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What a Weekend!
Well I made it back from Ghengis intact with only a mild bout of sleep depravation (9 hours of sleep from friday night to sunday morning heh) and guess what? I have gotten something done!
During Ghengis I took four classes that would help me with my painting and my assembly/the Basics who could have guessed that I would have been a much better painter than I thought!
Friday night I took a blending class taught by Doug Jones who is a two time Slayer Sword winner! the class was fantastic and even though Doug had something of a cold he was really informative and a great instructor. I will post pics of what I did in that class but He told me that it turned out really well done and that with a bit more work it could look great.He gave us the mini that we had been working on (Little did I know that this was a trend with the painting classes)
After that I went back to my hotel room that I was sharing with Alan Wilger and Michael Schaffer (Sorry If I butcher your last names guys) who both agreed to share a room with me to make costs of the con cheaper. We ended up going to taco bell at 1 am and then going back to the room and painting until almost 3 o’clock in the morning! Both of these guys are great guys who made me feel welcome and made the Con a ton of fun.
Saturday morning I took an assembly prep class taught by Torin (don’t know the last name) who was another great guy. He made the most boring step of painting any miniature into something mildly entertaining and I came away with two more minis that were mostly clean of mold lines and ready to go.
I wandered around the tournament for Warhammer 40000 which had been going on since Friday night (they did 3 games that night and were doing five games on Saturday) and I checked out the vendor hall which had some really cool stuff but nothing really that I couldn’t ask Mike to order for me for a lot less money. (Though if I had it i could have easily spend a couple of grand in that hall)
Saturday afternoon I took basically a painting 101 class that was taught by Colin Monnes who I didn’t realize at the time was one of the people in my blending class the previous night! He was a really cool guy who helped me a little bit extra because he knew I had experience painting (at least a bit) which was really cool because I picked up a few tips from him that helped me paint even better. once again we were able to take our mini home bringing my total up to four.
At about 7:00 that night the Warhammer 40k tournament wrapped up and Alan and I hung out for quite a while waiting for Mike to get done with his painting classes and whatnot that he was doing. When Mike was done we sat down and moved all the lights in our hotel room and focused them on this one little desk like table where we spend the remainder of the night until about 2:30 painting (I managed to get 15 Skaven clanrats mostly done just need to do some washes and a few details and they will be table worthy). This was a blast and once again I am glad that they had let me tag along with them because we just talked all night and got some stuff done. I even learned a few tricks from Mike on Object source lighting and how to make cool looking swirls on a 3D plane. It was awesome!
Sunday morning rolls around and Alan heads down to the Warhammer fantasy tournament While Mike and I go get breakfast and spend most of the day (Till I headed to my last class at noon) painting. The class I took at noon was called 12 Things every miniature painter should know and it was taught by Michael Proctor. Let me tell you that this guy is amazing if you go to the Reaper Miniature website and scroll down a tiny bit you will see an futuristic Orangutan hold guns while hanging off of a light pole. That is one of Michael Proctor’s works and it looks amazing. Not only that he is an amazing painter who also managed to win best in show at Ghengis but he is also a fantastic guy who is really warm, friendly and very easy to talk to! I could have sat there and listened to him talk about painting for hours! We also were able to take this mini home all that was really done was a base coat on his duster looking coat.
Also during the day Sunday I had signed up for a few Paint and Takes which they give you a mini and a brush and you set out painting. well I took two minis instead of one because a girl cut infront of me and took the one mini I wanted. I felt a little bad about taking two but there were plenty there! Mike ended up getting the last of the ones i had wanted and gave it to me. Which was really nice but again I felt like a friggin Mooch because I had told him to take it.
Later that evening the Warhammer fantasy tourney wrapped up and prizes were given out. Troy won the 2nd best general! he did great in the tourney. The prize was a trophy, some tokens and an Skaven Lightning Cannon kit which he proceeded to give me (Bastard) so I need to think of something to do to repay him so I dont feel like such a freaking mooch (he is still a bastard).
Ghengis was amazing and I would love to go back next year and if I can swing it I will try and attend Tacticon in September but we will see how that works out.
