Second Sphere

And the first Contest is out for Voting ^_^

Plenty of entrants for this to be a great showcase of our resident painters and convertors. Good luck to everyone!!

All images have been resized to a max height of 600pixels. Click on the images to see them full-sized.

One vote per person. ;)

Entry A - Chaos Warpsmith
(http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q777/Nick_Slack/WP_000064_zpse7343539.jpg)
(http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q777/Nick_Slack/WP_000062_zpsfc4067e8.jpg)

Entry B - Which Hunter? No, Witch hunter
(http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww220/Will-i-am119/DSCF1887_zps01950593.jpg)
(http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww220/Will-i-am119/DSCF1888_zps55333ec9.jpg)
(http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww220/Will-i-am119/DSCF1886_zps8ae1ee75.jpg)

Entry C
(http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/zenai2020/P1011886.jpg)
(http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/zenai2020/P1011887.jpg)
(http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/zenai2020/P1011888.jpg)

Entry D
(http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z186/Deraj7/IMG_2813_zps748d9741.jpg)
(http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z186/Deraj7/IMG_2812_zps1901868f.jpg)
(http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z186/Deraj7/IMG_2811_zpsec5e7398.jpg)

Entry E
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-FrdmWjO4twA/UXI409c_b5I/AAAAAAAAAOs/hYiCP0r2Bjo/w286-h428-p-o/kaya_main.JPG)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0N2JNRciCgY/UXI41GEmAWI/AAAAAAAAAOw/3dw5ypqEvrI/w434-h428-p-o/kaya_portrait.JPG)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5azS4nb-ZRM/UXI40wI6PhI/AAAAAAAAAOo/8hCbs3Bbt6Y/w441-h428-p-o/kaya_cloak.JPG)

Entry F
(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e146/Eddievedda/32aca41c-3d3a-4c9a-9dce-1e6501fc3e3c_zps350d7423.jpg)

Entry G - Journeyman Warcaster - Cygnars latest young leader
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/c0bra/New%20Cygnar/IMGP1969_zps698c83b4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/c0bra/New%20Cygnar/IMGP1966_zpsa96d2e30.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/c0bra/New%20Cygnar/IMGP1964_zpse9dad35f.jpg)

Entry H - Captain "Lion Claw" with combi-melta, power weapon (hand), artificer armour.
(http://i.imgur.com/UOUel4P.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/i5MhovJ.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/lZm6wr0.jpg)

Well, I was hopeful. Then I wasn't. All good entries though :)

Some good entries in this!

Well done to everyone who entered. :D

- Will

Shouldn't the Poll be hidden though?

Quote from: The Man They Call Jayne on April 20, 2013, 11:23:57 PM
Shouldn't the Poll be hidden though?

I sent Narric a PM about it last night. Hopefully it'll get sorted, but as you can't change your vote after you send it, it might be okay.  :-\

- Will

Sorted.  Also added the ability to change votes.

Thanks for that MT.  ;D

I missed an entry lastnight, so I'm slotting them in now. Hopefully I don't screw up the Poll :P I think I screwed up the poll :facepalm001:

[edit]

Captain "Lion Claw" now in the Contest. Sincerest apologies to the entrant for missing it last night ^_^;;

Nice Entries all! :)

Good luck!

Nice selection of entries ;D Like lionclaw's "power hand" - is that a sculpted hand or some bitz?

Quote from: Thantos on April 23, 2013, 08:46:43 PM
Nice selection of entries ;D Like lionclaw's "power hand" - is that a sculpted hand or some bitz?

Not saying, becuase it could easily change a persons opinion to vote for it ;)

For the most part, I can recognise near all the pieces used in the entries of 40k/GW models.

Don't forget to vote guys! Last day, get your votes in so your favourite can win! :D

- Will

Best tell Thantos to start warming up the dice :)

Just a few more people voting could easily change who gets into the top three, and what order the top are.

Just for my curiosities sake, what the hell is F?

Quote from: The Man They Call Jayne on April 29, 2013, 11:21:11 AM
Just for my curiosities sake, what the hell is F?

I'm pretty sure that it's an old Hero's Quest gargoyle.

Quote from: Paradoxrifts on April 29, 2013, 11:42:53 AM

Quote from: The Man They Call Jayne on April 29, 2013, 11:21:11 AM
Just for my curiosities sake, what the hell is F?

I'm pretty sure that it's an old Hero's Quest gargoyle.

In the year 1981, injection moulded plastic minis were quite ... unique ;)

Quote from: Narric on April 29, 2013, 08:59:47 AM
Best tell Thantos to start warming up the dice :)

So hot they are scorching :P

Wow, five votes could really change the order of the winners.

MORE VOTES, MY MONKEYS, MORE VOTES I SAY!!!

Aaaaaand, The Results are in!!!

In first place we have:
Jonagon, with his Journeyman Warcaster of Cygnar
You win:
- 1x a £10 e-voucher to spend on anything your creative heart desires from Zealot Miniatures
- and a set of Shiny New Second Sphere Dice

Then in Second place we have:
Will's on Fire, with the (totally not a ) Witch Hunter
For you there is:
- a Mystery bag of Bits, supply by The Bitz Box
- Along with a set of Shiny New Second Sphere Dice

And in Third place we have:
The Man They Call Jayne, with the Chaos Warpsmith
Then for you, for being a great sport, you get:
- A Set of dirty discarded Shiny New Second Sphere Dice

A huge thank you to everyone that entered, and great thanks goes to everyone that voted aswell.

