Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory (3/18: Adepticon prep - gaslands cruiser)

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**Casey's Law**

@Theo - Good news! I'm glad you've got that sorted.

@Gits - Yeh sorry I amped up the derailing there, just felt like a good time to say that without making a huge deal about it.

I hope Thing 2 finishes his entry, it'd be awesome to get the little one in on the comp.

**Ovion**

Alrighty then - Proof of concept - obviously done with Blutac, so not permament, and a lot of it will need bulking out / actual cutting, etc.

But the idea is there.

**Gitsplitta**

Oh Good Lord... that's cool!

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Makes me think I should try a mantis warrior/insect themed chaos marine army with dragon flies as hell drakes. (For example).

**Casey's Law**

Oooh! That looks exciting!

**Anpu-adom**

That would be.... awesome, Gitz. Huge Dragonflies at hell drakes... smaller ones as plague drones. A huge mantis demon prince (like Ovion's)

**Ovion**

I need a suitably Marine-y / Mantis Warrior-y name for him - any suggestions?

Also, looking at the tabletop line for this - thoughts, comments?
Daemon Prince
Daemon of Tzeentch/Nurgle/Slaanesh
Mastery Level 2
+1 Mark power
+Pyromancy? (alt are Biomancy or Telepathy)
Wings
Power Armour
Ichor Blood
Gift of Mutation
Burning Brand -or- Black Mace
Total: 310-330

I don't know how flamer-y Mantis Warriors are meant to be.

**Viktor von Domm**

Gitsplitta wrote:
Announcing the First (annual?) Mantis Maker Challenge!

That's right. I've decided to sponsor an actual P&M competition. The subject? (of course) The Mantis Warriors!

The rules...

1. Entries must NOT be started before the issuance of this challenge (May, 14th). Build progress must be shown on either this blog or your own (with a message and link left on this blog so people can follow along, cheer you on, spy on you, etc.). Take a picture of your disassociated bits before assembly if you can. You don't need to post every step here... just pre-build, build and final paint. Of course if you want to add the intermediate steps, that's fine.
2. Final photos must be submitted to me (on this blog) by no later than Midnight PST June 15th.
3. All work should be done by the entrant alone.
4. The subject of the piece MUST be the Mantis Warrior chapter, however the form of the piece is entirely up to each entrant.
5. Full judging criteria are published below, in general however... pieces will be judged on build quality and creativity, painting technique and impact, basing and adherence to theme. There will also be a decent pile of points sent aside for things like humor, Wow factor, thinking outside the box, etc. Stretch your legs a bit people... time to add to your P&M toolkit!
6. Your "vision" of the Mantis Warriors and mine DO NOT have to coincide. Do whatever moves you.
7. You may submit a short paragraph explaining your work, but it is only to provide context, the back-story or to point out new techniques you've tried. You won't be judged on the quality of the narrative. However you may gain points in other categories because of it!

The prize...
As I'm not exactly flush at the moment, I'm afraid big value prizes are not possible. BUT... I'll be making 3 trophies to send to the top three finishers. My idea is to make each one based on something iconic for the Mantis Warriors. They'll be little things based on models that I'll construct myself... but their size will not diminish the quality of effort that the winners would have put forth! That... and I'll do my best to direct lots of traffic to your blog. One of the few advantages a behemoth like this has is a lot of eyeballs... I'd be delighted to point them in the direction of the contest winners.

Judges
Small panel. Here are the judging criteria. Might change slightly but here's how I see it. Judges will be given leeway to express themselves however, this is only a guide... but it does detail what I look for in a piece.

Build (100 pts)
- quality of build (i.e. neatness) (20 pts)
- adherence to theme (20 pts)
- conversions/kitbashing (30 pts)
- pose (30 pts)

Painting (100 pts)
- neatness (25 pts)
- use of advanced techniques (25 pts)
- overall effect (50 pts)

Basing (50 pts)
- theme/appropriateness to figure (10 pts)
- build/customization (10 pts)
- painting (10 pts)
- overall effect with figure (20 pts)

There will be 20-30 extra points for the judges to use at their discretion for "the unexpected", humor, etc., i.e. whatever floats their boat.

Best,
Gits
(oh, feel free to re-post or direct others here. The more the merrier!)

Confirmed Entrants (i.e. have submitted their pre-build pictures)
Medium of Death - pre-build, build
inmygravenimage - pre-build, build
Yellowbeard - pre-build
Snrub - pre-build, build
BLACKHAND - pre-build, build
GiraffeX - pre-build, build
Raatcharch - pre-build, build
Hive Fleet Lazarus - pre-build, build
Matt.Kingsley - pre-build, build
Know No Pear - pre-build, build
Theophony - pre-build, build
SelvaggioSaky - pre-build, build
Ovion - pre-build
Nerdfest09 - pre-build
Solar_lion - pre-build

i had a view days of Absence here at Dakka and only to discover such a contest...

is it still possible to join?... i think i have a nice idea... and soon some time to follow said idea too

cheers, vik

**Gitsplitta**

Absolutely Vik, love to have you on board!

**whalemusic360**

Man, so much Eldar hate. I actually like the new stuff, more so than my precious Dark Angels release (I really hate the land speeder).

**Viktor von Domm**

gee.... thanks mate... I will cobble something together... love your matis warriors for a long time already... now I need to reread the comps guidelines...
any limitations?

**Theophony**

Viktor von Domm wrote:
gee.... thanks mate... I will cobble something together... love your matis warriors for a long time already... now I need to reread the comps guidelines...
any limitations?

Must have rivets. Goes without saying Vik.

"Good Lord!"

bad, evil chaosy lord. Excellent work, but definitely not a "good" lord.

**Viktor von Domm**

hmm... rivets of course

**Gitsplitta**

None.

