Armies on Parade – this year’s project
As mentioned on Friday, Games Day season will soon be upon us, and one of the latest additions to the program is Armies on Parade. Last year was the first time that we ran the competition on a global scale, and it took off like an Ork Stormboy with a particularly powerful rokkit strapped to his back. Not only did we receive more entries in every country than we expected to, but the quality of the entries exceeded all our expectations. Of course, now the bar has been set, we're expecting it to be raised this year, too.
Some of you may recall that last year a few of us in the office also took part in Armies on Parade, partially for the fun of joining in, but also to show you how to make your own display. This year, rather than pester them all to get an Armies on Parade board done (they do have jobs to do, you know), I'm going to take the reins and show you what I'm doing every couple of weeks - partially as inspiration for you lot reading the blog, but also as motivation to keep myself on track. Incidentally, if you're also working on an Armies on Parade board, then why not send in some pictures to us at What's New Today or upload them to Flickr, as we would love to see how everyone else is getting on with their projects.
The first thing I did was decide what my display will (hopefully) look like when it's complete. This was something that none of us did last year, and it left us at a distinct disadvantage when it came to planning out where the models would go on the board, how much space they would take up, and how they would interact with the scenery around them. This year I was well prepared:
The inspiration for my display came from several quarters. I've always been a massive fan of Space Hulk - the cramped confines and the desperate nature of the whole boarding-a-derelict-ship-and-not-knowing-how-many-aliens-are-on-it scenario is something that really appeals to me. I was also inspired by the Forge World video for the Zone Mortalis, which really got me thinking about using the board sections as a display table. In the end I decided not to, preferring to work with the Warhammer 40,000 buildings sets, but that's where the idea started. I'm also a huge fan of the Imperial Fists, and I've been desperately trying to paint an army of them since I was 14, but to no avail. This time I will succeed.
The plan is to represent a force of Terminators having just boarded a derelict vessel floating in space. There will be three squads lead by a Captain, and the display will capture them about five minutes into their mission. The four corridors out of the room will be full of alien body parts, but no complete aliens - this is about the Terminators after all. Make sure you check back later to see the first models that I've been working on.
