Hello everybody and welcome to another army review, so very excited to be sitting down and doing one of these again So if you weren't around for the last one as you may or may not have heard As it stands right now, there are not a lot of events happening, which is unfortunate. I know I miss them but a lot of people did a lot of hard work getting their models ready for These events that are now unfortunately You know not happening because of our the global situation and so last time for adept con I did an army review of some folks that had that we're going to submit their armies and so the TO Brendan Melnick of Brew City Brawl Reached out and asked if I would do one for his because Brew City is a great tournament It's meant to be something where people can unwind put some crazy stuff on the table and really have some fun and Unfortunately because of the current situation it got called off this year Although obviously it is hoping to be back in 2021 if you're interested in the event you can I'll link Brendan's Twitter down below you can follow there and you can find everything related to the event on that But what we're going to do today is go through some of these folks armies As this is the second time I'm doing it I actually thought ahead and asked people to submit like certain shots and certain format So we're we're much better aligned this time I wasn't expecting to do another one of these so soon, but hey the world just works out So we'll see how long this continues and how long we can't have events But I guess this is your consolation prize for not having events. I do a lot of these As I said before on the last one This is something that you regardless of how the world goes in the future as we return to normal Whatever that looks like on the other side of this I do want to keep doing this because I know there's a lot of people out there who are Working hard and they they paint up their whole armies, but then they might not ever actually go to an event And so you know They don't have a chance to share that out with people and this seems like a really cool way to do that So with that being said and the introduction What we're gonna do is I'm gonna look over all these armies and review them as though I was paint judging the event So I'll I'll share them my thoughts kind of how I would evaluate them what I like what I see as Opportunities for growth and improvement that sort of thing. Okay So With that preamble out of the way, let's get into it. Shall we all right? So we start off here with Chris Grafton and Chris has an IDK force. That's obviously extremely Heavily heavily heavily heavily converted, which I dig So we can see the the full collected force here and as we go forward in the images. We'll see a few more Close-ups so this I believe is his tide caster in the center and then his two characters like his soul Scriers or whatnot that they are obviously he's I'm not sure what the original Many is that the tide caster is obviously that's a very small guy on a big base and then the tide casters are Bretonian Sorceresses from from that time period or damsels, I guess would be the appropriate term Are there prizes for the winner? No, sadly, there are not Kudos there are kudos to be had all the kudos you want There will be lots of kudos and I will tell you which one I would I would sort of pick overall If I was doing it So certainly I will be giving out like a a Vince's pick which you can redeem for All the Vince bucks you want Vince bucks are not redeemable for any other product service Or anything anywhere in the world in any way shape or form are non-transferable into any other currency It may not be utilized for anything of actual value, but nonetheless you get some so there you go So very cool characters there we can see the nemati conversions These all very much remind me of the like Tilly and border states the kind of border princess type of thing There was a dogs of war unit that This reminds me of as well. I think it was like I'll move Dars desert dogs. It kind of has that feeling to it, right? And then so but these are these are obviously really impressive Fun conversions of all these different elements. They look, you know, obviously building on the existing base of these these these guys Here's the eel riders So again nice conversions there like the variation on the on the the eels for coloration So looking at these and talking about sort of where do we see opportunities? What do we like? Okay? Well, I always like I'm not sure Jason had said in the comments by the way, not even a high five I can give you a virtual high five. I'm not sure we want to be high fiving in person anymore Maybe talk to me in like maybe 12 to 18 months and then we'll see what we can do for high fives But you can have like a you can have a virtual high five or a distance five So looking at this army the things I really like are obviously the conversions and the theme it looks really nice It has a good Narrative and story to it overall There's a couple interesting issues that I want to sort of draw people's attention to and some of them might surprise you So let's kind of we'll jump into the individual shots So I want to start on the characters because that's actually I feel like where we've got sort of the most opportunity The first thing I'll say is Chris's army is very well painted I like the the things I really love are There's a lot of tonal variation in a lot of the pieces the paint is applied very cleanly and effectively the The things like stone have a lot of color to them like you look at those There's a lot of different browns and greens and stuff like that night This is something I bang on about all the time is that if you're gonna paint stone, please don't make it just gray That is never interesting in any way So let's talk about the the main character. This is actually where I think the weakest spot of the army is like I understand what Chris was going for in the tide caster But I honestly and I'm not sure this would super negatively impact it But it's it's something that would would be uncomfortable to me. There's two things about the main character that bother me The first is Certainly in this event is not is very friendly to these kinds of proxy So that's not I'm not judging it based on any kind of gaming criteria But in general when you have a small fig that's on a huge base like this It just feels like You're missing something I understand that, you know, we have to use the big base because that's what the that's with the big wave riders are on and I well, that's very nice Anthony said he'll send a very nice printed piece of terrain to the best overall in the runner-up Okay, I'm hey, I'm down with that. That's a wonderful That is a wonderful wonderful offer. So there you go We'll we'll make that we'll make that happen and So the yes, you're you're the idol on thank you. Thank you very much. I couldn't remember the name of the thing I was gonna go with wave writer because that sounds more fun But my my issue with it is if you're gonna do a Singular guy on a big base if he's gonna shrink down that small to where you want it You want a normal human clearly Chris's instinct here was You know, this is sort of the the leader of the army This is kind of the person who's put together this this sort of tillion border prints type force and You know, that's if you wanted to be a human not a giant magical being writing on a cloak made of a sea wave So I'm cool with that, you know sort of thematically My issue with it is there's so much of the base. That's not doing anything I would be okay with this if you went to the direction of a Catechorus or a the st. Catherine thing out of 40k where it's almost more of a singular model as a diorama, right? So if we had some other and this guy is the leader of the army So why not have if these are sort of a mercenary force or if he's going for something like that? Maybe we have a pay master on there as well Maybe we have somebody who's taking notes about how the different units are performing think like catacross Right, and I think you could have but you could have other figures in there If that's not the idea have other dioramic aspects, right? Like other figures other things other points of visual interest I like the addition of the little pond right here But it is still in the end a tiny figure that could easily fit on frankly like a 25 mil base sitting on a hundred mil base That's tough Secondly always be careful on including basically like Non-painted elements in an otherwise painted thing this big thing that is somebody in the comments that looks kind of like twizzlers Which I agree it does kind of look like twizzlers, you know, I Cool, I get sort of what you're going for here with the this kind of portal arch Structure, but I would do more with that visually. It's detracting not adding to have this big singularly colored thing here That's just kind of mildly glossy The other thing I would say is that be careful with these girls are right on the edge Be careful when you put people up on bases. I know I love tall bases. I'm well known for it I love them, but there's a very simple rule the base cannot be taller than the thing Okay, and I if you look at my stuff despite all me being off and on big bases. I never break that rule Okay, even my RK on who's on a house. He is still taller than the house Right so with single figs like this you want to be careful You're not there, but you're this girl is pretty close. So you want to be careful with stuff like that now These are honestly that the main troops are honestly some of my favorite parts of the army I think the highlighting here is exactly where I'd want to see it I think the the paint application stuff is really clean The conversions are really nice. These are are great, right? These are absolutely fantastic Dig them just I absolutely dig this stuff. So this is great The eels also very nice. I love that we didn't go for a singular color for all the eels I have no problem with that people focus too much on consistency I think to the detriment of art and having the eels be slightly different colored here and different packs different types You know colors and groups of eels Those are that's a great choice makes the unit more visually compelling I love the patterns and things like that that we've put on the eels here. So I think that's really nice I think where we've got some opportunity is throughout the army some of the steel and metals look a little flat So adding some more color and variation to those I think would be good Same with a little bit of the bone some of the bone Elements like his little conch horn and some of the white elements like that They have the the sort of turbines that are on their head or whatever Are just a little bit flatter than I would like your the the coloration on