Here it is taking place against the silver won a few years prior. It's all well and good saying I won something, but here's a little bit more for people who haven't seen the full display. I planned to upload a video to showcase the lighting I used, but the potato-quality capture doesn't want to behave.
And a full shot depicting the full force, with a small Dark Mechanicus cohort in the top right corner. The plan was to have a taller stage, but time and other commitments meant I had to go with what was possible in the available time. Note to self: start earlier next year.
Taking centre stage (pun somewhat intended) is the main unit of noise marines, led by the modern-retro noise marine special edition model with guitar. The two power banks either side made for great sub woofer/speaker type equipment. The main time sink with this force was the unique colour scheme. By their nature each model had to have their own unique combination of colours, but still look coherent enough to look like one army. By using a set selection of colours, I feel this was achieved whilst having some very unique characters.
The army also features a unique Possessed squad. I was torn between having unique schemes for each model and making them match the rest of the force. In the end I went for both; each model has a different armour pattern, but share purple skin, dark blue talons and green hair, which all daemons in the force will have. Not featured in this board is a squad of Daemonettes, due to space.
One of my favourite conversions is this chopper-riding renegade. I mean, if white-wall tyres and a flame-job doesn't scream flashy excess, I don't know what will. The base model is the Ork Deffkilla Wartrike, cleaned up and given a big autocannon and a chaos marine rider. Once all the Orky bits were cleaned off it makes a great chaos bike. I may have to redo the regular bikers behind in this style.
Given the standard of entries this year I wanted to add in a few shots of some of the other entries, including the winners of the other medals.
A neat looking Astra Militarum force. It didn't place in the medal tables but it was still a very cool display with a lot of character.
Some amazing Necrons which ended up taking the gold medal. A very deserving gold I might add, with great painting and conversion work throughout the force. My favourite part is the old school Destroyers tot he left of this image
Silver was awarded to this Nurgle force. I believe it also won best terrain, due to the cool Nurgle icon built into the board.
Given the calibre of this year's entries, next year's board will require me to take a big leap in complexity and execution. For now, I think I'll go back to my roots for a bit, and paint up some shiny, consistently painted Rubrics.