the alley.

Then he just says screw it and pops the guys leg off the spike any way.

So who else is behaving oddly?

Glen.

The dude was a pizza delivery boy. He is probably 20 years old. In the old world, there is NO WAY he would have scored a honey as fine as Farmer Becky.  It took a Z apocalypse to get a babe like that. And what does he do? He pushes her away because he is afraid to hurt her by getting himself killed?  Whatever. It's silly and bad writing.  You take any kid who has spent the last 300 Friday Nights jerking into a sock, give him a sweet babe like that, and I refuse to believe that he is going to do any thing but stare all doe eyed into her glory. That whole bit of drama is just contrived.

Daryl.

Well he played right into his character. I guess because he is the only character in the show without an entire series of novellas to define him. The writers are free to do what they want with him.  So he goes all red neck ghetto on a woman who just watched her Z daughter get blown away. The acting is fantastic. I love how he gets so enraged that he can barely spit out his lines. I know rednecks just like this, that start shouting things while angry and don't even finish their statements.  The show needs much more Daryl. Eventually Rick and Shane are not going to be able to coincide and they are going to have to do away with Shane. So Daryl is going to have to pick it up as a main character.

Tdog, Dale, Carol, comatose blonde, etc etc.  I don't think most of these characters even did a thing other than stare at the protagonists.

Over all the episode did very little. It revealed that Hershel can actually kick ass when he quits whining. It continued to muttle up Rick's character. It further reinforced that Shane is a liar and will do what it takes to further his own agenda. (He wanted Rick to die and had no intention of going looking for him but he had to have Lori back.)  Daryl and Carol have a weird relationship.  (The one thing she is good at is getting yelled at, she barely even flinched when Daryl was unloading.)  Are they gona do it?  The blonde continues to be useless. Tdog had less lines than Arnold in Conan the Barbarian.

What actually happened? The 3 muskateers escaped the bar, saved a plot point, and came home.  Oh and Lori started working her weird woman ways on Rick, while he stared right at the camera with a look of disbelief on his face.

I suppose I could talk about that for a bit. What was that look? Was it Rick realizing that he was going to have to cross a line from which he knew he would never return? All he had done up to that point was for naught... all of his attempts to maintain the law were wasted because he realized he was going to have to kill Shane.  We shall see?

The previews for tonight's episode look to be pretty good.  Finally, after most of a season, some real action.

Lets see!

Jawaballs

Raven Guard banner for sale!

Hey folks, it turns out that due to a miscom, this banner is now available for sale!

I have a video coming up in a few, but it is the same quality and size as all of my other award winning banners! Perfect for the Raven Guard player in you.

The price is 300.00. The banner alone costs me 100 to have made and I have at least 15 hours into it.  I am also open to trades.

Let me know if you are interested!

Jawaballs

Jawa Grey part Two Pic heavy

Here we go!  Fortress grey.  Repeat the same process as before, but only a bit less with Fortress Grey. Notice how I keep the point of the brush pointing at the edge of the armor, I found that it helps the paint collect in the proper spot. You want it thicker at the edge.

Here is that shoulder after I apply the paint.

And again.

Repeat the process to taste.  

Then again, drag the paint towards the center, pressing the brush on the armor

so that it feathers out like this.  Use a circular motion to help spread the paint, and don't try to go to fast

More thin layers are better than less thick layers.

The grey smooths out.

Fortress Grey done!

Now its time for Astronomicon Grey. This is just a tad lighter than Fortress grey.  

On this one I start to focus on edging too. Using the side of the tip of the brush, I drag it up some of the hard edges. I did Fortress and Codex here too, but it is now that the edges start to look crisp and tight.

Yes, I paint straight from the pot.  Naughty...

Less is more! Use the tiniest bit of paint on your brush that you can get. Basic painting 101!

In between the greys I touch some spots with my asurman blue mix to taste. I want to reinforce the dark blues and their relationship to the greys, and the blending in between.  

And just in case you thought I had forgotten about my Eldar army...

Here is the Forgeworld Wraithseer. I am using him as a normal Wraithlord.  The only real differences are the weapons, a special runic chest piece, hands, feet and fins.  The head has some special runes as well.  The base is simply a Black Reach dread cut up to look destroyed and partially buried. There is also some rock there and sand.  I cut the right leg at the knee to bend it so he is stepping up on the dread victoriously, and need to fill the whole with puddy.