the other pieces is Is stronger than it is on the whites, which makes sense. It's a very difficult color to highlight So I understand I'm just saying I think that's probably the weaker element of the army The only other element I would point out is that the basing is kind of boring So when we look at everything It's not bad. I like all of the the the rocks and the sand and we've got some tufts It's fine It's not super selling me on anything and I'd love it Especially on the eels is where I notice it more than on the foot troops The foot troops it actually doesn't bother me as much because they're taking up more of the base The eels being so big and off of the Off of the base gives you a lot more room to play with and I would have loved to see a little bit more stuff going on there Like you did the little eddy pool up here like little pools or You know could be stagnant water could be running water could be Skulls could be discarded weapons could be any of 100 things you pick the thing that fits your narrative, right? But I think that uh, that's one of the things I would like to see but overall this is a really great army So well done chris Okay Next up we've got chuck more Let's bring chuck's army up. There we go Okay, so chuck uh bringing out his daughters And of course, uh chuck is famous for his daughter's army. This was a big love of him led by tay rathy, obviously And you know chuck is famous for having he's approaching I think 250 witch elves now So that's just an outrageous number. Most of those are the old metal witch elves because he's uh a crazy person but uh, it's a good example of You know, if you just keep working on something little by little You can get a whole bunch of stuff done Uh and So let's go ahead and look. We've got two more shots of the army here Uh, obviously one of the things that's great about chuck's army is he didn't use all of the same, uh components So that is to say all of his cauldrons don't just have the statue of cane on the top for example He has different, uh Statuary that's been converted like over here. We have old tyrian who was of course the avatar of cane and so is the is the is the statue of cane here And uh, you can see how we have different elements. I'm sorry. That one's tyrian. Which one's that one? That's old I'm not sure which one that is tyrian's over on this side. Sorry Uh, there he is Uh, and then as well, of course the blood racks and and the integration of the yanari and so much like that So really great conversions all around. Uh, lots of fun stuff Uh, I think chuck my uh, my main push for you looking at your army Would be just a few things and that would be especially on your centerpiece models to give a little more attention To things like tonal variation So specifically with marathi is where I notice it the most she has lots of areas that are quite Flat in their color, especially like her skin The front plates of her belly, you know that kind of stuff And Those elements just feel like they could use a little more highlighting a couple more layers something like that And chuck much as what I said to you with your slaneshi force. I reviewed last time For adepticon, uh, I would also point out that I would love to see you do more with basing I do feel chuck that looking over your armies your biggest area for opportunity as you go forward Is to put a little more love and care into your bases Uh, it it's something I definitely take note of when I'm judging an army Uh, because a great paint job on a boring base Uh, it just it detracts from the overall work, right? So that's one of the things I would say Uh, beyond that, I think yes focus chuck on some more layering like things like your reds You know adding a little bit more of that with your skin tones adding some deeper shading Reds and purples and stuff like that. I think we'll really bring your your your army up a notch But overall, this is a gorgeous force. Uh, chuck has just an unbelievably beautiful Uh massive truly massive Army of daughters of kane and it's great to be able to share it here. So I do hope that's helpful chuck and uh, I look forward to uh Seeing these girls again on the table someday. I've only gotten a chance to play chuck I think once in all of our time. So As friends, but he's a great guy and obviously he runs nova, which we're all hoping will still the nova tournament Which we're all hoping will somehow happen We'll see what that happens there Okay, next up we have dave Nordstrom And dave is bringing us a nergly force as you can see here immediately Uh, we start out with the big, uh, tum, tumerkin tum, tumer, I don't know how you say this guy's name It's tumerkin's horde whatever, uh, and so we've got him on top of his weird beast here Uh, we've got some nice blight kings with some integration of the storm cast elements It is funny. I've seen a couple people, uh do this Uh Ray. Oh, I'll pause here razor tree asked does a great base does a great basing scheme enhance a mediocre paint job? Yes, a thousand percent absolutely Absolutely Yep It does a lot You can sell a mediocre paint job with an amazing base And it will land much much harder. Yes, absolutely Uh, to the point where it will make the paint job seem stronger Okay, so yep, uh, it it makes a difference now Obviously your perfect case scenario is both are good, right? And ultimately if you ask me which one's going to win Well, a better painted miniature with an average base is going to come out over a mediocre painter miniature with an amazing base Chances are it'll fall toward the better painted miniature. That is what we're on about here But the a great base will absolutely enhance even a mediocre paint job. Okay, so there you go Uh, all right, so to continue on then, uh with Dave here So he's given us some really nice, uh, really nice shots of of timurkin and of his I think this is his, um Uh The nergal character that bubbles out a five up save whose name I can never remember, but yeah, it's this guy His effective the nergal lord on demonic mount Uh, harbinger of decay. We got there. We got there. I got that before anybody said in the chat. I just want to say that Okay, uh, so overall this is really cool. I like the big converted sort of nerglish portal I think that's really neat And uh, I yeah, I dig this army one of the fun things about nergal is that you can be gross You can use a lot of textures. You can use things you wouldn't normally get to use A lot which is very cool.  This is the fun of nergal and so I like seeing all of that brought out here In a cool way. I want to actually jump over to the blight kings because that's going to kind of be a good element for me to talk about where I see your areas of opportunity here, Dave So the number one thing I would say for you is Uh, much like I said previously and this is a pretty common theme Sell me a little more on the basis like some static grass and some mud I mean, this is a nergal force. Are they turning the ground to disease where they walk? One would assume so right that they bring the pestilence of the disease with them So give me some representations of that. Give me even if it's just puddles of mud not puddle of mud the early 2000s Bad metal band or a rock band or whatever you feel that they should fit into. I just not good, uh, but the Uh, but actual like puddles or especially, you know, just get yourself some nergal's rot make some little puddles That's a good trick Have some skulls have some stuff have like Little elements that tell me they are the harbingers of this kind of of grandfather nergal's blessing, right? Now on the elements themselves, I like the the little conversions. They're used sparingly but interestingly so I dig that Uh, one of the things though, I would say is I would love to see a little bit more Uh variation and wear and tear Nergal is Doesn't nergal people don't take good care of their stuff It's your chance to really get out the rust and the crust and go to town And when I see all of the different brass and copper and gold effects and I don't see any oxidation or weathering when I see the the The steel and I don't see really enough rust like they've got some brown tones in them But I'd love to see some really these things these weapons are pitted as all get out, right? I mean rust has eaten away at these and so I would love to see Uh You know that really brought to the fore through some extreme Weathering and stuff like that that helps really sell a nergal force when you see that kind of stuff The other thing I would say is on things like the skin give me a little more color Total variations a challenge all throughout here, but the places where it jumps out to me the most Is the skin which I'd love to see more green tones purple tones red tones That's especially good for bloated flesh But I'd also love to see the horns like the the you have various bone elements in here Almost all these guys have some kind of horns very common to have horns and nergal And I would love to see those have much more in the way of transitions on them I think that would sell The whole effect a lot stronger Okay So but very cool force, uh, and I dig the heck out of actually seeing tumerkin On the table tomerkin. How do you say his name? Uh, this guy All right Uh, I hope you don't ever come to this channel for pronunciation guides because that is not going to end well Okay, so next up we have, uh, george Oh boy, I'm gonna say tacic Pt a c ek. I'm gonna call that tacic. I assume the p is silent But who knows? uh, so He brings us a fire slayer force So you can see we still got a few figs that he was hoping to finish up for the event But I suspect they didn't get fully painted because he wasn't pushing himself knowing that the event was canceled We we've got a couple people who have a few figs. They didn't get painted. That's okay We're just gonna kind of ignore those and are judging and assume that for the purposes of the event You know, they would have they would have went into hurry up offense mode and got him painted when they knew the event wasn't happening because of Of our situation, you know, they probably lost a little bit of their hobby mojo and that's all right We won't we're not going to hold that against anybody So this is a great force. Um, very nice lava bases very uh striking nice bright orange colors Uh the I especially like your treatment of the Uh terrain piece in the back. Uh, I think that gold looks really nice I think the fires going up into this nice dark black smoke looks really good So I think you sold that effect. Well, uh, I like the lava bases on the Uh, the foot troops a little better than I like the lava bases on the Uh on your your magma droths and that's only because the Magma droths feel a little bit like they're just standing on cork in the middle of the lava Like we didn't do enough to kind of