+ inload: Post-event debrief +

+ Well, that was fun! On Saturday, Sinan and I hosted a one-day 40k 3rd edition event themed around a particular conflict during the Third War for Armageddon, and I'm pleased to say that it went pretty swimmingly. Beautiful armies, charming and cheerful players and lots of human versus ork fighting in glorious retrohammer action. +

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+ What happened? +

After a very hard-fought campaign between the forces of Taskforce Blacksand (a collection of six Guard and two Space Marine forces) and Gazgrim's War-horde (eight of the grittiest, smashiest, sneekiest ork warbands in the region), the victors were the Imperium, and Death Mire has been preserved... for now.

We had the campaign map above (supplemented, incidentally, by the extremely talented Kev's Mighty Empires re-creation of Armageddon – a visual that knocked-my efforts into a cocked hat!) that allowed players to trace their armies' position and progress in the context of the greater war – a visual touch that I hope went some of the way to making the gang feel like part of something bigger.

It was a very narrow victory, with the first half of the campaign being poised on a knife edge – four wins each – and the second half coming down to some extremely narrow margins to give the Imperials six wins against the orks' two.

Here's a snap of the command staff of the players (sitting on top of the campaign pack), along with the trophies (kindly provided by Pootle) and Steel Legion ration packs that ensured no-one went home empty-handed. (Who doesn't want that delicious corpsestarch?)

At the heart of the event were sixteen games of 3rd edition 40k, which ran – judging by the speed, laughter and occasional cries of dismay – very smoothly and were packed with fun. The pre-campaign and strategy phases involved a few simple mini-games, which I hope everyone enjoyed.

The games themselves looked absolutely spectacular, with a really high level of quality in terms of painting, modelling and theme. We'd tried to ensure all the boards were thematic (regular inloaders will know my thoughts on the 'Third Army'), and I hope everyone went away feeling that little bit more 40k*.

*More enthused about their hobby, that is, not downtrodden and living in a state of constant grinding terror!

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+ Visions of Armageddon +

What follows are Sinan's lovely pictures from the event. I've included some snippets of info along with Instagram handles (@Sinan_atamer, in Sinan's case) where I know them, so you can go check out more of these awesome armies. 

Here are Commissar Martin's Bad Moon warband, Wuzzdreg's Gitsmashas, getting stuck into Rook's (@Rook_28) Angels of Vigilance; both phenomenal armies painted specifically for the event. 

KnightofKent's fantastic Morkgomery's Boyz Goff warband – his warboss was a particularly kunnin' grot servant of Ghazghkull himself!

More of Rook's Angels of Vigilance.

Redmaws Great Company, commanded by the indomitable Liam (@6pluspainting), plunge into the Orient-Equatorial J'hn'sn Jungle in search of Colonel Dillon of the 6th Armageddon Ork Hunters.

Edward B's Battle Group Hyde advance towards the captured township under the stern eye (and lethal chainsword!) of Colonel Hyde.

Kev's awesome classic 139th Steel Legion, brought out of retirement for one more mission. Great to see these boys.

The 450th Jopall Indentured Squadron were another army created specifically for the event, and @voodoo.28 took away a well-deserved trophy for this amazing army, against some very stiff competition. 

Dakkamob Grimshak, led by Uzmek Kopgrim, advance towards the Acid-Mines. Sparrow did a great job on these.

The pack included rules for Steel Legion Liaison teams – units of the 7th Steel Legion and assorted Imperial allies, who allowed players to bring a couple of thematic models without committing to a full Steel Legion army (yet) – I was blown away with the creativity we saw on show. 

Major Kallus leads the 67th Cadian Armoured into combat, led by @thecallumboyle 

Armageddon fanatic Emily's (@mylifebehindabrush) 454th Cadian Recon punched above their weight in the Volcanus foothills – and brought gift dice for all the attendees: winner!

Harry's Wuzdreg Gitsmasha!

The ever-charming Biggles inspiratonal Jekil's Boyz. Biggles warboss won the pre-game Pit Fight minigame by simply opting for 'BRUTAL' every time! His battle against 6pluspainting's Space Wolves has to have been the closest margin for victory – initially being an ork win, until we found a squad of experienced Long Fangs lurking in an alcove while packing up, which tipped the balance.

