Some potential projects

The real world continues to inconveniently time consuming, and impeding my ability to spend all my time on random hobby projects. The tedious and complicated way our house move is happening continues to soak up vast amounts of time, but the little windows of delight in our new home show that it will all be worth it in the end.

I am actively champing at the bit to get to some hobby projects. It goes without saying Infinity is high on the list - that hasn't changed. But what else is catching my eye?

There's a pretty big Underworlds scene up here, and I do have a couple of warbands painted already. I do need to find the new edition cards I have somewhere. The matter is slightly complicated by my not having the current edition box for boards and tokens and whatever, and budget currently precludes fixing that.

But it seems likely I should be able to get a few games in once I've found the decks, and if I have fun with that, I'll look to get the latest set.

Quite a few people are also playing Age of Sigmar Spearhead. For this, I do have a whole Spearhead in the Skaventide box - but it's unassembled and unpainted. That's a slightly more chunky hobby project than "find a few things", but I do at least already own everything I need to do that. I've got both of the Spearhead scenery and board sets, too.

I'm getting quite excited by Heresy, as lots of other people are. A little audit of kits has shown that bits and pieces of other abandoned projects comes to about 800 points or so, but is heavily lacking in troops. One box of Heresy Tactical Marines would get me to a small playable force at about 1,000 points or so.

But I have no finished models! This feels like a good "get a couple out, get them done, then paint another kit" type project. If and when I've gotten everything else done and ready, I can grab the tactical box as my reward.

 

I am wavering on Old World, readers. While I have a bunch of Bretonnian kits, what is bringing me joy is the idea of Empire of Man. But I am definitely not in a place to be buying a huge new army.

Conveniently for me, the TSN Arena has put together some rules for playing The Old World at 500 points. This seems eminently more achievable as a goal for the Bretonnians, and perhaps once that's done, I can switch my focus to Empire?

What do you know, Malifaux is releasing a new edition! I was just getting into the local scene as part of a Slow Grow campaign when Covid hit - my last game got cancelled right as lockdown hit for the first time.

I haven't found anyone playing locally, but there is a pretty thriving national scene. I can't see it being too challenging to get some paint on my crew, grab the new cards once they come out, and sign up to a small event.

And finally, the low bar. This bit of resin from Fenris Games is intended for my photography set up. Once I find it, cleaning it, undercoating it, and painting it up with some simple techniques will be a pretty simple win to get something done.

These are a whole lot of projects. My current thinking is very much based around trying to set aside the time to get one pretty hefty hobby project done a month. I definitely have too much on in September, but I'm looking thoughtfully at October or November for being able to maybe start doing something that isn't unpacking boxes, or sorting things to be sold on eBay.

Having the space, both physically and metaphorically, is the reason we moved. I'm looking forward to being through the work that gets us there.

Where I'm at with different wargames

 

I spent last Sunday having a bit of a re-organise of the hobby room after being unable to find a particular box of Space Marines for a whole month. This got a little out of hand. I ended up getting everything out to organise and repack it. In turn, this got me thinking about what my priorities are right now.

Infinity is still my main game. I've been playing Shasvastii primarily, but I've got a few games in with White Company as well, and am keen to get some more games in with them once I get the next batch of them back from That Mr Shy. Meanwhile, I've just had the latest batch of O-12 arrive, and they're the utility pieces that will mean I have some solid tournament list options.

After my learning game of 9th edition Warhammer 40,000 I'm pretty relaxed about the idea of waiting for 10th edition to drop and playing some learning games of that. I've taken a pass of my existing models for stuff I'll definitely sell off, and everything else has gone into a dedicated Box Of Uncertainty for me to make a decision on when 10th edition drops. I definitely want to do some Boarding Action games, but I'm assuming they'll work just fine in 10th edition as well as 9th.

I will finish the Horus Heresy test paints, then paint the Plasma Gun Support Squad I have for it, but the Audit Of Doom has definitely shown I have plenty to be getting on with without over-committing into another game just yet. Of all the Warhammers, this is the one I think I'd most like to be playing at a mass battle level, but I simply don't have the models for it right now.

Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Underworlds . . . 

I want to be keen for both of these games. I have painted playable forces for both. But I'm just not finding the time to book in a game to try them out. I definitely want to get a game or two in before I make a decision on each, but unless they jump out at me, maybe I need to find something to better focus my time on?

Malifaux is also in a weird place. I'm deeply keen to get some models painted for it and play some games, but I've been focusing on finishing half done stuff "before I get onto my Malifaux Crew" recently. I'm definitely suffering from the "I want to do it well" problem so I don't want to pull them out and slap on a low quality paint job. Currently top of my "do this next" mental list when I finish the half finished stuff lying around.

