Army of the week

Needed some painting inspiration and found some great stuff here. Thought I'd share the different type of colour scheme and the really bold details.

An example of bold and simple colour choice. Which will definitely help my painting as I get really stuck for a choice of colour scheme.

Probably too much white but this unit really pops.

Have already converted my Grif- Eagle and really like the use of colours here, great inspiration.

New range of Paints

Must admit first up that I'm no especially gifted painter but like a majority of hobbyists I can appreciate some good materials and tools to make my hobby experience successful. Painting for over 6 years or so has given me the opportunity to have spoken to lots of people who have given good advice and bad advice and here is the sum of my experiences.

There is three main range of paints that I currently use and after initially using GW range of paints I got given advice that P3 were the greatest paints (not really) ever so I should dump all my GW for this range and I wouldn't regret it (I did a bit). Nothing too severe against them but they too suffer some flaws in design as most things. Here is a summary of the ranges of paint I currently use.

P3 range: A little cheaper than GW's and also slightly more in the bottle. The colour range is acceptable but not expansive. Initially the coverage is brilliant and coats seem to glide on more. This is due to the formula which uses a liquid pigment which encourages coating adhesion. The liquid pigment is also the downfall of this range in terms of longevity and shelf life. The paint tends to thicken very fast whilst in the bottle (1-2years) and needs constant maintenance but almost impossible to revive if left too long. It also has a tendancy to develop blobs in the formula due to this quick deterioration. So summary of this range is that it's great when you first buy and use but expect to replace it in 2-3 years when the paint will be thick and blobby unless you regularly maintain. Disadvantages also are that the paint is not ideal for dry brushing and the metallics are just very hard to work with and dark with minimal tints.

Coat d'Arms range: The first range of GW paints and still being made by their manufacturer. A third cheaper or more than most ranges of paint and offers a solid if not a great range of colour options. Still very good for all kinds of painting but feels a little sloppy when used for dry brushing but nothing care won't fix. I tend to use this range for undercoats and glazes and the price will be a major draw card for hobbyists to this range. Metallics as with most GW's are the best I've encountered or though the range tends to have a tendancy to be a little too brightly tinted for my liking in the metallic golds and mithril.

GW recent range: I initially inherited a friends paint collection when I first started the hobby and I still have some of the paints he sold me at bargain basement prices. They must be in excess of 10 years old and many of them I have not really maintained regularly at all. The fantastic thing about them is that they are all easily revived with a bit of tap water (I know what you are suppose to use) and they are still going strong. The powder pigments used in the paint range makes it ideal for blending and dry brushing. Initially it seems that the coverage is not so good but its due to its design that you should layer on the paint to acheive different tones and shades off your undercoat and this took me a while to realise. Good solid work horse paint and has longevity and shelf life (currently over 10years). The metallics are superb and I've not found a range with better finish in metallics and its easy to apply.

GW's New range: Modern technology and from initial try it's a winner. They have fixed the coverage problems but still maintaining the same feel of a powder pigment paint. If this range proves to be as good a shelf life as the previous range then I will definitely invest. The new design to the use of their paints also speaks volumes to ever increasing innovation and I'm sold.

NiCon Tournament Part 1 WIP

NiCon is the next tournament on my calendar and is held every year during Queens Birthday weekend. This year it'll be in Auckland and the WFB tournament will be in the very capable hands of the Current NZ master as the TO. Details can be found Here.

I am almost 90% that I'll be taking High Elves to the tournament and thought I'd get together some ideas for the army list. I've got these models on the painting table at the moment and they seem a lot of fun and would be very thematic for the army I have currently have in mind. The archmage is from the High Elf mage plastice kit. The mounted Prince/BSB and the Noble on foot are both converted from figures from the IOB set. The griffon from the set is also currently being converted to be an Giant Eagle that I can use both for an HE army or a WE army.

Will nut out a list over the weekend and will have the WIP for the whole entire army. I hope it's pretty standard and I can use one of the four High Elf armies I already have. If it isn't and the imagination flies then I guess it'll be a fifth army that I collect, High Elf that is...phewwww.

Equinox Tournament WFB Results

Brilliant weekend and really proud to have hosted all the fine wargamers that made this the biggest tournament by far I've been involved in hosting. Although we have a big base of wargamers in Auckland the great response from the community all around the country made this tournament the big success that it was. A big thank you goes out to those of you who flew or travelled those extra miles to making the great atmosphere that a big tournament makes. So without further delay here is the results.

