Whoa, what a day: Imagine my utter amazement as I browsed through the latest issue of Warhammer:Visions today, only to turn the page and see this:
Seems like my dear Legion is really going places, eh? Anyway, it probably won’t come as a surprise to you that being featured in an official GW publication – and in Blanchitsu, no less – is really a hobby dream come true for me! And the whole story of Legion has been one chain of awesome moments, ever since PDH was nice enough to get me involved! Read all about our favourite AdMech monstrosity here, in case you’re not yet in the know.
Anyway, a huge, huge thank you to John Blanche for featuring my model in his wonderful column! And to Peter, of course, without whom none of this would have happened! This is so amazing! I might as well quit the hobby now, because I’m not sure how exactly I will ever surpass this…NUTS!
In other news, two people nominated me for a Liebster Award on the same day: Thanks a lot to Henry South and Jimmy Grill!
In case you’re not familiar with the Liebster Award, it’s basically a friendly kind of Ponzi Scheme, with the single goal of giving readers the opportunity to discover new and interesting blogs. So not only am I happy to receive this nomination, but I’ll also happily help to spread the word:
As per the rules of the award, I am required to…
- tell you eleven truths about me
- answer eleven questions posed by the person who nominated my blog
- nominate eleven blogs for a Liebster Award
- pose eleven questions of my own, to be answered by my eleven nominees
So, without further ado, here we go:
Eleven Truths:
1. I am supremely lazy, which often proves to be a challenge in this hobby, especially while painting, and also unbelievably impatient when working on models, which has ruined more than one pretty cool paintjob or conversion, because I just couldn’t wait until everything was dry.
2. The GW kit I have purchased the most often is the plastic Chaos Lord in Terminator armour: I could always build another one of these.
3. My “grownup” reasons for picking up blogging were to teach myself stuff about blogging software and to keep practicing my English: Both missions accomplished, I suppose ;)
4. Fairly surprisingly for a devout follower of Khorne, I am not into Heavy Metal.
5. I still believe that the Police are the greatest band on the planet!
6. I love everything written by Neil Gaiman
7. If you try to interest me in a new tabletop game, make sure I am excited by the actual models: I am terrible with rules and forget them as quickly as I learn them, so the models have to be awesome enough to capture my interest.
8. I am a huge videogame nerd and have a pretty big collection of game systems.
9. Believe it or not, I have never been to an English speaking country – although I plan on remedying that sooner rather than later.
10. I love being complimented on my models (who doesn’t?), and I will sometimes feel awful when a model I am extremely proud of doesn’t get a lot of feedback online.
11. I am not actually a scientist ;)
Eleven blogs:
Since I know that several of my favourite blogs have already received a Liebster Award, they will be missing from the following list. That said, these eleven blogs are amazing and definitely deserve more traffic. So, in no particular order…:
1. Le blog dè Kouzes: some of the most stunning kitbashes and paintjobs you will ever see. Definitely worth learning French for ;-)
2. Die Würfelwiese: the blog of an extremely talented, fellow German hobbyist. Just check out his magnificent Tallarns!
3. K.M.B. Some of the best World Eaters kitbashes and conversions on the net. I just wish AMaximus would update more often…
4. Beneath the Mire: Great content from a group of bloggers, especially noteworthy for Drone21c’s wonderful INQ28 models.
5. CerxiS World: Another fellow German’s blog, and some of the best Alpha Legion models and miniature photography you’ll ever see!
6. Thenickeninja’s blog: Amazing Blood Bowl conversions and the best underhive terrain in existence, period.
7. Miniature Tim: A very talented and friendly artist, and a pleasantly levelheaded and costructive take on our favourite hobby.
8. Tarvick the Artisan: wonderful conversions and inspiring paintjobs — what’s not to like?
9. Ex Profundis: Wonderfully creepy stuff by Bruticus and meade, masters of the bizarre. Dark Mechanicus craziness galore!
10. Eldritch Epistles: A wonderful look at models from the olden days. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
11. Mordian 7th: One of the most productive hobbyists you’ll ever see: The pace at which Mordian7th finishes great armies has to be seen to be believed!
Eleven answers…
…although, seeing how two people nominated me on the same day, I think it’s only fair to answer both sets of questions. Plus I love interview-ish stuff like this, since it makes me feel like a true rock star ;-) So here goes:
Eleven Answers (questions by Henry South):
1) Your most satisfying moment while painting.
Quite a while ago, I started following an approach for quickly achiving great results while painting as laid down by Steve Buddle : Paint the base colours, then generously apply washes, then go away and let them dry, then come back to the model and apply any highlights and details you want. This seems common sense now, but back then, it looked like witchcraft to me. Anyway, after applying all the base colours, the model looked so terrible that I could have screamed. Then I slapped on the washes, already considering the model a lost cause. When I returned to it after a few hours, I found the model completely transformed by the washes, which gave me a huge kick and really changed my approach to painting: I’ve been using that technique ever since (although I still feel terrible right before the washes come out ;) ).
2) Your worst painting disaster.
Saving up a lot of allowance money during my youth in order to be able to buy a Dark Eldar Raider, then finding out I hated painting it and ending up with a paintjob that was less than exciting – scared me away from painting vehicles for more than a decade, I suppose.
3) Can you “cheat” while painting. And is it wrong if you can?
