Well the past month has once again flown past in a flurry of rather dull real life interferences. It was however Games Day and Golden Demon 2013 on the 29th September and I spent the Friday evening and Saturday prior to the day rebuilding the base of the Contemptor Dreadnought I painted for last year along with pushing some highlights a bit further. Once more the poor lighting and shelf placement of my entry hampered me and I came away with no finalist badge. Although this was quite disappointing (I felt it was good enough to have at least hit the first cut), I am really happy with how the model came out and even more impressed with how quickly I turned round the base reworking, despite lots of swearing whilst gluing bits of stone to the base. I’ve come to the conclusion that the judges are looking for “fantastical” rather than “realistic” paint jobs, so my subtle realistic painting just doesn’t lend itself to the competition.
I came away with two major complaints this year. The store area (which took up over half of the arena floor) was awful and we ended up having to queue for Forge World (as you’d expect) and then again for the tills which took over an hour. End result is that we wasted over two hours of the event queuing. The second complaint is that the limited edition Black Library anthology increased from £12 to £20 and flicking through it really wasn’t worth the old price let alone the hugely inflated new one. Overall, it was disappointing despite the Forge World seminar being really good.
On the modelling/painting front, my Space Wolves drop pod is now glued together and just needs decals, weathering and a coat of varnish to be finished.
I’ve also begun to base coat and paint my Blood Thirster which has been sat on the desk for far too long. Although I don’t envisage finishing him in one “run” having paint on him is really rewarding. Annoyingly I have managed to break the main spike on his shoulder through an accident and me not being quite as careful as I should have whilst sitting down and getting up with my paint station. I need to pick up some thin superglue this evening and should be able to repair this though.
I’ve now ordered the bits to create my Wolf Priest (with Jump Pack). A pair of jumping legs from the new Vanguard marines has meant I’ve now got enough unique pieces to create a character that is completely different to any other model so far. I’m planning to magnetise both the backpack and gun arm, this way he can have a pistol with jump pack (extra attack in close combat), or a combi-plasma on foot. At some point I ought to buy one of the new tactical marine box sets and add some more variety into my Wolves, but I’m hanging off until we know when Wave 2 is coming out, as I’ve a feeling it’ll include new assault marines and devastators.
The next month and a bit’s plan is quite straight forward. I want to finish painting the brass shoulder of my Blood Thirster and get a coat of red onto his flesh. I then want to finish base coating my Space Wolves and try and get most of the armour edge highlighted – in principal it’s not a horrifically complicated job. I’d also like to at least assemble my Wolf Priest when the bits arrive. Anything else will be a bonus 🙂