	Name	Army	Paint	Total	Tie Break	Adj Battle	Total Overall
1	Pete Dunn	Ogr	15	87		76.125	91.125
2	Ross Hiller- Jones	WoC	14	81		70.875	84.875
3	Tim Joss	TK	15	77		67.375	82.375
4	Rob Sadler	Emp	15	76	0.1	66.5	81.6
5	Peter Williamson	TK	15	76		66.5	81.5
6	Raymond Dick	Beasts	15	75	0.1	65.625	80.725
7	Dan Butler	Skaven	15	75		65.625	80.625
8	James Page	DE	15	73		63.875	78.875
9	John Mathews	Emp	15	72		63	78
10	Al Raynor	WoC	15	71		62.125	77.125
11	John Willenbruch	Brets	14	72		63	77
12	Thom V	Dwf	15	68	0.1	59.5	74.6
13	Reid Pittams	DE	15	68		59.5	74.5
14	Henry Poor	WE	14	69		60.375	74.375
15	Kyran Henry	Emp	15	67		58.625	73.625
16	Glen Tibbles	WoC	15	65		56.875	71.875
17	Neil Williamson	Brets	15	64		56	71
18	Rory Finnemore	Emp	15	63	0.1	55.125	70.225
19	Hamish Forbes	O&G	15	63		55.125	70.125
20	Antony Kitson	Dwf	15	59	0.1	51.625	66.725
21	Richard Barby	CD	15	59		51.625	66.625
22	Jeremy Brown	VC	10	64		56	66
23	James Brown	WE	14	59		51.625	65.625
24	Paul Clark	TK	14	58		50.75	64.75
25	Mike Vercoe	VC	15	56	0.1	49	64.1
26	Derick Williams	Skaven	15	56		49	64
27	Michael King	Liz	15	55		48.125	63.125
28	Geoff Fletcher	Ogr	8	61		53.375	61.375
29	Paul Dalton	Ogr	5	63	0.1	55.125	60.225
30	Sam Peters	Brets	12	55		48.125	60.125
31	Basil Moskovis	VC	15	50	0.11	43.75	58.86
32	Patrick Crockett	WE	15	50	0.1	43.75	58.85
33	Michael Fenner	WoC	15	50		43.75	58.75
34	Noel Tobin	O&G	14	51		44.625	58.625
35	Graeme Fry	HE	15	47		41.125	56.125
36	Damon Quaid	WoC	15	42		36.75	51.75
37	Russ Simister	VC	15	40		35	50
38	Chris Ellis	TK	13	40		35	48
39	Darren Butler	O&G	15	36		31.5	46.5
40	Michael Stewart	Emp	12	39		34.125	46.125
41	Jake Griffiths	VC	12	36		31.5	43.5
42	Phil Petry	DE	15	32		28	43
43	Amy Tanabe	Ogr	15	26		22.75	37.75
44	Daniel Blomfield	O&G	8	5		4.375	12.375
45	Jorin Duncan	O&G	0	5		4.375	4.375
46	Jordan Rees	WoC	0	5		4.375	4.375
47	Antony Nobs	WoC	0	5		4.375	4.375
48	Aaron Cue	WoC	0	5		4.375	4.375

Best Sports:                Glen Tibbles

Best Paint:                  Graeme Fry, can be found Here

Best Emerging Player: Michael Fenner

Well played to the veteran of the community Pete Dunn who showed that Ogres are the new black. A special mention has to go to Ross Hiller- Jones and Tim Joss, whom collected the other podiums for such a tight finish. The Podium finishers all played each other and with Pete beating Tim, Tim beating Ross and Ross beating Pete in their match ups, it proved there was very little in it duking it out at the top of the field. This is also the first tournament that I've had the pleasure of meeting Ross and it seems that Tauranga is going from strengths to strengths with a second place finish this time around.

Edit:

Strengths in NZ Wargaming:

With Wellington, Tauranga and Invercargill taking the podiums for the WFB tournament it bodes very well for the health of the hobby in NZ. Even though Auckland may boast the greatest population in terms of player base only one Aucklander managed a top ten finish in the tournament.

The tournament had well over 60 contestants interested in the 50 WFB spots in the competition, with late withdraws due to work or family reasons the tournament was reduced to 48. Further withdraws during the week meant that come tournament day there were contestants not participating that were on the tournament list. With this kind of response and no last minute timing conflicts I don't see why we can't steadily work towards my goal over the past year or so of developing the hobby and N.Z's wargaming participation. This being my last tournament as TO I'd like to thank all competitors and fellow organisers who have shared my common goal and volunteered their time to building the New Zealand tournament and wargaming scene. With the huge participation of all the systems at Equinox I'm sure you as the competitor will continue to support the guys who will be running tournaments in the future. The Next big tournament in Auckland will be Nicon and details can be found here Here.


Playing with Stats:

With Equinox hosting the largest 8th ed tournament in NZ it's great to see some of the internets not so fancied armies also sharing space with the top ten finishers. No Surprises with Ogres, WoC or Empire, but TK and Beasts the more unfancied cousins in the current edition of the game makes a surprise appearance in the top ten at Equinox. Tournament performance often comes down to List design and your overall performance rather than luck so I thought I'd look at some of the stats taking into account the 3 most recent tournaments in NZ. I've used the average Army placing and by eliminating the last result where I could to stabilise as much statistical bias due to small a sample size. This is what I got which makes for interesting reading.

Army	Average Tournament Finish	Average Batt Pts
Warriors	3	77.5
Lizardmen	3.5	78.5
Empire	4	84
Tomb Kings	4	76.5
Ogres	4	74.5
High Elves	4.5	74
Dark Elves	5	79.5
Skaven	5.5	75.5
Brettonians	6	80
Beasts	7	73.5
Daemons	7	66.5
Dwarves	9	71
Wood Elves	12	59

So statistically speaking in this country the top three armies are far removed from the big two countries of warhammer the UK & US. I would agree with the results some what as Warriors and Lizards tend to be able to get solid points in a tournament which they are favoured in and Empire if run right and maximise their shooting all six turns could very much also maximise their battle points. Lower on the table Wood Elves are still a good army but struggle to get maximum battle points due to the nature of the army and hence are not so good at tournament finishes.

Nb: Sample size is small and top 10 results were the only data used where able to minimise conflicting data. Statistical analysis is for snapshot trend only.