Kev's 139/7th Steel Legion

Morkgomery's Boyz in all their glory. (@pierce.h_priv)

Ben's beautiful 179th Krieg crash into the orks.

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I'll hopefully post up some more notes and thoughts as they come to me, but suffice to say I had a wonderful, manic, humbling and fantastic time. It was a treat to run and especially lovely to meet some online friends in person – and finding out they're even nicer in person. 

Thank you to all the attendees for being so lovely (apologies for any inadvertent mis-reporting of names or armies here – I should have taken better notes. Do let me know and I'll update things), and special thanks to Sinan in particular for doing the organisational heavy lifting.

Here's to the next one!

+ inload: Warden Titan base +

+ Warden Titan base +

In preparation for a new Titan arriving via the uncertainties of warp conveyance Royal Mail, I've polished off this 80mm base. 

Not, perhaps, the most exciting inload update I've ever posted, but it does flag a couple of things that might be of interest – scale basing, and lighting.

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+ Scale basing +

Last inload I showed a Titan base that included a couple of Epic-scale figures. I include scale hints like this on Epic bases more often than not, and the reason for that is to reinforce the scale. 

As you can see here, however, things are a bit more neutral. There's a couple of small boxes and some sort of resin engine that's come from my bits box, alongside a big rock – but none of these items really tell us much about the size of things. After all, are those boxes shipping crates or small parcels? The grass tufts I've used are no more helpful. Are they long grasses or shrubs? 

Basing is important, but it's easy to get caught up in trying to be too clever by half. Do we need to tell the viewer the scale? It's useful sometimes, particularly when you're trying for a specific effect, but it's far from necessary. Sometimes you can just use the bits you have and rely on the model – or the broader context of the force – to tell the rest of the story.

The thing we learn here is that there are basing items that are scale-agnostic, which just add texture and interest to break up large areas. This is the key here. Rocks, boxes and so forth won't suggest scale in the same way as ruins, vehicles or figures. Roads and foliage offer a halfway house – the scale they suggest will depend largely on other prompts – the markings you add to a flat road will tell us whether it's a single track or a multi-lane motorway. Foliage and greenery can likewise be a bush or a tree with a little work.

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+ Lighting +

While I'm no photographer, I do work with them, and their insights have really helped me with getting clear pict-captures. The below notes are intended for absolute beginners to photography, who are struggling to get good shots of their models to share; but there's a huge amount of info available online, so do traverse the noosphere – there's a wealth of brilliant info available to inload from far more talented and skillful adepts than myself!

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In an ideal world, we'd all have time, budget, space and inclination to get beautiful colour accurate shots of our models – but I suspect I'm far from alone in taking quick snaps with a camera phone and relying largely on natural daylight. I take the vast majority of the pict-captures for this noospheric node by an east or south-facing window, which means there's a suprising amount of difference. 

Pictured below are two shots taken with the same phone camera, at different sides of the same neutral grey room.

Just look what a difference the daylight and angle can make. The warmth is absolutely washed out of the shot above, and the contast looks really stark. Neither is in direct light, so the shadows are relatively soft – but what a difference the angle makes to the big rock at the back. It's washed-out above, with strong shadows, while below it's much more evenly lit.

If you're finding it hard to get accurate shots of your models, even something as simple as changing where you're taking your pictures can make a real difference. 

+ inload: Adding character to your models through customisation +

+ Raising a God-Engine +

+ Evoking character through customisation +

+ A hobby-horse inload today, on why making your models your own matters – and some ideas for where to start. +

+ While the principles can be applied to any model, I focus here on a Titan for three reasons. Firstly, they're lovely big centrepiece models. Secondly, they can be intimidating to adapt; and thirdly, because I haven't done any Adeptus Titanicus stuff for a while, and it's nice to show off work you're proud of! +

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+ Theoretical: Why modify the basic kit? +

Model kits are designed to be built a certain way, and anything you do to make your version stand out can help to add interest and impact to the model. Since both tabletop wargaming and painting for display imply some form of social interaction or having an audience, modifying and customising your kits is a great way to make your stuff stand out. Vive la difference!

You might do this purely for functional reasons – the tournament you're attending requires you to build and paint models rather than use paper stand-ins, perhaps; you might do it for your own pleasure or as a challenge; or you want to demonstrate your skills and imagination to other people – or just yourself.

