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Cape looks amazing and soup looks delicious mate!

Never heard of a lardon... but I looked it up, makes perfect sense.

Presenting a stock model may actually be a benefit. Conversions are fun and frequently look great but when was the last time you saw someone offer a purely stock model?

Meade wrote:Yggs your soup looks beautiful!!

Oh and yeah, the model is kind of good too.

Hey hey... Thanks !!

San76 wrote:Cape looks amazing and soup looks delicious mate!

Well, TBHH (To Be Humbly Honest ), the soup really WAS delicious

Gitsplitta wrote:Never heard of a lardon... but I looked it up, makes perfect sense.

Well, that's something along the lines of "bacon cubes" ?? I just looked up the translation for the French "Lardon", and it just yielded "lardon"

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:Presenting a stock model may actually be a benefit. Conversions are fun and frequently look great but when was the last time you saw someone offer a purely stock model?

Well, your point might be pretty valid, Skalk...
Though I'm pretty sure you can do some great stuff with Dark Eldar bitz on that model...

Here's where I'm at right now :



It appears I'm also using that mini as a test model for a Night Lords army

Only have the skin & blades to complete... Plus a few highlights on the golden edges, and finish the base.... Still not done !!

Also had a great four-way game on Friday, 3 of us trying to teach a fourth one... The "apprentice" brought his DA army, so I (and my Night Stalkers) teamed up with him against a Plague Marines horde & a Dark Eldar Venomspam army...

1000pts per player, we rolled the only "kill points" mission, which turned out to be the easier one for us...

The Dark Eldar MSU-Venom units proved too easy to kill with our multiple plasma weapons, and we ended winning 12-4 after 3 turns !

I only took 2 pics, so I'll just show them now :


Turn 1, that's half of the Dark Eldar army rushing towards our lines... Pretty scary, TBH...


The kind of heroic action I like : drop-podding a 5-man Devastator squad right in the enemy's backfield, and pitting them against a Plague Hulk in assault... By the end of turn 3, only the Sergeant was left, and the Hulk had a weapon destroyed... Too bad we didn't see through it !!

That's all for tonight folks... Thanks for watching, and... until next time

Yggs.

Cool looking dark eldar. Great shot of the nurgle machine too. You should really take more pictures Yggs.

Oh MAN that Defiler is AWESOME!!! If that is yours PLEASE post pics of it. If not, pass my respect on to the person that did it.

Congrats on that victory as well. That sounds like a brutal rout.

IceAngel wrote:Cool looking dark eldar. Great shot of the nurgle machine too. You should really take more pictures Yggs.

Well, actually it's more of a Dark Elf... Didn't have the right bitz to convert him into an 40k elf :(

Yeah, Plague Hulk looks awesome ! And I was too busy taunting my opponents & teaching the "rook" the basic rules, so these are the only pictures I took... I'll try and be more focused next time

Also Ice, I just got your model in the mail today !!!! He looks awesome, man !!! (also, wtf with the p&p ?? 23.95$ ?!? )

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:Oh MAN that Defiler is AWESOME!!! If that is yours PLEASE post pics of it. If not, pass my respect on to the person that did it.

Congrats on that victory as well. That sounds like a brutal rout.

Nope, that's not mine, it belongs to my friend Denis (the one who made the Slaaneshi CSM army)... I'll let him know you like

Some progress on the Assassin : only 3 days left !!



I mostly painted some tattoos on his arms ... Hope you like him !



Here he is with airbrushed blades...

Not much left to do !!

Headless Nick.... the assassin.

Looking really good Yggs, love the way the colors jump out & the skin is really well done.

So flashy! Lookin good, yggs! The Night Lords armor effect looks great.

I'm glad you like him. I assume he survived the transatlantic journey okay. I'm not sure why the shipping was so steep but I didn't really know what to expect. He got to you, that's the important thing.

Gitsplitta wrote:Headless Nick.... the assassin.

Looking really good Yggs, love the way the colors jump out & the skin is really well done.

Well the pics aren't that great (phone + night), but I'm happy it turns out great even on the pictures ! Thanks Gits (though I didn't get the "Nick" reference )

Moltar wrote:So flashy! Lookin good, yggs! The Night Lords armor effect looks great.

Yup, I'm considering calling him "Conradil Curzehin The Night Lord"

IceAngel wrote:I'm glad you like him. I assume he survived the transatlantic journey okay. I'm not sure why the shipping was so steep but I didn't really know what to expect. He got to you, that's the important thing.