disguise that that's cork by having some lava up on top by doing, uh More pitting and and texturing over it Uh, you don't ever want to just sort of see cork On your bases. That's a thing I see a lot and I really wish it would stop and I get it I I have older armies where I'm just as guilty of it. So, you know We all we all do it, uh at some point, but we can we can go beyond So I'd love to see a little more texturing variation in there You know make the lava flowing up onto there in some degrees have it more connected have places where it's bubbling That kind of stuff. I think is a good Step there. I will say I do like very much that you capture two magma droths very distinctly colored You didn't do them the same So I do like that, uh like one being more Looking like cooled lava and one being more hot fire. So I actually think that's a really nice touch again Don't overvalue consistency having some different visual markers like that in your army is actually something that I evaluate Uh, quite strong than I'm looking at me because it makes it more visually compelling from farther away If all I can see is a big suite of one color, it's less interesting than seeing oh if I see some different colors I'm like, okay. I'll go check that out, right? And then it becomes about execution Uh, I think also on the mohawks. I'd love to see a little deeper color down at the base of the mohawks They're very nice. They're very orange. I'd love to see the base kind of of the mohawk here Go a little bit deeper and darker to really push that contrast on the mohawks themselves Uh, but overall, I think this is a very cool force. Uh, I certainly dig it and uh, I think that this uh Uh is pretty great So well done george Okay, next up we've got jack, uh, coward who brings us another nergal force We've got uh and and and his kitchen as well And set him up on It's a nice countertop. He got there. I like that. It's probably it's a nice island. I like a good island in the kitchen Uh, good backsplash too At any rate, let's uh, let's look at the army itself We've got a little bit of overexposure, but we will go through it. Nonetheless, we've got some different pictures here So there we had, uh, sorry, let's go back and look at lotkin our our old the brother's a galate Uh, and over here we have rotigus, obviously And then here we've got a little bit more of the uh, the combined force with his blight kings and some of the other elements such as the nergal trees in the background So, uh, a couple different elements I would I would say in looking at these so first off I do like how much you're going for it on the bases I dig that, uh, a lot of different texture and and elements and stuff you're using so that's cool Uh, do be careful when you use a lot of elements like that that you shouldn't ever put unpainted stuff on your base I include like tufts and everything like that. You should always paint everything Even if it just means you put a wash over it, maybe a little dry brush And that's what I would recommend here with a lot of this kind of muck foliage that you've used It's cool, but it's too monotone Uh, there's it doesn't feel like it's in scale because it's all sort of one color So just make getting some washes, you know, get out some agrax or some athonian camo shade or something like that And just kind of slop some of that on there And then maybe do a light dry brush with a soft brush over top a little bit with some like an ivory and boom You're done and you've done a huge amount of work there. Okay The other thing I would warn you against is be careful with shininess Glockens real glossy and that's because we used I suspect like washes all over him And I can see that some of these guys have that same glossiness You do want to avoid that especially on something that's like natural Flesh you don't want Glocken to be shiny. It's going to sort of distract from what you're aiming at Uh The other thing I notice is on the center pieces. So let me go over to Let's go over to Rodigus. Oops. Yeah, we'll go over to Rodigus. Here we go. Okay. So both he and Glocken suffer from sort of the same challenge Uh, in general when I'm looking at an army, I am much more forgiving on the rank and file troops Especially if it's a thing you've got to have a large number of like I look for pink cleanliness I want to see tonal variation I want to see all that but if it's not up to an 11, I understand when it comes to, you know 30 plague bearers or or 100 clan rats or something like that, right? There's only so much time We all have in the day. Let's be reasonable here But when it comes to the centerpiece models, that's the place where I'm going to look and really want to see that You put the the love and care in there. So you should always be spending more time with your Um With your centerpiece models than you are with your Rank and file troops and here I see there's a lot of opportunity in the skin for again more tonal variation more stuff Where we're working in greens and deeper greens and purples and more red tones There's a lot of bruising and pits and and boils and stuff on the skin and those aren't really picked out So just paying attention to that detail and really Really using everything that's given to you on the model would be my best piece of advice for you So but thanks for sharing jack very cool Okay, next up we've got james nelson James is bringing us here. We'll screw about there we go. Uh, james has a lot of crazy stuff going on Uh I'm going to be honest and I assume that he was going for Some kind of city's force or something like that is probably what it is I don't know I wasn't told what the armies are So i'm going to assume a city's force Uh, because it's guys writing cold ones and I see some chradron overlords and other stuff like that So it kind of feels like a city's force to me So obviously we've got a lot of unpainted elements in there, but there's a lot of conversions So what i'll what i'll just kind of talk about james is When you're when you're going for a highly, you know converted force Uh Because I suspect the things in the back right are his gyro bombers is what i'm thinking I think Um Okay, good. I was right tempest I yes nailed it. Okay, good At any rate when you're when you're going for conversions like this, it's it's great to have a theme Uh, and it's cool to to to do all that When you're using a lot of different figures like you are here Okay, where we've got some organic stuff and then we've got the ko ships and we've got the you know Biplanes as our gyro bombers and all that kind of thing Um when you're working on these different elements altogether Try to find some kind of visual cue that's really tying everything together right, uh like That is to say you have some Pistol ears and you've got some probably what are demigriffs and gyro copters and shadow warriors and all this stuff And that's cool. I like all of these elements in an army But they need to have some kind of visual signifier that they all belong together And that's what's kind of lacking here other than yes, there's kind of some red That's scattered about but then even then I don't see it necessarily on All of them like some of these people are just in yellow right and so, uh ostensibly what we would want to see is Those visual elements that kind of bring everything together. Okay Where you've got some kind of unifying Key that tells me this all belongs in a singular force I talked before about how you can be um, you know, you can be People try to be too samey This is the opposite end of that right there is a point where it will snap And I've got to have some kind of cues Even if it was just they all shared an insignia, you know, everybody had some Similar element you had similar colors in similar places if all the boats and the cloaks all had the same Uh Same like symbol on them or something like that, you know, those are the elements you can do so you can be very Uh, you can you can be quite myriad the tools you would use here, right? Uh, so that's what I'll say James as per previous comments see everything I said so far about basing once again, certainly a Uh one Another option and yes as somebody just as somebody just in the comments something like banners or sigils Yes, exactly some kind of element that tells me this all belongs together And you can use one color kind of across the force if and if red is what you're going for here Then make sure everybody has some red on them on like their clothing or the parts that they would clearly choose Don't just make the beasts red because the beast didn't have a choice. What color they wanted to be right? They were just born red apparently because they're cold cold ones um But like somebody painted that Gyro bomber and somebody paint or you know Chose to sew that cloak out of a certain color or make that thing So if you make those kinds of elements all similar if The jumpsuits of the the andren rigors are red and the cloaks of the shadow warriors are red and the cloaks of the pistoliers are red and Right and maybe they all have this a similar insignia on it. Even if it's just a simple freehand thing Or a decoll or whatever You can it can be varied like I said you can pick any of many things Just so we get the idea. But yeah, cool stuff, man. Thank you for sharing Okay Next up kyle nap Uh kyle again bringing us a really interesting uh converted force Uh, I believe this is supposed to also be cities Uh and uh, brendon's in the chat so you can correct me if i'm wrong But I believe this is also supposed to be cities obviously mainly focusing on dispossessed And we've got some great shots here of our bear warriors Our bear pistoliers, I suspect is what they are Uh, that's what it looks like to my mind Here it seems like he modeled some nice pistols and I think when you're doing kind of conversions having the Weapons be roughly appropriate on most of the models is a good way to go And here's some of our uh, some of our a mix of some of our other dwarves that are in the force Nice mix of those female dwarves from a couple different ranges. He's got mixed in here along with his iron drakes Let's say let's say that's right And dispossessed are not my favorite and a lot of other units sound the same so but I hope I got it right And then here's his characters, so probably you know his rune uh rune priests and that sort of thing This is all great. I really like this force man. This is nice It's coherent, but there's good variation And so like we can look back at this shot You can see how we used some different sort of color tones here and there But the basing scheme with the snow they feel very Very kind of like they're in a cold inhospitable mountainous terrain, which is great So I really like that. I like the freehand and the on the the um The banner over here. I think that's really cool So I