Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Back from GD Chicago '06
Chicago Games Day this year was a bit of a rushed trip. As expected, I drove out on Friday to stay with my buddy, StrayCatt in the Chicago area. An uneventful drive, aside from a crazy country detour because of construction in Iowa before I got to Des Moines. Once I arrived there, my buddy and his wife fed me, then he and I sat down to finish out a Golden Demon entry or two.
Over the past couple of weeks, I was working on a miniature for the Warhammer 40K Single Figure category. I actually had started some of the conversion a year ago, with an intent of entering it for GamesDay '05; but reality set in and I knew that I wouldn't have enough time to finish it out for the competition. With that in mind, I was determined that I would get it finished and entered for this year. As the evening wore on, Catt went on to go to bed and I intended to get a bit of sleep for myself. Boy, was I wrong. I ended up staying awake all night in my effort to finish that single miniature. All the while, I would look at the clock and count down the hours that I had left to finish. Eventually, 7am rolled around and Catt pulled himself outta bed. It was at that point that I made an honest assessment of my progress and realized that I wouldn't have that particular entry finished for this year (again). That was a frustrating decision to make.
So, without much fanfare, I dug into the small case of other miniatures that I had brought along for the ride, most of which was for GW's Lord of the Rings game. There were a few minis that I thought would be passable as entries in the LotR single figure category, so I proceeded to dust them off and tidy up any shelf damage those figures had suffered. Nothing too drastic, just a scuff here or a slight scrape there. Easily remedied. Then Catt looked into my figure case and said something along the lines of "What about these other miniatures you have in here?" He was examining some of the plastic figures minis from the Return of the King boxed set that I brought along in the off-chance that I might actually try to play one of the pick-up games with them. (What?!? Actually play the silly game? Are you insane Kent?!? --Wait, don't answer that one...) I told him that was the reasoning for bringing them, but he pushed the idea forward... "Why don't you try entering some of these in the unit category?" The best I could do to deny him was to respond that I didn't have a display base for those figures. He quickly countered this by reaching into a drawer and pulling out a fully varnished plaque, ready for a treatment to hold minis. "I'll bet we can make a quick display base for you..."
And so it began. I grabbed the best 10 orcs I had finished, along with a spare Saruman figure that was ruled out of entering the LotR single category. (Not a bad paintjob, but I didn't find it as dramatic as my other choice, Arwen and Frodo on horseback.) Catt snagged a bit of sculpey and smoothed it onto the plaque, now covered in aluminum foil. Then I placed each mini in the tenative position on the sculpey, marking it. Using the marks as a guideline, we quickly carved out the circular impressions where each mini would go. A quick bit of texture applied with a toothbrush, and Catt removed the foil/sculpey combo, and baked the top piece while I stayed behind and touched up orc bases. When it was finished baking, Catt sprayprimed the sculpey with black, then baked it for another 5 minutes, making the primer paint-ready. He handed it off to me and it was still hot! I quickly drybrushed the base with enough gray and white to match my orcs (and now Saruman's) bases. A batch of super-glue to mount the painted groundwork to the varnished base-- then I added the static grass to the entire thing, base and miniatures together. We finished the whole thing at 11am, in less than an hour!
Waitaminit-- 11am? Games Day started at 10am and Golden Demon entries were only accepted until noon. Ack! We rushed out the door, placing my entries in a box. Just in case of any breakage, I threw a couple of tubes of super glue into the box as well. Closing the lid, we hopped in the car and took off down the road towards the convention center... Only to find ourselves waiting in Chicago traffic! Argh! Nooo!
As we arrived at the convention center, Catt handed off my box of entries to me and said, "No time to check them over, we gotta go!" We hopped out of the car and--didn't do a fast walk, or a light jog... We ran. Flat out. As if we were being pursued by the hounds of Hades, through the catwalks and bridges from the parking garage to the actual convention center. At one point in our rush, Catt attempted to pick up the pace a bit-- but I held off, considering that I felt stuff rattling around in the sealed box I was carrying. Finally reaching the registration desk for the Golden Demon entries, the time was 11:55. Made it, on time--just barely. Ours were some of the last entries accepted. As I opened the box to quickly inspect the damage I imagined with every footfall of our mad dash, I found that absolutely nothing had moved since we left-- save the tubes of super glue that were jumbled around, making more noise than damage. It was at that point that my heart finally stopped beating out of my chest. Whew!