The lance he came with was warped and would not straighten, so I cut the blade off and will replace it with a copper rod.

Ok so much to do!

Jawaballs

Some inspiration? Weight loss!

Ok folks,

I know some of you look to me for inspiration. Well, let me share this with you.  Like a lot of us, I am very much over weight.  According to the BMI, I am over 100 pounds over weight. That is a load of crap. I think my ideal weight is 220 pounds.  But sadly I am still 77 pounds over that.

But I am not here to talk about it, I am going to do something.  So as not to bore you guys here with the updates, I started a new blog about my journey from a fat Jawa to a skinny one.  HERE IT IS.  Feel free to watch and follow along, and if you feel inspired, join me!  Maybe I can help start a revolution of healthier nerds.

:)

Jawaballs

Grey Knight Blue Steel Grey Technique part two

Ok Folks, Time for an update on my Grey technique!  Here are some pictures of the model in progress. I decided to paint this half of him to a near state of completion before moving on with the tutorial.  Needless to say, this is challenging.  My model is ending up more blue than grey, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  

In these first two pictures I compare the Dreadknight to my terminator I first painted with this technique. Obviously, the terminator was smaller with easier to paint armor plates. The smaller they are, the less I have to feather/blend the greys.  That is, the less I have to drag out the blend.  On the big plates I found myself creating new light sources so as to have new areas of blended grey.  

In this closeup, you see the difference. The terminator legs pose a different challenge than the dread knight ones.  To create the grey I start with Codex, then go to Fortress, Astronomicon, then white along with a couple applications of Asurmen Blue.  

I tried to make the final white highlight as crisp and edged as possible. While I am not trying to recreate chrome with nonmetallic colors, I am using it as a reference, and when I looked at some bike handlebars for example, there were usually a bunch of dark shades, with one extreme line of white down the middle or on an edge.  

A big problem I am having here is that the original model was sprayed black, then hand painted with Adeptus Battlegrey. This one was sprayed with Uniform Grey from army painter instead.  The shade of grey is much lighter, and more easier over powered by the Asurman Blue wash.  The Battlegrey held up to the blue wash, keeping the darks more grey than blue.  However, I don't think the effect is bad on this. I kind of like the cold blue shade.  

Now that I have a decent idea of how I am going to paint this guy, I can proceed with the tutorial. Next time, Fortress Grey and how it interacts with the Codex grey.  As I paint the other side, I am going to push the relationship between the blue and the grey.  I think I will water down the blue a bit more and try to get a smoother blend with the greys.  Here's to learning!

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead Season Two Part Two: :)

The first half of season two: Lets sit around this damn farm and look for a kid we all know is dead.

The second half of season two: Game on!

So the second part of the season launches. We all know what is going on, but this episode leaves us reaching, and lurchinig, and wanting for more! And there is more going on than we may think.

First of all, they (The writers) have to resolve the mess created by Shane in the last episode.  The barn is revealed and Sophia is blown away.  This leads us to minor confrontations between Glen and Hottie, and Rick and Shane. But more importantly, this brings Hershel's world crashing down.  Up until this point, he and all of his cult, had hope.  Well, Shane shot hope through the heart like 9 times then blew her head off.

This episode served two major purposes. It sets the stage for the rest of the season, and most importantly, brings forth Rick as the leader he needs to be.

One: Rick has arrived.

Up until this point, Rick has been the placating leader. Trying to please every one, and playing it safe.  He has been treading water in unknown oceans and barely keeping his head up.  But the scene in the bar was great for many reasons. First of all, he did most of the talking. You could almost see him evolve on the spot. His reasoning went from pleading, to ordering. And you could see Hershel come around as he spoke. As Rick spoke to Hershel though, it was not so much for Scowl's benefit, but more for his own.  As he spoke he became more sure of things himself.  You could see Rick go through a metamorphose as the scene went on.

It was satisfying to see Hershel come around at the end. Hershel had given up, but Rick knows he is going to need a doctor in about 9 months, so he had to do his best to keep the guy working, and succeeded. Then came the knock at the door, and that's when it all came together. Those boys had pretty piss poor timing, unfortunately for them. Had they arrived 10 minutes earlier they would have found whimpering and pleading Rick, and probably pulled one over on him.  Instead they found a Rick who was revived and ready. And even more unfortunately they presented Rick with something he knew how to deal with.