think we're uh looking at the force What I would encourage you to do is on the figures where there's hair And beards and stuff like that exposed which is not every one of these dwarves because some of them are Fully clad in metal But where we have people like this where they've got, you know, big beards big hair Stuff like that. So the the girls here on the left side or the beards that kind of thing Um, what I would push for on that is try to be a little more varied in that What I mean by that is you've got some this this goes back to Uh The idea of variation and contrast it's not just Value variation although we could use a little more of that as well. That is to say light and dark It can also be uh in simple contrast of the various colors We would see for example, all of these all of these we can see more back here are just the same blonde color Okay, I mean sure it could be that all of the warriors who showed up to this force from this unit are blonde I guess that's certainly possible But to be the exact same color of blonde Like even when you go to countries that have sort of much less Diversity and now you see a lot of similar hair hair color like, you know, a certain European countries and northern european countries where people tend to have a lot of very similar hair color It's still not it's still broadly the same like yeah, there might be a lot of people who are blonde But there's still a lot of variation in there. You have strawberry blondes and pale and platinum And some have a little more sandy and a little more brown in there and stuff like that So just you know, those kinds of elements that are varied Make it much more visually compelling because it feels more like real people who got together right Because if I were to randomly look at any group of people Which kind of randomly sampled it would be very rare that I had 20 people with literally the exact Same hair color right So and at the same point push your contrast on stuff like that farther Especially when it's the dominant force around the head Bases faces banners shields, right the first four things you notice on a miniature and where you should often spend a lot of your time Hair is frames the face hair and beards Frame the face So you want to make sure that that area is really nice So pushing up those highlights a little higher pushing down those shades a little lower and varying the colors I think is a good way to go there But overall, this is a really great force. It's very cool. It's very thematic Uh, I absolutely dig it. So, uh, well done. Well done on a great force Okay Uh, mark ramsec is next And he brings us we'll zoom in a little bit that picture's kind of small There we go Okay, he's bringing us a corn force Uh with a whole lot of blood thursers so much blood thirst ring I have to take a drink here Okay Uh, so, uh, this is a great force. I always love to see corn I love blood thursers and the corn dogs. You you get a force that's blood thursers and dogs You're right. You're right in my wheelhouse right at the center of my heart and that is exactly what we have here We're just like slowly getting farther away Um, let's go to this picture and zoom in because this will be what I think is a great picture of the whole army There we go So, um, this is really nice. Uh, I I don't mind the realm of battle board as your display board I would generally say you probably want to do a little more with it like add some more different elements to it Uh, now that being said, uh, I think your major opportunity here with the army Is, uh, largely to do with tonal variation. Uh, so the black is very flat The reds are kind of flat. Everything's kind of flat Uh, and I you know, this is one of those chances where you've really got a very coherent scheme. You've got basically two Forms in the army, right?  So then what you want to do is really establish. Okay What are the ways that I'm going to make these two things more visually compelling? right and uh Like it could be fire emblems on the wings because those wings have big sort of Scarification kind of built into them. You can bring out make those look fiery and hot. You could push the musculature witness the muscularity uh on the uh on the The blood thursers themselves Uh, what do I mean by flat somebody just asked? Okay, the red just looks like red the black just looks like black It doesn't have contrast. That's what I'm that's what I'm saying when I say it looks flat The skulls on the base back here just look like white Right the gray just looks like gray Everything is very flat. It's very one color and especially with these five big blood thursers What you would want is to see a lot more variation in things like the wings again See my previous conversation about centerpiece models, right? With the dogs even if it was like some dry brush to pick out all the texture and stuff They have on their back and then a glazing over to smooth it into a color tone We'd be in a lot better place, right? But popping up some of the elements on the dog's faces Taking the the musculature up to orange and stuff like that. So that pops more That I think is your big opportunity here and and where I would see this as as That's that's the challenge with your current force So but it's a great force. I dig it. I would have loved to see this play on the table I this is one of my favorite types of armies is the like all blood thursers and dogs. I just I love everything about it So, uh, it really is one of the greatest things in the world I I admittedly loved it more when you could make karanak your general But sadly he's not a leader anymore. So you can't do that But that's okay. Karanak can still be in the force. He just can't be the the boss Lassie can't lead around the blood thursers anymore All right, next up is nick mackena Nick has an absolutely beautiful beautiful gloom spite and gets force So this is really wonderful Really really bright and eye-catching fantastic Display board. So we're gonna nick gave us four great pictures here. This is kind of the army all in This is the acid trip of an army. I I love it Obviously my co-host on warhammer weekly tom is currently Working on a very similar bright Force of his own and so I think he'll draw a lot of inspiration from this But as we go through these pictures, I I really like how this force came out So let's kind of go through. So here we've got his A skitter strand arachnarok. So the one without anybody mounted on top as well, we've got his Trolls back there the rock gut trolls in this very nice color Here we have all of our little gobos Where our little stabbas with their netas up front again, just extremely bright colors They I like how he has the little distracting eyes on the top of the pink as though they're they're they're Their hoods have eyes almost like a butterfly is what I picture.  Uh, this is just an early 2000s Musical reference show apparently Over here, we've got a lot of the spore splats of fanatics So you can see he added little pieces of silverware and stuff in there. So uh, really great overall Notice the Because I don't think yeah, we don't have a close-up of them We can see them here notice the mangler in the background painted like a big giant underwater sea creature With the spoons back here. This is really just like This is willy wonka. This is an acid trip. This is absolutely Absolutely amazing between the conversions the paint And uh, and the bright colorations. It's an absolute riot. I dig it The display board looks great too great pour with the the water So this is just really amazing. I I don't want to really call it out I hope everybody noticed all the little spoons that these guys are wielding like look at all this It's amazing all the goblins with spoons Uh, it's just nuts Uh, so really really wonderful job and then of course the um The uh, we'll go back to the full army shot. Uh, and then of course the the moon sitting right up front there So really really great stuff Um, overall, I think where you've got some opportunities nick It's just in some of the Uh, some of the blending and stuff like that some of your transitions In the army are a little harsh Uh, there, you know, we don't some of it's meant to be because some of it's patterning So I'm not calling that stuff out like the lines on the mangler are meant to be harsh lines because they're meant to be a patterning So I don't have any issue with that Uh, I think that but some in some places we've got some blending that I think we want it We could smooth out and stuff like that But overall this force is is really quite impressive. There's a lot of little elements to love in here Uh, just witness like the the basing on the rock controls where he's worked in all the mushrooms and put a lot of different color around them They have green around the base and uh, they're they're wonderfully detailed. Uh, the basing on the skitter strand is is You know, it's just absolutely incredible On the display board when we're using all of this stuff, by the way, I would say the same thing I said before Which is just careful of unpainted elements even on things like your display board, especially on model bases A good trick here if you don't want to actually paint them and you want to get a wash to stick Is just spray them down with a coat of varnish Like testers dole coat if you don't have an airbrush or Any kind of varnish out of your airbrush if you do have an airbrush And then just again run a wash over them or something Maybe dry brush the the edges a little bit with like something Just getting a little bit of actual acrylic paint on there will make them feel much more harmonious with the rest of the models because It's very noticeable to us when we have things that are um that are Painted in acrylic paint next to things that aren't you can very much tell the difference usually, right? So that's what I would say, but this is an absolutely just This one's uh, this one's a great force from execution to display To the painting to the vision This is wonderful. Uh the conversions every part of this is absolutely fantastic. So nick, uh, just wonderful wonderful work Okay, next up paul wagner And paul brings us a little a little more simple concept army on the gloom spite Uh, so he was going he's still kind of in the middle of it obviously But he was going more for a simple sort of monochromatic scheme here um So one of the things I would say To you paul if you wanted to go for more of this concept thing with just kind of quick two colors sort of idea Um with kind of the the yellow and the purple Um, and I don't know where you plan to go from here, but I'd be interested to see where you were going to go But one thing I will say if anywhere um one thing I will say with uh elements like this ball is Definitely make your bases the the rim of your bases black like if you were