(sorry... now that I'm back in front of a real computer keyboard) In essence, as long as the subject of the model is the Mantis Warrior chapter... it's fair game. I was hoping people would leave their comfort zones a bit so I didn't want to define the category too tightly. (as elegantly evidenced by Ovion's build below)

**Ovion**

Another update, because why not - tied and secured the frame, sat it on its 'base':

That'll do for tonight I think.

Decided to add this project to my Panting and Modeling Blog.
I'll keep poising updates and such here, but the plog will be a bit more in depth!

**nerdfest09**

Ovion if you have a Mantis Warrior riding that ala twc style I will love you forever! such a great idea and well done so far! very creative use of those parts to get the look!

**Snrub**

Ovion wrote:Another update, because why not - tied and secured the frame, sat it on its 'base':

That'll do for tonight I think.

Decided to add this project to my Panting and Modeling Blog.
I'll keep poising updates and such here, but the plog will be a bit more in depth!

I like what i'm seeing. I'm also wondering whether i should just give up now or not.... I'm not sure i can compete with a full blown mantis dp.

nerdfest09 wrote:Ovion if you have a Mantis Warrior riding that ala twc style I will love you forever! such a great idea and well done so far! very creative use of those parts to get the look!

This, do this.

**nerdfest09**

I have posted these pics in my blog and I should really pop them here too seeing as it's Gits comp

I don't have the main model parts yet but I managed to do the base over the last couple of days, here's a couple of pics from bits to paint

bits:

assembled and green stuffed:

primed and oversprayed:

and painted up ready for the Mantis Warrior:

**Gitsplitta**

Snrub wrote:
I like what i'm seeing. I'm also wondering whether i should just give up now or not.... I'm not sure i can compete with a full blown mantis dp.

Don't give up Snrub! Just look at this as a chance to improve your painting and modeling. Besides... look what awesome company you're in! This competition is going to be LEGENDARY and YOU'RE a part of it! Don't pass up that opportunity.

An besides, there are 3 trophies... not just one!

**Snrub**

I wasn't really gonna give up. I just needed an appropriate sentance to convey the awesomeness that is/will be Ovions mantis dp.

Nerdfest, brilliant paintjob on the great white.

**Ovion**

Snrub wrote:
Ovion wrote:Another update, because why not - tied and secured the frame, sat it on its 'base':

That'll do for tonight I think.

Decided to add this project to my Panting and Modeling Blog.
I'll keep poising updates and such here, but the plog will be a bit more in depth!
I like what i'm seeing. I'm also wondering whether i should just give up now or not.... I'm not sure i can compete with a full blown mantis dp.

nerdfest09 wrote:Ovion if you have a Mantis Warrior riding that ala twc style I will love you forever! such a great idea and well done so far! very creative use of those parts to get the look!
This, do this.

Ha, we'll see how impressed folk are once I start on the milliput. XD
I haven't done 'proper' sculpting work in ages - mostly just smooth masks, cables and joins and lots of relatively minor stuff on my Defiler conversion... the organic stuff is going to be the real challenge.

And unfortunately I don't have any spare marines, nor the money to get one, it's actually a large part of why I chose to do the mantis Prince, I'm skint and have loads of milliput. XD
He'll, the half-a-marine-torso is from the remnants of a csm vehicle upgrade sprue. :p

**IceAngel**

Okay Git. Here is a picture of my bits and here is a link to my thread where you can see my progress. Due to the size of the project especially with the time limit I will be partnering up with our hermit friend Steve. Both of us will paint, model, and build parts of the diorama.

Please check out the link, much more progress has already been made.

**Gitsplitta**

Very impressive builds Ice, glad you could join in. (and especially glad that your "silent partner" is partaking.. perhaps one of these days he'll move out of his hermit's cave and into the 21st century where he can actually have an internet connection and join us)

Thing 2's "build". (OK, we took the easy path... he's 9, give him a break.) I figured it wouldn't be cheating too much if I pinned it on for him (he's not ready for power tools yet). Gods what a job! Getting this old, bent model onto that resin base in a way that looked natural required removing resin, leg manipulation, pinning, then building the "rock" back up with cork so his feet weren't floating. What a PITA that turned out to be! In any case, from here on he's on his own. Let's see how he does, shall we?

And my progress on graven's MW/Deathwatch scout... getting there. The gun has a name and some kill marks and the model has a lot more details scattered hither-and-yon. More to come!

**Casey's Law**

Awesome progress from everyone, including you Gits.

The Scout looks great, very detailed.

**inmygravenimage**

So is his name Uncle John

? Excellent stuff, and props to Thing2 for getting involved.

**Dr H**

Looking forward to what you do Vik.

Looking very promising Ovion. Good luck on the putty work.

Base is really good Nerdfest.

Really good start Ice Angel.

Good luck Thing 2. Really push the boat out on this one, make the old man proud.

Scout is looking good Gits'. Good name for the gun.

**Gitsplitta**

inmygravenimage wrote:
So is his name Uncle John ?

Actually, I'd been thinking about that.

"Uncle John" has become his nickname among his fellow scouts. The stories as to how exactly he got this name vary depending on who you ask. Some say it relates to the huge family he came from where every child in the region seemed to be related in some way, others attribute it to his mentor-like nature tinged with a real mischievous streak... and then there was that unfortunate latrine incident with the Captain last October...

**Viktor von Domm**

ok git, i see what you want... and you will get it

i am leaving then my comfy zone for you...

**Gitsplitta**

Outstanding Vik, can't wait to see what that brilliant mind of yours cooks up!

**Viktor von Domm**

soon my friend, soon^^

**inmygravenimage**

I like uncle john's fluff.

Which is what the sergeant said, I imagine.

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Roll over, Beethoven, on the continuing rock and/or roll theme.