In all likelihood, the impetus to modify your kits is driven by some combination of the three. And in turn, how much time and effort you want to put into converting and customising is down to your taste. Here I'll outline a few starting points.

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+ Practical: Where do I start? +

First things first, if you paint your model after assembling it, you're already modifying the kit. There's nothing inherently scary or intimidating in personalising your work, so we can get over at least that hurdle immediately.

+ Posing +

There are lots of simple ways to make your models your own. Perhaps the simplest is reposing it. For some kits – like this Warlord – reposing is easy, as all the parts are separate. This is both a blessing and a curse for personalisation: it makes things easy, but as variation in pose is baked-in, it's that much harder to make a pose stand out – after all, every version of this Warlord kit will be slightly different, even if you opt for the 'factory standard' pose.

I've exloaded before about reposing Titans (go check out this article about reposing Reavers' legs, hosted on Maximal Fire [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], for example) so suffice to say here that (with fully-posable models) taking your time to consider the pose you want and executing it carefully will go a long way, while physically modifying the kit can further emphasise your customisation. 

+ Re-posing +

The feet on this Warlord are single-piece, and so the relatively simple job of trimming off and refitting the toes at angles here adds to the sense of weight and ponderous movement.

Changes like this – that require physically modifying the base kit – are what's normally considered conversion, and it's one step on from posing.

The big hurdle for trying this is psychological. Trimming or cutting into a piece to modify it from how it was designed is stepping into terra incognita – but fundamentally it's the same skillset as trimming something off the sprue and assembling it as intended. If you can do the latter, you can do the former. 

Again, having a strong idea of the pose and effect you want before you begin is important. A strong plan will help you – but don't let planning paralyse you. Trust your skills and give re-posing a go.

For kits that have a single set pose – tanks; the more modern 'multi-part but fixed pose' infantry from GW; old-school one-piece metal figures etc. – your effort is more immediately obvious, and you need do less to make your model stand out.

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+ Kitbashing +

Posing and simple conversion work will add a little character and personality to your model, and that's just while sticking to what's in the kit. Once you go beyond that, you can bring in extra parts from elsewhere.

Using parts from one kit to alter another is called 'kitbashing' – and it's distinct from conversion in that the parts are usually broadly compatible, and require little or no modification to do. Things like swapping heads from one kit to another are classic kitbashing, but it also applies to bringing in third-party bits, like the gun – or indeed head and armour plates here, all from Battle Bling [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

+ Conversion +

Throwing money at the problem isn't necessary – and while it's lovely if you can find a third-party element that you really love, functionally such changes are replicable. If you're looking for a genuinely unique custom job, then you can combine the skills from kitbashing and re-posing to make your own parts from others – or from scratch.

This graviton cannon combines a modified Taro Modelmakers [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] part from another scale (a 40k Knight) with some spares from the leftover Warlord armour plates – keep useful looking bits in your bits box!

+ Basing +

A good base is a key part of creating a sense of belonging to a particular setting or place, and will help to (literally) ground your model. A few scattered additional bits and pieces here (from Varus Miniatures  [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] and Battle Bling again) create scale and enhance the character of the piece. Wordlessly, the fact the figures are facing in the same direction as the Titan suggests they're allies – it really can be as simple as that.

It's also a great example of narrative and story. Anything that you can do to grab the viewer's attention is worthwhile – but holding onto that attention relies on you respecting the audience and giving them something involving. Include some details that reward lingering on your model, that make the viewer ask what's going on – it's more rewarding for both your and the audience.

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+ How far? +

This, of course, is up to you. Changing your model to better reflect the character you've come up with can involve complex or complete resculpting – either traditionally or with CAD and 3D printing – but it can be as simple as making a minor tweak. 

Neither approach is 'right', but I tend to find the more effort I put into a piece, the more I feel connected with it, and that is always a win. After all, you spend a lot of time and energy on these models, and they'll last as long as you want them around.

Give yourself a break if the result isn't perfect first time – refinement will come with practise – and ultimately, you only need to please yourself.

With all that said, I think you'll find that developing the character of your model, planning out how you'll execute it, and giving it a go is very rewarding indeed. Good luck!

+ inload: Blood Bowl, Battle Builder, and B-Spearhead +

+ Kick off! +

Blood Bowl season kicked off for me with the ever-so-chic Argo Owlbears taking on Lucifer216's Victory Vultures – with both teams taking quite a kicking! 