if you're going to go for a simple concept army that's more monochromatic or a few colors Make sure that your base rim is black It'll actually help sell the overall effect of the monochromatic or limited palette scheme A lot better because it will make them feel like they're part of that that world on its own And they're separated from everything else when the rim of the base is that color Uh, that the the whole rest of the model is it now feels like the model is made of the base Okay So that's like in other words when this color is the same as this color It feels like the model and the base are made of the same thing Is what you is what's happened now if this were rimmed black It would look like the model is something different. It's sitting in its own world and it is its own thing So conceptually I I think it's cool. It looks almost like you were going for like a everybody by firelight scheme Uh, but I would say that you definitely want to then separate that element out If you're going to do this and you were going to refine it I would also go in and you know make sure you have the individual details shaded and Highlighted appropriately where individual elements are really getting picked out and being able to show that that transition But cool stuff always great to see paul. Uh, this is a nice expansion for the the, uh, Incredible army of spiders you already have Okay, so now we've got steve TASIC There are three Ptac ek's in here. I'm going to say TASIC So you got a whole family of the hardest to pronounce name I I I could possibly have but Yeah, I apologize to this Family if I am getting that name wrong at all. I don't know if it's like husband wife Child or brother sister or whatever Whatever the situation is I'm sorry if I'm butchering your name So here we have the serif on force Uh, so again, we've got some stuff in mid painting. So that's okay. We'll We'll evaluate the stuff that's painted Um, and I will say most of the stuff is coming along very nice Um, we'll look up here. Uh, I like the blue on the sources very classic, uh scheme Uh, the the ones over on the left with a little bit more going on the base those the ones I really like that Um, I'd be curious as to why those are a different base than the rest Um, because you have sort of a dry base Uh Oh, okay, got it. Oh, brennan. It's the partners at war people. I didn't know that was their names Okay, got it. Uh, awesome. Yeah, I know partners at war. All right Uh, I did not realize that was their last name Uh, okay, so, uh, the um I would love to know what the the reason was for the difference in the basing scheme So, but that's fine, but I like the colors I'll tell you my favorite piece in this army is actually the vestildon hanging out back there With mr. Purple and blue and a big green gem. I love that that looks great Um, those are great pop colors that blue and lilac and green are a great Uh, triadic color scheme. I think that that works really well So, uh, I think that's a great success What I would honestly love to see is a little more of that lilac and green Worked into the rest of the force. I think you hit it right there. That's really strong And I'd love to see that integrated into a lot of the other Uh elements because I think that the lilac and the green make the blue stand out a little more And uh, and I think that that's that's a That's a really nice eye catching idea there Obviously your opportunities beyond just, you know, finishing up the rest of the models are integrate some more colors Again, maybe push some of the elements up a little more some more tonal variation And uh, and definitely add some more spice to the bases Okay, next up is tracy Uh, Tassak also from partners at war. I apologize partners at war folks. They they they make great bat reps You should absolutely check out the partners at war Uh channel Uh, so uh, this is a nice flesh eater quartz army and uh, I really like this one a lot So, uh, really nice green color mixed with a bit of flesh tone to create something quite striking Uh, it's I don't see a lot of the here we go zoom out to the broader force here Let's see a lot of the um The flesh eater quartz in this exact color of green a lot of people go for a more fleshy tone Uh, this this is a little more rotten and I like that Quite a bit. So I think that came out really well Um, I think my your main opportunities here Your big flappies look nice Uh, but that your main opportunities are largely in Again more variation more contrast on the force I think the ghouls could maybe use just a few slight touch ups. I don't see much of an issue there Where I really see the opportunity is in the bigger models like the var geists and your big flappies Uh, because they've got these big gorgeous wings and these massive bone Petrusions coming out everywhere And yet it's rather flat right the wings are rather monotone. The bone is rather monotone So again varying those kinds of elements, especially on the larger models the centerpiece models I think would go a long way toward uh Really grabbing my attention and and making sure that those centerpiece models, uh have the um Get the the love and and care that they deserve right because they are such Absolutely gorgeous beautiful sculpts and as far as your base composition again Another example just not to keep banging this drum, but that is a good execution here Not all of the var geists Have the same color wings, which is great. I can see different units It adds it all is within the same broad color scheme for the army, right but like, uh Terror geist and the var geists over on these two, you know these two right here whatever This one and this one, uh They have this sort of nice green tone and then you've got purple and purple here Uh, and then we've got the red ones to match up, you know down here. So yeah, I like that Uh, and again, I would look at adding a little more to the base avoid just kind of grit Like these guys are cool cannibals Bones blood gore viscera skulls discarded items shields broken weapons, you know All sorts of stuff that that cannibals would be into all over the bases Okay Uh, let's see Next up. Oh vince. There's four people the whole family's coming. That's awesome. Yes.  So that's fantastic. I love that That is absolutely so wonderful. Uh, so here we've got a storm cast army and uh, I am obviously Bias to this one since this is vince and I'm vince so well done vince But no great storm cast force here. We can see lots of different obviously in our traditional Our traditional color scheme for the hammers of sigmar with gold and blue Uh, very very nice traditional force with the relic tur and the castellant up front But then we also have a couple of the newer pieces in there as well such as the ordnateur and so on and so forth Um, I think some of my favorite parts of this army are the Dear little birdies your aether wings back there. Those look really nice I think the execution on the Uh, the storm cast themselves is nice Again, I would say your opportunity here is largely in variation, especially on the gold Looking into how to shade that gold more highlight that gold more really pop it up. So it doesn't feel as Samey, but especially also with the blue. We've got a lot of very flat blue Bringing that up to another a couple levels will really make it stand out Same again with the bases. Okay But it's a great force overall Uh, certainly seems like it would have been super fun to play and I do love, uh, this very classic color scheme. So well done All right, and our last army Zach, uh, Keshetta, I think I'm saying that right cast cheddar. I don't know probably keshetta, uh with some bone split us Uh, so we can see, uh, we've got all sorts of different Profits and we've got our big old Idol of gork and or possibly mork back there We've got our big stabbas and Just lots of wonderful savage orcs In here. We'll we'll stay on this shot since this is a nice kind of all-encompassing shot of the various Models we've gotten we see the big stabbas over on the right and all our savages Uh, so I think my uh, I I like this I like the icy scheme because this actually fits very well to obviously one of the Bone splitter tribes. So this is a really nice alignment. It immediately jumps out at me as you've gone for that tribe Uh, so that that reads really well between I like the ice weapons tying into the ice bases I think that's a good touch. You got some snow in there All that kind of stuff. So that all all that sells to me Sorry a little bug All that sells to me. I think that looks good Uh, I think your your biggest opportunity is in cleanup Some of the orcs look like they were kind of washed and then we just sort of stopped Like I can see pooling and stuff like that where the the skin isn't quite as smooth as I would want it to be When it comes to bone split as it's it's a skin game It's all about that sweet sweet orc skin Right. So you want to make sure you do the work of cleaning up that skin highlighting the faces Maybe adding a little bit of pink tone here or there if you're feeling like you really want to go the extra mile But making sure that musculature is well defined and smooth I think is something that uh, that is worth putting in the time on on an army like this because it will really help, uh It will really help sell that overall effect Uh, there you go Okay, uh So that's it. That's the last force Uh, great armies obviously there was a lot more of that but these were the folks who submitted to be reviewed So thank you everyone who submitted. It's always sort of brave It's an active bravery to just randomly put your army up for somebody to talk about it on the internet Uh, so, uh, oh this one was specifically so Nigel just asked a question How could you submit your army for review? Uh, this was specifically for brew city and so the people who were attending that tournament, uh, which was run by brennan melnick Uh, that turn brennan reached out to me and asked if I wouldn't mind doing this Since obviously the tournament was cancelled. Um, I am nigel going to be organizing a non You know tied to an event army review like this at some point in the future Just watch this space. You'll see me talk about it on the show. I'll announce it well in advance So that people have lots of time, uh, to To, you know, finish up their army push for it. I want to give everybody a couple months Uh to sort of finish their army know it's coming and then we'll have a submission time And then we'll do the review show after that. I need to think about how I want to structure all that What pictures I need sort of requirements stuff like that Uh, but we will eventually do that show. So you didn't miss anything yet nigel. This was for a specific event But we you have not missed your window. We will do this again going forward So the last and most important thing we can do is talk about who, uh, I think Overall had our our strongest forces who's our winner For coolest army and our runner up So, uh, this comes down to two different forces. I'll start with the, uh, runner up over here So my second place army is without a doubt going to go over here to chris grafting Uh, excellently painted Um Good conversions, you know, we still had some opportunities for improvement, certainly But a really nice force that has a very clear narrative and theme and a strong execution So overall this is uh, this is great.  