Cop Rick was on the job.  His training took over. While Glen and Hershel were open and willing to share info at first, Rick had the smarts to keep his mouth shut and not give them too much info.  And when it came time for killing, Rick performed it without hesitation. He knew just what to do. He had seen their kind before and I think he was actually happy to plug some bad guys. It was a reach back to what he was missing. A world in order, where there are laws and right and wrong. He is on the side of good and those guys definitely had ill intentions.

 It is interesting to see how quickly and precisely he executes humans, but struggles over killing zombies. You have to wonder if Merl had encountered this Rick instead of the one he met in Season One would he have been killed on sight?. What ever happened to "Humans don't kill humans."? There were plenty of times when Rick could have gotten the drop on them and simply drew his gun. Glen had a gun in his hands already, and Rick is good at drawing his weapon from his holster. The bad guys either had their guns over their backs, or sitting on the table! Rick definitely had a chance to resolve it peacefully if he wanted. He chose to end the bull shit.

Even more interesting was how he almost went for the final killing head shot on the fat dude, as if he was a zombie.  I think Rick is having his own sort of moral blurring of the lines like Shane.  The two of them are much more alike than one would be lead to believe.

In fact, they almost switched positions.  You saw Shane showing compassion and empathy by helping out Sophia's mom. In an almost voyeur, fetish kind of way he was helping clean her up.  What was with the cameras focus on him washing her hand.  Was it a symbolic washing of the hands? Shane washing away his wrong? She had a weird look on her face. Was he baptizing her? Seducing her? He already has blondie on his side and on her back, did he just recruit another? Do we see the group dividing into camps?

Good side:
Rick, Glen, Lori, Kid

Bad side:
Shane, Blondie

Ambiguous side:
Dale, Dog, Daryl, Sophia's mom

Now I can see Sophia's mom aligning with Shane, she has nothing left to live for plus she still harbors anger towards Rick for getting Sophia killed.  Daryl's anger is also bubbling and the guy's upbringing is getting the best of him. He tried the noble thing, but years of living will take over every time he has a set back. I see it all the time in school when the bad kids try to do better. They sincerely try, but a little set back drops them right back into the gutter. Dale and Tdog are sill just side characters used to further plots.  Dale especially. He effects no action, only provokes it.  That is called a plot device.  He exists to make Shane get out of his car and offer expository as to what he is thinking for example.  That's the whole reason Dale was sitting there by the way, when Shane got into the truck.  It would have looked weird if Shane just started talking to himself but it was important to the series that Shane said those words.

It was important to the show that Shane had a shift back towards the neutral point, at the same time, so did Rick.  Both were becoming polarized in their own directions. This episode served to sort of break up those hard lines they were following away from each other, thus leading them back towards a hard intersection, and the drama that comes with it.

What the hell is with Lori by the way. Her actions make no sense at all.  Just stupid.  Like Blondie shooting Daryl.  Stupid decisions. What did she think she was going to do driving into town alone to look for Rick. What help did she think she was going to give, and why did she leave her son?

There are no answers for either, other than to put another character into danger. Whenever you see a character do something completely out of the ordinary or character for lack of a better word, it is a sign of writers forcing plot. Staying on the farm is easy. They eliminated any problem by clearing out the barn, so there was no danger.Without danger there is no drama. SO, lets have Lori defy any character traits she has shown so far, leave her son unattended, show that she does not trust her husband one of the most capable guys in the party, and get her into a car and drive her out alone and get into a car accident.  Stupid chick, weak writing. AMC is good, but not perfect. Speaking of weak writing, how bout the kid blonde going into the classic catatonic state? Nothing like instant home grown crisis to force characters out of their comfort zone. I have come to expect more from TWD.

Now we are going to have to deal with a bunch of "where's Lori?" bullshit. Then come the search parties. Plus we are going to have to deal with the zombies trying to get her out of the car. She had no reason to leave the farm.  Period.

No front plates in Georgia? 

Lastly, it irks me how they so easily dismissed Fort Benning.  Unless of course Rick chooses not to believe the guy when he said the grunt reported that it was over run. I just don't see how the fort could be over run.  They have tanks, and ammo and guns capable of cutting zombies in half and half again.  Of course there is the problem of guys deserting, but even if half of them ran, there should still be enough guys to pull triggers and explode zombies. I can understand isolated places like the CDC getting overrun.  But I don't buy a major base.  Once the military realized they had lost control, they would have ordered a total regroup at the most strategic place possible. That place would be the place with the tanks, guns and ammo.  I would love to see that scene though.

