All posts filed under: Challenge

Dreadtober 2017 Announcement

Published by Joe B

Yeah, finally some Dreadtober news for 2017! TL;DR: it is happening, but Todd is hosting it this year! So get ready for Dreadtober 2017! As this is the third annual Dreadtober event, many of you have either participated or at least witnessed the challenge before. Last year I hosted almost 100 hobbyists around the world to build, paint, and photograph a dreadnought type miniature. Over 50 finished their projectsÂ and tons more cheered them on. Where to Get Involved for 2017 This year Todd (SincaiN40K) is in charge of the event and decided to create a whole new website over on Blogspot to run it. Heading over to dreadtober.blogspot.com is where you can find out how to get involved and check out the latest updates. He has even set up an email address for the project to make it easier to keep track of going forward. So if you are excited to get a dreadnought-ish miniature built in October, sign up! As for me, I am transitioning jobs at the moment and starting a role and …

Final Thoughts on the Inner Circle

Published by Ben Dake

Greetings readers! I am back for my final installment of the series I have been writing on GWâ€™s Inner Circle event. I started down this road what feels like a lifetime ago, with grand schemes of what I hoped to accomplish. I didnâ€™t win my local event, and I only scored 330 points. But I learned several lessons that I can pass along that will help you win your next painting contest. I know Iâ€™ll be using some of these! Lesson 1: Paint to the Rubric All painting contests should have a rubric to let you know what you are going to get scored on and how many points each item was worth. If they donâ€™t, they really need to have one. Once you get your hands on the rubric, really see where you can maximize your point output. The Inner Circle event, for example, awarded extra points for units that had 10 or more models in them or more than 3 models for larger models. I had exactly zero points in this category. While …

Inner Circle Article Two: Electric Boogaloo

Published by Ben Dake

Hey there hobbymaniacs! Ben from Moosehead Studios checking in again to let everyone know the ups and downs and progress that Iâ€™ve made towards my goal of having 18 fully-painted units for the North American Games Workshop Inner Circle hobby event. But first, I have got to catch my breath. The time between my initial article and now has been quite the rush. Professionally, my school has gone through standardized testing (which is great for late-night hobbying), and Iâ€™ve also started spring training for my football time (not so great for late-night hobbying). All-in-all, itâ€™s been a positive experience so far, so letâ€™s get some of the lower points out of the way. Hobby Lows Life, in general, has been much more hectic and crowded, as it always does at the end of the school year. Â With work, my childâ€™s activities, my family responsibilities, and maintaining a commission painting service, I sometimes donâ€™t know which way is up, and my head feels like it is spinning. I donâ€™t think Iâ€™m unique in that, though. Anybody …

Preparing for the Inner Circle

Published by Ben Dake

Hey, guys and gals! Ben here again from Moosehead Studios. In this series of articles, I wonâ€™t be offering advice on how to paint, but instead, I will be documenting my journey of preparation for an event, specifically a hobby-centered event. When I got back into the hobby four years ago, I openly said that I only painted for myself, and would never paint for competitive purposes. File that, along with airbrushing and commission painting, under â€œTimes Iâ€™ve Had to Eat My Words.â€ The Holdups The problem for me, up until this year, has been the fact that most of your big painting contests were held at competitive tournaments. Which, as much as I would love to compete in them, I have never been able to because I have an extremely limited hobby budget. I could never afford what I thought I needed for a competitive list. I played mostly with models that I have had on hand for nearly a decade and re-painted, or the few models I could acquire throughout the year as …

Blood Bowl Ork Team WIP for Squaduary Week 1

Published by Joe B

Already making progress on my Squaduary pledge and have an update on my Blood Bowl Ork Team WIP. As mentioned in my last WIP update, I wanted to paint them with purple armor and decided that orange would be a good spot color. At this point, I have half the team base coated and washed with brown. They look rough right now, and I hate showing this stage of painting, but as part of Squaduary, I need to show some updates right? So while this week of Squaduary was supposed to be build week, I already had the team built up and primed. So between the head start I already hadÂ and wanting to get the Stompa done this month as well, I have been plowing ahead. Colors: All colors are Vallejo Game Color. Dark Green Khaki Silver Parasite Brown Black Hexed Lichen Hot Orange Next steps Now that the first six are base coated I can start highlighting each color. I have the other six to do as well but need to wait for the …

Dreadtober Recap and Thoughts on the Event

Dreadtober, a review and thoughts on running the event

Published by Joe B

Well Dreadtober 2016 has come and gone, but I want to take a moment and look back at what happened during the event and my thoughts from running it. As some of my readers have gathered from my lack of posts the last two weeks, Dreadtober wore me out both on the hobby front as well as the blogging. While I have no regrets doing it, I needed some time to step away and paint a few models for fun. What Happened For those who missed it, or didn’t follow the full journey, Dreadtober was a challenge to build and paint a Dreadnought-like model during October. Greg started it last year and I ran this year’s event. I ran it a bit different this year by breaking it down into six weekly challenges and using email to communicate with the participants. Starting at the end of September, I challenged each member to plan out their project and state their commitment. It then continued into building, painting, finishing, and photographing the miniature. The results of …

