Series update #1 - NOVA Open & The Capital Palette

It’s been a busy month in the hobby!  I helped staff the NOVA Open over Labor Day Weekend, and two weeks after that, I participated in the annual NCMSS show.  In mid-October, the local Monday Night Malifaux crew will be representin’ at the Battle for Salvation convention up near New York City.

In the midst of all of that, my gaming docket continues to be redirected on a weekly basis, and, with it, my painting queue, which keeps getting jerked around.  Good problems to have!

Given all this activity, I have a backlog of updates to make to the blog.  I was going to post all of these topics, and then I realized that would be really picture-heavy, so I'll pace out these updates over several days.

First up......

NOVA Open and the Capital Palette

I wrote an article for Figure Painter Magazine which reviews the Capital Palette art competition.  I wanted to wait for the article to come out before I posted to my blog. 

I felt like the Capital Palette showed great improvement over last year, with better cabinets, better lighting, and better processing.  The only downside with the facility is that it requires a lot of work, time, and heavy-lifting to set up and tear down.  But I take consolation in that NOVA Open can now boast one of the best miniature-figure display facilities in the hobby!

The newly expanded cabinets

With regard to quantity and quality of entries this year, I think we held steady compared to last year.  Some of our heavy-hitter artists from last year were absent this year, due to moving out of the area, schedule conflicts, or depleted inventory!  But we saw a lot of new faces, too, and the strength of talent was more evenly distributed, which kept the average bar about the same.

One of the highlights this year for me was hosting a display for studio Infinity miniatures, painted by Ángel Giráldez and hand-carried from Spain by Infinity creator, Gutier Lusquiños Rodríguez.  Whenever I see Infinity models announced on Tabletop Gaming News or Beasts of War, I marvel over them.  So it was a real treat to see these figures in person and to be able to study Ángel’s technique.

Between the Infinity studio models and Martin Jones’ models below, I am inspired to paint one or two of my own Infinity miniatures!

by Martin Jones

Of course, there’s a lot more to the NOVA Open than the Capital Palette.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of spare time to take photos of armies, skirmish squads, and terrain.  I was glad to at least have the chance to see a lot of the armies in my capacity as an Army Appearance Judge, but that opportunity is still not ideal, since judging armies is always under a lot of time pressure, logistical pressure, and participant pressure!

Capital Palette judges and staff:  (l. to r.)  Justin McCoy, Dave Taylor, Caleb Wissenback, Bob Likins, and Mike Schaefer

by Frank Behrens

by Steve Carey

Next:  The National Capital Model Soldier Society (NCMSS) Annual Show

WIP - Major Valerie Duval

I'm painting this mini for my friend, Mark, who wants to use it and several other minis in the old-skool RPG, Metamorphosis Alpha.  This mini is a Prince August model, made for Warzone.  The character is Major Valerie Duval of the Bauhaus faction.  The sculpt presents a face with rather masculine features.  The initial wash had her looking like Dee Snider of Twisted Sister.  I tried to soften her up with some painting trickery, i.e. emphasize higher, rounder cheekbones.  But she's still a pretty gruff-lookin' woman.  I also want to attempt some freehand and add some simple insignia to her shoulder pad. 

Infinity representin' at NOVA Open

The Capital Palette painting competition at the NOVA Open wargaming convention has the honor to be hosting in its display cabinets a collection of Infinity studio miniatures by the great Ángel Giráldez.

Corvus Belli's Infinity creator, Gutier Lusquinos, hand-delivered the models from Spain!

 Gutier shared with me a story that he heard, about a Rackham painter who was carrying Rackham studio models through customs.  The customs official demanded to open the case -- which he proceeded to open upside down.  A collection of one-of-a-kind miniatures fell onto the floor and shattered...along with a poor artist's heart.  

I want to thank Gutier and Angel for risking the hamfisted handling of their beautiful miniatures through customs!  But as Gutier noted, great art is meant to travel and meant to be shown in person to admirers throughout the world.

A variety of updates

I've been going in several different directions, so I have more general hobby updates than I have pics to show.


NOVA Open

The NOVA Open is rushing our way for Memorial Day Weekend.  I'm the Lead Event Coordinator for the Capital Palette painting competition, so I've been working with the executive committee and the other leads to conduct the run-up for the convention.

It was pretty cool to post a news announcement on the Tabletop Gaming News site.  I just wish I had thought to do it 3 months before the event instead of 3 days!

I'll also be supporting the army appearance judging.  My schedule will be packed and fast-paced.  Staffing NOVA is much more exhausting than working my real job!  Part of the reward, though, is being immersed in that energy level and sharing the hobby with fellow enthusiasts.  Plus, I get to see a lot of great miniatures up-close.  I was surprised, though, how little time I actually got to spend studying them last year.  I hope I'll have more time to do that this year.

I help set up on Wednesday, and then I'll be staffing and judging Friday through Sunday.  I'll probably show some of my own work (as non-competing), just to help fill the cabinets on the first day or two.  We have two new cabinets, so it's hard to predict how well the additional space will match this year's growth.


SAGA:  The Crescent & Cross

I had $25 of loyalty points burning a hole in my pocket this past weekend, so I picked up the new edition of SAGA at my local gaming store.

This edition moves the timeline from the Dark Ages to the time of the Crusades.  Looks like I might be moving my FireForge Templar Knights and Sergeants farther up the paint queue!