From there, the event was fairly calm. We stopped and talked to some of our painting friends, eventually snagged a bite for lunch after first cut judging was complete. We were both consoled with the idea that almost all of our entries made first cut. Sometimes that can be a task in itself at some Games Day events. Returning from lunch, the final cut judging was beginning in some categories, so we hung about nearby to check it out and BS with our friends. Unfortunately, not all of our entries progressed so well. But, with all of these events, "There can be only one!" Well, one each of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, that is.
Eventually, as the judging was completed, we made our rounds checking out each category's winners. For all the stressing I did over certain entries, I was surprised by the entry that I had spent the least amount of prep time at this particular event...Fortunately for me, my LotR group snagged me a bronze! This also awarded me with an unending amount of flak from my buddy, StrayCatt. No real surprise there. After all, that's what friends are for...
It was also good to see some of my friends do well with their minis... Although a bit disappointing the StrayCatt's entry didn't do as well as hoped. I gotta figure out a way to get him back in the swing of things with painting. Hell, I gotta find a way to get me back in the swing of painting. Put that on my "to do list..."
Following the rest of the excitement at Games Day, we did't do much this year. In year's past, the Mini-Painter Yahoo Group would go out for dinner, but we passed on it this time. We went out for something quick to eat, then back to StrayCatt's house. I eventually grabbed a bit of sleep for that long drive back home to Kansas.
From the winners' circle pics, they managed to grab a semi-decent shot of me (without the goatee for a change). The shirt I was wearing was a bit more purple than seems to show in the photo, but here's where I credit the GW photographers and thank them for the shots of my minis. (My own camera seems to have walked off a while back...)
Finally, here's a link to the rest of the Demon winners for Chicago '06, to see what I had to compete against in the Lord of the Rings Group or Monster category, and the entire Golden Demon winners for '06.
Over the past couple of weeks, I was working on a miniature for the Warhammer 40K Single Figure category. I actually had started some of the conversion a year ago, with an intent of entering it for GamesDay '05; but reality set in and I knew that I wouldn't have enough time to finish it out for the competition. With that in mind, I was determined that I would get it finished and entered for this year. As the evening wore on, Catt went on to go to bed and I intended to get a bit of sleep for myself. Boy, was I wrong. I ended up staying awake all night in my effort to finish that single miniature. All the while, I would look at the clock and count down the hours that I had left to finish. Eventually, 7am rolled around and Catt pulled himself outta bed. It was at that point that I made an honest assessment of my progress and realized that I wouldn't have that particular entry finished for this year (again). That was a frustrating decision to make.
So, without much fanfare, I dug into the small case of other miniatures that I had brought along for the ride, most of which was for GW's Lord of the Rings game. There were a few minis that I thought would be passable as entries in the LotR single figure category, so I proceeded to dust them off and tidy up any shelf damage those figures had suffered. Nothing too drastic, just a scuff here or a slight scrape there. Easily remedied. Then Catt looked into my figure case and said something along the lines of "What about these other miniatures you have in here?" He was examining some of the plastic figures minis from the Return of the King boxed set that I brought along in the off-chance that I might actually try to play one of the pick-up games with them. (What?!? Actually play the silly game? Are you insane Kent?!? --Wait, don't answer that one...) I told him that was the reasoning for bringing them, but he pushed the idea forward... "Why don't you try entering some of these in the unit category?" The best I could do to deny him was to respond that I didn't have a display base for those figures. He quickly countered this by reaching into a drawer and pulling out a fully varnished plaque, ready for a treatment to hold minis. "I'll bet we can make a quick display base for you..."