Dreadtober 2016 Showcase

Published by Joe B

Dreadtober 2016 is completed! I want to thank everyone who participated and those who cheered everyone on. It’s been a great adventure and some AWESOME models have been completed. I’ve been honored to have had the opportunity to host it this year and it’s been incredible to see what everyone has done. So many of your tried new things or pushed yourself to improve something in your hobby. So even overcame school, work, and illnesses to get things done. So congrats to everybody. Gothmog – COMPLETED! This Red Hunter’s Mortis Dread was achieved simply with successively brighter silver undercoats and then washes of blood letter glaze for the red and seraphim sepia for the gold, with some Nuln oil in all the recesses and exposed silver parts. This method can achieve these results in a single night and is a great way to get a Tabletop/tournament quality army ready to go. Blog: sepulchreofheroes.blogspot.com Albie – COMPLETED! Dreadtober was a fun challenge. As dreads are pretty easy builds it was cool to see what custom work …

Dreadtober Challenge: Photograph Your Mini

Published by Joe B

While October has come and gone, and hopefully everyone completed their Dreadtober models, we still have one challenge left: photograph your model. This may seem a bit redundant as each of us has been taking pictures along the way and posting them in the showcase articles. But I felt it was important to take a week just to improve our skills of photographing miniatures, editing the picture, and loading it to your site of choice. Challenge: Photograph Your Model So this week your challenge is this: read/watch some tutorials on photographing your miniatures (some helpful links below), build a simple light box if needed, and take the best picture of your model possible. As you will see in some of the tutorials, you donâ€™t need a fancy camera or photo booth. A white sheet of paper and your cell phone can take some amazing pictures – if you take the time to do it right. So this week, take that time and up your photography game. Result: A Beautifully Photographed Model After four weeks of …

Dreadtober Showcase #4 Painting Completion

Dreadtober Painted Showcase

Published by Joe B

Ladies and Gentleman, October has pretty much come to an end. This week our participants were challenged to finish their models, completing their Dreadtober pledge. While there is still one week left of the challenge where we will work on photography, today we put our brushes down and declared victory! Gothmog This Red Hunter’s Mortis Dread was achieved simply with successively brighter silver undercoats and then washes of blood letter glaze for the red and seraphim sepia for the gold, with some Nuln oil in all the recesses and exposed silver parts. This method can achieve these results in a single night and is a great way to get a Tabletop/tournament quality army ready to go. Blog: sepulchreofheroes.blogspot.com Albie So the base for my dreadnought is designed after the red rocky terrain of Mars. I started with a blank base and a piece of 1/4″ thick cork. This way the dreadnought will stand over most other models. I broke away pieces until I liked the shape fitting on the base and so the dreadnought could …

Dreadtober Challenge: Paint the Details

Published by Joe B

Letâ€™s finish this! This is it my friends, the final week to paint your models for Dreadtober. Welcome to Challenge #5: Finish Your Model. We are now in the last week of October with the deadline of Saturday, October 29th and the very much, hard stop, never go past it (just kidding) deadline. Up to this point, each of you has been challenged to plan, build, start painting and finish the base. Now itâ€™s time to finish it. Challenge: Finish Your Model This weekâ€™s challenge is relatively straightforward: finish painting your dreadnought. Perhaps you need to add weathering, decals, and final highlights. Maybe you need to catch up. Some of you might even be starting just now. Whatever needs to be finished, your challenge is to finish it this week. Result: Your Completed Dreadtober Modeled By Saturday I will be posting the Finished Model Showcase where I hope each of your will have completed your Dreadtober Pledge. We can all rejoice in completing this epic journey together and enjoy the fruits of our tears. If …

Dreadtober Showcase: The Base

Published by Joe B

All your base belongs to Dreadtober! This week our participants were challenged to build and paint a base for their dreadnought-sized model. Below is the Base Showcase, highlighting each of their progress and how they are doing. Basecoat Painting Showcase Note: Some are copied from last week as they weren’t able to make progress (life ya know!) or have already finished. But I still want to highlight the awesome work everyone is doing. Albie So the base for my dreadnought is designed after the red rocky terrain of Mars. I started with a blank base and a piece of 1/4″ thick cork. This way the dreadnought will stand over most other models. I broke away pieces until I liked the shape fitting on the base and so the dreadnought could stand nicely on it. Then I painted the whole base brown to start. Then layered on the cracked earth technical paint Martian Ironearth. After letting that dry I touched up any spots I missed with Tuskgor Fur, then I drenched the base in Argax Earthshade. …

Dreadtober Challenge: Build and Paint the Base

Published by Joe B

On to Dreadtober Challenge #4: Painting the Base! At this point, our participants have created a plan, built their dreadnought (or similar) and painted the primary colors. Now itâ€™s time to give it a frame. As a continued reminder, these challenges are only meant as milestones. If you keep your bases simple or super complex, do Dreadtober your own way. As long as you are making progress and having fun, then itâ€™s a success! Challenge: Build and Paint Your Base With the Build your Dreadnought and Paint Your Dreadnought (base colors) challenges, I recommend skipping the base as we would come back to it. Well, here we are! Now itâ€™s time to build up an impressive base for your dreadnought to stand heroic. Then get the paint applied! While I typically wait to paint the base last, I purposely moved this challenge before the Paint the Details. This way, if you get base colors on your dreadâ€™s feet or want to add consistent weathering between the base and the model, it will much easier to …