So yeah, I’m not really one to let things lie, I may be having a little trouble letting go of the whole “your army is too crap for ToS thing” so I may have submitted a bunch of piccies into GW’s Flikr pool…..
I thought I might mention it in case anyone went on there, saw my army and thought that it was mighty strange it did not get even a sniff of a nomination .
Just to clarify I neither expected or deserved to win best army, I think the right person won in the end but some of the other nominations were frankly bizarre and the whole thing left a bad taste in the mouth, I’m by no means the first to point this out either.
Maybe a few of you reader types could throw me a bone here :oP
Call this an experiment if you will
PS, Conversely  if I’m being an arrogant Fapbag, hit me up in the comments, and no I don’t mean the usual Shard stuff, specifically in relation to just this M’kay ?
Let it go, man. We’ve all put a lot of time, effort, and money into our armies but if you really didn’t expect to win, then you would be a little more gracious about it. I think you should be proud of your army – it is certainly beautiful and you invested a lot of time and effort – but shouldn’t that pride be enough? Who cares whether or not others recognize it, as long as you’re proud of it?
I think it might sting because that’s the kind of advice I give to poorer paintjobs, but the advice still remains the same.
This is why I prefer painted army raffles – it inspires people to fully paint their army because anyone can win, instead of “best painted” awards.
Rock on man, I think that anytime there are tournaments, there are judges, and judges are human and have friends. I have been on the end of, or had friends on the end of a biased judging call way to often. Be irritated, speak out, because if you don’t NOTHING will change. Good on you for not being a sheep. And worst case, if you’re wrong and there was no biased judging going on, you’re keeping people honest.
I think the fact that you didn’t get a lot of notice is probably just because of the fact that you have a darker color scheme. To be perfectly honest I’ve seen really really good paintjobs go unoticed at a couple of events just because they were subtle/dark. Really bright schemes seem to have an advantage which is kind of a shame. Like someone already mentioned, I think you ought to just be happy with your scheme and paintjob because YOU know it’s awesome not because someone else came by and decided to approve.
I know my wife didn’t make the cut at Golden Demon this year, was rather put out about this (she’s really good) and then went and tracked down some Eavy Metal painters to get feedback.
In her case, she wasn’t using enough advanced painting techniques on the model. Now, I can’t comment on all the other ToS armies, as I wasn’t there, but don’t be afraid to go and ask GW staff.
It may genuinely be something as simple as a lack of a systemic method for reviewing every army in the hall, it might have been the dark colour scheme, or maybe you were missing something.
If it turns out that they’re missing good armies because of poor systems of review, and they are told about it, they have a chance of fixing it. They might not, but at least you tried to both get and give feedback.
I am not an excellent painter. I don’t know any advanced techniques – so I really can’t (shouldn’t) comment on the higher end of miniature painting. My opinion is your stuff is good, but I don’t have the knowledge myself to draw the line between ‘good’ and ‘excellent’. The Trueborn, in particular, look absolutely gorgeous.
But what is an ‘advanced technique’ lets be honest the only thing that matters at the end of the day is how the models look, individually and as an army.
There are so many different painting styles that you’ll often see amazing work getting a lot of hate because people don’t think it fits the 40k universe, or the army, or the theme, and other absolute rubbish which is unfortunately encouraged by most marine players being totally unable to think outside the square.
Often you’ll see marine players criticising peoples armies because it doesn’t fit the codex ‘approved’ colour scheme etc…..
The worst is on forums when people ask about swapping one colour for another, and apart from the good advice “its your army do what you like” you get people frothing at the mouth and screaming “its not blood angels any more if you add purple highlights” (example only).
I mean seriously?????
Personally I think SorrowShard’s army is pretty amazing when you take into account the base theme, lighting effects and polished finish despite the challenge of using dark colours.
It embodies Dark Eldar far better than the codex pictures IMO, which granted have extremely nice armour plating (on the warriors etc), but which are otherwise pretty MEH.
I think the issue however was, as I have said before, that your army was too subtle… which befits DE but doesn’t help with judges as dense as adamantium armour.
My blog is my little chunk o’ the internet to (frequently) rant & bitch, so I see no problem with you using yours for the same (and that is a damned fine looking army you have there)!
I know that feeling all very well, having not been nominated in a previous tournament for my army while a sub par (imho) army won that day. I guess we tend to value the fruit of our labour more than other people since we know how much time we did (or didn’t) spend on it and all the sacrifices we had to make (all these sweet sweet hours I could be playing Xbox instead of playing).
So yeah, don’t be bitter if some third person underappreciates your creation. If you are good judge of yourself, you know the level of quality of your miniatures and that’s the best reward in my opinion.
