Armies on Parade: 2016.

Hi guys, Are any of you partaking in this years Armies on Parade.

Rules and Regs.

I missed out last year due to family holiday but did attend the event the year before in 2014, It was my first time at AoP and I left things to the last minute so didn't have many miniatures on the tile but it was a great day down at Leeds GW (Warhammer).

This was the effort back in 2014 my much loved 40k Scythes of the Emperor on martian bases and tile, Never did get that martian sand to look right and the board is pretty sparse, If i do take part i hope that my next effort will look lots better plus it gives me inspiration to sort out all those half finished units.

Well fellas there's around ten weeks if your up for it, Good luck.

 

 

Armies on Parade.

Boards on show....

Hi guys, well as promised I've sorted through a shed load of photos I took the other day at Games Workshops Armies on Parade event. As I thought I had a great time taking to other modelers and painters and it was a shame I had to leave at 3pm but family commitments and all that.

There were eight boards on show including mine, I wont be showing my board in this post as I think you have seen enough of it, ha.

Anyway on with the pictures after the Jump.

Armies on Parade.

Finished!......

And so......it's finished!!, it's been a mad 46 day's having to fit extra painting hours around my already hectic family life and to be honest I like to paint at a more leisurely pace (lazy git) but yeah it's done and given the time frame I'm happy, don't get me wrong I've seen other entries online and in old WD mags and know I'll not be winning any awards but that's all good and I'm looking forward to Saturday, talking to fellow painters/modelers getting ideas and inspiration, should be a good few hours down at the shop.

So what have we got here then, well there's three units absent from my clearly over ambitious list that I compiled at the start, that's the Raven, Dev Squad and Assault Squad, but what I do have is seven units, four Elites one Heavy support and Troops and one HQ.
I would say the best thing about this for me is the fact it's forced me to hit a dead line, of sorts, to finish off a few outstanding units that have been cluttering up my desk.

The things I've learnt from this toe in the water are....

Give yourself more TIME to plan, I would say six months would be a more realistic timeline to put your all in to Armies on Parade.

You don't really need a GW tile, sure I've used one here but it was second hand and next year if I don't build over this I'll be using MDF.

If you do use a tile hills are great but sloping sides mess with model positioning, if I were to have painted the whole list I compiled at the start I would of struggled to place them on this board, so forward plannings the way to go.

So all in all I'm happy and cant wait till Saturday, next year I'll remember my seven P's and give it a good crack whether that will be my Scythes again I'm not sure but I have already got a couple on idea's floating around.

Armies on Parade.

Update Part 3......

Hi guys, well I've finished my Armies on Parade board/tile and given the time constraints I'm quite happy with it, Yeah its basic but this is my first tile and this years all about attending the event.

The Martian Red was painted up the way as I paint all my model bases, so in effect I've just treated it as one large Model base.

Well first up after I added the green stuff (see Part 2) was to apply the sand an rocks onto the tile with PVA, I did this in three stages because I needed to take my time working the PVA around the terrain features and didn't want the PVA to dry as I did so.

I then sprayed the whole tile with Halfords grey Primer, its looking better already, no more pink Cliff faces, Joy!.

I'm quite happy with these bubbling Martian Swamp Pits I think they worked out rather well, If I ever do them again I would maybe go with some extra model detail half sunk in the pit.

To get the illusion of liquid I've simply painted GW's Ardcoat over the surface and think the contrast with the deep red Martian sand works well.

For the Cliff faces I painted them with Rhinox Hide, then using my red martian paint mix I added it to the Rhinox Hide in stages to drybrush lighter and lighter highlights to the Cliff edges.

I then drybrushed Cadian Fleshtone to the extreme edges of the Cliff faces and washed the entire Cliff face with Reikland Fleshshade.

I've added random clumps of vegetation here and there but wanted to keep it quite sparse, it is a desert after all.

As I've said before I'm happy with how these turned out, the paints I used were, base coat of Vallejo Black, drybrushed with 50/50 mix of the black and Caliban Green, a further drybrush of Caliban Green and a final drybrush of Sotek Green to one side of the bubbles.

It's subtle and you cant see the highlight very well in this picture as the Ardcoats doing its job but it look ok.

