The Omega Strain is Top 5 in North America!

I DID IT!

After four solid months of work, and many hundreds of hours of work (118 hours in April alone!) on my Omega Strain Genestealer Cult, I succeeded in not only scoring an Inner Circle gold medal at my local store, but also being named top army in Canada, and top 5 in North America!

Games Workshop US HQ made the announcement last Wednesday. It was a nail-biting wait, and they made the reveal by posting photos of the 5 winning armies to their Games Workshop Inner Circle Facebook page:

What is Games Workshop Inner Circle?

UPDATE: Brother Pink and I have since put together a podcast about my experiences in Dallas Texas as the Inner Circle champion for Canada. It gives even more information on what Inner Circle was all about, so you can listen to it here, if you're interested: https://soundcloud.com/xenosalchemist/inner-circle-report-part-1

On Saturday I attended the final judging session of the Games Workshop Inner Circle event, and I'm pleased to report that the Genestealer Cult of the Omega Strain walked away with a GOLD MEDAL!

Receiving my medal from Brando, who might just be my favourite blackshirt.
Don't tell Alphonso.

YAY!

You may have seen the hashtag InnerCircle showing up on your social feeds over the weekend. For anyone outside North America, or those within North America who haven't heard much about this competition, here's the skinny:

Games Workshop's US head office has been running a pilot event called Inner Circle in support of Gathering Storm. It's an army painting competition in much the same vein as Armies on Parade, which happens across the world in October.

However, Inner Circle differs in a couple of ways:

Paint Yoshit Week 8 Update (Squaduary Week 4)

This is the Week 8 update for mine and Brother Pink's Paint Yoshit Challenge, and also happens to be my final update on my progress/participation in Stepping Between Games' Squaduary challenge. To review, here's where we are in my own Squaduary schedule:

Week 1: Assembly
Week 2: Priming and Airbrushing
Week 3: Clean up and details
Week 4: More final details and basing

...and what do I have to show for myself?

I had been hammering away at painting yesterday to have as many models as I could absolutely done for the Squaduary deadline at midnight on February 28th, but then I saw this post from Rob over at Broken Paintbrush about how he'd failed at Squaduary.

Except he hadn't. Not in my eyes, at least. Sure, his Orc Bloodbowl team wasn't based, but they looked pretty great to me!

...which made me realized that I could base the models I had in their current state, and call it done, even though I knew I'd have to go back later and touch up/finish some of their details. So I got out the pin vice and my already-painted bases and set to work!

To review, I took on a VERY AMBITIOUS pledge at the beginning of Squaduary. I'm working towards a tournament deadline at the end of April for my Genestealer Cult, so I thought Squaduary would be the perfect thing to get me ripping through painting most all of my infantry for that tournament force. Here's what that looked like:

All told, that was about 46 models...which is nuts for a challenge where you're supposed to paint a squad. But I had an airbrush, so everything was going to be FINE!

In the end, I wound up completing three squads, for a total of 21 models, which is less than half, but I'm pretty happy with that I DID accomplish.

Completed This Week:

- 6 Aberrants: I'm not really sure why, but I REALLY love the Aberrant models...particularly with their power hammers. Thought there are still some final touch ups to be made, I'm really happy with how these guys came out—especially the one who's setting up to hurl the dynamite. 

Paint Yoshit Week 7 Update (Squaduary Week 3)

This one should be a quick little update as I'm just trucking along with Squaduary and mine and Brother Pink's Paint Yoshit Challenge. To review, here's where we are in my own Squaduary schedule:

Week 1: Assembly
Week 2: Priming and Airbrushing
Week 3: Clean up and details
Week 4: More final details and basing

ALREADY a couple of days into week 4, and the trepidation I had with my progress last week has spilled over into full realization what I will not be finishing nearly as many models as I'd hoped in February!

I guess I need to remind myself that most people are trying to complete 5-10 miniatures in the time I allotted myself to complete nearly 40!

It's all about scale.