Please can everyone make sure to bug Sorck or FT for the Award Seal Generator to be fixed, and Contest Points will be tallied up shortly (Once someone reminds me how many is person gets :P).

I will be in contact with First and Second place winners, to sort out their prizes. The Ever Awesome Thantos will be in contact to sort out the Dice (And possibly first places' prize aswell, as he is the man behind Zealot Miniatures :P)

And Good Luck for the Next Contest, to everyone wishing to enter again ;D

Woohoo! Dice! Well done to the other entrants, good show all round :)

Its only when I look at my minis on the bigger screens that I see where all the flaws are. That armour of the Warpsmith looks great in some lights, and like it have missed huge chunks in others. Strangest thing.

I love how we have three different Game System, and its not GW at the top :P

It definatly allows for more variety in these things. Which is a very good thing.

Quote from: Narric on April 30, 2013, 09:11:04 AM
I love how we have three different Game System, and its not GW at the top :P

To be fair, as soon as we see a jonagon entry... :P

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Great work all round, I thought entry F was really good, the paintjob made an old mini look good!

As per always, kudos to Jonagon, I still use your stuff to spur me on to be better. :P

And nice work TMTCJ, the smoke stacks are really nicely done.

- Will

Well done to all who entered :D A nice variety of minis on display.

Entry C was good, nice conversion and solid enough painting, IMO the reason why the votes went poorly for this one was the photography. Never, (i mean never :P) take pics of your minis with flash on your camera. It washes out the detail and depth and makes everything look flat. Id like to see some pics in good daylight of this mini, i think it would display this nice conversion much better ;)

Entry E had a similar problem, the overall effect of the mini was good when viewed as a whole, the first picture is nice (although it needs a better undercoat). But the extreme closeups dont do it justice, any mini is going to look worse and pick out any mistakes or anything when a 5mm area is blown up to a 800x600 image on your screen - you want your pics close enough to show the details as a whole, but small enough to hide any imperfections ;)

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If the winners can all drop me a PM with their shipping details, i can get some shiny dice sent out to them. And if you have won and you live in australia, please move to europe since aussie shipping is painfull  :derp: lol

And Jon - gratz on 1st place :D ill sort your £10 coupon via PM

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Narric - Comp points are 5 for 1st, 3 for 2nd place and 1 for third ;)
Good job running this contest and thanks for dragging the contests back into the light of day (kicking and screaming) while the rest of us are a bit lost :D hopefully there will be many more Narric-esque contests!

Quote from: Thantos on April 30, 2013, 05:51:57 PM
Entry E had a similar problem, the overall effect of the mini was good when viewed as a whole, the first picture is nice (although it needs a better undercoat). But the extreme closeups dont do it justice, any mini is going to look worse and pick out any mistakes or anything when a 5mm area is blown up to a 800x600 image on your screen - you want your pics close enough to show the details as a whole, but small enough to hide any imperfections ;)

Yeah, I was in kind of a hurry when I took the pictures, and I didn't realize how bad the face looked until I had sent them. It wasn't shot with a flash (I know better than that, at least), but I have yet to construct a decent lightbox. The model looks really good with the naked eye, but a decent camera magnifies flaws a hundredfold or so.

Thanks guys, you're all much too kind. :) As Thantos said, well done to all who entered, to be honest, it's a great achievement just to get something painted and finished and to have (hopefully) pushed yourself to improve your painting. Great job to all of you.

As others have mentioned I think several entries suffered from difficult photography. There's a fair number of guides out there so I won't repeat that, but it is hard to do. The only method I've found which really works and isn't much of a pain is to put a white piece of paper on a window sill, but close the blinds, so there's no direct light, that's how I took these pics.

Entry A - I think you said somewhere, maybe a little inconsistant in places and maybe needs a bit more attention on the base. Other than that it's hard to see because the flash/harsh light is washing out detail. Well done on a good result though :)

Entry B - Well done! Some little bits and pieces are really starting to come together for you now I feel. The buckle on his chest is particularly excellent I feel, if you can get to that standard everywhere on a mini you'll really be flying!

Entry C - Nice idea, nice basing, crystal is certainly getting there and the black lining/contrast is good, if maybe a little thick in places. You've obviously got good brush control to be doing that, but the surfaces are a bit flat, time to start to shade a bit more perhaps?

Entry D - Another one where the photos are hidding some of your good work. But some great ideas from what I can see, the claw is really nicely shaded, especially on the rectangular digits.

Entry E - As others have discussed, photos are difficult. A good tip someone gave me is not to try and get the camera too close, stuff is high res these days, you can afford to back off and crop the image after. Maybe it's the photos, but her face looked like it was blending into the mini a bit, where really it should be set a little lighter to draw the viewers attention to the focal part of the mini. Good job though, nice to see more WMH too :)

Entry F - Difficult with an old mini and you've done a great job, shading is nice, maybe highlights could go a little further, but basically I feel like you were crippled by the model. Hope you can enter more of these comps whoever you are!

Entry H - another good solid job. Basing is nice and interesting, conversions are sweet, though maybe the tank seal is starting to get a bit big for him.  ;) You're really close to a great mini I think, the metallics just need a little more depth/shading. Which you can easily get with a bit of glazing/shading and then re-highlighting to the gold. Great job!

That was the first contest i have entered in (entry H), and i was absolutely stoked to get a vote since i wasn't expecting much.  Props to everyone who entered (and especially the one guy that voted for me :P)

@Jonagon: Thanks!  I originally thought the tank seal would be too big but i really like the motion it puts the model in.  plus it was the closest thing in reaching distance.  And also congratz on first place!

clix