Wargaming Tradecraft: Armies on Parade

Yesterday was the first Armies on Parade held in the Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph region. The following is a post that shows off all the entries we had at Warhammer Fairway Road. While I highlight the top 3, the final count is posted on their page for the curious.

Close competition, great artists, great people. It was a blast of a day and we all had a lot of fun chatting, visiting, discussing and sharing our techniques and brainstorming ideas for next year. It was neat to even talk to the walk-in visitors as they asked us about how we accomplished various details.

FYI, it's pretty graphic intensive.. around 70mb, so NOT mobile friendly without WIFI. I've posted these mostly in their original size so everyone who participated can have some high quality photos.

Gold - Adam Meyer

Adam's built a very striking display. The chevrons are brushed on and bold, there's a ton of great object source lighting in blue and while the board is a little busy overall, the colour scheme balances it out quite well.

Silver - Jeremy Fyfe

Jeremy's tower stands out with all the extra little details. Believe it or not, there are 100 miniatures here. The front of it has the demon perched above, has a few models in the middle and two levels of larger forces at the base. From behind, there are another 3 levels of miniature including an old school presence.

Bronze - Graeme Tester

This board looks like it's alive, more than just static. The whole thing meshes together well with intensity to the minis. As a last minute decision, Graeme decided to leave the shoulders off his knight, which we all felt made a great difference in how it appears on the field. (Shoulders are what separates Marines and Imperials. Plus, it gives it a more battle worn look.)

Dave Garbe - Count Vlagorescu's Midnight Court

This was my entry in to Armies on Parade. I'm going to show off a few photos now, but I'll have a larger post dedicated to them in the near future. Very happy with what I've created and this showcase was the push I needed to complete this army so I can start gaming in Age of Sigmar.

Ryan Wellwood

Not an official entry, but a fun one from the store manager. That's him as the statue.

Brody Verlaan

A unique purple applied to this undead army, not just the ghostly stuff but also carried through to the ghouls.

Dan Matheson

As a late decision, Dan added a tower, which I think was a great touch to add a little something extra to the board. Without it, there'd be a bunch of tanks. Visually, it helps to break up the scene and compliments it well. I also really like how he's added tracks in the base for all the vehicles. It's not just a great detail, but also shows how sometimes you have to plan ahead where the models will end up on the board.

Mark Pepper

Mark has a great Space Hulk Terminal vs Genestealers and a few other Tyranids. Yellow is used as a great contrast as a complementary colour (and near to) for the rest of the Tyranid bodies. I love the look from top-down, but unfortunately some of the detail is hidden by the layers of the terrain.

Martin Somerton

Martin was quite amused that despite this being a scene focused on the Dark Angels, we missed noticing Cypher hiding in there. Great use of the bastion.

Jason Liddle

Jason's got a straight forward Skaven army that stands out nicely on the bright green grass. Nice use of levels to separate the models, some yellow flowers added to the ground and clean detail on the .. Skaven.. lord.. thing. (OK, so I'm not sure what it's called.)

Kevin Shatkowski

Kevin's built a large presence of his Dark Angels and used some actual rocks to add a realistic touch.

Ian Shields

There's a nice set of blue Tau here. The forward bunker actually lights up... unfortunately it stopped working for the day.

Evan Smith

Evan has some fantastic contrasts happening here with his Necrons, again using yellow and purple. Even on the Necrons that don't have purple to them, the fiery weapons stand out boldly. Some great lightning effects and blending on the weapons.

Joshua McCarthy

Joshua's was another favorite today with a unique box (including carrying handles) that has a light inside but especially the stand out fantastic demon lord on top. I'm not a fan of the lord normally, I find it a very busy model with too much going on. Josh has managed to paint it with a composition that flows well, allows the right details to stand out, has nice contrasts on the wings and as another pointed out, the flag fills the empty space from the curve of the body well. The model is on display in one of the store cabinets if you want to take a look.

Matt Oliver

A lot of people liked Matt's board, commenting on the detail of the tiles, the sandy red included around them and how "regal" the army looks.

Tim Whitney

There's so much amazing detail to find here. Had to pull out my camera multiple times to take pictures of more and more details. This is a very "Orky" board. The army looks great, the tanks and trucks have great mods to them and more nice OSL on that great flier. Some of the great Orky details include planning boards, stolen Imperial sheet metal and a swinging grot on an engine.

Ollie Lau and Max Zwarenstein

These guys put together a nice Space Marine vs Chaos display with a strong contrast between the two armies.

Heather Smith

Heather went with Dread Fleet and created a nice ocean board for her ships. She's layered some water effects, added some light coloured shallows and ran a paint brush through the water's surface before it dried to add small water texture.

Thomas Nowak and Jess Barradell

What stood out to everyone about this display is it reminded all of us about the appearance of Games Workshop in the 90s. It's a traditional opposing army setup in their regiments with a classic green backdrop.

Tony, Anita and Anna Jim

This family worked together to build a scene of Good vs Death. There are some nice details, like the vines on the tree beasts. You'd also be surprised that their 9 year old daughter has a few models of her own in there.