Days 30 & 31: Necron Lord & Autarch

Here are the last two minis I intended to complete in July.

The first is a limited edition Necron Lord that was only available by buying the original large army box from Games Workshop. I've had it for years, and I know it originally belonged to my old Navy roommate, but I don't really know how it ended up in my bits box. We often bought minis off one another, or swapped minis, or painted for one another, so I don't know if my current ownership of this guy is an accident, or he result of a trade.

Oh well. as long as I have him, he might as well be painted.

I painted him in the same scheme as the Pariah above, which is my take on the Nekthyst Dynasty. I was a lot less generous with the gold this time around. I wanted to the shroud to look like a faded old garment that it was buried with, but it looks a bit more like an old rag to me.

 Finally, a Saim-Hann Autarch. I've had this mini since the 2006 codex came out, but I never had a plan for him. A while back another Navy friend & I decided to do a mini exchange. I was originally going to paint up a Phoenix Lord for him, but it turned out he already had one. I knew he played Saim-Hann, and they're a fast army, so I slapped Swooping Hawks wings on this guy & got to painting. 

It's overall a nice figure, but there are a few spots I'm not thrilled about. You can't tell from the photo, but there are a few lumpy white area of the helmet. I had to replace my white paint as I was completing this guy & the new one wasn't really smooth. It's not too bad though, and still a good way to finish the project.

So there it is, the end of my Month-o-Minis challenge. I didn't quite finish in time this year, but there's always next year. I hope you enjoyed the result.

~Muninn

Day 26: Necron Pariah

This is another mini that has been in my bits box for ages. I have no idea why it was there or where it came from. They don't even exist in the codex any more. Either way, I managed to collect all the bits for this mini just before the start of my challenge. I modified a Necron scheme I'd tried a while back, although it ended up a bit too gold for my liking. I might strip him & start from scratch at a later date. We'll see.

Looking at it now, I think the entire chest, and groin-plate should be black with gold trim. Maybe the shoulder portion of the arms as well. Eh, you live & you learn.

~Muninn

Painting Competitions

In the last year or so my LFGS has really stepped up encouraging local mini painters to show their stuff.  They've put on four Painting Competitions so far, and more talent shows up each time. I live in a smallish college town in Oregon, so there probably isn't as deep a hobby following as in other places, but we do alright.

To date, I've entered minis in three competitions & placed well in each. I didn't enter anything in the last competition because I helped judge it. To prevent the same people from winning over & over again the owner established the rule that after your 3rd prize, you have to take a turn as a judge.

It seems fair to me since 1) It spreads around the winnings, which encourages more participation, and 2) the best painters should be the best judges of other minis, since they would be able to recognize skill & degree of difficulty in a mini.

Here are the three minis I've turned in for competitions so far:
Ikit Claw: 1st place

This was for the store's first competition & I went all out.  To kick off the Storm of Magic campaign the owner decided to have a WH Fantasy Painting competition. I'd been in a position to enter a mini for judging, so I wanted to show up with something truly impressive. I picked up an Ikit Claw, a new blister of green stuff, & some bits & bobs for a diorama.

As it turns out I was the only person to put that much effort into the mini & base, so I won handily. I ended up taking a Balewind Vortex as my prize (I could've gotten the SoM book or Magewrath Throne), which means I spent about $40 to win a $15 mini.

Daemon Prince: 2nd place

I dialed it back a little for this one. My plan from the start was to use this guy for my Daemon army, so I decided not to make the base too scenic or dynamic to keep from taking attention away from the rest of my army (plus LoS issues). It had a good showing, but the other painters had taken a note from my Ikit Claw mini and stepped up their minis & bases as well. 1st place was an excellent bone-colored Sanguinor with crimson rising above a sea of outstretched, zombie-like, hands.

Either way, I got a new codex out of the deal, so I was happy.

The Deceiver: 1st place

This one I've already covered on the blog, but I'm still a fan of it. The owner made me a deal that if I took on his Deceiver mini he'd waive the entry fee for the painting competition. There were some other really good minis, but I managed to take 1st.  So i got a $90 box of Ogres for the cost of some sand, glue, primer, green stuff & paint. Damn good deal if you ask me.

There will be another painting competition coming up in the next month or so, so once it's announced I'll let you know what I'm doing. :D

~Muninn

Harlequin Deceiver

Last December I ended up painting a Necron Deceiver for a competition at a local game store.  I've never had any interest in working on one for a few reasons, 1. I didn't have any Necrons, 2. I didn't much care for the mini, 3. If I was going to shell out the cash for a C'Tan I'd buy Nightbringer instead.

As luck would have it though The store owner made me an offer I couldn't refuse: I'd get to enter the painting competition for free if I entered his Deceiver mini. So why not? His only real note was that he'd like it to look kinda like a clown.

Here's what I came up with:

I'm rather happy with how he came out. This was one of my first forays into painting a lot of checkers, and the quartering came out better than I'd hoped. However the red feels like it could be a bit too overpowering. Were I to start over I might do the sash black, or a deep grey. Plus the whole red/white/blue scheme makes me feel like it's screaming "America!"

Like I said though, I'm very happy with it. It doesn't hurt that it took first place in the competition & I got an Ogre Kingdom's Battallion out of the deal.

~Muninn