Warhammer Turkey Creek Anniversary

Speed painting!

I went down to the Knoxville area to partake in the Warhammer Turkey Creek store anniversary event. It's a week long celebration of fun events (schedule listed below).  On the day I went they had a series of speed painting events. The one I took part in was a 15 minute speed paint using Contrast Paints. We got there a few minutes late and the manager was just about to kick things off when Mrs. Neverness asked him if I could still get in. "Sure!" He said enthusiastically, and in I was. 

One of the painting tables. 

We were crammed around two small tables with a mixed assortment of Contrast Paint, palletes and brushes provided by the store. The posting on Facebook said to 'bring a brush and paint' which I did, but I was glad that I didn't need to use them in the end. I had a lot of fun doing this event and I took some risks I might not typically take. Being under the gun to knock it out in 15 minutes was a fun aspect to it but all in all I was happy with the result. 

My finished entry.

In the end there were seven of us who participated in this round. And considering the chaotic nature of the whole thing, some of these turned out surprisingly good. 

Class photo! 

The judges scrutinized the results for a good while but ultimately the picks were made. My Ultramarines guy came in third, a blood covered  Space Wolf came in 2nd and a Warcry guy came in first. 

The scrutinizing.

Prizes were basically dives into the store goody box. 3rd place got one pick, 2nd two picks and 1st got three picks. It was like lanyards and post cards and stuff. I picked a pack of Kill Team objective markers since we can actually use those. But the prizes were not a big deal, it was just all good fun and I got a marine mini out of it which I thought was very cool. 

Swag!

Talking to the winner he showed me some of the techniques he was using with the new Contrast Paints. It was some interesting stuff which convinced me to pick up some more  Contrast paint before I left. We were allowed to keep our miniature, but if you didn't want to the ones left behind were going to become ornaments for this year's store Christmas tree. The winner volunteered his model for the tree after he finished taking some pics of it. So if you go to this Warhammer store this holiday season you just might be able to spot it.

The winner! 

The 2nd place winner was a really friendly guy and he clearly had fun making his Space Wolf miniature* look caked in drying blood. Apparently he does most of his army like this as he likes to think that his Space Wolves tear into their foes in an extremely violent manner. 

Of course, as I stated last month, my main reason for coming down here was to get that Inquisitor model. I have him ordered and will have to come back down in the near future to pick him up. 

This was the schedule of events, which if you're  a local would be a lot of fun to take part in all of it. It's a 4 hour round trip for me so I had to pick the day I thought would appeal to me the most. Here's the schedule for the sake of prosperity:

ANNIVERSARY SCHEDULE!

We're going to have all kinds of fun activities for building, painting, and playing all week-- take a look!

SATURDAY: Kickoff for the One-Week Painting Competition, and the Start Collecting Challenge-- grab something off the shelf and go!

SUNDAY: Zombie Horde. Bring an Age of Sigmar Hero (less than 10 wounds) and see how long you survive the endless horde of undead...

MONDAY: Tank-Off! Bring a Warhammer 40000 Vehicle and blow everything up!

TUESDAY: Speed Painting at 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, AND 6:00-- models provided! Just bring a brush and paints.

WEDNESDAY: Monster Mash! Bring an Age of Sigmar MONSTER and duke it out!

THURSDAY: Combat Patrol Battles! Bring a 500pt Combat Patrol and face-off against any and all comers. 

FRIDAY: Heresy Friday! Bring your Age of Darkness armies and fight for the Emperor or the Warmaster.

SATURDAY: Conversion Competition! Grab anything off the shelf and combine it with the store's bitz box by the end of the day!

SUNDAY: Awards! Judging for the Single Model Painting Competition, the Start Collecting Challenge, and the Conversion Competition. 

Questions? Call the shop or stop by! What are you looking forward to?

 

I wish I could make a trip down on Sunday to see the results of the Painting and Conversion Competitions but I have no doubt these will be posted to FB in the aftermath of this event. 

Thanks to the Warhammer store's manager (Sorry I'm horrible with names!) for hosting and conducting such a fun event!

 

* Blogger won't let me move this pic where I want to put it so here it is to close out this post:

Second Place winner. 

A Spray of Blood

My job takes me to Knoxville TN each week but rarely do I have any free time to do anything fun. Last week was a rare exception and I was able to stop in at the Warhammer store in Turkey Creek. It had been years since I was last there, so I was overdue to pop in.

Welcome back to Turkey Creek!

After having a fun conversation with Mark, the Manager, I got to look thru their stock  of audio/dramas  books but before I could make my selection he invited me over to watch a demo. He was about to show one of the guys how to make blood splatters look more convincing using Citadel's Blood For The Blood God Techincal Paint.

Mark sizes up his target...