Ahh, yes those sweet sweet hours of Deus Ex I missed *sigh*, I forced myself not to buy it while the army was still going, december/Jan is going to be a sofa fest.
I pretty much sacrificed every minute of spare time to get this done ahead of time.
Admittedly I will at some point get some markings on the sails and unify the basing, army wide, for now I am concentrating on the expansion to 3.5k.
I think thats partially the problem, I have a painters heart, I can get excited about other peoples models more than my own, It takes me a long time to step away from the flaws in my own work, nontheless I feel qualified enough to call myself a good judge of mini paintwork and in this I feel justified at least raising the question. The army is the way it is, I’m not changing it, thats how I felt DE should look, if I have to sacrifice best army awards then so be it.
Hey there, I really love the painting of your army, great colour scheme! I read somewhere in WD, that when you want to go for best painted army at a tournament, you should use bright and striking colours that catch the interest of the judges from afar. Maybe your army is too dark for that matter, with all the great lightning and blood effects only visible when up close? Maybe you should add some of those tribal like freehands to your vehicles like on the studio army, to add a splash of colour, plus who doesn’t like freehands?
Either way, for me your army is the best painted Dark Eldar army, period.
PS: Wanna join the Tale of Painters Blog Network? I’d love to have you there! http://taleofpainters.blogspot.com/2011/10/tale-of-painters-blog-network.html
Hi Stahly, thanks for the kind words. TBH I’m not one for overtly colorful armies or schemes, I have no plans to do anything GW related beyond my DE at them moment and the scheme aint changing. The sails will be getting some blood/vivid red tribal/kabal designs on them at some point to tie them in with the rest of the white in the army, I will prob do them before the GT.
Well I would like to join but I can’t leave the BoK network, as long as its a similar deal to paincakes where I just pop a banner up and add you then you put me on the rolls I don’t see a problem with it.
I’m looking forward how your army will turn out!
Well yeah, you just need to download one of the banners, add it to your sidebar and link it to Tale of Painters. Here is everything covered: http://taleofpainters.blogspot.com/2011/10/tale-of-painters-blog-network.html
Cheers!
Victory is mine, watch this space….
Victory?
I was going to suggest asking the judges for feedback, as some others have. It’s really the only way to find out what the judges were thinking.
Aw, ‘Shard….you’ve got nothing to prove to anyone.
Your work speaks for itself.
You’re painting is exemplary, and you run an amazing blog
Personally, I don’t think GW makes a friggin’ plaque big enough fer you, brother.
Be eezy.
But, hey, listen….
If you feel the need for cold, evil Xenos revenge (and who doesn’t occasionally, right?), hit me up.
I’m really handy with explosives….at least in videogames.
Well…I mean, I only blow myself up about half the time…
That’s good, right?
😛
I think you just need to make bright display board , to play on the contrast, to make your good points about army visibe.
Events sometimes have bad lighting, and naturally darker schemes suffers most from it.
Maybe if you continue your theme and make display board like Dark Eldar after battle, lots of bodies (Imperial Fists for example, good contrast) , Haemo made temporary torture chamber , warriors in awe stand around him, Arhcon draining soul from captain nearby.
If you make themed display board your army cant be ignored and if it will be judged it will have prizes, cause its really really one of the best DE army out there at moment.
And by the way…what metallics do you use?I dont like them much, to large pigments.
I prefer Valejo Model Air metallics, pigemnts are really small in them.Metallics sorta spoil Urien and Lelith.
To the guy insinuating that marine players are everything that is wrong with the hobby. I have to disagree.
{chris I understand that the insinuation is mildly annoying but please rise above it, there are better more eloquent ways of making/proving your point)
the problems with your army as a showcase piece at something like TOS is that your army needs to be looked at up close to see how good it is, from afar it washes itself out (i’ve discussed this with you in person) that and personally i think the bases will always let you down.. (lack of the rape tree on the plane doesnt help)
you need something to grab peoples attention from afar so that theyll come look at your stuff up close (thats right paint those fucking sails)
base wise i think you’d have been better off putting just a little more time into them, the idea is fine, its the execution that in a painterly environment is going to have people thinking “did he run out of time or something?” atm they just look like painted bases with a few rocks and skulls on them, theres no texture to them no cracked, scorched earth (miliput and a few scratched in cracks) its like theyve walked onto some very smooth red concrete that was perfectly laid, before some hooligan threw some rocks and a few skulls all over it.
It is not marine players ruining the game its the kind of people who play marines and are generally most vocal and active online.
