Tournament Gamers Painting Masterclass 9: John Swallow – Necrons

Tournament Gamers Painting Masterclass 9: Andrew Taylor – John Swallow

So when I was at the Caledonian uprising the other week and I wondered over to my table, I noticed this shining crypt type thing on the table. Did someone leave this from a Warhammer tournament? Is this some sorta massive LOS scenery? No this was the scenic base of John Swallow. It’s rare to see sceneric bases these days especially in tournaments where they aren’t needed for points. It certainly was eye catching…. I caught up with Master Swallow and this is what he had to say.

1. Tell me about yourself and how you got into Warhammer

John Swallow, deputy head of a primary school. I got into 40k as a child, dropped it during uni and picked it up again through a colleague at work. Met many people through the hobby and loved it; one is even going to be best man at my wedding in a couple of months so 40k has given a lot back to me too.

2. Why Necrons?

I have a Necron army as they were my second ever army. I rolled with the monoliths and destroyer wing trying to win games in my early years and not really succeeding. with the release it was my first ever opportunity to get out the old models and see what they could do, and low and behold, I don’t use any old models in my new list apart from my destroyer lord, lol, so much for use out of the old models.

 3. What drives you to continue painting?

I enjoy painting in bursts so what drives me is joy. it took a long time developing my painting skills and I found this much harder than learning how to play the game but I wanted to be a rounded hobbyist who painted all of his own things, yeah I have bought pro painted items but I like the pride of fielding all of my own units and having the opponent say "hey, they look nice, well done" (as sad as it is) that is like an auto win for me now :) . in the past I have won man tournaments, 1 days 2 dayers, small and large and even an old school games workshop GT heat with my ever loved Eldar so painting was the next challenge for me and recently I get nominated for best army and have won it twice now with my Dark Eldar and Necrons.

 4. Do you find that taking armies to tournaments restricts what you can do with your army painting wise?

I can’t see any restrictions really, as I always buy what should (lol) play well and paint it up. the only thing I find annoying are my display bases, my dark Eldar is sunken in and all the models have their set places so that heavily restricts me which is why my Necron army stands on top of the base in order for me to swap models easily.

5. What was your toughest challenge in this army?

Toughest challenge was the free hand cutting out of the pastacard, but the Olympics saw me through it. It involved a lot of trial and error so patience and Stella were key components in painting this army.

 6. What painting project is next for you?

Next project is a forge world Eldar army! Very expensive and has cost me 500 in base models, so I wanna do a great paint job on it to reflect its personal value. not telling you what the models are though as it’s gonna blow the meta game apart!!!! Hopefully and probably not.