Victory, fittingly, went to the Vultures, with a stonking 2–0 result.

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After a weekend of gaming, Omricon's Jeldenberg Jets are top of the table, with a game in hand over the Karaz City Griefs. The Owlbears are lurking at the bottom of the table!

I do love Blood Bowl – one of those great games that it's fun to play even when you're getting your teeth kicked in!

The new edition/season is good fun – recognisable to old hands but with lots of 'quality of life' improvements. Too many to got through here, but suffice to say that we're all looking forward to getting more games in. 

The Owlbears, I'm sure, are just gearing up; and with some new (randomly-generated) skills under their belts and a newly-signed Catcher on their line-up, keep an eye on them creeping up the table.

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+ BattleBuilder nameplates +

I've enthused about these before in relation to personalising your Titans [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], but I hadn't tried them for 32mm bases.

As a little treat for Coaches in the Tallowlands Invitational, I thought I'd pick up a couple of 'players to watch' from each team – these were allowed to take a free skill by the Commissioner (Omricon), and this struck me as a nice way to pick out these talented rookies.

Adding nameplates is a fun way to make things more immersive – it's much more fun to say 'Loriel Elvies dodges past Ofdahn Pitt' to make the touchdown than 'this lineman throws a block against your catcher', and it's a nice way to distinguish the models, too.

If you'd like to try out some plates like this, you can use this affiliate link [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] and the discount code 'MournStarfall' to get 10% off.

... and related to Blood Bowl, I picked up some Referees.

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In the Tallowlands

The weekend also saw the PCRC try out Spearhead, a sort of boardgame-cum-wargame that's like a cross between Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warmachine. Set tables, set armies, and a set of cards. Interesting gameplay, and I'm interested to try out some more.

This is running adjacent to Warmtamale's Age of Sigmar campaign, which the models below are being built for:

Some of these date back a decade, being built and bought for a Mordheim event that I was invited to, but sadly couldn't make. nice to exhume them and bring them up to scratch.

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+ inload: Blood Bowl painting +

 + Reaching a fever pitch +

+ Blood Bowl fever +

Chaunterwick Unathletic, pictured above, saw the field for the first time in a long time at the last PCRC geekend, and they'll be handing the field to some up-and-coming stars, the ever-so-chic Argo Owlbears:

Work on these prancing dandies has been ticking along since the last inload. They've all now got their basic tunic colours in place and I've started picking out the mid-sized areas. I want to make sure that they're at least presentable for their first game, and getting the faces and bases up to scratch is the absolute best way I can think of to do that.

Painting a model is one thing, and painting a group quite another – especially when they're meant to be in some sort of uniform. Blood Bowl teams are made more complicated by the fact that the models are individuals who need to be picked out for the game – the other player should be able to identify who's who, because a particular skill can be critical. 

This is doubly awkward for these elves, as their positions and roles aren't really clear from the poses and equipment in the way that (say) a trollslayer is distinct from a dwarf blocker, or a knight from a peasant. This popped up in my games with Chaunterwick Unathletic – I've added names to the base rims, but while that's great for colour and flavour, it's not always useful for positions! I think if I do something similar, I'll have the names on the back, and the position on the front.

Coming back to the chic Argo Owlbears, once they're completed, identification should be relatively easy, as they'll have numbers painted on (and potentially nameplates). At this stage, however,  I have to rely on things like hair colour to pick out who's who. With that said, you'll spot little tufts on the bases. Partially these are to add some texture to the green astrogranite pitch, but you'll also spot some pink tufts. These add a flash of colour, and also denote positional players (throwers, catchers, blitzers and the like), just to make things a bit easier to parse for the other player.

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+ Puggy Baconbreath +

Renewed interest in Blood Bowl prompted this little spontaneous purchase:

I had the 1988 metal version of Puggy way back in primary school – a model that I don't think ever saw the Blood Bowl field, as the heavily-armoured halfling was busy fighting his way across an Advanced Heroquest board with my (very indulgent) older brother and his (equally patient) mates.

He was painted rather garishly in orange and deep blue, and I quite fancied indulging some fond memories in repainting him. He won't fit in any of my teams, as far as I'm aware (unless he moonlights as a standard halfling in Chaunterwick Unathletic), so I think he's just going to be a good old fashioned painting project.

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