Its largely the fault of GWS for putting far more effort and investment into marine armies but that’s just life.
You are welcome to disagree its a generalisation which doesn’t mean it applies to every marine player, just lots. I don’t bother with most forums anymore for this very reason: a horrible sheep mentality, and too many people who think they are the bees knees while providing bad advice, poor wisdom and drowning out anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
Also I dont mind if you can’t be bothered using capitals, proper punctuation etc, but at least spell my name correctly.
Beckett, they are GW metallics I have seen the VJJ metals thanks to Lornenzen, they are very nice, I’ll be picking some up, I’ll use up the stuff I have first.
I understand why you would do a display board, I would rather let the models speak for themselves I won’t rule it out but tbh I would rather be expanding the army and painting other models.
I should really shut up as this army has got a lot of love from a lot of people, I feel it was a little sad putting this up in the first place but I needed to vent.
Rape tree is going on the second Razor If you are still up for it ?
The sails will at very least get some custom transfers in the long run, I half agree with you on the bases, but It is an army to be played with, the whole thing went to a higher standard than I set out to do in the first place so thats possibly how the bases got left behind, some people like the bases, I think they needed the flatness breaking up but other than that I am happy with how they have turned out .
Dude, saw that GW threw you up on their blog! Win!
Congrats on making ‘What’s New Today?’ on the GW site!
i think you’ll find it was shard talking about me, (my name is Chris without a K) so dont call me up on spelling when its not mine.. also being a grammer nazi isnt productive, in fact if you watch a series of unfortunate events you’ll realise it can get you killed.
if you dont mean to insinuate that marine players are the equivilant of 40k terrorists, use a different term.. for instance unimaginative fools, because lets face it xenos players also fall in to these catagories, not just people who run with MEQ stats.
still up for doing the rape tree, will talk to you in a bit about it.. only just got back from wales.
Yeah Just to confirm Kris , I was talking to Lorenzen. (twas an edit in the brackets)
I think Kris, like me gets a little tired of the marine saturation (gotta blame Geedubbya) now I know you tend to pick a chapter and stick with it and do it properly, I think Kris is tired of the bandwagoners, you can’t be lumped in with that lot. the power creep alienated alot of marine players from everyone else and he’s just venting ( I think you Chris are angry about marines for some of the reasons Kris is waxing angry about,) Trust me Kris Lorenzen has his own issues with how marines have ended up,
I do it too, does not mean I hate everyone who plays marines but someties it’s can be hard to disassociate. peace (would like both of you to continue to post your good-stuff here)
yeah, I’ll post a typically gloaty “I win” piece with a link later, gotta go club and beat face with my sneaky Combined strike team.
Just saw some of your pictures that you added to GW flickr pool show up on the the company’s main website. Congratulations on getting some more well-deserved recognition for your beautifully painted army, very well done!
Congrats mate, victory found its hero.Be proud for those bloodletting crazy arrogant maniacs, i sure do =).
Jumping into this discussion rather late looks like and I’m getting involved because Sorrowshard’s painting has amazing potential but I think it needs a boost to the next level.
Color.
I’ve watched this army grow from it’s humble beginnings on this blog. In the first couple pictures, I kept looking at the photos and wondering, “why are the pictures in black and white?”
While monochromatic works can be cool, unless they are done in an actual color (i.e. not shades of gray), they frequently end up looking soulless and devoid of life, personality. Your army is not monochromatic but it is dangerously close. It can look good in pictures, where the online viewer sees the army in a way that they would never see it in real life. Unfortunately your army is suffering from lack of color, in my opinion. While the fluff of Dark Eldar might have them be evil and dark, they aren’t soulless, They have personalities. and the one way to bring that out is to bring in color.
You do have specks of color here and there, you just need more. It’s not too late. You can always go back.
To be completely honest, I am not surprised your army was passed over. The judges probably couldn’t see it because it’s so dark. Take the ‘eavy metal DE studio army. Black is the main color, yes, but on the large vehicles, it’s actually not black but dark green. They’ve then used reds, golds and blues to bring the model to life. They’ve contrasted the dark black with brighter colors. They’ve used color to accentuate and draw your eyes to the details of the models. I’m not saying that you should copy their color schemes, I’m saying that you should learn from what they do and create something that is your very own that accomplishes a similar overall effect in the end: a stunning model and army.
So in summary, you’ve obviously got a flare for miniature painting. You can blend well, you are good at composing lights and darks over the model (your Archon is a great example of this), the next lesson you should teach yourself is how to use color. I know you don’t see Dark Eldar as colorful, but human beings naturally like color and that’s who you are painting for.
