Hey folks!
Scores from the Nova Open are filtering in. I finished 4th in the competitive bracket, and 33rd Overall. Much of that “overall” ranking was due to receiving 43% of available painting points, which stunned me. My army has never looked as good as it does now, and I was fully expecting to be 70-85% of points.
The two major “paint” categories were “Best Painted model” and “best converted model.” While everything in my army is definitely tabletop quality (with my ravagers being on the lower end due to recoat touchups and magnetic issues), I don’t have anything that really stands out as an exceptional painted model or an exceptional converted model. All of my beasts are converted…but they are functional conversions. Necron scarabs in the DE color scheme with bladed wings attached, LOTR Wargs with Tyranid scything talons attached for khymerae….
I need something truly spectacular, and I’m drawing a blank. Thus I’m looking for advice! What could I make that would be a fantastic conversion? The closest I got was the idea of making a new Baron Sathonyx, and custom-building him from scratch – with the addition of trying to show him with a shadowfield somehow. In fluff, shadowfields are described as literal fields of impenetrable darkness, making hitting anything inside difficult because you don’t know where the enemy is. I don’t have any particularly brilliant ideas on how to represent this on the table…maybe with some C’Tan type ribbons wreathed about the body?
I think that I’m going to eventually need to replace my ravagers with new ones. The wings on the ones I currently own have broken a few times, been reglued, and the gunners are magnetized…but they are ancient models.
My typical army has Baron Sathonyx, a haemonculi, wyches, a raider, a bunch of venoms, the troops inside, triple ravagers, and a beast pack.
Ideas welcome.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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bully · 708 weeks ago
Since you've done the beasts already - Baron it has to be then.
For me you need to take the double edged approach on this, since he's the SC and potential for a good conversion route - you can make him stick out with both modelling and painting.
The shadow field is a good idea - I was thinking of something like "whirling energy field" - using thin rod (maybe narrower than a paper clip) forming a swirl around him (few ways to do it I guess) with a bit of green stuff to present the look of dark energy / motion.
From there just make the rest of the model stand out - I'd convert the hover board to be fractionally bigger - not sure on the model for the baron himself.
To finish off, striking paint job - for me I typically do this by doing more extreme highlights - dark to light - starting darker than my normal scheme and work up to brighter highlights.
With that you sort of get a 2 for 1 - your painted and converted model all in one that you can just bung infront of the judges eyes - especially since you have no other hellions he should stand out.
DaR · 708 weeks ago
The other possibility is the raider hulls. Moving or altering wings, blades, and weapons is fairly easy and often very distinctive, as it changes the silhouette of the whole vehicle. I've seen a couple of conversions which moved the sails around to various locations, including doubling up on the sails and mounting them at an angle to form something that looks something like dragonfly wings. Some of those same conversions did things like moving the triple lances into a more center-line set of positions (one up front, and two on the deck towards the back), or moving one into an under-chin turret like a helicopter gunship. I could also see mounting all three abreast in a turret, sort of like a WWII battleship's main guns.
The other way to get lots of conversion style points is to have your models interact more heavily with their base. Have wyches pouncing on a marine (bonus points if it looks like they're actually fighting or if the wych is 'kicking off' an already dispatched foe), haemonculi performing an impromptu vivisection, etc. Hellions or Reavers which are mid-decapitation on an enemy on the base or flying around/over/under terrain features, or possibly dismount/dismounting. Having your Baron leaping off his skyboard, blades first, onto a hapless Inquistor or something of the sort.
DanteInfernus · 708 weeks ago
Went Awer · 708 weeks ago
That and a signature piece in the army should always be an attention grabbing *&%^*, always. The more people that walk away from the game thinking your HQ is made of pure awesome the better, the opinion will rub off on the rest of the armies.
Mrs. Dash · 708 weeks ago
I didn't do hardly ANY painting of these. heheheh. The stuff I painted last year got ranked lots higher. So there!.
--Mrs. Dash.
Dashofpepper · 708 weeks ago
I would submit one of my venoms into a best painted competition. And I got a 43% paint score. I got a worse paint score this year with my fantastic Dark Eldar than I did last year with unwashed, unhighlighted pink and glittery Orks.
degravemind 41p · 708 weeks ago
Something like that, with the DE kneeling over a dying victim and draining the last life out of him. I suggest homunculus because they have all the cool gear that would better look for it.
Bully · 708 weeks ago
whembly · 708 weeks ago
As to how to do that... haven't figured that out yet...
whembly · 708 weeks ago
Sort of like this: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=picture+surfer&...
speedfreeksolutions 20p · 708 weeks ago
I think it is quite easy to follow or be inspired from.
Welcome to the Dark City.
newtoncain · 708 weeks ago
Maybe you can zoom in on the converted Baron. Clay is a local player that has some of the nicest conversons and paint jobs.
speedfreeksolutions 20p · 708 weeks ago
It would help a lot if we had a better picture of you new army.
Keith · 708 weeks ago
DanteInfernus · 708 weeks ago
1) Marking on a gradient and there happened to be many amazing entrys this year which shifted your entry down the percentile range.
2) Someone didn't tell you that you were going to lose points for having counts as models in your army.
3) They didn't have the time/couldnt be bothered to look at your entry and made up a score.
4) Someone who is doing the marking has a bad attitude and decided that since you would probably come close to winning on generalship, they were going to mark you down in painting regardless
5) (most likely imho) However amazing the Venom you submitted looked, it will never have the same amount of detail as a character like Draigo, Teclis, etc.
As suggested early I would get a brand new Sathonyx model and make him the centrepiece of your army with an awesome retinue of beasts to boot. Baron and Beasts!
P.s. Apologies to Mrs Dash and congrats on getting a higher painting score :P
Aventine · 708 weeks ago
speedfreeksolutions 20p · 708 weeks ago
(and there is a link to the paint-scores too)
Mrs. Dash · 708 weeks ago
Dashofpepper · 708 weeks ago
Take a golf ball, paint it glossy black, add some grey wisps of smoke, mount it on a flying base and boom: Baron Sathonyx inside his shadow-field.
whembly · 708 weeks ago
Still haven't figure out how to "model" his shadow field.
MrVegas · 708 weeks ago