He had clearly put some thought into the way blood would splash back on a guy bringing down a heavy axe on a foe, and gave us a pretty convincing theory on why it would splash back in a particular way. So he picked up an already prepared Khorne guy, determined the angle of splash, held up a brush full of Blood For The Blood God Techinical Paint before the miniature, and with a mighty puff blew the paint onto the model.

The splattered berserker.

And with that, it was done! He uses this technique in lieu of a traditional splatter method as it created less splotches and a more 'stringy' effect with the blood. I thought it was nifty and simple myself, and I may try it sometime as I tend to paint the stuff on in a sort of stippling manner which I am usually OK with.

Anyway, just a fun thing I wanted to pass along. It's always fun visiting an official Games Workshop store and to chat with strangers who are as into this hobby as much, if not more, than I am. Hopefully I can make it down there to cover Armies On Parade this year...

Neverness goes to Warhammer

Last weekend, the fiancé and I took a much needed weekend retreat to the Smokys, and on our 2nd day we decided to romp around Knoxville. Knowing of a favorite restaurant that I wanted my lass to try, I googled it's location only to have Google show me, rather prominently, that the place of my search was a block away  from Warhammer.

Warhammer? Games Workshop opened a store in Knoxville? After a more intensive web search I confirmed that yes, indeed, they did! It's only been open for about a month now, and from what I can tell, doing very well! Thus a planned excursion to the Turkey Creek area of the Knoxville metroplex was plotted and carried out.

So by luck, on the day I went, the store was show-casing it's first Armies on Parade event!

I was immediately captivated by the displays and dioramas that were located around the store, and after asking the proprietor, Mik,  for permission to take photos, I immediately began snapping pics. In fact, I was bit too enthusiastic about doing so and took way too many pics, so after some consideration I have decided to show you the highlights from the pics that I took.


This first thing that caught my eye was this impressive Dwarven fortress:

The army was nice, but the fortress that it's mounted on simply overwhelmed me. So many cool details in this thing.

The dwarven statues fascinated me, and I wish I knew where he obtained the dwarf statues or if he made him from scratch. Either way, very cool!

Next up was a scene featuring Chaos daemons vs. the Adeptus Mechanicus.  The models are nicely done though I found the setting was a bit simple compared to some of the other armies on display.

 Next up, here are a few models that seem to follow a Halloween theme. I dig the brashness of the Headless Horseman style jetbike rider.

More Halloween theme: Dwarves in a graveyard!

I spent a long time looking at this next army, perhaps pondering my own neglected Space Wolves?  However, mine aren't nearly as blood soaked as these chaps! I reckon a whole bottle of Blood for the Blood God was used on it!

I looked at the Space Wolf flyer for a long time. I have contemplated getting one of these for a long time now, but have been hesitant about it. I like the way this one turned out, and maybe I may cave sooner than later and finally get one for myself.

This isn't the first Space Wolf Imperial Knight I have seen (online I admit) but seeing this in person was very inspiring! Very nice result here!!!

Next to it was very bright green Necron army!

I particularly admired how he was able to get his green light effects to match the necron rods in the gaus guns. There are a lot of unique elements in this scene, and it was quite awesome!

Another Ad Mec army that was very fun to look at. I was particularly captivated by the multicolored robots..

Next up, Bretonnians! How cool it is to see this flashback to Warhammer 5th Edition and to Perilous Quest too (in fact, some of the card stock is from that campaign set!)

 Age of Sigmar! The models are well done, but the bases almost steal the show from them. Very interesting concept though...

Here is a BIG chaos army! Lots of details going on here,

But I have to save my favorite for last. I shall hold my comments, just look at the Eldar army by Zeke; simply phenomenal:

No doubt that's some nice airbrush work, and the results just speak for themselves! Very cool!

Well done to all who participated, it was a joy letting me, and everyone else, admire your work! I'm not sure I could display my figs like this, I am so paranoid about people touching, breaking or stealing my models, that I commend your bravery in participating and I hope nothing bad happened to any one's models. .

So, while spending my time all google-eyed and fascinated by what I beheld, I saw what the jaded nay-sayers in my local area would probably not expect: A lot of people buying Games Workshop, a lot of people engaging each other about these games, products and the modeling and painting hobby. Indeed there was a about a dozen or so teenagers and young adults feverishly painting armies at the table in the center of the store. It was very cool watching them do this. Mik was tremendously grateful to everyone he encountered and very helpful. There was no dumb questions to be asked, he was there to help and help all, regardless of age or knowledge. Compared to the last GW store I was at, the energy level in this place was just awesome! I hope the Turkey Creek Warhammer Store, and Mik, prosper and stick around in East Tennessee for a very long time!

How could I not be glad to see these old books?

And yes, I picked up some things. An audiodrama that I am eager to listen too still, Warhammer Visions (only the 2nd issue I have ever picked up, but the new size enticed me) and my fiancé got me another box of Fenrisian Wolves (yes, I was inspired by the Space Wolf army!)  And I got a free pen!