Merry Christmas everyone!

Sorry it's been a few weeks, real life does get in the way sometimes. So what's coming in this post, as promised I'll do a short write up on my feeling after the "Eavy Metal Masterclass, Space Marine Commander" event I went to a couple of months ago and show some of the other bits I've been painting over the last few weeks, really starting to get my mojo working again :D

So, here it is.

Eavy Metal Masterclass

Decided to go to the Space Marine Commander masterclass when it was first advertised, can't remember when exactly. The main reason for going was to try and spark a bit of development in my painting as I've been stuck in a rut for far to long now with no real progression to my standard, if I'm honest I feel I've got a bit worse since my Mentors and Ultramarine days, if I'm honest mainly due to the pressure I put on myself to get things done quickly. So this was an ideal opportunity to try and gleam a few development tips. Oh, and I managed to drag my mate John along as well.

So the day arrived and after a night in Nottingham we arrived at Warhammer World (WHW) bright and early at around 0930 on a Sunday morning, we were guided into the bottom floor of what I believe is the Forge World (FW) building, where they had a class/lecture room set up ready for the event, the room was well laid out with lots of space and individual paint stations with strip lights laid out for everyone. Each station had the paints, brushes and miniature we were going to use set up and ready to go, there was also complimentary drinks (tea/coffee) laid on as well.

We sat around and chatted to the other folks there for a bit prior to the Eavy Metal guys (EM)  arriving at around 1000. So with the arrival of the EM a quick brief and we were set, initially there was a bit of confusion as the minis we had were modelled with an Ultramarine shoulder pad so the initial painter was going to start with blue, a colour we didn't have on our paint station, they quickly realised that they were meant to be doing red armour, quick re-set and we set off getting a nice even red colour painted on the mini and gradually went through the process of doing the armour from start to finish up until lunch at 1300. We were asked during the hour leading up to lunch what we would like from a set menu as this was also part of the ticket price which meant there was little faffing about during lunchtime ordering etc.

After an hour long lunch break spent in WHW spending yet more money on FW stuff we then went back into the classroom and began doing some of the other bits, over the course of the next 4 hours we covered Gold, Cloaks, Faces and electric effect on Power Weapons (you can see a bit of a try on my WE Sgts power weapon, still more work needed). Throughout the whole day there was a camera above where the EM were painting allowing us to see what they were doing throughout. Finally there was a Q&A session which after all questions were answered they wrapped up and informed us that all the paints and brushes we used we could take home with us, not to bad!

So, what are my thought's on the day as a whole I hear you ask? I'll try and list them all below.

Initial impression, good but then, wtf!? these guys don't even know what colours they're meant to be using, here we go......best give them a chance though.
Initially both myself and John were thinking we were going to come away with a complete painted mini as we painted the whole of the armour.
We spent 3 hours painting the whole of the armour and then took 4 hours to cover 4 other subjects which lead to them rushing things in the latter part of the day.
The above lead to at least one person leaving an hour early and another commenting (when I met him at the services on the way home) that alot of it went straight over his head.

So really, the day could have been so much better, just to try and justify my comments a bit, I've done alot and I mean alot (it's pretty much been my job for the last 10+ years) of instruction, so I have a rough idea of how to put info acoss to people.

Initial setup, Good, however, if you're instructing people in a practical skill, at least know what you're meant to be doing.
An actual brief of what we were aiming to achieve during the day would also have been good.
Structure, the day had little to no structure, which isn't always a bad thing, however a bit more time appreciation would probably have lead to more people understanding what was going on and not leaving early.
Why didn't they just do the marine arm (enough different armour plates, power weapon, gold etc.) would have made a bit more sense and probably lead to being able to give more detailed explanations during each stage.
Planning, on the set-up side of life, would have been much easier to follow if they had maybe employed the use of power point with descriptions of each stage, would also have meant people wouldn't have constantly been asking for colour recipes and stuff.

Overall, the event wasn't that bad, and yes I would go again as I now understand where I could gleam the info I need, but going in blind means you may not always get what you want. Did I get what I wanted, not really but I'm more aware of my abilities now and know what I need to do to improve. I really feel it could have been done so much better, marks out of 10, I'd give it a 4. Just not sure if GW think that giving you the amount of paints etc. you get from the event justifies the mediocreness (is that even a word) of the day?.........

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the above, I feel quite passionate about the whole thing, anyway, what have I been doing over the last few weeks, well apart from the usuall drinking and merryness that come with this time of the year I've managed to get a fair bit of painting done, I've got the following completed, 10 Sniper Scouts, 1 Chaplain Dread, the mkIV and a mkIII squads for the WEs and also built Autocannon and Cataphracti squads and 2 contemptors again for the WEs, so a few pics below.

 

So that's it for this (slightly drunk) blog post, as you can see above I have painted the first of the Cataphracti, hopefully I'll have the whole of the squad done by the start of 2013.

 

Hope you've all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone, as always thanks for reading.

 

James