Wow, epic comment. Hope you aren’t offended. Really, I am only writing it because I see potential in your skills and talent and I want to see you do well. You’ve got what it takes…just push yourself a little harder and don’t get discouraged.
🙂
Well congrats to “your” article on GW HP. I guess you your happy now, ey 😉
Funny thing is, that the writer of the article was first attracted to your bases, and only when he looked at bigger pictures, he saw how good the rest looked, so i guess that fits to the overall “complaint” that your paint scheme misses the eye catcher. Not a reason to switch, as i like darker schemes for 40k settings, but just something to consider, when your schemes don’t get the credit they deserve.
slainte
i think u proved ur point now….
“When I was looking through our Flickr pool the other day, I spotted a very intriguing army of Dark Eldar in there painted by Matt Lewis. What first caught my eye wasn’t the amazing paint scheme, but the intensely bloody bases. Only when I clicked on the pics did I notice just how nice the rest of the miniatures were.”
Yup yup *smug mode activated* thanks for all the supportive responses guys, nice to know so many of you have my back even if you are all out there in E space ;o)
The comments about the darker palette are doubtless true, thanks for such a reat and thorough response shatterhands, I’m pretty thick skinned really. If you go far enough back in here I did actually trial two more ‘brighter’ schemes and was not sold with them, I had originally tried a true monochrome approach but realised it needed some colour to make it pop, hence the green, red and purple, The army will see unified basing and sail markings (across all the planned 3.5k) I think later unit additions will start to see more colour and variety break up the black.
Other than the DE I have no further 40k plans at present, I intend to put some painting time on my new Infinity stuff which will no doubt feature more colour.
Infinity is lots of fun. We’ve got a whole infinity blog going on: Remote-presence.net. We’re still building up the content for now, but there is some good stuff up there already.
What faction you going with? Can I guess? Aleph?
I love the game but we’re really looking forward to some kind of missions book. Our club has gotten ruthlessly good at killing each other’s units so we’re interesting in other objectives.
Hi tim, yup Infinity is great, I love how cinematic some sequences can be, my speculo killer went through maybe five enemies in one turn, it was epic.
Aleph is on the list of to-do’s but I went with Shasvastii first and I am thinking about adding a Morat aggression force very soon, especially with the Tempest dude being available soon. might do Aleph Instead… Argh I want them ALL (well mostly)
Everyone seems to go a bit special over yu jing so Ill skip the JSA I wanted to do for a while.
Aliens got some pretty crazy tricks they do. Yu Jing is pretty straight-forward, but I am becoming the master of camo in our group. Aliens got lots of camo too and some sick skirmisher units. Would love to see your models once they are painted.
I love my Combined, iI have camo spam Shasvaasti for my first force, apparently requires a similar thought process to that required by DE so feels fairly right for me as a n00b, currently loving the Missile launcher noctifer, hope CB sorts an actual model for him as he is filth. anemethatic and the Speculo have been making me smile too, especially the speculo, she did amazing things on my first full 300 point outing….
Now the tempest dude is out I have just ordered a full Morat agression team for something a bit different. (can also then mix and match If I wish)
Painting wise I doubt I will post them here as I want to keep Rant pure, I’ll prob talk to Stahly over at paint station and see if they want to host my Infinity progress, there are a couple of places it could go as contributed content I suppose…
You’re welcome to post on Remote Presence as well. Just send me an email, which can be found in my blogger account profile.
I’ve played around with the Infinity army builder for the Morats…gakis are a steal! A good use is to put four of them into their own battle group and just run them at the enemy. Will act like hunting hounds, forcing your opponent to do things and flushing him out of positions for the rest of your force to blow him away…Combined Army has lots of tricks…you won’t get bored trying them all.
I’m trying to master the use of smoke and flame templates…lots of potential there.
just saw your victory on the GW blog which was reposted my the North Sydney manager on FB! I saw a thumbnail and was thinking ‘hmm that blonde DE looks familiar’
congrats, see we all said you rule hahaha
Yeah, I just saw that too. Congrats!
Don’t feel so bad. Your army looks great. I should know. I took 2nd place (runner up 1, 2, and 3rd place did not exist then) best painted at the 2001 Chicago GT. I lost to Brian Hotovec. He is a very great painter. I talked to the GW staff. They said that after an army gets into the top tier it all comes down to judges personal preference.
Go to other non-gaming related painting competitions like SCAHMS. Talk to those judges and see what they look for.
https://bloodofkittens.com/rantineminor/files/2011/08/DSC01807.jpg
Your not going to bother hiding the slotta tab in that base?
Too much time, you have it.