Well, he arrived "quite" ok... I just have to re-glue the Volkite charger, but no damage to the paint... So great !

As for the shipping cost, the US mail went through a GW-like price increase about 2 years ago... And it really shows !!!


Tonight's program is : gluing the "head & cape" on "body", I hope I won't ruin everything...

And finish the base (maybe tomorrow though...)

2 days left before the comp !!

"Nearly Headless Nick" is a ghost from the Harry Potter series.

Looking very nice indeed, great contrast of colours.

Gitsplitta wrote:"Nearly Headless Nick" is a ghost from the Harry Potter series.

Sorry, I haven't seen anything more than a few trailers about Harry Potter...

inmygravenimage wrote:Looking very nice indeed, great contrast of colours.

Thanks mate !

****************************************************

PAINTING COMPETITION AT GW : DIJON !!!

So as it turned out, we were only two competitors at the store for the competition...

Here is my entry :







Here's the other contender's :





As you can see, his version is really impressive : I especially like the turquoise armour, the blood on the blades, and the choice of colours on the cloak...

It was a tough competition ! After the bystanders' votes, we each had a score of 5...
So it was all up to the manager's choice... And he voted for my model !!!

So at least once in my life, I HAVE WON A PAINTING COMPETITION lol...

TBH, I'm not sure I'm the most deserving... Using an airbrush for the blending almost feels like cheating... Though I'm glad I won, of course !!

Now I can go back to my Tau...

Thanks for the support, guys !!!

Well done Ygg's I'd vote for yours as well, the blending on the cloak and dagger is outstanding and I love the lightning as well.

I do like the armour colour of the other persons model, its a very nice effect but doesn't jump out like yours.

Congratulations on the win.
The cloak on yours is very nice (a kind of velvet look to it), the lightning on the armour is cool and I like the tattoos too.

I shall try to lurk less than I have.
Like your chaos dudes and the battered Tau.

Very well done Yggs. Yours is better, the manager chose well. Cloak, face, lightening on the armor... all spectacular.

Honestly, there's no contest, Yggs. Even your base is better.

GiraffeX wrote:Well done Ygg's I'd vote for yours as well, the blending on the cloak and dagger is outstanding and I love the lightning as well.

I do like the armour colour of the other persons model, its a very nice effect but doesn't jump out like yours.

Hey thanks ! I think his is more subtle, mine far less ...

I think the "lightning effect" is almost "combat-proven" now, even though it's really FAR from perfect ! I'll try and put it to good use on some future Night Lords...

Dr H wrote:Congratulations on the win.
The cloak on yours is very nice (a kind of velvet look to it), the lightning on the armour is cool and I like the tattoos too.

I shall try to lurk less than I have.
Like your chaos dudes and the battered Tau.

Thanks for stopping by, Dr. H !

Tattoos were a bit scary to do, as there were a high risk to ruin the skin underneath !!! I practised a bit on a paper before, though it never feels like a 3D model under the brush

I've strayed too long from Chaos, I'll have to go back to them soon... Sooooon !!!

Gitsplitta wrote:Very well done Yggs. Yours is better, the manager chose well. Cloak, face, lightening on the armor... all spectacular.

Thanks Gits ! I'm not sure I'm the most deserving, but hey... I won nevertheless

Briancj wrote:Honestly, there's no contest, Yggs. Even your base is better.

Lol, agreed on the base...

UPDATE :

I told you I'd go back to the Tau, so here they are... Pathfinder squad is finished !!

Congratulations on winning that competition! Seriously well deserved as your model has come out looking amazing!

The tau are looking really nice too, I love all the battle damage and chipping on their armour!

I'm going to buck the trend, but I think if I was the manager, I would have gone with the other guy.

Armor:
When I look at the armor, it is a tossup. Both of you did very well in executing a color scheme. I enjoy the Night Lords design on your armor, and I think it is very well done. The blues are smooth, the paint is even, my problem is the lightning bolts. I applaud you for doing them because it seemed like a very tricky thing to do on a model you couldn't spend weeks and months on, but I think at the end of the day the turquoise armor that your opponent did was better. His transitions are smooth, the highlights are crisp without being overused. The paint comes to their lightest at the tips where you would expect, and I think that there is a slight glossy sheen to the armor that really helps the colors on his armor.
Winner: Him

Weapons:
His are simplistic in terms of colors and execution, I do believe you beat him on the weapons (if it were a category) in terms of painting. I do think that he did the blood exceptionally well and it really served to take away from the traditional metallic blade that one might expect.
Winner: You

