Feast Invitational, North Texas!

It's Monday - so register for this Saturday's Feast of Blades Invitational at Galaxy Books and Comics in Wichita Falls, Texas already!

Feast of Blades: Saturday August 4, 2012
Registration starts at 9:30 am
Game time starts at 10:00 am
Painting points applied to event.
All players must turn in army list two days before tournament date to reserve your spot in the tournament.
Send all list to: info@galaxycomics.net.
Lists turned in on time will be billed the $10.00 entry fee.
Army list turned in after the deadline will not be guaranteed a spot in the tournament for spots are limited to 16 spots.
Lists not turned in on time will be billed $15.00 to enter.
All players must have a copy of their army list.
All players must have a copy of the army codex you are playing.
All players must have their own copy of the rule book, NO PDF.
All armies must be represented with what they are equipped with.
To obtain painting/base bonus army must have at least three colors in appropriate locations.(if applied)
All army list must have on them: Player Name, What Army You are Playing, e-mail address.
All winnings must be used up 30 days after end of event or you for-fit your prize winnings.
Can not use tournament winnings to pay for other events.

From the Feast of Blades site:

- Qualifiers will be played at 1999+1 points. (no 2 FOC)- Qualifiers will be played "by the book!" with the following exceptions below
- Qualifiers will NOT be using "mysterious terrain" rules.
- Qualifiers will NOT be using "Archotech artifacts" rules (p 106)
- Qualifiers will NOT be using "unique terrain" rules (p. 107)
- Qualifiers will NOT be using "Warlord Traits" rules
- Qualifiers will NOT be using "Mysterious Objectives"

What are you waiting for?  There are only 16 spots in all, and more than half are gone!

Yeah, you missed out. :)

North Texas Feast of Blades Invitational!

Guess there's always the finals...

...but we have room for 16 and the expectation is we'll fill up.

Airbrushing Tyranids: Completed and WiP

These Nid models aren't Bugs! - 'cause Bugs! are older than some of you and aren't nearly so done.

No, this army belongs to the Client Pimp in Question, and I'm satisfied that these are complete.

Khorne Herald on Chariot

Here's an example of a model that got better with 6th Edition!  A charge range of 2d6, a collar for psychic defense, and a rending high-strength attack are all pretty darn nifty.

Especially the increased charge range!  I never used these in 6th 'cause a Strictly Average 6" was never long enough.

Anyway, I built and painted this dude in the last 24-hours for the Little Tim That Could - something to supplement his Chaos army.

This is 95% airbrushing, and most of it was done before breakfast then after lunch yesterday.  Details went on this morning before work, and I just now took these pictures lunchtime of day two.

Finally! Finished Grey Knight Commission

The title says it all; this is the first commission work I've taken on that involved painting a complete army.  It's fair to say it became somewhat laborious; the scheme I chose was designed for a tabletop level of quality, but when the second owner wanted a higher level, it actually worked against me.

Still, no regrets; I learned more about speed painting and pitfalls and pricing and time management and whew! loads of other stuff that it was well worth it.

Here is the LINK for the Bell of Lost Souls Article.  Here is the LINK for the first batch of completed models (remember to hit 'more' for the actual pictures).

On Tyranids for 6th Edition 40K

Bugs!

The Black Blowfly or the Big Black Fiend - Steve! - wrote an article on Bell this morning outlining his thoughts on Tyranids.  Check it out - here's the LINK.

Anyway, it prompted me to jot down some of my thoughts, which I'll apply to my Bugs! army.  I enjoy Necrons, but for a variety of reasons I'm pulling out Sisters of Battle and Bugs! to work on over the next year.  Not sure which will become my primary tournament army just yet, but I'm on record saying Tyranids are going to be brutal in 6th Edition...

A Decade of Pictures, Part 1: Find My Favorite

I've carried a camera to RTT's and local tournaments long before forums or blogging were popular - certainly longer than when I developed an Empty Digital Headache and foisted it on the unsuspecting public!

There are thousands - and I'm going to share them, good, bad, and indifferent. For Part 1, all I did was scroll through the library picking likely subjects...

...including my all-time favorite picture. Never before seen! You'll smile and cringe at the same time.

Painting Tanks: Airbrushing and Weathering

I have a lot of thoughts on 6th but feel no great urgency to write them.  I'm having too much fun painting and playing right now, thus the hiatus from regular blogging on Strictly Average.  Generally, I try to stick to at least three posts a week - so here's to getting off my dead booty and writing some.

Anyway, I've mentioned a time or three that currently I'm learning to use an airbrush.  Lots of little tricks to work out, but it's starting to feel natural.  I painted three tanks yesterday, using them to try out weathering models.

The hatches are an effort in masking techniques...

...like so.

I did some 'easy rust' effects, again as practice and to see how the effect would work.  I shouldn't have included the tank tracks, and next time won't.

I'm not terribly happy with the weathering on the model closest to this shot; the two patches of silver on top are a bit too regular.  Live and learn.

I could certainly do more - especially detailing and highlights - but these aren't actually my models...

Airbrushing Nids, Monstrous Creatures WiP

Okay, here are better pictures... and with my family-famous sleep-walking insomnia (that's actually me, but okay) I was up early working on the Swarm Lord.

Swarmy isn't done, but it's as close as I can get with the airbrush.  At this point, I'll wash parts of the model and detail a bit of the face - but if ever your favorite Empty Digital Headache hopes to significantly dent his To-Do list...

...I'll have to pursue painting armies and not models.  Here's the Mawloc.

And the Trygon.

Here's better pictures of Swarmy.  The green washes will really make the glow effect pop.  (He hopes.) I hope.

The Client Pimp in Question doesn't want me working on the bases.

The workspace.  I've started using pointed Q-Tips and a minimal amount of cleaner between colors to keep the airbrush flowing properly and minimize cleanup time.

Finally! Finished Mawloc (using airbrush)

Slowly but surely I'm teaching myself how to use an airbrush... and more than anything it's a tool that requires the time-in to learn.  You just have to get used to it.

Anyway, these pictures suck - doing neither model justice - but it's late and I'm tired and so my, "I don't care," is at its peak.

Not Brent?

Oh, no.

It's like the Christmas song's first verse and I'm the Little Lamb.  Now I've got to worry about a whole new level of identity theft.