The fall of Fort Benning! That could be it's own Walking Dead spinoff.

Any way, based on the preview for next week we are going to see some Jericho type man on man action as the bad guys have Rick and co. pinned in the bar. That will be fun to watch, but the more juicy stuff is going to be what happens back on the farm.  Daryl continues to be a mystery and Sophia's mom is going to go all sorts of Road Warrior apocalypse crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if she starts painting her face and wearing ears around her neck. Lori is going to spend an episode stuck in her wrecked car screaming at zombies and Shane is going to have a heart to heart with another of the undecided. Probably Tdog.

One last point, why the hell were the bad guys so focused on finding Rick's farm?  They are in Georgia. They came from Philly, an hour removed from Amish country.  The point is that they left PA, a place loaded with farms and space devoid of people, to go to Georgia, a state full of farms and space devoid of people.  They must have passed hundreds of farms coming down 95 and the side roads.  Any one of them would have served as a place to hole up, get live stock and survive. Pig farms, chicken farms, you name it.  There was no point in the guys becoming fixated on wanting the farm that Rick and co. were living on.  In fact the whole scene of them being unscrupulous and aggressive didn't make sense.  I get that human nature left unchecked would result in people doing bad things, but with the exception of a few chaotic evil dudes like Merl, most "bad" guys would be smart enough to cooperate with new people over killing them and probably put aside any unscrupulous intentions completely for the sake of mutual survival.

Those two guys seemed at least smart enough to understand that.  Especially if you stop to think about the fact that the world is now a ripe oyster waiting to be shucked. The zombie fall could only have spanned a couple months and things probably spiraled faster and faster as things played out.  Which means people had time to stock pile, but no time to use the stuff! Odds are there are going to be stock piles of supplies every where just waiting to be taken.  There will have to be entire towns, empty. They can leisurely go house to house and clean them out.  I just looked in my cabinet and there are a bunch of cans of corn, tuna and other stuff that has been there forever, forgotten.  Those are not the things that people packing in a rush to escape a zombie apocalypse bring along. So I have to imagine that there would be bits and pieces of food and supplies in every house in every town.  Georgia must be spotted with little towns like this. Isolated and ready for the pickings.

All they have to do is find a relatively empty town, quietly cave in the heads of any zombies that are lurking about, and eat.  Trying to steal from living thinking humans is counter productive and dangerous.

Here is to next week, and some action, something that came sparingly at best in the first half of the season.

Jawaballs

Quick banner update

Here is the Raven Guard chapter banner I am doing for Dropzone Games!  It is mostly done. I have to further define the squares on the checker grids, and carry the scroll ends down in front of them. Then I need to push some of the details further and do the lettering.  I will probably add a little inner frame to tie all the elements together and a few tidbits on the bottom tabs.  Then we have the Word Bearers!

After I am done with the Dropzone Games banners, they will have three more coming, but before those I have to do a Space Wolves and a couple of custom ones.  One custom Night Lords banner, and another one for a more home grown marine chapter based on the Crimson Fist banner.  If you would like one for your club or man cave get hold of me, the queue is starting to grow!

Jawaballs

Jawa Grey Part One

Ok folks you asked for it!

WARNING: This is an advanced tutorial which requires practice.  Allow yourself the patience to learn it and perfect it!

Due to popular demand, I am doing a step by step tutorial for my Jawa Grey. This is the NonMetallic Metal style way that I painted my weapons on my Double Gank Mephiston/Sanguinor Assault Blood Angels army.  I used it to paint this model which won Best Sci-Fi model in the Crystal Brush competition sponsored by Cool Mini or Not at Templecon in Rhode Island last weekend.

First of all, this is NOT Non Metallic metal. This is based on the techniques used to achieve it.  I am not trying to recreate a chrome/silver metallic effect using greys and blues, directly. Sure the effect simulates metallic silver armor, but I am more interested in the shading and value of greys that I get than reproducing chrome.

Value is the lightness and darkness of color. It describes the transition from light to dark. A good area on the above picture that describes a nice value is the left breast part of the armor. There is a nice smooth transition from bright grey at the top, to dark cool grey at the bottom of the chest piece. This effect serves two purposes.