Skin:
There isn't much to say, both of you did a fine job on the skin, but your model takes it over the edge with the face (which I can't get a good look at on your opponent's model) and the tattoos. Very well done, I would love to see you do something similar to a Maori Warrior's tattoos.
Winner: You

Base:
So I'm going to have to disagree with Brian on this. I feel that his base was better than yours. Since both bases are the same because of the plastic sprue, I had to look at which one was better to look at. Yours (and it might just be the lighting) paint seems to blend in with the foliage on the base, so it all looks roughly the same color (in the photos that you've provided). Not to mention that I think there are too many fallen leaves on your base. Because of this the darker color of the ground/dirt doesn't really show through which I think would have given the base an appropriate amount of contrast to make it work on it's own. While I really dislike the skull that was added to your opponent's base, I think the color of the skull in addition with the tufts of grass and the color of the dirt worked really well to give a nice balance to the base, which I feel worked to his advantage because the model as a whole looks really complete from top to bottom. and I (personally) think that the next thing is really what would have been the deciding factor if I were to be the one to choose the winner.
Winner: Him

Cloak:
Technically speaking both models are really well done. The blends on your cloak are good (airbrush or not), and while they're well done blends, you hit both extremes of the very quickly so you've got extreme darks and extreme brights within a very small space of model. The problem is that the brights are very overpowering, when I look at the model the bright spots on the cloak are what stand out to me and they are very distracting. This is okay, as it seems to be your style and it's a style you do very well. Looking at the cloak on your opponent's model, his blends are far more subtle in their overall execution. I can see a few shades of blues and purples. He goes darker than you, but he never gets as bright as you do, so everything flows very seamlessly (to me).
Winner: Him

In the end, I do agree with everyone that you've painted a masterful figure, but I think that there were just a few things that didn't work for me. Regardless of all the things I said above, congrats on the win

Ygg, huge congrats on your win. your opponent did a great job but i think you totally earned the victory.

Firstly, general colours - as always you've chosen an awesome palettes

Secondly, the cloak - mate, those blends are great and really enhance the dynamism of the sculpt. dont feel bad about using an airbrush! its a tool the like any other (also, i love mine )

Thirdly, the face. those eyes, they are so striking!

Fourthly, the base - i really like how you countered the very busy figure (both in terms of bright, vibrant colours and a lot of "action" in the sculpt) with calm tones in the base. the "leaves" add to that for me. they also add to a sense of story about him.

all in all - great stuff and a well deserved victory.

The tau also looking good mate. gritty

Congrats on the win, Yggs. You earned it. Tau look downright awesome. Glad to see them getting some love again.

First I'll say it is awesome that neither of you converted the model. It was unquestionably a true paint competition. I know the bases are different, but hardly think it was the deciding factor.

I wish more people had entered because that would have given you more people to crush. Your model is impressive and would have no doubt trampled over your opponents... except one. I have to agree with Alf, but with the caveat that I've always been drawn to the darker and grittier instead of the bright and clean.

I offer a genuine and hearty congratulations. You won the contest because of your incredible skill and the landslide 'popular vote' on Dakka only validates that fact even further. There are no sycophant here. The compliments are sincere and come from people of exceptional skills of their own.

Well done Yggs.


*edit edit edit edit*


Oh man! I spent so much time on the post above that I forgot about the Tau! Wow. I could go on and on about how awesome the weathering and damage effects are but I'll spare you the fanboy fawning. However, the mystery of why this technique works so well on Tau but not on your Space Marine deepens. What did you do differently on this model than the Marine? Atmospheric pressure? Dew point? Angle of the spray can? Price of tea in China? There has to be an answer. Any ideas?

Man, you guys really make my comment look half-assed. Well done gentlemen... I am inspired by the care you've all taken in your commentaries.

@ gits

It's all about the mood that strikes. Sometimes commenting needs more inspiration/motivation than actually posting stuff of our own. Testament to Yggs' painting skills, I suppose.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Man, you guys really make my comment look half-assed. Well done gentlemen... I am inspired by the care you've all taken in your commentaries.

I mean, I felt like if I was going to criticize his model, I was gonna have to explain what I didn't like about it .

HoeJarris wrote:Congratulations on winning that competition! Seriously well deserved as your model has come out looking amazing!

The tau are looking really nice too, I love all the battle damage and chipping on their armour!