At this point I'm pretty confident that I should be able to finish 3 squads: the 10 "unwashed" Neophytes, 5 "shrouded" Genestealers, and 6 Aberrants. Oh, and though this update is posted late, I did actually take the pics on Tuesday.

Completed This Week:

I didn't finish painting anything this week as I'm aiming to polish off a bunch of stuff at the end of February.

In Progress:

MUCH WAS FINICKY PAINTED...though not nearly enough :(

- 6 Aberrants: Started in on their details. They have metalics on them now, and their chitin is all blacked in Secret Weapon Tire black. Waiting on highlighting their reds, painting their chitin, purple vascular tissue, then final details.

Paint Yoshit Week 6 Update (Squaduary Week 2)

This one should be a quick little update as I'm just trucking along with Squaduary and mine and Brother Pink's Paint Yoshit Challenge. To review, here's where we are in my own Squaduary schedule:

Week 1: Assembly
Week 2: Priming and Airbrushing
Week 3: Clean up and details
Week 4: More final details and basing

Starting week 3! And, to be honest, I hoped to have more stuff finished airbrushing by now, but whatever.

Completed This Week:

I didn't finish painting anything this week as I'm aiming to polish off a bunch of stuff at the end of February.

In Progress:

MUCH WAS PRIMED AND AIRBRUSHED.

That includes:

Paint Yoshit Week 5 Update (Squaduary)

So, though I'm meant to be in a sporesacs-to-the-wall painting race with Brother Pink for our Paint Yoshit Challenge from January until the end of March, I took a break from painting this week to BUILD BUILD BUILD! I'm using Stepping Between Games' Squaduary challenge to get a PILE of stuff done for my Genestealer Cult build.

Squaduary sets a schedule for participants, which looks like this:

Week 1: Assembly: 1st – 7th
Taking them off the sprues or putting them on bases, what ever way you get them ready for paint.

Week 2: Basic painting: 8th – 14th
This is your basic coating and blocking in colours.

Week 3: Clean up and details: 15th – 21st
Cleaning up your colours and picking out all the bits to make the mini stand out.

Week 4: Basing: 22nd – 28th
Adding the base or just painting it up.

All that is meant to be for ONE squad. However, I'm a masochist, so I'm trying to stick to that schedule for as many infantry models as I can in one month.

As you can see from the date of this post, I'm already behind :P

My own version of the schedule looks like the following:

Week 1: Assembly
Week 2: Priming and Airbrushing
Week 3: Clean up and details
Week 4: More final details and basing

Completed This Week:

Nothing was painted this week, but I'll outline what I completed construction on below.

In Progress:

A PILE of infantry. See below.

Started:

So, though some of them were already built, this is what I built this week:

Paint Yoshit Week 4 Update

Whelp. That's January done, which means four weeks of mine and Brother Pink's Paint Yoshit Challenge have passed, and the amassed group above is all the progress I made in January. In that photo we have the Neophytes I completed in Week 1, the Acolytes that took until end of Week 3 (BLOODY. CHITIN.), and on the right the Enforcers I just polished off at the end of Week 4.

And, as we have yet to see a second update from Brother P., I may just be out to a phenomenal lead! I'll keep my tentacles crossed.

Completed This Week:

- 12 Genestealer Neophytes, which I'm calling Enforcers. Though it was a pain to paint inside the hoods once they'd been airbrushed, the fact that I airbrushed large swathes of these models made them pretty quick. However, I should have masked and airbrushed the black as well since line highlighting it was a pain and came out a bit rough on a couple of the dudes. Here are some individual shots of the squad.

Paint Yoshit Challenge: Week 3 Update

I have a little more progress to report this week, but I haven't been absolutely slaying this challenge as I'd expected to (apparently real life demands to be lived; who knew?). However, in my ridiculous way, I've taken up ANOTHER challenge to keep my hobby mojo running. More on that below...

Completed This Week:

- 6 Acolytes and 3 Neophytes! YEAH! They still need to be glued on to their pre-painted bases, but I was pretty happy to finish painting them last night!