Hmm, I guess you can cheat by only painting areas that will be clearly visible on the finished model and leave the hard to see parts mostly untouched, by that doesn’t work for me because I will always know that when I look at the model ;-) The other possible kind of “cheating” is to use shortcuts and easy recipes for creating reasonably good versions of effects that would need many, many working steps otherwise, but that’s not really cheating and I’m doing it all the time ;-)
Oh, and you can of course try to make your models look even better by taking really good photos of them, but again, that’s what you should be doing anyway, so can this really be considered cheating in the first place.
4) The one tip you would tell yourself when you started painting
Don’t try to slavishly follow the ‘Eavy Metal approach to painting: You’ll never be able to paint like that anyway – at least not at first. Find a technique that you’re comfortable with and go for a nice, clean paintjob. All else must follow. Don’t try to force it!
5) How do you get over your painting block?
- by stepping away from the model I am working on for a while, returning with a fresh perspective later
- by painting something completely different from what I am currently working on
- by painting something that I know will be fun (followers of Nurgle usually work like a charm)
- by looking at other people’s inspiring stuff until I get that itch for painting again
6) Pub garden or trendy winebar?
Pub Garden all the way. But then, I am not a great wine aficionado anyway, so yeah…
7) Which Chaos god would you sell your soul to?
Khorne. Definitely Khorne. My soul belongs to him ever since I painted my first chaos warrior, so it would have to be him. I am probably the least aggressive and brutal person you will ever meet, and I would likely suck in a fight, but there’s always the reassuring knowledge that Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it flows.
8) Who do you blame for getting you into miniture painting?
Hmm, I suppose it was a combination of my fascination with the painted models on the back of the HeroQuest mission booklet and the gentle urgings of a childhood friend who had already started to paint his own HeroQuest models (using terrible enamel colours and markers, no less).
9) What hobby would you be doing if you didn’t do this?
Hmm, I think I am somehow juggling all the nerd hobbies that interest me (videogames, RPGs, tabletop wargaming) at the same time, so I suppose this hobby doesn’t prevent me from any other hobby. Maybe if I wasn’t spending so much time cutting up little plastic men, I’d be free to do something grownup like learning another language or finding a cure for cancer, though. We might never find out ;-)
10) Chocolate or jellybeans?
Tough call. Though I really like jellybeans, I’ll have to say chocolate, though, because it forms the base for so many awesome things. Why does it have to be one or the other again?
11) What do you listen to while painting?
I usually have my ITunes on shuffle while painting, since I have a fairly extensive musical collection. That said, chances are there’ll be something indy rock-ish in the playlist, with the odd, tacky 80s pop number thrown in for variety ;)
Eleven Answers (questions by Jimmy Grill)
1) If you could wish for one thing except more wishes, what would that be?
Robust health for me and those close to me, I suppose, because health is so very important for our lives, but something we all tend to take for granted until it’s no longer there.
2) What was the first miniature you painted?
A HeroQuest Zombie: I gave him bright blue skin and bright yellow eyes…and then stopped painting because it looked utterly ridiculous. Still have that model lying around somewhere, come to think of it…
3) What was the best miniature released last year?
Hmm, I’ll have to say the Lord of Skulls: I realise many people hate it, but it really blew me away and I think it really pushed the envelope and paved the way for a number of really impressive releases (the Imperial Knight, for example).
4) What was the latest movie you watched in the cinema?
Huh, the second Hobbit film, I believe. It has been ages since I went to the cinema – and I didn’t even think it was that good a film either – too much CGI and silly acrobatics, even for my taste.
5) Would you rather die now or live forever?
Both seem like pretty bleak prospects, when you think about it. Can’t choose one, they are both horrible ;)
6) Whom do you consider the worse geek, yourself or the hobbyists around you?
Aha, that’s a bit of a Catch 22 there, isn’t it? Of course I could easily name people who are worse geeks than me, but then, is there anything geekier than taking comfort in the fact that others are worse geeks? ;-)
7) The discontinued GW game you wish GW would bring back the most?
Hmm, this would be a neck and neck between Necromunda, Mordheim and Inquisitor. Each of these would be brilliant, especially with new models. All things considered, I’d have to say Inquisitor, though: at the 28mm scale, please ;)
8) How many DVDs would the internet take up if you removed all the porn?
Loads. Don’t forget all the Lolcat videos and borderline retarded selfies, though! It’s not all porn, you know ;)
9) In how many years will tabletop miniatures be 3d holograms?
Hopefully never: Where’s the fun and artistry in using 3d holograms? I like obsessing over little plastic figures far too much to find such a prospect interesting.
10) If John Blanche and H.R. Giger had a child together, what would it look like?
Like something not even a mother could love. I am guessing lots of nipples, augmetic implants and a dashing renaissance costume.
11) I accidently the box. Is this bad?
I don’t understand the question, so I guess it might be…
And finally, eleven questions for my nominees:
1) Warhammer 40k or Warhammer Fantasy Battles? And why?
2) Who’s your favourite miniature sculptor?
3) What’s your best hint for painting (“Thin your paints!” doesn’t count!)
4) Who’s your favourite author?
5) What’s your favourite Traitor Legion?
6) Which Ordo of the Inquisition would you belong to?
7) Which army would you never start and why?
8) Which is the most important part of the hobby for you?
9) Your favourite band or musician?
10) Which is the most spectacular conversion/kitbash you would like to do, provided you had the bitz?
11) What was the best moment in your hobby life?
So yeah, what a day! Make sure to check out the blogs I nominated! Have a great weekend! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Filed under: 40k, Conversions, Pointless ramblings Tagged: 40k, award, blanchitsu, blogging, conversion, john blanche, Legion, liebster award, q&a, Yggdrasilium