I had to find his name to nick mackenna Nick, this is an absolute Uh, absolute wonderful wonderful force Uh, this was like the vision of this the execution of this the size of this the conversions of this Everything here was Absolutely so strong Uh, this is just absolutely mind boggling and it's in its insanity and its vision and yet somehow you made this Riot of acid trip colors work so well. Uh, I just loved it. So really great job on, uh, this army Very very well done. Uh, this was a lot of a lot of great forces there Uh, I liked a lot of what I saw. Um, you know other people There was a lot of great forces in here certainly in the end I had to pick two and those were the two that I thought were, uh, were just sort of above the rest, but in, you know, as always, uh, my own my own evaluation is my evaluation alone I hope what this does is inspires all of you watching maybe with some ideas for your own force Uh, gives you some ideas for inspires you to get your army down in this time where we're all kind of Stuck in our house and shows you gives you maybe some cool ideas For what you could do for your own force, whether it's, uh, dwarven pistoliers writing bears Or psychedelic goblins with spoons, uh, or or just all the blood dersters Whatever it is, there's so much here to be inspired by So absolutely wonderful work. Thank you to everybody who submitted Thank you to everybody who's watching both now and in the future Shout out to brendan for for organizing this. Thank you very much Um For for giving me this opportunity to Review everything I'm always honored and humbled to be able to to review people's armies They people who put in so many hours of their lives to getting a full army done It is a fantastic accomplishment and something that you should always be proud of So everybody here should be 100 proud that they got their army Together and painted and uh, I look forward to seeing bruce city coming back strong In 2021 when we're all on the other side of this Current situation we're in Uh, as I said, brendan's twitter will be linked down below in the comments If you're watching this, if you enjoyed this army review, please do give it a like That helps other people find the channel and find this and hopefully will help other people find some, uh, Some some inspiration of their own So as always, I thank you very much for watching everybody. I hope you found this fun As I said, we will do this again in the future We will have a we'll do this as a non event type thing where people can submit their armies Come back tomorrow by the by everybody watching now. We're going to do our monthly hobby cheating q and a tomorrow. So I'll be back on the stream tomorrow afternoon And we'll talk then about your hobby questions But for now, thank you for watching hit that like button and as always we'll see you next time


What's with that? Oh! Well, you're- what are you doing going through my mail? Come on.  They have stuff to say as soon as you enter the room and then when you frickin' talk to them, they, uh... They don't have anything else to say. So, I don't think... the other levels are in this house. I don't know where the other levels are, period, actually. Honest to God. I'm gonna go check, uh, my dad's house, actually. For a couple of reasons. Number one, to waste time. No, just kidding. Now, he didn't get an invitation to the South Isle.  And I want to talk to his cat. No, cat doesn't really say anything. And I totally did not mean to do that. Damn it. Alright. So, what levels are here again? Okay, obviously I've got level one. Level 15. Okay, I'm not there yet. Hmm. Where the hell would 13 and 14 be? Or 12 and 13 be, rather? I think 12 is back in the house. Let's check the shop, just to be sure. I know there's books in the shop. I just don't remember what they are. Okay, 22. That's way off. 21. That's way off. And I'm at 13. That's not good. And I've got plenty of cures and cleans and repairs, so I don't need to buy anything. So, let's check out this, uh, new area over here. Let's check out the harbor. 30 years of experience. Can't beat that. This guy's got some interesting hair. Uh, no, no. Wait, I want to check out this house here. Actually, I want to check out around, uh, see if there's anything over here. I know there's some very, uh, enix, or enix quintet looking trees. That's all. Hey, how you doing? What was that? What is the point of your character, sir? Can I take a nap in your bed?  What is the point? It reminds me there's an old Dana Carvey stand-up bit from the mid-90s, where he goes, uh, he makes fun of lead singers that try and sound profound before they sing a song. And he's like, he says something like, uh, you know, a long time ago, there were lots of people. But that was a long time ago. And I just, that's just what that reminds me of. That's all. Hey, new music. We could use some new music in this game. And it's that other guy's twin brother, evidently. Okay. So we are on the South Island and I am very conspicuously over-welcome to be here, which means something must be up. Why do they want me here? What are they going to do with me? Show me the volcano. I'm not sure I like that. Sure. Sounds like a real badass. Okay. Whoa.  What is that? Must be an earthquake? Uh, actually, that would have been an interesting plot twist there. If you would have thrown me in the pot. Kind of like the beginning of Secret of Mana. You get abducted by those goblin things and you get thrown in a pot and the girl has to rescue you. So apparently a deity is controlling this volcano. Or he lives in the volcano? I don't know. Is there anything back here? No. You guys blocking the entrance to that thing? What? I can't get through here. Are you kidding? What do you have to say? Oh, these guys all dance. Okay. That's wonderful. Yeah. Have fun guys. Oh wait, that's Mint up there. What's she doing up there? Let's redo. That's the elder's house. What are you doing here? No, actually I didn't. Yeah, sure. See, she's a character where the translation, a more accurate translation really would have helped. Okay. Since we've explored outside, let's check out the houses. Okay. I guess that's where I sleep. It's the mayor. It's the mayor of the town. Huh. So he's looking for Rose. Rose isn't around. It's awfully peculiar. Hmm. Let's go to the next house over here. And it is ye old shop.  In other words, just nothing particular. It's kind of a downer about this game. I know I mentioned this the last episode, but the items are really kind of really, really basic. I mean, the game makes up for it in other ways, like with the combination system and all that kind of stuff. Sorry, I got the hiccups. Huh. An argument before the guy and the deed and the shaman. Okay. Anything over here? Over here? What does that even mean? Catching up to what? Is it a competition? You say the same thing. You're worthless. Get out of my way. Okay. Come on. Approach these people from the other side to see if they see anything different. It's kind of like dogs when, you know, when a dog is asking for food, sometimes like you'll give him a piece when he's sitting on your right side and he'll go over to your left side. And it'll be like, you haven't given me anything over from this side. How about some more food? Huh. Dogs are smart like that. It usually works. I don't really know what to do next, to be honest with you. I guess I, oh, this guy's out of the way now. Cool. He's boarded up over here. What's with that? Okay. We got a cow skull on the wall here. Hey. This guy's doing some kind of goofy ritual. Uh, sure. If you say so. It's another invisible wall. Very frustrating. So there's nothing to do in here. There's no extra items or anything like that. This guy says nothing new. So what in the hell do I do next? This game is very good at saying that. I'll be honest with you. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is there anything else back here? No. There's just more annoying earthquakes and stuff. Nothing back here at all. I don't know. This is some poor village design here. Why should I have to walk all the way around? If I talk to Mint again. Okay. What if I talk to this guy again? Anything different? No, he doesn't. Okay. We're going to call this an episode until I figure out what to do. As always, thanks for watching. Have a great rest of your day.


The human face. It makes us who we are. It is the centre of our senses. And as such, it is vital in the way we communicate. But not what you think. Yes we use our mouths to talk, but our faces are much more than that for broadcasting our thoughts and feelings. Just one look at a person's expression can tell you so much about the emotional state of the individual. A smile, a frown, a scowl. Each one can tell you how to interact with someone. Although this is something we take for granted as a natural part of the human condition, some scientists have looked to categorise and study our facial expressions. One such study took place in 1924 and in order to create genuine reactions in its test subjects various stimuli were used, which would bizarrely culminate in the participants being asked to behead a rat in order to track their facial expressions. My name is John and today we're looking at the 1924 facial expression experiment. Welcome to the dark side of science. Carnilandis was born on 11th January 1897 in West Alexandria, Ohio, a small town with a population of around 700 at the end of the 19th century. Carni would attend State University, where he majored in psychology, graduating in 1921. Study would not end for Landis however when he gained his masters a year later from Dartmouth College in 1922. This was whilst he was working as a psychology instructor. Upon completion of his masters, Landis moved to the University of Minnesota to study for his doctorate. During his education, Landis read various scientific studies into facial expressions, one of which was Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions of Man and Animals. His third book in his series of works on evolution, the book looks to delve into emotions of humans and animals alike and features multiple pictures of faces in various different emotional states. For the Animal Kingdom, Darwin shows various expressive movements of dogs, cats, horses, ruminants