KublaCon 2008 Recap

Well, Kubla was a great time. I'm not going to "tell you all about my character" here, but I will recap the things I got to participate in.

Painting clinic - I went to a clinic by Laszlo Jakusovszky on blending techniques. I can't say I walked out with a completely new set of techniques to work on, but I did realize that I'm using all of the major blending techniques and just need to keep practicing. Some minor tips that I did get that I intend to try are:

• Using lint-free cloths for cleaning
  
• Using straight flow-aid to thin paints when blending
  
• A different technique for unloading brushes when drybrushing
  

Warmachine tournament - I came in nearly dead-last, but I had a wonderful time playing. I lost 3 out of 4 games, and most of those were due to just playing too boldly. I hate hanging back and not getting into a scrum, and it ends up being my downfall in most tournament battles. However it was a good time, and multiple opponents did thank me for playing agressive like that saying it was more fun than camping and trying to snipe vp's.

Warmachine pickup games - I played an additional 3 pickup games which were all very very entertaining. I especially enjoyed playing against Mortenebra for the first time.

Painting competition - This was the whole purpose in going for me. I entered the Freebooter, Gudrun, and a squad of pirates. Gudrun (of course) did not place as the competition in the single fantasy category was vicious. The Freebooter I suspect pulled in at 4th unfortunately for the large fantasy. However the pirates pulled off a 3rd place for fantasy squads! I'm pretty stoked about that overall (even though the competition was not as heavy in that category). Below are pictures of the pirates on their transport platform along with the trophey.



Overall, Kubla was a great time. It was an incredibly relaxing weekend and I especially enjoyed seeing other models in the competition to get an idea of what I need to aim for next year. Also, by simply entering, I really feel like I'm serious about my painting.

Gudrun

Well, here was my primary entry for KublaCon. I didn't win (more about that later) but I'm still incredibly happy with how he turned out. I spent a ridiculous amount of time working on him (for my normal time investment).



I'm sort of still in a bit of a painting funk, mostly because work has been intruding on my personal life alot, along with other personal things getting in the way of painting. However, plans are in motion to get myself back on the painting track very soon.

Temple Flameguard

Well, it took about 2 weeks, but I got all my Temple Flameguard painted. Paintined 12 models at once is downright soulcrushing. I used these as an opportunity to practice my two-brush blending technique alot more, and I must say the practice helped. I have a better grasp of how to use it on smaller areas now, and can definately blend paint straight from the pot now. These aren't the best quality paint job (just tabletop standards) but it saved alot of time using basic colors from the pot and using the two-brush technique. I'd say it took just as much time to paint the metals as to do the blacks and reds combined.