First, it looks great on the table. A big problem with some master painted models is that you spend 10 hours painting them, and the colors really are perfect when the model is 6 inches from your eyes, but when you put it on the table, it loses it's beauty.  This style of painting produces a model that looks great from 3 feet away. You can put it on the table, and observe it from standing distance, and the models will "Pop" on the table.

But also, and this is important when being judged for "Best Painted", the models have to stand up to close scrutiny.  This painting technique will look great from up close too.  The best of both worlds!

Ok enough intro. Let me get to painting.

For this model, I assembled and primed it with Army Painter Uniform Grey. Then I gave it a liberal wash with a 40/60 mix of water to Asurmen Blue. (I just used an almost half empty pot of AB wash and filled it with water.)  The ratio should be around 50/50.

Once the wash is dry, I get right to it with Codex Grey.  I start by edging the grey using the side of the brush on the edges of the armor. 

I use a TINY TINY amount of grey on the brush at any given time. This is a Reaper Kolinsky 10-0 fine detail brush.  I dip the brush into the codex grey, this particular grey is straight from the pot, no mixing.  Then I drag it down the edge of the armor, from top right of the image to lower left, with the side of the bristles resting against the edge.

Then I drag the brush towards the meat of the armor like this.  You can see how little paint is on the tip of the brush, that is very important.  Drag the bristles into the armor, then rub the brush up and down the edge. In this picture, the direction would be North East to South West.

Here is the result.  You can start to see the grey change in value, from light at the edges to darker as it wraps around the armor plate.

To improve the effect, do it several more times. Each time, drag the brush more into the meat of the armor, and allow it to "feather" out like so.  At this point, a nice circular motion works well. You will see the grey collecting at the edge and fading at the center. Allow it!

Here is the armor plate with the front part finished with Codex Grey.  In this style, I try to allow the edges of the armor to be light. This might not make perfect sense since you would think that light would be shining off the rounded part of the armor, but who cares about logic.

This is the first of 3 shades of grey you are going to paint, so don't worry about getting it perfect right now. You will also reapply the blue wash a few times.

And yes, I am aware that I failed to properly shave off the sprue flash point.  Sometimes they don't really show up until you start painting.  At some point I will shave it with a blade and touch it up.

That's it for now!  Much more to come.

Jawaballs

Whats next?

Ok guys, I have a long post about my last two GT experiences coming up soon. But in the meantime I wanted to give you something short and sweet!

I finished the first banner for Dropzone Games and am now working on their 2nd of 3 commissions. Ravenguard!

The guys at Dropzone Games sent me a sample image they wanted their banner based on.

I drew the image in pencil on the black banner and am now laying color. First is dark brown for the scroll and skull.

Then I used a series of greys to do the "Raven". At the top I laid in some masking

tape to help make straight lines for the Ravenguard Checker pattern.

Using yellow oxide I painted in the Halo. I am taking some liberties with the design.

The scroll was not in the design they sent me,  but I feel that it is not a 40k banner 

without the big bold letters!  Also I enlarged the halo. In the original image there is a 

white/silver background behind the raven with a series of cross designs. I am not a fan. I filled the space with 

the halo instead and will do a more subdued square outline in the background to tie in all the elements. Jawa knows best!

What else?  

Templecon!  I am doing a big writeup of the fantastic event, but I just wanted to share a little stuff with you for now.

I entered this Grey Knight I painted for the Templecon 40k Charity into

the Crystal Brush competition sponsored by Cool Mini or Not. 

Oh and that is a Jawa Forge resin base. :)

The grey knight went for 110.00 in the auction.

The accolades went to Jawaballs!  I won 1st place in the Sci-Fi category.

I also entered my Sanguinor that won Best Single Mini at Nova, but he failed to place. He was at least top three in Sci-Fi.  

Not sure what happened there as he is a better painted model by far. Perhaps the CMoN guys can shed some light!  It was too busy to ply them for feedback at the event.  Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I was using him in the tournament and did not enter him in the judging until the evening of Saturday, and took him out for a bit to display him with my army for Players Choice voting.  I think he just got missed... :(  

And yes, the elusive Players Choice.  I won my first by a VERY slim margin, 1 vote!  Hans from Team Bastard with his Dark Eldar was 2nd, and would have probably won had he finished his army and done a nice display.  I thank every one that voted for my army. It is much appreciated. :)

Not a bad send off for my current Blood Angels army. I painted it last summer with the intention of competing for painting honors through Templecon. It is NOT a GT competitive list.  But it is pretty!  It is now retired from GT service as I begin work on my next two armies.