and monkeys. He visualizes various facial expressions in the book showing joy, affection, pain, anger, astonishment and terror. The book also has photographs and illustrations of human faces in various states of emotion, from happiness to fear and anger. The book was originally released in 1872 with a second edition compiled by Darwin's son in 1890 and this was likely the version that Landis studied. One of the other main works that Carney took inspiration from was R. Schultz's Experimental Psychology and Pedagogy, released translated into English in 1912. This work touches on facial expressions and looks at the links between psychology and education. There are a number of different photographs of subjects reactions to different stimuli, but it doesn't seek out to find the reason why. The final and probably the work that Carney would take as a basis for his later experiments was Herbert Langfield's The Judgment of Emotions from Facial Expressions in 1918. This study would take place at Harvard's Psychological Laboratory. Langfield made use of six subjects, four men and two women, and showed each person 105 images of an illustration made from a photograph of an actor's face. Each expression was meant to convey a certain emotion. After being shown the image, the subject was then required to write down their interpreted emotion. Landis thought that this experiment had a problem though, and that was because of the authenticity of the expression of the actor. The results from the Langfield experiment were pretty interesting, however. Although the study was not unique in finding that we can judge emotion from a picture, I mean, look at artwork in general from history. You can tell we can understand emotion from a still image of a facial expression. But it did find that the general consensus from his six subjects was that each picture conveyed a particular emotion. Even the more subjective images that contained subtle emotional state cues such as half crying and laughing. In post-experiment interviews, each subject was asked where do they look first when judging a facial expression. And interestingly, each gave slightly different answers. For example, one person stated they stared at the mouth first, and another saying that they tried to imagine themselves with that expression and how it would make them feel. Of course, modern-day eye-tracking experiments are more reliable seeing what we look at first. But Langfield's experiment is interesting to see the thought processes of the subjects as they examine the images presented to them. Landis would achieve his PhD in 1924, and it quickly led him into the experiment that would put his name down in infamy. Landis took from the books and papers he had studied and saw a question unanswered. What is one's facial expression when exposed to real-world stimuli? Schultz's experimental psychology and pedagogy did touch on this by giving children bitter, sour and sweet-tasting items and photograph their expressions. However, Landis wanted to go deeper. He wanted to see if there was universal expressions for certain stimuli. Landis started off with his studies of emotional reactions, a preliminary study of facial expression in mid-1924. Landis produced of 19 test subjects, all men from Dartmouth College. The experiment was set up in a regular laboratory room. In order to record the facial expressions, Landis had access to a motion picture and ordinary still-producing cameras. Landis had a specially constructed table, behind which the subject was seated. This was placed in the centre of his setup. Before eight feet from the subject in front of him, several small openings were cut, through which cameras were focused. Before the experiment would begin, Landis said to the subject, I'm making a study of facial expressions. All you have to do is to be seated behind the table and act as naturally as possible in the various situations that follow. Don't try to be emotional or show a poker face. Try to forget the cameras and act natural. Various stimuli from nine categories were presented to each subject, and after each situation, a card was given to the participant with a number of emotions written on it, such as boredom, abstraction, dreamy, indifference, interest. Also a space-labelled feelings other than those mentioned. Each situation, however, would have a slightly different card. The experiment stimuli started off pretty tame, culminating in a fairly harsh finale. First off was classical music, a phonographic reproduction of Divalki by Wagner. Around a quarter of the subjects indicated interest, with the remaining showing indifference or boredom. Landis noted of the facial expression of a vacant stare in most. In the similar vein, the second stimuli was jazz music, a phonographic reproduction of my man. The majority of the subjects indicated a rhythmic feeling, with around a quarter indicating boredom or indifference. This was shown on the facial expression, with twelve cracking a smile, and the opposite for the remainder of the subjects. The third stimulus was this time visual, with Giorgioni's sleeping Venus, and Bulgaria's birth of Venus.  Most indicated sex appeal and aesthetic appreciation, with the remaining indicating indifference. The facial expressions are shown to be smiling or smirking. For the fourth stimulus, they were shown paintings of Christ, and the facial expressions were mainly of a frown, which correlated with most indicating sadness, religious feelings or indifference. From the fifth stimulus, all the way to the ninth, things started to get a little bit more cruel.  The subjects recorded disgust, repulsion, sex appeal and feelings of absurdity and grotesque. The facial expressions were a mixture of smirking, all the way to pure disgust. But interestingly, each subject let out a noticeable gasp when shown the stimuli. The sixth stimulus were pictures to arouse horror or disgust. Illustrations in the diseases of China by Jeffries and Maxwell were used. I've looked at the book and it is pretty upsetting with some of the images within. Interestingly, because some of the participants were medical students, a high number indicated professional interest, with the second highest being pity. The expression shown is most indicated by a frown and a closed mouth. Number seven on the list was odours. This consisted of eight small bottles with various smelling dilute forms of cinnamon oil, spirits of peppermint and others. But the final was the actual interesting item. The bottle was marked syrup of lemon, but actually contained ammonia. Needless to say, the reactions to the sweet smelling items resulted in generally happy expressions. But the shock of the ammonia yielded an instant reaction of disgust, followed by a small smile. The penultimate stimulant was a bucket filled with frogs. Each subject was told to put their hand inside and feel around. Instantly a reaction of disgust was recorded until they were allowed to look inside, when most showed signs of relief and even a small smile. The final stimuli seemed to be the most cruel. It too involved a bucket. It had around six inches of water inside and the subject was told with his right hand to hold onto a metal rod and with his left hand to feel around in the bucket. There was an induction coil placed in the bucket.  All of the subject's expressions immediately went to surprise and in the questionnaire most indicated surprise and pain. Landis had discovered that he could generate more accurate facial expressions with his initial experiment. But he felt like improvements could be made and set about planning the next step in his deep dive into expression. He didn't manage to see any universal expression for any of the stimuli as most of the subjects showed a whole range of slight differences, even including smiling during some of the more shocking situations. Maybe a bigger experiment with more people would help. Taking what he learned from the earlier 1924 study, he wanted to create ever more real emotional disturbances and record the facial expressions generated. Furthermore, Landis wanted to make use of as many distinct forms of reaction as possible, culminating in significant emotional upset. Instead of denying stimulus categories from the first experiment, he upped it to 17 and some went well beyond the boundary of ethical. Also different in the second experiment was that women would be part of the study as well as recording of blood pressure. 25 subjects would be used consisting of 12 men, 12 women and oddly one male child. Another part that Landis criticised of his original study was that of the setting. You see, he felt that the previous setup felt too much like a laboratory. Well it was, but that it might have coloured the reactions from his subjects as they were always aware of the experimental nature of the situation they were in. This time around, he sought out to make the experimental room more homely. The walls were redecorated, drapes were placed at the window and several paintings were hung on the walls so that the final effect gave a minimal suggestion of the laboratory. This time around the subjects were seated comfortably at the table. Behind stood a large screen which served as a photographic background. At either side of the subject stood a thousand watt lamp in a diffusing reflector. With this illumination was possible to take better photographs at any time. A second room was used to house all the equipment including the camera which shot images through a small hole in the wall facing the subject. A speaking tube and buzzer was provided between the two rooms so that the experimenter in the subject's room could keep the assistant who was handling the apparatus in step with the procedure. Each subject before the experiment had a front and profile photo taken and then to assist with facial studying after the experiment each subject had their faces marked with black lines to highlight certain muscle groups. Then another photograph both front on and in profile were taken with a grid placed over the camera to assist with later measuring. Every movement of the head was judged after each stimuli and notes were made on every visual change of each subject's face. Each participant during the study would be subjected to roughly a three hour or deal and much like Landis' previous study each stimuli would increase in severity. But the whole experiment was much better choreographed in order to keep the subject guessing and thus hopefully generate a more genuine reaction to the stimulus. Well I've spoken around it enough. Let's actually look at the 1924 facial expression study. As I mentioned before the number of stimuli was increased over the earlier study and as such there was some crossover between both experiments and this was because Landis reused some of the situations. However