Thanks for stopping by !! As I said, I'm not (at all) into Elves, but that was quite... refreshing to paint !!

Alfndrate wrote:I'm going to buck the trend, but I think if I was the manager, I would have gone with the other guy.

Hey, no problem Alf, I'm not too sure I would have voted for my model, if I had seen them from an outer point of view !

Let's discuss :

Armor:
When I look at the armor, it is a tossup. Both of you did very well in executing a color scheme. I enjoy the Night Lords design on your armor, and I think it is very well done. The blues are smooth, the paint is even, my problem is the lightning bolts. I applaud you for doing them because it seemed like a very tricky thing to do on a model you couldn't spend weeks and months on, but I think at the end of the day the turquoise armor that your opponent did was better. His transitions are smooth, the highlights are crisp without being overused. The paint comes to their lightest at the tips where you would expect, and I think that there is a slight glossy sheen to the armor that really helps the colors on his armor.
Winner: Him

I do agree with the "glossy sheen" effect that really made the armour "pop" to me ! I'm not sure it was deliberate, as I haven't had the chance to meet its painter, but the "glossy varnish" actually helped the model IMHO !
As for the lightning, I also agree that it's not perfect, and maybe more suitable to a "tabletop" model than a competition one. In hindsight, I think my bolts are too "sketchy", or "shaky", to look properly as good as they could.

They'll be great for some Night Lords though

Weapons:
His are simplistic in terms of colors and execution, I do believe you beat him on the weapons (if it were a category) in terms of painting. I do think that he did the blood exceptionally well and it really served to take away from the traditional metallic blade that one might expect.
Winner: You

Yeah, his blood was terrific ! And my blades were a bit too simple, in truth... I just basecoated them in deep red, then airbrushed 4 oranges to pure white... It didn't require much skill, or know-how... And I would have tried to highlight them with an airbrush, if I had had the time !

Skin:
There isn't much to say, both of you did a fine job on the skin, but your model takes it over the edge with the face (which I can't get a good look at on your opponent's model) and the tattoos. Very well done, I would love to see you do something similar to a Maori Warrior's tattoos.
Winner: You

Tattoos were a risky gamble, but I managed to avoid screwing it all. I honestly think he could have done some better highlights on the skin, while my tattoos definitely helped hide the weak points in mine
At first I had planned to try & highlight the tattoos, but when I realized how hard it was to paint the first layer, I just gave up !
Of course, I'm happy with how they are
As for his face, it was close to perfect ! His eyes had nice slits as pupils, and the highlights were accurate. Too bad I didn't take pics of it !

Base:
So I'm going to have to disagree with Brian on this. I feel that his base was better than yours. Since both bases are the same because of the plastic sprue, I had to look at which one was better to look at. Yours (and it might just be the lighting) paint seems to blend in with the foliage on the base, so it all looks roughly the same color (in the photos that you've provided). Not to mention that I think there are too many fallen leaves on your base. Because of this the darker color of the ground/dirt doesn't really show through which I think would have given the base an appropriate amount of contrast to make it work on it's own. While I really dislike the skull that was added to your opponent's base, I think the color of the skull in addition with the tufts of grass and the color of the dirt worked really well to give a nice balance to the base, which I feel worked to his advantage because the model as a whole looks really complete from top to bottom. and I (personally) think that the next thing is really what would have been the deciding factor if I were to be the one to choose the winner.
Winner: Him

Well, I know I still have a lot of work to do on my bases... So while I wasn't completely happy with mine, I really was disappointed with his base : a few tufts & a quickly painted skull - not my taste.
I can understand your point about mine though, no worries

Cloak:
Technically speaking both models are really well done. The blends on your cloak are good (airbrush or not), and while they're well done blends, you hit both extremes of the very quickly so you've got extreme darks and extreme brights within a very small space of model. The problem is that the brights are very overpowering, when I look at the model the bright spots on the cloak are what stand out to me and they are very distracting. This is okay, as it seems to be your style and it's a style you do very well. Looking at the cloak on your opponent's model, his blends are far more subtle in their overall execution. I can see a few shades of blues and purples. He goes darker than you, but he never gets as bright as you do, so everything flows very seamlessly (to me).
Winner: Him

Well, my "hobby friends" (and fellow Dakkaites ), for long, have criticized the fact that I didn't push my highlights enough !! So now, I just get them to the maximum I can, especially when it comes to competition
His cloak was really smoother, though, I agree. (and, again, the glossy varnish really helped blending everything together... )

In the end, I do agree with everyone that you've painted a masterful figure, but I think that there were just a few things that didn't work for me. Regardless of all the things I said above, congrats on the win

Thanks for the time taken, and honest words.
That's mostly appreciated !!