Armies on Parade, pt2.

Update part 2....

 

Hi guys, just a little update to show you where I'm at with 26 days left before the dead line, I've got a little further with my two Dreads, working on all four arms, the rear power plants and the second torso so its all coming together although painting slows down a bit when it comes to the detail, but I'm trying to be speedy without rushing them if you know what I mean.

I thought I would show you this picture as it gives a fair impression of where I'm heading style wise with the two Ironclads, I'm really happy with how it looks and cant wait till the Dreads are complete.

Finally layed my hands on a tile all be it a second hand one, interesting colour scheme that the previous owner had started but its not something I'll be running with, so a warm soapy bath it was to get rid of dirt dust and greasy finger marks, the water was filthy I can tell you, but the tiles ok.

Really glad it has a hill as it's saved me a job,  and so what to do with those skull pits, I'm not a big fan to be honest there's just too many don't get me wrong I like the odd dead guy detail but this is just nut's, it had me thinking where are the rest of the bones, why just skulls.

So out came the green stuff , I'm sure there is another product that better for this but it was at hand and times ticking!.

I was thinking of some sort of martian bubbling swamp thingie (?), it was easy to do I just pressed green stuff over the skulls flattened it out and tried to smooth all finger prints marks away, then with the opposite end of a model brush potted the surface with various sized holes.

Then I rolled small balls of green stuff and placed them in a few holes leaving some as if a couple of the air pockets had risen and burst, well that's the idea anyway.

I'm not totally sure what colour I will paint them, I want a contrasting colour to martian red but also not too bright, I might opt for that colour I painted on my martian trees, a kind of mustard yellow colour, or antoher thought is a really dark grey drybrushed up and washed with black ink, then use ardcoat (varnish) to give the impression of liquid.
Not sure, any thoughts guys.

Armies on Parade.

Update....

 

Hi guys, its been a while since my lats post so thought I would show you my efforts regarding the two Ironclad Dreadnought I have planned for my Armies on Parade board, yep that's right only the legs so far Drat! and times ticking!, I'm beginning to think I may of bitten off more than I can chew, ha.

Anyhow they are just about done just the odd shrub to add and maybe a purity seal to one of the shin plates, I am now starting to wonder on what to arm them with, don't think I'll bother with HK Missiles and was going to arm them both with a Heavy Flamer and Melta Gun but not so sure now, I could go for a little visual difference and opt for a Hurricane Bolters on one of them.
What do you guys think.

This Stormraven extension is going to pull the rug right from under my Armies on Parade plans, there's a lot more work than I though there would be and so has been put to one side so I can crack on with more straightforward painting and modelling tasks.
Shame but not convinced it will make the cut.

So little time AoP 2014.

Armies on Parade.

Much to do and so little time.....

 

So guys I walked into my local Games Workshop store (Leeds) a couple of days ago for a few bits like you do and got collared by James a member of staff at the branch, he asked me if I wanted to take part in Armies on Parade this year, now I remember last year when he asked me the same question and I declined his request stating that I had only just started this hobby and really didn't have the time or model count to do it justice, so this time I felt I would at least give it a go but in true "Jamie style" I have left things a bit late, could really of been planning this a month or so ago if you know what I mean.

Anyhow I'm in and my board/mini's have to be in on the 25th of Oct (Drat!!) giving me 40 days to get things sorted so having already pushed the panic button I need a plan.

First up the board, keep it simple nothing flash, add a little interest maybe that crashed Rhino terrain piece GW sell, turn the trees into the martian ones I did on my Dread display base plus add a few more, sorted.

Second up the models, not got the time to start anything really major but having said that I do want one large model piece on the board, so I've finally opened the storm wing box set I bought back end of last year ( Im really bad for buying models and then just shelving them) anyhow Stormraven it is I think the Raven would go well with my already painted Scythes Terminators.

So the models....

Stormraven, (not built/painted).
5 Terminators.
Terminator Chaplain, (not built/painted).
Thunder Fire Cannon, (Tech to finish).
Rhino and Tac Squad.
Dev Squad, (not finished).
Assault Squad, (not finished).
3 Dreadnoughts, (2 to finish).

And 40 days to do it.........wish me luck!.