he did modify them to achieve a greater reaction. The experiment was start off with the participant signing a slip stating that they would not divulge any information about the situations they will be exposed to. Then the subject would be led into the experiment room by an experimenter who in most cases would be Landis himself for the men and a female assistant for the women. Before mentioned control photographs were taken and the faces would be marked up. Now ready the first stimuli would begin. The first two situations were music that was aimed to calm any nerves of the participants. For the first 10 minutes the music was the pop music of the day jazz. This disarmed the subjects but things would ramp up in the second section when more complex technical music was played. This was marked by their virtuosity and technique almost having no melody. Photographs and blood pressure measurements were taken. This would be for every section although the images would be taken at the closest moment to the reveal of the stimuli. The next section brought an interesting subject into the mix and that was being requested to read St Luke 6 18-49 out of the Bible. This required the participant to pick from two pieces of paper with a letter printed on it, a T for truth or L for lie. If L was selected points of circumstantial evidence attaching the participant to some crime were written on. They were then meant to invent a lie which would clear them of the charges on a cross-examination with the experimenter. If T was chosen then an alibi was provided for the crime. This situation was used to try and induce anxiety and lengthen the total time of the experiment as well as assert the experimenter's dominance. This is another carry across from the early experiment again. Again like before having several bottles with nice smelling fluids within with the last having ammonia mislabeled again as lemon syrup. Situation 5 would be the first taste of Landis' now trademark of misdirection in order to get a more natural reaction. Landis continues his misleading antics by having the experimenter say the subject had smudged the marks on their face and as such they would need to reapply them. The experimenter would then go behind the screen. This would be the point they would signal to the other room to get ready for photographs and blood pressure readings. The experimenter then lit and set off a firecracker under the subject's chair. Needless to say this yielded a shocked expression from the participant. Although shocking it has so far been a harmless type of diversion not much more than a high school prank. This one is more bizarre. The subject was given a sheet of paper and a pencil and told to write a full description of the meanest or most contemptible or most embarrassing thing they ever did. As soon as they were finished the experimenter would then read aloud this confession. Again embarrassment and anxiety was the aim of the game here. Strangely Landis wanted to see if he could make a universal joke to invoke a laugh but this section was promptly removed after the second participant shrugged off the apparent humorous quip. This section, much like the previous experiment showed pretty unpleasant pictures of various diseases but this time from the book Atlas the Halt Crankhurtain. Do yourself a favour and don't look it up. I did and it put me off my dinner. This again seemed a bit like a padding exercise like the Truth or Lie section 4 but involved distracting the participant whilst they undertook mental arithmetic. Frustration and annoyance were the name of the game here but it also helped cement the authority of the experimenter as they would hold the subject until they got a correct answer. Naughty Pictures Much like before these were intended to elicit a shock response with the experimenter insisting that the subject look these over carefully. The pictures were of an illicit nature. Don't forget that these people were from the 1920s and would have probably had a greater shock value. Much like the previous situation and involving nudity again it consisted of posed photographs of feminine artists' models. Again the experimenter would insist on the subject thoroughly looking at the images. Some of the most salubrious excerpts from the book Psychology of Sex were presented to the participants and again were instructed to read thoroughly. Again this was another part taken from the previous experiment but Landis Uplianti once again he combined this with the electric shock stimuli. The participant would be told to put their hand in the bucket and after touching the frogs and reacting the experimenter would then say feel longer you've missed something. The hand would feel until it touched the electric coil. The coil would discharge a shock again photographs and blood pressure readings would ensue. Although seemingly cruel the next part is arguably why we're here talking about this experiment in the first place. The table in front of the subject had been covered with a cloth for the 15th scenario. The cloth was removed revealing a tray and a butcher's knife. The experimenter then brought out a live rat. The instructions were simple but unbelievable.  Some willingly performed the execution with little prompting. Others offered some resistance but after continued orders from the experimenter would eventually capitulate. 15 in total would comply with the authority figure and execute the beheading. 5 who would completely refuse then have to witness the experimenter perform the task themselves. One of the subjects beheadings as Landis would later note in his paper for various reasons was not performed. Little did he know but Landis had stumbled upon inventing a behavioural study of obedience some 40 years before the infamous Milgram experiment. Clearly Landis found electric shocks to be pretty handy in psychological experimentation as he managed to wrangle it in again. The subject's arm was connected to an armband and a stethoscope. Both of these were attached to an inductorium. The subject was given a card which had two numbers printed on it and told to multiply these mentally while they received electrical distraction. The electric shocks were increased and decreased in order to wear the subject down. Landis would later write this situation following the long grind of the other situations brought about a very real disturbance. The electric shocks continued either in Landis' own words some very real emotion expression was given or it was apparent that the subject would not give away any marked expression which makes you wonder how long this would have gone on for. Only one person was actually able to correctly answer the multiplication question. This one is also a little bit cruel. The experimenter would step behind the curtain and make some loud noises as though preparing for another situation. After enough stress was exerted on the subject the experimenter would step out and say well that finishes it just as soon as we get the final blood pressure and respiration records you are through. The final situation was to see the effects of sudden relief after a period of stress. The experiment generated tremendous amounts of data hundreds of observations and around 711 photographs to sift through. Landis and his assistants started working their way through each photo discounting any that did not show any discernible reaction. After sifting through all the data Landis settled on a 17-point summary of the experiment and it was a real mixed bag. He concluded that he did see a difference between agendas in their reaction to the same stimuli. He claimed that men were more animated than their female counterparts. He categorized the main facial expressions to pain, surprise, anger, exasperation, crying, disgust, sexual excitement and revolting but did not see any uniform reaction across all the subjects. And essentially the study failed to meet one of its key questions. If there were certain facial expressions for each emotion but there was not. We are after all individuals and the way we react to things unsurprisingly is individual. But Landis's results were not really the most important part of the experiment. It was his unknowing discovery which has gone down in history. The setup of an experimenter and an experimentee inadvertently led the study down the path of showing the human condition of obedience of authority. 15 out of the 21 beheaded the rat. Something that many people I'm sure even in 1924 thought to be a severe action. Not something many would be willing to do be it on moral grounds or just from being squeamish.  This is where the ethical concerns also come into play. As it could be considered animal cruelty to kill for no other reason than to kill. Even the deaths of the rats weren't swift. In Landis's notes he said the effort and attempt to hurry usually resulted in a rather awkward and prolonged job of decapitation. Another big criticism comes from the fact the participants were essentially exposed to some low-level psychological torture with the writing down secrets, electric shocks, animal murder and scaring them with unexpected loud noises. Unsurprisingly the most striking photos were from the shock and surprise situations. Using a male experimenter for the male participants and a female for the female participants also makes the results problematic. Really there needed to be a control group and a much larger study group. Nearly all the participants were from a university background and did not represent a good section of society. Also and on top of all those concerns it was seemingly like Landis wanted to break almost every ethical issue. He even had one child participant which brings up the problem for just this one subject of informed consent. Needless to say Kearney Landis and his experiment has aged to history like a fine one pint bottle of milk. This period in history was a bit of a wild west for psychiatry experiments with the baby Albert experiment just four years earlier in 1920 and the Gaia and Donald experiment just after in the early 1930s. The animal and human cruelty elements of this study definitely wouldn't get past the board nowadays and the experiment didn't really further the study of emotions much. The controversial experiment did not however affect Landis' career where he would release multiple papers and books even interestingly speaking out about the issues with psychosurgery. He would spend most of his career working at Columbia University from 1932 to his retirement in 1959 but sadly he wouldn't enjoy his retirement for too long as he would die in 1962. I'm going to rate this subject to between a five on my ethical scale and a six. The reference one being no problems and ten being pure evil. Where would you rate it? Let me know. 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