And so it began. I grabbed the best 10 orcs I had finished, along with a spare Saruman figure that was ruled out of entering the LotR single category. (Not a bad paintjob, but I didn't find it as dramatic as my other choice, Arwen and Frodo on horseback.) Catt snagged a bit of sculpey and smoothed it onto the plaque, now covered in aluminum foil. Then I placed each mini in the tenative position on the sculpey, marking it. Using the marks as a guideline, we quickly carved out the circular impressions where each mini would go. A quick bit of texture applied with a toothbrush, and Catt removed the foil/sculpey combo, and baked the top piece while I stayed behind and touched up orc bases. When it was finished baking, Catt sprayprimed the sculpey with black, then baked it for another 5 minutes, making the primer paint-ready. He handed it off to me and it was still hot! I quickly drybrushed the base with enough gray and white to match my orcs (and now Saruman's) bases. A batch of super-glue to mount the painted groundwork to the varnished base-- then I added the static grass to the entire thing, base and miniatures together. We finished the whole thing at 11am, in less than an hour!
Waitaminit-- 11am? Games Day started at 10am and Golden Demon entries were only accepted until noon. Ack! We rushed out the door, placing my entries in a box. Just in case of any breakage, I threw a couple of tubes of super glue into the box as well. Closing the lid, we hopped in the car and took off down the road towards the convention center... Only to find ourselves waiting in Chicago traffic! Argh! Nooo!
As we arrived at the convention center, Catt handed off my box of entries to me and said, "No time to check them over, we gotta go!" We hopped out of the car and--didn't do a fast walk, or a light jog... We ran. Flat out. As if we were being pursued by the hounds of Hades, through the catwalks and bridges from the parking garage to the actual convention center. At one point in our rush, Catt attempted to pick up the pace a bit-- but I held off, considering that I felt stuff rattling around in the sealed box I was carrying. Finally reaching the registration desk for the Golden Demon entries, the time was 11:55. Made it, on time--just barely. Ours were some of the last entries accepted. As I opened the box to quickly inspect the damage I imagined with every footfall of our mad dash, I found that absolutely nothing had moved since we left-- save the tubes of super glue that were jumbled around, making more noise than damage. It was at that point that my heart finally stopped beating out of my chest. Whew!
From there, the event was fairly calm. We stopped and talked to some of our painting friends, eventually snagged a bite for lunch after first cut judging was complete. We were both consoled with the idea that almost all of our entries made first cut. Sometimes that can be a task in itself at some Games Day events. Returning from lunch, the final cut judging was beginning in some categories, so we hung about nearby to check it out and BS with our friends. Unfortunately, not all of our entries progressed so well. But, with all of these events, "There can be only one!" Well, one each of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, that is.
Eventually, as the judging was completed, we made our rounds checking out each category's winners. For all the stressing I did over certain entries, I was surprised by the entry that I had spent the least amount of prep time at this particular event...Fortunately for me, my LotR group snagged me a bronze! This also awarded me with an unending amount of flak from my buddy, StrayCatt. No real surprise there. After all, that's what friends are for...
It was also good to see some of my friends do well with their minis... Although a bit disappointing the StrayCatt's entry didn't do as well as hoped. I gotta figure out a way to get him back in the swing of things with painting. Hell, I gotta find a way to get me back in the swing of painting. Put that on my "to do list..."
Following the rest of the excitement at Games Day, we did't do much this year. In year's past, the Mini-Painter Yahoo Group would go out for dinner, but we passed on it this time. We went out for something quick to eat, then back to StrayCatt's house. I eventually grabbed a bit of sleep for that long drive back home to Kansas.
From the winners' circle pics, they managed to grab a semi-decent shot of me (without the goatee for a change). The shirt I was wearing was a bit more purple than seems to show in the photo, but here's where I credit the GW photographers and thank them for the shots of my minis. (My own camera seems to have walked off a while back...)
Finally, here's a link to the rest of the Demon winners for Chicago '06, to see what I had to compete against in the Lord of the Rings Group or Monster category, and the entire Golden Demon winners for '06.
