etl welcome

[Dantay VI]

Hail & Well met, warrior of Russ!!

 

First of all we would like to thnk you for considering to join  the Wolves on this grand adventure & welcome you to the ETL. We sincerely hope that you will find it both interesting & fun.  As you haven’t taken part in The ETL with the Wolves before, we thought it would be a good idea to put together a small something, to give you some explanation & tips as to what the ETL is

 

For those who have not been involved in a painting competition, hopefully this will help to give you a flavour of what to expect. If you have done a similar competition in the past,  we hope this doesn’t come across as teaching you how to suck eggs

 

 

So what is the ETL?

ETL stands for E Tenebrae Lux. The ETL started out life as a painting challenge put forth by the Dark Angels sub-forum. This has now grown to encompass all the sub-forums into a full on, inter-forum painting competition whereby an individual vows a legal unit (or units) for a particular faction (Space Wolves in our instance) and has to paint them to completion (to your standard, which you alone can decide) within a three month time frame. The faction with the most points painted is crowned the winner earning eternal glory (special signatures, etc) and a year's worth of bragging rights.

 

This is the fifth year of the ETL.

 

 

The ETL V

Captain Semper has already hinted that basic rules will be the same as last year, but he will not tell anyone which date will be used to mark the start of the ETL. However based on previous events we can surmise that:

 

The challenge will start on either 1^st May 2016 and run until 1^st August or it will run 15^th May until the 15^th August.

 

In order to participate in the ETL, your first vow must be made within 1 month of the ETL start date.

 

Maximum vows to be five, maximum of 3000 points per vow, A new one can be made once you have completed the previous one.

 

All models to be a legal Codex entry and WYSIWYG

 

Two pictures must be supplied. An unpainted/primed picture at the start of your vow, as evidence that you have not jumped the gun and a picture of your completed vow. If you have made a vow, but are working on your models in stages for example 4 packs of 10 Grey Hunters, but you plan to do them in batches of 20, a before shot of each batch, and then a final picture of all the models completed will suffice

 

As this is the fifth incarnation of the event, Captain Semper has also hinted he is going to throw a curveball into the event , but as yet, we have no idea what it might be, so we will keep you posted when we find out and what it will mean for you.

 

 

What Can I Do?

Basically, we have up to 3 weeks to prepare ourselves for the challenge ahead. Use the time to plan your vow(s) into manageable chunks and get them assembled. If you can, get them primed in advance.

 

Make your vows manageable: Split the models you want to vow up into small manageable portions and work on them when you can. It takes the pressure off of you and it will give more time to look around and enjoy the creativity around. There is nothing worse than being head down, bum up and painting 24/7, under pressure to hit a deadline and detesting every moment of it.

 

From a team perspective, any uncompleted vows nullify your entire points haul & affect the rest of the Space Wolves overall points total, so small achievable vows are much better than one large daunting vow. We would like to achieve as close to 100% completion rate as possible.

 

Paint all your Thunderwolves/ Fenrisian Wolves/Wulfen as one vow, or split into 2, paint all your vehicles in one vow, troops in another. This will hopefully get you into a production line style of painting and will help you to get through a number of models faster than painting them individually. I know. 

For years I have painted one model at a time and get so discouraged when I see on model don, but a wall of grey plastic/ resin staring at me. Getting into a production line kind ogf groove has really helped keep me motivated and seen me start to work my way through the literal mountain of models sitting in my garage.

 

If you are magnetising, vow the expensive choice! Also, things like hunter-killer missiles count as they are WYSIWYG so add them to your vehicles even if it's via blu-tac!

 

Rumour is that we will be allowed to run Cypher, so raid your bits box for a bolt pistol, plasma pistol and enough parts to make a counts-as Cypher 

 

Pace yourself: real life stuff, such as, exams, weddings, births, looking for a job etc can and most likely will come up at some point during the ETL, so leave yourself a little bit of wiggle room. If you start to get hacked off then take a wee break to recharge the batteries before going again.

 

Remember, the ETL is a marathon not a sprint, so there is no need to go hammer & thong in the first week only to tire yourself out.

 

Never be afraid to ask questions: As an engineer the first thing I was taught, is that there is no such thing as a stupid question. The Space Wolves forum is one of the friendliest on here & if you are struggling with something or are unsure about what can go into a vow etc.. Ask, because there will always be someone out there willing to help you.

 

We are a Team: One of the best parts of the ETL is the melting pot of modellers & painters coming together. Not sure how to paint something? Put it out there. Saw someone use a new technique? Ask how it was done. Want to share something you have learned? Share it.

There may be some Silver Wolves amongst us, but we are never too old to learn & we like new tricks

 

Have fun: Above all this is the most important thing to do. We want this to be really enjoyable for you & something we hope you will want to take part in year after year

 

So lets take up our brushes & like the Wolves which came before us, relish the challenge ahead. For Russ & the AllFather