I'll be going to the Las Vegas Open in early February! LVO is a Tabletop Gaming Convention, sponsored by Frontline Gaming, that hosts competitive Warhammer tournaments, games, and hobby classes. This is the first out-of-state convention that I'll be attending and I'm both nervous and excited. I've signed up for a few classes, including one I'm really looking forward to in particular, Aaron Lovejoy's four-hour NMM Masterclass. I'll be staying with friends on their comfy couch, which is what made this trip possible– otherwise, I couldn't afford it so soon after our vacation.
Now that I've bought my entry ticket, booked my flight, and chosen a few classes, I'll need to decide what to enter in the contest. The Las Vegas Open's painting contest is hosted by the Draconic Awards, which have a few different categories to choose from. While you cannot enter anything you've already won an award for, I'm hoping to enter new miniatures in to the Fantasy and Sci-Fi categories. I'm also playing with the idea of entering my 75mm Steampunk miniature in the Large Model category. However, we'll see how much I have time for. Here's what Carla looks like currently:
I think I'm insane for tackling a miniature of this size without an airbrush. The amount of time I've spent on careful blending is staggering. If you don't like blending, don't bother with these larger-scale miniatures (or get an airbrush). Either way, it's a wonderful challenge for me– I just wish it didn't take so much time. I'm working on blending her bodice up to an off-white to mimic satin fabric. I'm going to have to do some freehand on her somewhere since there's just so much surface area to fill up! Freehand is insanely time consuming as well, so I'm not sure if I can complete her in time. However, I'm going to try!
I'm also considering entering my Infinity miniature into the contest. I started her as a practice in painting difficult colors, mainly orange and white. I repainted her chest armor (old photo here) and this time, the orange is much more vibrant.
While basing remains my weakness, I decided to suck it up and make some bases this week. I used some wood chips, moss, oxide paste, and various ballast to create these below. One's going to be for my Infinity miniature and I'm looking forward to priming and painting them. I hope the moss holds up to the primer/paint. We'll see! These are currently setting overnight and I'll prime them when I get home from work on Monday. I'll add more rocks or foliage as needed, but I'm fairly pleased with how the initial stage turned out. Chances are, I'll need to break out the Milliput to fill some of those gaps in between the wood chips so it better mimics rock. I'll be sure to take WIP photos as I go along.