MFCA 2014

I spent Saturday at the annual art show held by the Miniature Figure Collectors of America.  It's almost a 3-hour drive from Alexandria, Virginia to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (just west of Philadelphia), but it's worth it to see the top-tier figure-painting there.  This year is the second time I attended, and the show is hands-down the best show in my limited circuit.

MFCA is unique, in that local law firms contribute stipends in order to bring over a good number of European artists.  For example, I had the pleasure to spend much time chatting with the very gentlemanly Ben Komets.  But I forgot to have my picture taken with him, darn it!

But I'll start out my gallery of favorites with a few of his pieces.  Naturally, one of my favorites are Rackham figures...

A rare Rackham bust.  The toad has a lot of subtle coloring.  It was pretty spectacular.

On to other artists.  This sculpt was a limited production run, based off "Jack" by Brom.  I considered buying a copy, but I decided I couldn't come up with anything more interesting than what the top-tier artists were doing with it, and I would just enjoy their renditions.  Case in point!

I love the coloring on this.

Very convincing weight and movement.

The next two were at the show last year, but it was nice to see them again.

A new one to expand on the theme of the Mad Hatter.  This one earned a gold.

 

Here's the sculpt that Jeremie Bonamant Taboul painted for Crystal Brush.

Generally, I'm tired of seeing Space Marines, but this one is exceptional, because the freehand is just insane.

Some incredible freehand on his shoulder.  This tattoo was miniscule.

This was a really cool concept.

This won Best in Show in Fantasy.

The road sign is hilarious.

Here are some gaming figures by John Meeks, a fella from New Jersey who I hope to see enter his work at the Capital Palette competition for the NOVA Open.  I really like his use of color.  Very chromatic, without going overboard.  I never noticed the gypsy style of the character on the right, until I saw his rendition.

John and I were the only folks showing gaming figures, so it was nice to have some company!

Of course, my interests are predominantly in the Fantasy category, but I really enjoyed the Historical category, too, which is really the dominant part of the MFCA show.  Here are some of my faves.

This is on the cover of Scale Model Handbook #1.

Neat display.

Tiny freehand!

And finally, here is what my humble display looked like, in the midst of all this finery.

A quick little story.  I noticed a group of folks at my display, and one of them was handling my figures, picking them up and turning them around and what-not -- a big no-no for a show like this!  I approached them and requested that the gentleman not handle the miniatures.  He looked at me like I was out-of-line, so I explained that the figures were mine.  He then informed me that his group were the show judges, and they were in the process of judging my figures!

In spite of that embarrassing misstep, I am proud to say that I earned a Silver.  The judges pick what they consider to be the strongest piece from each artists' display.  For mine they picked Sapo, the frog-guy bust on the right.

Wendy, one of the judges I know, informed me later that it was a toss-up between Sapo and the Rat Fiend on the left.  That was satisfying to hear, because I'm pretty pleased with that figure, and this is the first competition I've entered him in.  Same for Sapo.  I couldn't enter them in the Crystal Brush, because they've appeared in on-line challenges.  But earning a Silver at MFCA is as much the honor it would have been to earn a Silver at Crystal Brush -- really, more, given the level and volume of competition at MFCA.

Spinning up the gaming again

On Saturday, I crammed in two separate gaming sessions.  Both were uncommon occasions, being "across the river" in Maryland, but since they were within 10 minutes travel time to each other, it was a good opportunity to catch up with each respective gaming group.

The first one was with Robert Allen of the Combat Phase podcast.  I personally like Combat Phase, because it's the only podcast I know that covers the broadest spectrum of the miniatures gaming hobby -- including the state of the industry, both past and present.  Other podcasts go in either direction from there -- either game-specific or else broader than miniatures games.  Combat Phase hits that sweet spot, and Robert and his co-host, Kenny, present themselves and the hobby very professionally and eloquently.  Recently, they've been lining up interviews with some interesting names in the hobby, including Black Library authors.  Well, enough of my free plug (your welcome, Robert!).  Go check 'em out.  Oh yeah, and they're weekly!

In any case, Robert and I lined up a game of Malifaux.  This was the first run-through that Robert has had of Malifaux since Wyrd Miniatures updated it to the 2nd Edition.  I'm obviously a fan of the much improved and streamlined game, so I was happy to guide Robert through it and see what he thought of it.  He might mention on the podcast that he played it, so I'll wait to see what he says himself of his impression of the game.