Paint Yoshit Challenge: Week 2 Update

Soooo, after feeling good about my first week of this challenge, which was bolstered by two solid days of work afforded by new years, I feel like this week's progress was more realistic.

Completed This Week:

Nothing :(

In Progress:

- The same 3 Neophytes and 6 Acolytes I started last week. I've resigned myself that I HATE EDGE HIGHLIGHTING CHINTIN! Clearly this is why I had such a long hiatus after painting Tyranids for so long. I am not looking forward to the fact that I still have 20-some Acolytes to paint for my army, all of them as chintinny as these bastards. That being said, I am pretty happy with the way the red accents and teal of their chintin is popping.

Yoshit Ain't Getting Painted Week 1 Update

Hi everbody.

Brother.P here, and I'm an idiot. We're a week into the challenge that I proposed, and for the first five days I had nothing to show. Mr. Pink was kicking my ass without breaking a sweat.

He suggested we post an update after the first week and I wanted to reach across the world and smack him... instead I hit the paints.

Paint Yoshit Challenge: Week 1 Update

The Paint Yoshit Challenge was suggested by Brother Pink. It is a race between the two of us to see who can paint more minis between January 1st and March 31st. I'm happy to report that, at the end of my first week of the challenge, I'm off to a pretty strong start!

Inspired by my Instagram buddy VulkanHesten, I also succeeded in doing at least one hour of painting every day!  I'm hoping to keep this up for all of January, but we'll see how it pans out.

Further, I signed up for my first ever tournament, which is pretty huge as I never play. However, Brother P. and the dude who beat my Haemonculus Coven at Armies on Parade both assure me that my conversion and painting chops, added to the crazy tactics of the cult, should serve me well at the tourney. Right now it's mostly serving as added motivation for delivering on our Paint Yoshit Challenge.

Completed this week:

- 7 Neophytes, which I had previously gotten to minimum standard to play a game of kill team.

For these guys I experimented with Object Source Lighting (is that what it's called?), adding highlights to their shoulders and guns as if the shoulder lights on their mining armour were illuminated. It began as a flight of fancy, but morphed into something else as I obsessively blended black to grey to white.

I did it as a laugh, and it turned out way better than I'd expected! I even went so far as to wash in shadows on the opposite sides of their faces from the lights!

Other progress:

Paint Yoshit Challenge

Hi Everybody!

It's Brother.P  (brother of Mr.Pink)

If I'm good at one thing, its driving my brother crazy. Last time I challenged him, he put me in my place and got a bunch of Genestealer Cult miniatures painted, and won some Gal Vorbak for his troubles. When I was given a similar challenge to paint Blood Angel Scouts, I majorly failed... Now I'm stuck buying my own Word Bearer Shoulder pads.

Anyways, this year I've got a new competition. From January until the end of March, Mr.Pink and I will compete to see who can get more models finished. This competition is just two brothers trying to finish the most models to put the other to shame.

last model I painted before this comp. starts

Announcements: Winners and Workshops

Howdy Folks,

I've now gotten in touch with both winners of the 10,000 View Giveaway, and they've both come back with their model choices, so I guess I'm good to announce them here.

Winners!
Krewl Rain from Warpshadow was our first winner, and she has asked me to whip up a Tyranid Prime for her, armed with bonesword, lashwhip, and some other mystery weapon. I feel rather guilty about it, but I haven't, actually, made a Tyranid Prime since the codex came out, despite having all kinds of decent ideas for them. This project will be a good kick in the rump to get those ideas down in a model.

Next up, Natfka, from Faeit 212 won the second prize, and he has requested that I craft him a convincing Asdrubael Vect (can you believe I've been calling him Absurdrael all these years? how fitting is that?) stand-in as the only current Games Workshop model for that powerful character is pewter and wears a funny hat. I've already envisioned the dark lord striding down the deck of his Dias of Destruction with his Scepter of the Dark City held aloft. I'm taking this as an opportunity to experiment with a non-combat pose, and I'm hoping that I can make Vect look at once menacing and regal. I'm excited about making the Scepter, as it should be the focal point of the model, but I'm also keen for the opportunity to really pimp out Vect's ghostplate armour.