Here's a good review of the game:  http://www.sagatapestry.com/2014/06/review-of-saga-cresent-cross-book.html


Putty & Paint

I am very honored to have been invited to join the international painting community on the Putty & Paint site.  Thank you, David!  This site shows high-quality miniatures with a very clean and professional presentation.  It is the place to go to enjoy viewing finished works of miniature art. 

I set up my account, and I'll be adding some photos hopefully tomorrow or perhaps after NOVA.  The site is predominantly for showing display miniatures, whereas I paint mainly for gaming.  I do have around 4 display pieces, though, and I think a few of my gaming figures might be worth sharing on the site.


Painting WIP

And finally, the slow crawl of progress.

First, Dark Elf Black Guard.  Airbrushed with primer.  This was good practice for learning spot control with the airbrush.

Laying down skin base-color for Celtic Cavalry, Dark Elf Shades, and Mark's Metamorphosis Alpha miniatures:

 My new Dawn Serpent for Malifaux.  I'm disappointed in how small the model is.  The artwork gave the impression that this model would be a commanding presence on the tabletop.  Not so much.  Wrapping around a massive Torii arch will help, though.

On top of all of this, I just primed and started painting 15 Lord of the Rings Orc Pikemen!

Gaming collage

I've enjoyed the luxury to play so many games over the last 2 or 3 weeks, that there hasn't been time to write battle reports for any single one of them.  Best I can do is offer some highlights!


Historicon

Here are some missing photos from Historicon.  They were "missing", because I took them with my phone camera instead of my regular camera, and I forget to transfer photos from my phone camera.  Photos from the phone camera also explains the poor picture quality, which will be apparent for about half the photos in this blog entry.

In any case, this game was a great introduction to Dystopian Wars 2.0.  This was an epic opening scene, as 3 independent combat forces steam towards beachheads in Antarctica to storm the Covenant super-bunker!  My team controlled the Prussian forces in the foreground, which was cool, because Prussians are the army I play myself.

Truth is, so much fighting happened on the way to the shore, no one ever made it to the bunker!


Saga

The next series of photos are from an awesome game of Saga with my buddy, Steve.  We don't know what contributed more to the fun:  the surprise reversal of fortune that happened in this game or all the mead we were drinking!

Steve provides the commentary for the highlight of the battle in the captions.  Basically, Steve's Danes dominated the objective hill, and my Irish warband somehow recaptured it, thanks mainly to the single-handed ambitions of a young hero, eager to show his own, now-dead warlord that the hero was really in charge all along.

I'm about to own this hill.

But then this happened.

So I got ready to charge him again.

And he totally owned that hill.

Warhammer Fantasy:  Triumph & Treachery

Next is a 5-player game of Warhammer Fantasy, using the Triumph & Treachery format.  The objective was to take control of the village by having the closest unit to the well at the end of each Game Turn.

Vying for the well were (clockwise from lower-left):

Lizardmen
Vampire Counts
Skaven
Warriors of Chaos
Dark Elves

Lizardmen

Vampire Counts

Skaven

Warriors of Chaos

Dark Elves, shamefully showing unpainted units!

Armies converge for the center.  A bloodbath bodes for the bridge.

Vampires and Skaven decide each other's flanks are tastier than the village well.

Jordan looks downright crafty as a Skaven overlord as he negotiates a nefarious deal.  "100 gold pieces not to charge you!"  But he says nothing about shooting....

A Varghulf howls triumphant after slaying the crew of the Warp Lightning Cannon.  Arrooooo!

Dark Elves blunder at the bridge.  The Dark Elf General consumed the fifth file of the unit in order to cross the bridge, but robbing the fifth file caused the unit to lose their rank bonus.  D'oh!

The rest of the Dark Elf army find themselves confronting a mighty Stegadon.  Stupid, stupid Dark Elves.

Someone should fire that player.....

Rats take it from the front and the rear from the Vampire Counts.

Finally, Lizardmen control the center of town, but the Vampire Counts bribed and slayed their way to ultimate victory!

Malifaux

A most excellent and instructional game with gracious host, Mike Brandt.  He was particularly gracious to accommodate my request for asymmetrical terrain, a favorite point of debate between us for the last two months.

Mike's Som'er Teeth Jones crew gets busy right away summoning Gremlins and Pigs.  The new Giant Skeeter models are gross!

We're really digging the sweet cobblestone terrain mat by Frontline Gaming.

Marcus and part of his enraged posse.

Marcus takes a chance to clog the bottleneck around the corner and neutralize the flood of Gremlins from achieving their objectives.

Between an overly ambitious/risky plan and a six-sigma string of rotten cards countered by a six-sigma string of endless face cards and Red Jokers, Marcus falls, the corner falls, the poolside falls,...everything falls.

Oh, and pretty much flawless play by Mike had something to do with it, too!  But much beer and scotch was drunk and much fun was had.  And I learned a lot for the next matchup!

WIP - Various

Finally assembled, ready for priming.  This shot shows how I used Milliput to create a transition between the integrated base and the third-party cavalry base.  My Milliput is probably decades old.  One component is crusty and leaves crumbs in the mix, so this application is about all it's good for now.



After priming.  A lot of projects in the works!

Top to bottom, L to R:

• Minotaurs from Godslayer (for Warhammer and Mini Mayhem). 
• Celtic Cavalry from Warlord (for SAGA). 
• Repair work on purchased Dark Elf Black Guard (for Warhammer).
• Repair work on purchased Dark Elf Shades (for Warhammer).
• Various cyberpunk for my friend, Mark (for Metamorphosis Alpha)

Coming soon:  Warhammer Fantasy, Triumph & Treachery!