Kublacon painting competition wrap up

Last year, kublacon switched to an open judging format, which lets models get ranked based on their own merits instead of the relative merit the work has compared to other enteries. It really helped motivate me to put more time into my pieces this year.

Models can be entered into the regular category or the masters category. This year I went with the regular category since I still feel the master work is scary good compared to my stuff. The masters category is also looking for qualities I don't usually apply to a model since ultimately, I want to push it around the board and roll dice.

I ended up with three painting competition enteries, and all three were deemed somewhat worthy! Magma mulg ranked a silver, my circle wold guardian ranked a bronze, and an ancestral guardian/5 man immortal squad ranked silver.

I talked to the painting competition organizer, and while he wasn't one of the judges, the areas that he felt needed more work pretty much lined up with areas I had become frustrated with and given up on.

The cloth area was very straightforward. Given that both the upper rock cone and the base would be emitting light, I didn't do much with it. It needed a few more layers of shading.

I needed to add some subtle highlights to the club metal and the darker rocks. It was left pretty much flat.

The face could have been more defined. I totally agree in terms of a competition piece, but when I set out to do this I wanted it to look less like a creature and more like a mountain.

The club/left forearm ended up being my favorite piece of the model. I went for a petrified look on the club, and it uses deneb stone as a base with other rock colors built on top of it. I hit it with a few washes of ogrun flesh to try and make it feel slightly organic.

The left forearm/hand was done very late in the process, and I was more used to getting the magma look I wanted out of the red, orange and yellow ink.

Overall I dig the open judging format. I've been entering for the last 4 or 5 years, but mostly with the expectation of "having something cool in the case" for the duration of the convention. I'm already starting to plot out what sorts of models I should have a go at for next year.

Magma - mulg competition edition

Kublacon painting competition T-15 days and counting.

I had originally planned on entering all of the painting competition categories, but at this point I think I'll be lucky to get Mulg completed on time. Kublacon has both a podium and open category for models. The podium is the traditional ranked system, while open ranks models on their own merits. I've entered the painting competition for several years with no expectation of winning since I know several of the local folk are pro painters. The switch last year to open juding resulted in my deathjack getting a silver, and it has me much more excited at the prospect of getting models in the case.

The main scheduling problem is that trolls have moved from a side faction into the one I want to play for most of the tournaments for kublacon weekend. pDoomshaper is a blast to play, and there is some satisfaction in rolling folk with the "worst" troll caster. His tier list is even magical in the right situations. As a result, I have a mountain of metal to assemble in the next two weeks to have some variety at the 50 point level (pyre troll, burrowers, bomber, runekeeper). In addition I was hopeing to get paint on my 2nd runeshaper squad. All in all, it's going to be busy for the next two weeks.

Mulg is still in progress. The only area even close to final is the back of the upper torso and shoulders. Colors went a little weird on these pictures, but it's fairly close to the actual model.






I've seen several good janissa conversions using the runeshaper commander's rock column. I no longer have the links for them, but I've seen one or two on the privateer forums, and most recently one at the LGS.

To hit this shape I had to break the column in one spot and model two extra fake rocks at the joint. Originally this was going to be a painting competition entry, but due to lack of time, I'll be lucky to get it primed in the next week.

Magma - Earthborn pics - attempt 2!

I have high hopes for these pics showing up properly.

Magma - Earthborn Dire Troll edition

Picture malfunction! I'll attempt to spruce this up tonight.

This is a larger scale test of the magma scheme that was used on doomshaper and runeshaper #1. The plan is to get a little more practice in with the colors, and paint up mulg the ancient for the kublacon painting competition. I really like how the front right shoulder area turned out. It's just neon enough to seem hot. The face needs some work, but I'm calling it done on this one. I have a pyre troll next up in the queue to practice on.

In addition to the work already done, it need some basing work, but that will mostly consist of random rocks in the outer yellow area.



Mr. Doomshaper, Wizard

Sometimes the simple conversions are the good conversions. Doomshaper comes with a scroll, that for the most part, seems to either be omitted from the model or placed on the ground.

The only modification I've done to doomshaper is to set the scroll in a flying position roughly parallel to his arms. From the front the pin is concealed behind the scroll. From a normal in game player perspective, the pin blends into the base from the left side and the top down view. The back view doesn't work at all, but I'll take it over a mighty wizard reading a scroll off the ground.

As far as painting goes, I did most of the work before runeshaper #1. This was a test of the magma scheme on a normal trollkin model.



Magic Trick




Trick revealed!





Runeshaper #1 of 6

I really like the magma/lava look and wanted to apply it to a small troll force. The runeshaper models are so massive I'm painting them sequentially instead of the normal squad at a time style. This one has been declared "good enough" since I want to try and get at least three done for a tournament on sunday.

When I was prowling about the internet for references I found two great things. The first was a Magma Tyranid army on the dakka dakka forums. The other was a cool mini or not tutorial on Lava Bases.

Magma - Troll edition