I can't wait to start on both models, and I'll surely be posting progress here.

Workshops!
I'd also like to plug a Workshop that Simon Elsen (also known as Terrorfex on Warpshadow or Katan on 5th Dimension) is organizing for September. He's taking a step down the road of the Massive Voodoo kids and is offering his first ever painting workshop. If you're wondering why you should want to join Simon's workshop, you need look no further than the GW What's New blog, which he has been frequenting of late, or his galleries over on 5th Dimension.

The workshop is taking place in Germany, so if that is where you hail from, or if you can get there without too much trouble, check out the details over on 5th Dimension. So far they've only been posted in German, so I hope you're fluent.

10,000 Views Giveaway Announcement

The results are in, and I'd like to congratulate the two lucky winners of my first-ever Commission Giveaway contest. They were drawn earlier today by a special guest, and you can see the results without further ado in the following video:



If you were lucky enough to be selected, please get in touch with me and let me know what kind of commission you'd like me to make, provided that it falls within the aforementioned guidelines. If you weren't chosen this time, then don't worry as I'm sure I'll be doing another giveaway some time soon.

I can't wait to see what kind of projects the winners come up with...

That's All, Folks!

That's it; that's all. The window of opportunity for the 10,000 view giveaway has now closed. Thanks to all of you who emailed and commented and linked to the blog. I hope everyone managed to get their comments and emails in on time. As I'm about to go away for an extended long weekend, I may not be able to draw the two winners until next week sometime, but we'll see how things shake out. I'm really excited to see who wins and see what kind of diabolical things they come up with for me to make for them.

If you missed this opportunity, I'm pretty sure that I'll be doing another giveaway in the near future based on how much interest there has ben in this one, so keep on pointing people to the blog, and we'll see how long it takes to reach another milestone.

25,000 views? 50,000 views? Who knows?!

10,000 View Commission Giveaway

UPDATE: The 10,000 View Giveaway is now closed and I've shut down the comments for this post. Thank you for your entries, and I look forward to the next milestone giveaway I'm able to run.

Folks, it happened sometime Monday night: Modern Synthesist broke 10,000 views. Now, I know there are blogs out there that are viewed a heck of a lot more than that, but it's a momentous sort of a milestone for me now, shortly after this little bloggerino celebrated its first birthday.

There are certain folks I should thank for getting the Modern Synthesist name out there:

Warpshadow - The crazy, tentacle-saluting kids who have been with me since the beginning (nearly 10 years ago, EEK!), commenting on all my Nid projects and helping to make them perfect. If you've been looking for a positive, constructive, talented group of Tyranid players and modelers, you should check out the forums on Warpshadow.

The Dark City - I've lurked around the Dark City for a while, but I only began posting there recently. A more wretched hive of scum and villainy you will never find, so if you're into Dark Eldar, check the forum out. The folks over there have been wonderfully complimentary of my modest progress on my Coven units.

Eye of Error - LuckyNo.5's fantastic conversion blog. If you haven't seen it, you need to check it out. He's got some great Dark Eldar projects, and he's currently working on some Undersea Chaos Marines, with all kinds of sweet diving gear and TENTACLES! Also, he's come up with a clever Grotesques conversion that I love second only to my own (in fact, his may be a bit more elegant than mine).

Faeit 212 - I've been following Natfka's 40K Rumours blog for about a year now, and he always keeps me in the know. I'm pretty sure it was him adding me to his list of blog affiliates that pushed me over the 10,000 mark last night, so I'm glad that we're talking about sharing some of my modeling content on his blog as it's the least I could do to repay him for the favour. What's more, if you've come here from Faeit, this post will be your chance to possibly be rewarded for your hard work!

To say thanks to all you fine folks who roll up here so frequently, as well as to those who have just stumbled across this blog, I thought I should do...something. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I'll jump in with both feet and probably bite off more than I can chew:

Mr_Pink's First Ever Commission Giveaway!