+ Gaming in the War of the False Primarch – and a Kill Team competition +
+ For those inloaders who aren't aware of this site's sister blog, here's a noosphericexloadlink:
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| + Silver Stars Marines + |
+ The War of the False Primarch, around which the blog is themed, is a curated and open project that I've been working on for this past year, and I'm happy to say that it's attracted an absolute shedload of talented hobbyists, writers and enthusiasts. It is still open to new contributors, so if you'd like to get involved, an overview and invitation is here. You can also find lots of inspirational pictures and lore of the various forces involved by searching for the tags #thewarofthefalseprimarch and #somethingsarebestleftforgotten on Instagram. +
+ From long experience, I know that hobby projects are easy to begin and difficult to complete, so this was envisaged as a five-stage project to keep it close-ended and relatively compact. The idea was that each stage would spend a month or two looking at a particular part of the War. I built in some slippage, but was rather overwhelmed by the amount and quality of the material that was submitted! Rather than throwing away so much wonderful work, I expanded the scope of the project, so we now have a regular two updates a week on +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ – Wednesdays and Fridays. +
+ Stage III – Invitational +
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| + Silver Stars Kill Team Canticle Chamber Vehemence + |
+ It's taken rather longer that I'd initially planned to get here, but we're now on the cusp of stage III, the height of the war. The outline for this is below:
III – For the Warrior, the only crime is cowardice
Narrative: Height of the war.Works: We present forces (Killteam up to full army) of each of the Partisan Chapters, plus battle scenes.Tag: #warriorcowardice
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+ Event! +
+ ...and as if I were somehow forewarned, what's coming out next week? That's right – the new edition of Kill Team. I'd like to make this a proper six-week event for you to create a Kill Team for The War of the False Primarch. +
+ Here's the meat:
- Create a Kill Team for the new edition of the game, themed around the small skirmishes that took place during the Sorrowful Years.
- A summary is below, but it's detailed more thoroughly here.
- You can build and paint your Kill team as any Partisan or Pentarchy Chapter – or one of the other forces present, such as Vigilants, Marines Mendicant, Imperial Guard (Orthodox or Partisan), Ecclesiarchy, Skitarii, Inquisition, Annulus Umbra Chapter etc. If it's present in the war, it's fair game.
- Creativity is king! While I encourage you to make your Kill Team game-legal, don't compromise your vision for it. A bit of counts-as (like the Volkites in my example Killteam above) is perfectly acceptable.
- Post a picture of – and any lore you've written for – your finished Kill Team to:
- Instagram, using the tags #KilltheFalsePrimarch #somethingsarebestleftforgotten
- The +Death of a Rubricist+ and/or +Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten+ Facebook group
- You can use existing models.
- The challenge begins on the 1st September at 11:02am GMT, and ends on 11th October at 02:11pm GMT.
+ I'll feature any Kill Teams that are created on the + Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten + blog in a special Warzone article; and there will probably be a couple of prizes for the ones I think best fit the theme. +
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| [//Pōmaikaʻi iā 'oe!+] |
The Sorrowful Years
In the wake of the assembly, the representatives of the Pentarchy returned to their battered Chapters. So began a three-year period later dubbed the Sorrowful Years for Sectors Morqub and Heliopolis.
With the Pentarchy Chapters turned inwards, primary defence of the region fell to the Extinction Armada and the forces of individual planets. While garrison forces of the Pentarchy continued to resist the gradual advance of the Partisans, none of the Chapters launched any major offensives. Instead, a low-grade war of small probing advances, espionage, strike and counter-strike began between small groups of Marines and special forces on both sides as they sought to undermine the other sides' efforts to rebuild.
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+ Photographing your miniatures +
+ One stumbling block for a lot of beginners is getting decent shots to share. Let me reassure you that you don't need professional kit to get useable shots. ++ Placement and space +
+ Here's a behind-the-scenes of how I got the pict-captures at the start of this article. As you can see, it's nothing more than a few sheets of A4 cartridge paper set up to form a smooth curve. I've propped mine up on a smartphone stand to get the curve (the weight of the figures keeps the paper in place), but you could use a stack of books, or even the wall behind. +
+ The figures are set up near the front of the paper. That's because you don't need much white below your figures, but you do need as much as possible behind, to fill the background. I rest my phone on the window ledge so that it's roughly at the same height as the figures, approximately 8–16in away from the frontmost model. +
+ Composing the picture +
+ I then use the camera app on the phone and physically move the camera until the screen looks something like this. Note that I'm not very close at this point; I will use the photo app on my phone to crop out the excess. The reason for leaving space around is to avoid having a narrow field of focus; that results in some areas being blurry. +
+ Make sure that you get everything you want in the picture. In the image below, you'll see that the frontmost marine is obscuring the central rear one. You should either move them around or simply include fewer models in the picture. +
+ There's a balance to be struck, as if you leave too much space around the group, then you're not getting the necessary detail on the models, so you'll only be able to use the picture at a fairly small size. +
+ Spend some time considering the placement of the individual figures, too. Rotate them on the spot and make sure that you're getting the best angle for the detail you want to focus upon. You may need to raise of lower the position of your camera lens to get details like the the eye lenses below the helmet's brow. Consider each figure individually. +
+ Speaking of focus, make sure your camera is focussing on the right spot. On my phone, it's simply a case of tapping the screen at the point you want in focus. In the example above, I'd put the focus on the frontmost model's chest – that tends to make sure the face and so forth are crisp, even if the gun barrels, backpack or other protruding bits become slightly blurred. +
+ Light – and taking the picture +
+ Finally, and perhaps most importantly, consider the light. The picture above shows the set-up at night – note the dark window! As I do my painting in the evenings, this is usually when I finish. Resist the urge to shoot now, unless you don't have the option. Artificial lights are dimmer and generally warmer/yellow-tinged. As a result, it'll throw the camera off, and you won't get the best results. +
+ Ideal lighting is bright but not direct sunlight that is falling either on the figure's front, or slightly to one side and front. If the light is coming from too far to one side, you'll end up with cast shadows; if from behind, you'll end up with a silhouette. +
+ Assuming you're in the northern hemisphere, a north-facing window is ideal, as this will get even, indirect light for most of the day (use a south-facing window if you're in the southern hemisphere). For clarity, try to arrange your set-up so that the light is falling as evenly as possible on the figures. If one side is in shadow, you can add a second source of light from the other side (like a lamp) – but you'll get cleaner results by holding up a white reflector – another sheet of cartridge paper is perfectly fine – on the shadow side. This will reflect diffuse light back onto the figures. +
+ Once the lighting's right, take the photograph. If you are holding up a reflector, it can be difficult to hold the phone steady and take the picture with one hand. You can ask a kind friend or relative, deploy a servo arm, or use a timer function on your phone. The latter is a good way to make sure that you don't accidentally jog the camera or shake it as you press the button to take the shot. +
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| + The finished photograph + |
+ You should end up with something like the image above. All I have done is to crop it – there's no digital alteration beyond that. I do occasionally colour correct or adjust the exposure (again, generally just using the phone's in-built apps), but if you've got the set up and lighting right, you can get decent results. +
+ Other backgrounds +
+ White doesn't always suit; any neutral background should work well. The image below shows a similar figure on a grainy dark grey background, one I habitually use for my Alien Wars project. Personally, I find using a high-contrast background can make white figures look a bit washed-out, but it's very subjective. The image below is perfectly useable. +
+ Good luck, and hope to see your competition Kill Teams soon – I Want To Know! +
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