Scythians on the Hunt  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Old Glory Miniatures
This was the first round entry for LPL Season 11. I was very happy with it, both the detail level - especially for the scale - and the staging as well. It let me use some of those old DBA camps that have been retired for a seriously long time. Unfortunately though it didn't win the first round; my opponent had excellently painted Native-American Indians. My opponent - Lt. Hazel - did an excellent job with his entry. That, along with the Lead Adventure Forum not really having a focus on 15mm scale figs and similarly with the Skythian tribe theme may have sealed the deal; the Native-American Indian / Western tribe theme is quite popular there. Next year if there's a tribe theme - or perhaps even if there isn't - I'll paint up some great-looking Beothuks!

Gathering the Militia Men at Arms in Bretonnia 28mm miniatures  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Games Workshop
I had been painting these Bretonnians for a while, and I had a whole unit of these guys ready before the League started. I planned to put them on a multi base, but before that I would split them into three groups and use them for three entries. This first one started the narative of the militia-gathering. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, the lighting looked great and everything worked out. I won the round against and extremely well-painted set of space ships. I think my opponent may have suffered a bit from the same subject-matter issue I had in the first round, since space hsips aren'tan necessarily a popular genre on the Lead Adventure Forum. Those clean straight lines are tough to paint, so kudos to my opponent for an excellent entry.

Black Spider and his Spinners 28mm miniatures  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Reaper Miniatures & Wizards of the Coast
I painted these some time ago for D&D but never had the chance to post pictures of them. That worked out well since IF could enter them as new figures for the LPL! I am pretty happy with them, using the electric blue cobalt tarantulas and the other awesome colourful tarantulas as inspiration. I barely squeeked out a win here against some very well painted colonial figures that we expertetly painted and staged by my opponent.

The Defense of Cordoba 28mm miniatures  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Gripping Beast Miniatures
I always enjoy painting Andalusians... I painted two whole DBA armies, and I'm working on a 28mm army... It's going slowly, but I almost have a whole spearmen unit now! For this one I put some real Arabic words on the shield there, as last time I was in LPL I put some random squigles and took a lot of criticism for it! This time I thought I'd put some real easter eggs there for those in the know. I also decided to use some of my 15mm Andalusian figs in the shot as well as a 15mm full-edge DBA camp. The forced-perspective worked pretty well and I was happy with it. A piece of trivia here: the shield on the far left was painted completely twice before I settled on it... I won this round to some great Necromunda figures that were well prepared and staged.

Sailing the Contaminated Seas  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Lead Adventure Miniatures
This one was a let down all around for me... The figures didn't really come together as well as I'd wanted them, and the picture was just impossible to get right. I took more pictures of this than of any other entry for the competition, and I still ended up with an over-saturated but washed out looking picture. You can't even see the 'M' freehand on the cap there! This round I was also paired against Adrmiral Benbow who just did a fantastic job painting and staging some Hitch Hikers Guide themed figures. I lost, but it wasn't a complete blowout, so I wasn't completely out of the running...

Rallying the City Watch in Bretonnia  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Games Workshop and Perry Miniatures
This setting was also very difficult to take a picture of. I used my forced-perspective town as the back drop and took the pictures outside under the sun, which is always a terrible idea. So much shadow and contrast and just bad lighting. Still, I was happy with the staging and the narrative of the shot; the running hounds and general sense of urgency worked pretty well. I was paired against some excellent cowboy-themed painting and setting and squeeked out a victory.

Lord Stroud Marches to Battle in Bretonnia  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Games Workshop
I hadn't planned to post this picture right after the previous Bretonnian picture, but I ran out of time on my planned entry and had to just go with it. This image sets the final stage of the three-image narrative of finally marching to war. It's painted deliberately to remind the viewer of old Warhammer paints, but done in a more 2000s style. My plan worked and I managed to win another round. My opponent brought some very well done figures behind a well staged backdrop of sub-Saharan Africa which was easily matched in skill and colors, but I think the freehand might have given me the smallest edge that let me take it. My opponent's entry was also quite bright and vivid, and the moderator mentioned as much in the thread!

Freydis and her Shieldmaiden 28mm miniatures  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Bad Squiddo Games
For this one I spent hours setting up the staging... Too much time really, and the colors were too bright and unatural. Also, to be fair, those are some of the worst faces I've done in a while along with some generally uninspired shields... On top of that I was matched against some gorgeous sub-Roman Brits painted very well and staged amazingly by Captain Blood himself. This one was a blowout loss for me... My only chance to place was to beat my next two opponents by a large-enough margin... which was very unlikely given the calibre of the painters in the event.

Hoplites Defend Athens in 28mm miniatures  -  Posted: March 20, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Warlord Games Hail Caesar
I spent a lot of time on those shields, but I didn't spend a lot of time choosing which designs to use; I generally spend about 60-70% of my time obsessing over which specific design to choose for each shield. This time around I just chose a few and painted them. It worked out pretty well in that it made the work faster and it also ended up working out. I was pretty happy with these ones. They picked me up another win against some excellent fishmen staged against an amazing rain-inspired ocean backdrop.

Thor gathers his host 28mm miniatures  -  Posted: March 31, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Gripping Beast and some random eBay 54mm viking
For the final round I figured that I should continue with the freehand shields and clothing trim. It was my only chance to have an edge against whoever I would be up against. So, on went the knotwork and shield designs. Again with these shields I didn't spend much time choosing designs and just painted some stuff that caught my eye. It worked pretty well, although not as well as it did with the Hoplites. I was up against some pretty great fishmen again, and along with that a great scene staging as well. Luckily for me it went my way, and the final win placed me in third place! That being said, I think I would have landed in fourth place if it wasn't for Admiral Benbow being unable to have new figures for a few of his entries... Still, I'm pretty happy in the end.

Skythians in 15mm miniature staging shot  -  Posted: March 31, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Old Glory 15s
I took some shots of the set up for the first round for a couple of reasons: first is for reference for myself in the future, and second is to show what it really looks like and maybe help others set up scenes. For this one, it would have been cool to have a top-down view too to show how the two hills don't actually line up at all, and that I had to stick some wadded paper under tha camp base to ensure that it stayed level.

Spiders and the Black Spider miniatures staging shot  -  Posted: March 31, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Reaper Miniatures & Wizards of the Coast
The Black Spider from the D&D 5th edition intoductory adventure! The staging shot shows more of the low-impact spider webs... I wish I hadn't bothered! That one tree on the left is permanently webby now...

Bretonnia Knights March to Battle miniatures staging shot  -  Posted: March 31, 2017  -  Manufacturer: Games Workshop
It doesn't actually look all that great from this angle :) I really need to cut the grass...