The second game event was with my pal Oko and his Maryland cohorts.  I played a game of Warhammer, my Lizardmen against their nemesis, the dirty-rotten Skaven.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that my opponent, Jordan, offered up a pure and simple list.  Basically, just rats.  Lots of 'em!  He had one Hellpit Abomination and one Warp Lightning Cannon, and everything else was a field of filthy vermin.  Pretty cool!  And the icing on the cake, was that the entire army was painted really well.  My kinda Warhammer!

The scenario was Dawn Deployment, which randomizes where each player's army deploys.

Where are the Lizardmen?

Oh, they're all over here!

The deployment was the most ridonculous I've ever seen.  Half my army was clustered in the corner, ready to pop out like a wind-up toy.  Unfortunately, all of that terrain created a maze that was nigh-impossible to navigate.  The only viable target for my main block of Saurus Warriors were two worthless Slave Rat units.

This is the mess that developed by Turn 3.

Turn 3 is as far as we got, as a matter of fact.  Actually, the game was decide on Turn 1.  The Skaven Grey Seer cast Cracks Call with Irresistible Force, plunging my Slann Mage Priest into a gaping hole in the ground, along with my Magic Phase, my General, and 20% of my army.  Pretty much game over, but we played it out until it was apparent that my dice were cursed, and the rest of my army was trapped.

Still, a fun time, and it was a cool army to face.  Here are some pics of Jordan's well-painted army.

When I paint my Skaven (years from now), I want them to look like that!

Back in the swing

It's taken a couple of weeks to recover from Adepticon and work my way back into the regular routine.   Competition painting is now on the back burner, and it's nice to relax and paint tabletop miniatures for a while.

By painting for competition, however, I learned a lot about the areas I need to improve, and I've been eager to apply those lessons to my regular tabletop painting.  Conversely, tabletop painting provides practice for display/competition painting.  And thus the circle goes round and round....

I've returned to working on my Marcus crew for Malifaux.  Here is the Razorspine Rattler (the 1st edition metal model) to accompany my painted Cojo.  I wanted the spines to resemble the color patterns of a lionfish.

I finally decided on which model to use for Myranda.  Two things decided it.

1. One was receiving the starter box and feeling lukewarm about the design of the new plastic models.  Wyrd continues their trend towards delicate, fiddly, hard-to-assemble, multi-part models.  I said "screw that".  
2. The second thing was coming across the alternate metal sculpt of Marcus at Adepticon, for half price.  And it's the one Wyrd model I've come across which is actually a single-cast figure.  And his pose and expression matches the Myranda model I proxied from Privateer Press. 

So I picked the proxy from Privateer Press' Tharn Bloodtrackers.   I think that model is a better fit than Rackham's Kelt Fiona.  So there you go.  And a jackalope to boot.

Note they're primed in white.  Glorious white.  Well, two-tone zenithal, but white, not gray.  I fought against gray primer for the entire month of March, trying to bring color to my Strohm Chevaliers models for my Crystal Brush entry.  I had no idea it would make such a huge difference.  At least it does to me.  Back to my old stand-by forevah and evah.  White primer, baby.

Here are the other models for the crew that I'm pushing through the pipeline.

I needed to add one more Moleman to my existing 3 to make a total of 4, so I traveled an hour to a game store in Maryland (Games & Stuff), in the hopes they would have a spare blister of Molemen.  They did!  And they had a Razorspine Rattler as well.  I want to run a pair of Rattlers, and I was going to use the plastic one, but now I'll have a matching pair of the metal ones.  Its tongue was missing, unfortunately, so I had to greenstuff one on there. 

And once again, painting a Marcus crew will serve multiple ends:

1. The obvious one is to add another option for Malifaux Monday.  It will be particularly nice to declare "Arcanists" for my faction and still have my opponent guessing whether I'll play Ramos or Marcus.
2. The Dragonpainting forum is having a painting challenge to paint a unit, so I can participate in that.
3. Dropzone Games in Glen Burnie, Maryland, is hosting their annual Jump Master's Painting Challenge, which is a Crystal Brush qualifier -- Best of Show wins a ticket to Crystal Brush 2015!  So maybe I can finance next year's trip to Adepticon!