Here are it's final results:

Nova Open: 1 of 5 finalists of over 250 entries for Best Army.  Winner of Best Single Mini, The Sanguinor

Battle For Salvation: Winner Best Painted Army, Finalist for Best Conversion: Mephiston and Best Painted single mini, The Sanguinor

Mechanicon: I had to leave early, but my friend Ted Nagle won Best Painted in my absence. I will let him make the call if I would have won. :)

The Conflict GT: Winner Best Painted Army

Templecon: Winner Player's Choice. (There was no Best Painted judging.) 

I'm proud to say the least, and thankful to all who voted/judged in my favor.

This only drives me to push even harder for the future.

And just because this army is retired from GT play, it does not mean you won't see it again. I may play it in various RTTs in the area, and I intend on entering it into Armies on Parade at Gamesday! That would involve a new display board, and a trip down to New York City to the GW store to enter it into the judging.

So on with the new!

The sad news that  the rumored Eldar codex release was just rumor really hurt. I was excited about my Eldar army, but cannot allow myself to invest so much time in a noncompetitive list again.  I need to give myself a chance to win the GTs I enter.  I am still going forward with my Eldar, but in the meantime, I have decided to actually finish the GK army I have sitting in boxes on the shelf.  I have over 60 knights, 20 terminators, 3 Dread Knights, 5 razorbacks, some Forgeworld stuff and other goodies just sitting around my mancave.

Painting that standard bearer really got my juices flowing for GKs, and now I am just looking for a primer that I can use to quickly do them.  Painting Adeptus Battle Grey by hand on each model was going to wear me thin.  I had to find a suitable spray in order to make the army a realistic idea.

As for my list, it is time for Jawa to put his own flavor of uber knights on the table and thump some skulls. No they won't be Blood Angels with jury rigged halbreds, or Space Wolves with counts as storm bolters.  They will be painted to my ever exceedingly high expectations, and yes, they will be cheezy.

The Walking Dead starts again this weekend!

Jawaballs

Templecon Charity Grey Knight

Here is the Grey Knight I painted for the charity drawing being held at Templecon this weekend!  This was the first time I tried to do the NMM grey look on a full model. Previously I used it to nice effect on the weapons of my current Blood Angels army. There is plenty of room for improvement, but I am fairly pleased with the result.

One thing I am not crazy about is the molded banner that comes with the box set.  It is not the easiest to paint and not the most dynamic of images.  I would much prefer to paint my own any day.  I was going to paint an apothecary to go with this model, but I tried a grey spray paint on it as a short cut, and it filled in all the details, ruining the model.

If any of you have suggestions for a grey spray, I'm all ears. I need one that is the same shade as Adeptus Battle Grey, which is the base I use for this model.

I intended to do a step by step with this guy, but after I started I realized I wanted to focus my attention on painting him rather than documenting a bunch of steps that I may or may not use next time.  I think I got the process down, so next time I will do a step by step for you guys.

Alrighty, time for me to wrap up here because I am leaving soon for a 2 hour drive to Warrick Rhode Island and Templecon!  I am bringing my Blood Angels, so of course have no hope of winning the tournament.  Sadly though there is no Best Painted category.  The TO decided to not do a Best Painted and instead do a Players Choice, because there is already a painting competition going on of the Crystal Brush variety.

What this means is that all bets are off. Players Choice rarely goes to the best painted army as per the usual rubrics, but instead to the "coolest" army and is usually impacted by the personality of the owner of the army. An average painted, but unique army or display can easily take PC. Which is fine with me!  I like that it puts the power in the hands of the players.

I'm not saying my army won't stand a chance to be the favorite of the players, but I understand that it is now old news. Most of the guys who will be there have seen it before, and the luster is gone.

The most important thing here is NEVER set your heart on winning something like Players Choice.  Hope for it, but don't count on it, and definitely don't be disappointed if you don't win it.

OK, I'm off. This will probably be my last GT until October when I hit none other than FEAST OF BLADES!  That's right, I am planning on flying out to Denver Colorado to hang out with Jim and Chandler and the rest of the guys from FoB, and the BOLS crew as well for some food, drink and 40k.  Good company, and good gaming. It can't be beat.

Jawaballs