So here I am in the middle of November and I have about 3 weeks to finish three entries for two different painting competitions….. how did it come to this?
For anyone who doesn’t know, last year I decided I would enter my very first painting competition at the Nova Open called the Capital Palette. I gave myself a little over 7 months to work on the entry piece which you can see here. So how did I end up entering two competitions that take place in the beginning of December, mere months after the Capital Palette?
It started at the Nova Open where after getting to know some other minipainters, I was informed of a painting competition happening December 14th about only an hours drive from where I live at Mythicos Studios called The Jersey Devil. Buoyed by my better than expected performance at the Capital Palette I promised I would attend. After a short break from competitive painting, I bought my ticket in October and went to work picking out what minis to use as my entries.
In my never ending quest to improve, I decided to do something I have not done before. I already had a red scheme picked out for Capital Palette 2020 on a 40k space marine mini from Wargame Exclusive, and since I already did a blue scheme for Capital Palette 2019 I decided why not go for a yellow paint, the other notoriously difficult to paint color. Not only that, why not paint it on a large flyer, something I have little experience with as my Dark Talon is the only vehicle/flyer I have done to this point….. I think I’m beginning to realize that I am a glutton for punishment.
Now purchasing a ticket for the Jersey Devil allows one to enter a single model in every category available, which is different from the Capital Palette where you have to purchase entries individually. So instead of doing just the flyer I decided to get some more bang for my buck and enter some of the other categories. So I planned to enter enter my Joan of Arc from Capital Palette (with a few touch ups) in the single mini category and also the limited edition Guijia from Infinity that I had lying around for the walker category. Essentially I was going to enter three things for this competition,
I had a plan and two of my three minis in hand, however I did not want to go out and buy a vehicle solely to paint it yellow for a competition as I had other plans for my hobby dollars at that time. So I asked around in my local Warhammer group to see if anyone was willing to let me build and paint one of their models. Lo and behold one of the local players, Chris Amon, had recently bought an Astra Militarum Valkyrie with the intention of proxying it as a Lamenters Storm Raven and was kind enough to let me have a go at it.
So I had my models for the Jersey Devil all set and started the process of cleaning and assembling the Guijia and the Valkyrie. In the meantime I ordered a resin base from Elrik’s Hobbies for the flyer, because it would save me some time and also I had a plan to make a little diorama on it. (I’ll go into more depth in separate posts for each competition I’m entering).
Near the end of October I finished cleaning and setting up the sub-assemblies for the Guijia and Valkyrie and I was feeling good. It was then that I get a notification from my Warhammer group on my phone, something that only happens if someone tags me specifically, something I set up to prevent the constant stream of notifications I would otherwise get. As it turns out, our local gaming store, Hoboken Gaming Lounge, was doing a painting competition backed by the Army Painter called Into the Darkness. Naturally my group knew I would interested and rightfully so, I can’t not enter a painting competition on my home turf (the place is literally a 20 minute walk from my home).
However, the Into the Darkness competition had two things that were new to me; a specific theme and a base size limit. According to the official site, the theme was ” creatures or humanoids that reside in or venture into the deep recesses of the earth” and also had to fit on a 40mm base or smaller. Also, the entry fee was that you had to purchase the mini you were going to enter from Hoboken Game Lounge.
So off I went to the store to place my order for my model, a Naga Nightlurker from Warmachine/Hordes as it fit the theme and there was an opportunity to do some grool and blood effects on it. However, the supplier didn’t have P3 products in stock at the time so I had to pivot and lady luck must have been with me because the store had a Malign Portents Snazzgar Stinkmullet from AoS on the shelf (and for a great price too). So I snatched up Snazzgar, signed up and went on home to keep working.
So now here I am mid November, still working on multiple pieces, experimenting with new techniques and doubting everything I do every step of the way. But it’s a far cry from the painter I used to be who was too afraid of failure to even start painting. I have grown as a mini painter and am beginning to embody the concept of painting bravely because the worst thing that can happen is you have a mediocre paint job that you can strip anyway.
Til next time my wayward compadres.
Dr. Schemes Miniatures 