San76 wrote:Ygg, huge congrats on your win. your opponent did a great job but i think you totally earned the victory.

Firstly, general colours - as always you've chosen an awesome palettes

Secondly, the cloak - mate, those blends are great and really enhance the dynamism of the sculpt. dont feel bad about using an airbrush! its a tool the like any other (also, i love mine )

Thirdly, the face. those eyes, they are so striking!

Fourthly, the base - i really like how you countered the very busy figure (both in terms of bright, vibrant colours and a lot of "action" in the sculpt) with calm tones in the base. the "leaves" add to that for me. they also add to a sense of story about him.

all in all - great stuff and a well deserved victory.

The tau also looking good mate. gritty

Thank you San !
1. Choice of colours was a tough one. Once I settled for a Night Lords scheme, it all came down to how I would paint the blades & cloak... I almost painted the blades in green, while the cloak could have stayed black...
The purple cloak wasn't really easy to work with, but I'm happy with the result
2. See above. Yeah, it's a tool, but still...
3. Yeah, I'm really happy with the eyes. They're just a light grey with purple wash, yet they did look good, so I just kept them that way
4. Indeed, even if I put too many leaves on the base, I wanted them to counterbalance the dynamism & violence of the model with tranquillity & sadness... I'm glad you like them

Thanks for the comments again

Moltar wrote:Congrats on the win, Yggs. You earned it. Tau look downright awesome. Glad to see them getting some love again.

Yeah, they're not forgotten... I still have a Kroot squad, a Broadside, two objectives & a few Drones to be painted... And a Riptide & Devilfish waiting to be assembled !

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:First I'll say it is awesome that neither of you converted the model. It was unquestionably a true paint competition. I know the bases are different, but hardly think it was the deciding factor.

I wish more people had entered because that would have given you more people to crush. Your model is impressive and would have no doubt trampled over your opponents... except one. I have to agree with Alf, but with the caveat that I've always been drawn to the darker and grittier instead of the bright and clean.

I offer a genuine and hearty congratulations. You won the contest because of your incredible skill and the landslide 'popular vote' on Dakka only validates that fact even further. There are no sycophant here. The compliments are sincere and come from people of exceptional skills of their own.

Well done Yggs.

Thanks Skalk !!! Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed there weren't any other contender... Not *just* to crush them ( ), but to see other ways & methods of dealing with that peculiar model !

Someone posted today their entry on the store FB page :

Well, it clearly isn't on the same level as our two entries, but a few ideas do look fine, mostly the green blades & the same colour used on the cloak & armour...

Also, the "dakka vote" might also be biased due to the lesser quality of the pics I took of the other contender... I'm not that naive

Side note : I just love dakka for being one of the few websites where I can learn some great words... "sycophant" would be one of those

*edit edit edit edit*


Oh man! I spent so much time on the post above that I forgot about the Tau! Wow. I could go on and on about how awesome the weathering and damage effects are but I'll spare you the fanboy fawning. However, the mystery of why this technique works so well on Tau but not on your Space Marine deepens. What did you do differently on this model than the Marine? Atmospheric pressure? Dew point? Angle of the spray can? Price of tea in China? There has to be an answer. Any ideas?

Actually no, I don't have the smallest clue... It leaves quite puzzled too,

(Though your hypotheses did gave me a good laugh )

Gitsplitta wrote:Man, you guys really make my comment look half-assed. Well done gentlemen... I am inspired by the care you've all taken in your commentaries.

I'm humbled by those nice comments too...

Moltar wrote: @ gits

It's all about the mood that strikes. Sometimes commenting needs more inspiration/motivation than actually posting stuff of our own. Testament to Yggs' painting skills, I suppose.

Wow, again !

Alfndrate wrote:

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Man, you guys really make my comment look half-assed. Well done gentlemen... I am inspired by the care you've all taken in your commentaries.

I mean, I felt like if I was going to criticize his model, I was gonna have to explain what I didn't like about it .

Well, HOPEFULLY YOU DID explain

Gratz on winning! The Assassin looked mighty fine

The Tau are looking great as well! I still can't wait to see how your Broadside turns out!

Lucarikx

Well, I hope it'll be gritty and impressive

Thanks