NOVA Open 2018: Day 3 & 4

Posted by Plarzoid on September 20, 2018
Posted in: Games, IABN. Tagged: . Leave a Comment

Day 3 of the con is usually the busiest – it’s Saturday so there’s no requirement for you to take time off work to attend, and it’s also the start of the family friendly events.  For me, it’s when the lack of sleep starts piling in and I start to slow down.  I only had two seminars on Saturday, but they were two of the ones I was looking forward to the most…

Seminar 5: Master of Reality with Sam Lenz

Sam’s class was a blast.  He’s incredibly talented and still enjoying discovering new things, and this seminar was less structured and more of a showcase of Sam’s current process and style.

There were maybe ten of us in the class, and we all sat and watched Sam work from scratch on a large zombie model from Zombicide: Black Plague.

We joked, laughed and learned.  Sam spoke about the things he enjoyed learning about from other painters and teachers, and shared his thoughts as he works through a model.

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NOVA Open 2018: Day 2

Posted by Plarzoid on September 11, 2018
Posted in: Games, IABN, Infinity. Tagged: , . 1 comment

The big event for me on Day 2 (Friday) was the 3-round Direct Action Infinity Tournament I’d signed myself up for, far too many months ago to remember what I’d been thinking.

Ok, I know what I’d been thinking:  “Brendon, you don’t play many games.  This will encourage you to get out of the studio, play some games.”

Note to future self: That kind of motivation doesn’t work.

I went into the tournament with well theory-crafted, but poorly practiced lists.

I also went into the tournament without a tournament tray.  I’m clearly a professional.
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NOVA Open 2018: Day 1

Posted by Plarzoid on September 4, 2018
Posted in: Commentary, Convention Coverage, IABN. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

The NOVA Open is held only a few miles away in Crystal City, Virginia, just across the river from Washington DC.  It’s a con I’ve been volunteering at and attending for the past five or so years, and it’s currently the only con I go to each year.

The con kicks off Wednesday night with some small special events and goes through Sunday, offering over 4 days of events.  One big benefit to working only three blocks away from the con is that I was able to swing by after work on Wednesday and picke up my SuperNOVA registration and Swag Bag.  The SuperNOVA is NOVA’s premium registration, and offers loads of perks for the notably higher price – one of which is the embroidered KR Multicase Backpack 2.  The rest of the goodies… well, you’ll just have to wait for the loot showcase!

The con really started on Thursday for me.  My schedule for Day 1 included a Build-and-Play for CMON’s Dark Age, and three (!) seminars.

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Skinky Saturdays

Posted by Plarzoid on August 11, 2018
Posted in: Age of Sigmar, Games, IABN, Warhammer 40k. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

So, I love dinosaurs.  Ever since I first saw Jurassic Park, I couldn’t get enough of them.  So, now that I’m an adult and into tiny toy soldiers, OF COURSE I’m into tiny toy dinosaurs.

I’ve been sitting on a Start Collecting: Seraphon box for a while, and when some local buddies wanted to get into Age of Sigmar by way of Skirmish and then Path to Glory, I was all in with some SPACE DINOSAURS!!

SHow me the dinos!

[Sunset Retribution]: Issyria, Sybil of Dawn

Posted by Plarzoid on August 9, 2018
Posted in: Commission Work, Games, IABN, Painting (Hobby), Warmachine. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment

Issyria was a blast to paint, for a few reasons.

First, I had to paint her in separate pieces, because her crossed legs added some interesting challenges with getting the interior cloth painted.  Luckily, they’re a separate piece, so it was not hard to do this.  Still, for speed I rarely paint models in separate pieces anymore, so it was fun to go back to a different method for conquering a tough model.

Show me the dawn