Preparing for Armies on Parade 2023 - Part VIII

Hello and welcome back to this thrilling series. I know you've been at the edge of your seat during this whole ordeal, so you'll be pleased to know that this is the last entry, and you can now stand up from your seat. You're welcome. If for some reason, you're a maniac and you're only starting this series with this last entry, I'll kindly direct you to all the previous entries HERE so you can catch up.

To not draw out your suspense any further, and cure your worried sickness, thankfully, I managed to finish my entry for Armies on Parade a day before the submission deadline (talk about a close call!?). I'm not sure why I drew it out so much for a last minute finish; perhaps it was the constantly steep learning curve that gave me two new problems for every solution.

But alas, with no prior experience or skill with terrain building, and quite frankly, limited experience and skill with painting, I do now have the finished product. Here it is in all it's big bird glory. The whole process has taken about a year from start to finish. I painted my first Tzeentch model (The Curseling) towards the end of November of last year, and in creating the colour scheme, I knew I wanted to do something impressive with my new found love for Tzeentch. I then spent the next half a year painting up more miniatures to add to the army. About half a year ago, I started working on making the concept become a material reality, rather than just a thought in my brain. So it has been quite the journey since it's intimidating conception; one that has taught me many things for the future.

Anyway, let's stop yapping on, and actually show you the results of this long winded journey, for those of you who have been eagerly awaiting.

With those shots, you can see the army up close and personal. I love how varied all of the sculpts for Tzeentch are, as well as the few I devoted to the chaotic bird against their will. This fact is probably the only reason I was able to enjoy painting so many models in the same colour scheme, as it never really felt boring given the variety of weird and wonderful shapes.

I definitely struggled making all of the models look decent and neat, when displaying them on the board for the pictures to submit. This is partly down to the amount of single characters within the army, and differences between sculpts, meaning there was no real organized rank and file look to the models. Great for painting, bad for organizing. I also didn't leave myself much open space on the board to display them properly. In hindsight, I think I would potentially prepare their positioning in advance, with precut holes for their bases.

Perhaps if I had a little more time, I could have spent a few hours properly sorting out their positioning, but unfortunately I had left it until the last minute. I'm very much hoping that doesn't come back to bite me, but if it does, then I will have learned another very useful lesson.

The one main feature of the board, which was to create the terrain in a way that would look like the symbol of Tzeentch when looking from above, didn't come out quite as well as I would have liked. Again, this is partly down to not knowing what I was doing most of the time, as well as running short on time. With more time, I would have perhaps spaced the board out better, maybe also creating a moat that would outline the rock from the ground, making a more defined symbol of Tzeentch. Still, given my limited expertise in this field, I'm pretty happy that it's come out not looking like a total mess, and actually does look like it resembles the symbol of Tzeentch, so you know what, I am going to pat myself on the scalp.

The only other thing that I would have liked to have spent more time on, would have been creating a number of different little 'easter egg' scenes throughout. I initially had the intention of creating a few little rooms within the structure; one featuring a classroom scene, with horrors being taught the importance of the number '9'. Another would have been a mini library, given Tzeentch's fascination with books and scrolls. But it did become apparent that my skills and time were against me, and even just creating the structure was ambitious enough for me. Converting the cleansing aqualith into the landmark piece for my board was almost as ambitious as this got, and I did create one tiny scene of two horrors running away from a bird (ironic, I know).

Ultimately, I went into starting this project with nothing other than the concept in my brain. Only through determination and actually trying, have I managed to create this end product. I hope it really shows you, that anybody can truly do anything, if they just do the bare minimum and try. Trying is where everything starts. Not trying is already reaching the ending. You don't need any real know-how or practical skills to make this a reality. You just need patience, time and perseverance. The ability to flip ideas on the fly when something starts to go wrong. Or accidently coming across the solution to a problem whilst experimenting. These are all things we must go through to become better painters, so it makes sense that it is exactly the same when it comes to building terrain. If you have been considering taking on a project like this, please let my experience show you there is nothing in your way, bar your own brain.

I don't have any expectations of winning, nor was that a reason why I decided to partake in Armies on Parade. It was an itch I had to scratch, and I'm very glad I have now done so. My main issue now is figuring out where the hell to put this massive thing...the bin would be a shame after so much time spent with it, so maybe give me a shout if you want the board for some strange reason.

I hope you have enjoyed this little series covering my experience of gearing up for Armies on Parade. I want to thank you for sharing the journey with me, and if you have been inspired in any way at all to tackle your own entry for Armies on Parade next year, then I can die a somewhat happy man.