Battletech is suffering from one thing: mould lines. My goodness, are they terrible. Trying to clean up ten whole mechs has absolutely stalled out. I've split them into smaller groups, and now have three cleaned up, and one undercoated and ready for paint. I could probably arrange a one on one mech duel to learn the rules a bit, but it would be nice to have a full Lance to take if I get through the one on one duel OK.

D&D style RPGs are the other significant thing on my hobby time at the moment. Not needing to have a consistent paint scheme helps stop me panic about how a force should look and fail to paint anything. And outside that, I'm working towards the goal of an in person game with miniatures, which helps give it some structure.

Conversely, I've accepted I'm not getting around to Stargrave any time soon, and I've added most of the models I'd bought specifically for that to the eBay pile. I do intend to play it one day, but I can buy the models when I get close to that point, and not hang onto them forever in the meantime!

Plans for 2023

2022 was a pretty solid year for my hobbies. I got a bunch of stuff painted, I attended some tournaments, and I got back to LARP. I struck out on not buying more models than I painted by a long way, but I have realised how much of the clutter in my flat is stuff I've bought since I got back into the hobby, not my stash from way back when.

So first up, I'll be getting back into selling stuff I'm not using. As well as the stuff I never started, I intend to go through all my painted miniatures and pick out any I'm not using or don't love. I think this will be a good "end of year" tradition to start. Similarly, I'll be checking both the pile of half finished projects I put to one side at the end of 2021 as well as going through anything that's part finished this year.

I am pretty happy with where I'm at with Infinity. I've got White Company, Druze, Ikari and Dahshat commission painted, and I've painted a bunch of Shasvastii myself. I have the rest of the Combined Army, O-12 and Nomads to paint too. For the coming year, I want to get a "teaching force" of O-12 painted that I can run people through a game of Code One if they're interested. I also want to finalise my Nomads paint scheme so I can line up to get started on finally painting my Nomads, the first force I bought for Infinity.

I really need to get some of my Malifaux painted. It's just embarrassing now. I like the game and like the minis, but just haven't managed to get paint to model.

A small, tabletop quality project I'm looking forward to is getting a viable lance or two of Battlemechs painted. I've got the "Game of Armored Combat" box to paint, along with a couple of Urbanmechs. I'm currently tempted by getting an Atlas and King Crab for my Lyran Guards, the Alpha Strike starter box for a good Mech selection, and the new Beginner box for the variant Mech in it. But first, painting what I have!

I've been having fun with the test scheme for my Alpha Legion, although I have learned about not fully assembling models with cloaks the hard way. I'm still faffing about what I want the base scheme to be, but we'll get there. Starting with a small "Zone Mortalis" style force seems to be a sensible way to build up my army. I've not managed to have a force where I build it up a unit at a time rather than buying way too much all at once.

I've really enjoyed painting an assortment of general fantasy miniatures with a general intent on building up a collection to run D&D with, and play games like Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadow Deep. Right now I've got a massive pile of models to paint that I've picked up on a whim, and while I want to paint through those, I want to be in a place at the end of the year where I'm picking up D&D miniatures with a purpose and some kind of structure. I've been kicking around an idea for a world setting for a while, and I'm also keen to find miniatures suitable for Eberron, my favourite among the published settings.

I also really want to put together some solid options for playing Stargrave and other generic sci-fi games. I've heard some good things about Xenos Rampant, but I should probably still start small and work my way up.

With 40K, my real goal for next year is to actually play a game of the current edition. I believe 10th edition is probably coming, but I can still have some fun with the current edition. I'm also deeply excited by the Boarding Action rules, as they seem like a sensible size of game, and would be a good terrain project for home.

The Stormcast Eternals are also ready for a game, though they're lagging a little behind the Deathwatch in my enthusiasm stakes. The problem might just be the army - Stormcast aren't an army I'm excited about, I just had a bunch cheaply from a variety of sources and I thought it best to commission someone to paint what I had rather than buy a whole new army when I had one already lying around.

That's certainly plenty for me to be getting on with. I'm not sure how much of this its possible to get done in a single year, but its worth pausing and taking stock so I can keep an eye on my progress.

Heresy Work in Progress, Disappointment and Getting Boring Tasks Done

 

I've now settled on the colour scheme for my Alpha Legion. It's following a Warhammer TV tutorial, with metal base, then a coat of Gryph-Charger Grey over everything, then blocking in the panels with Akhelian Green. I started trying an alternative scheme using Kroxigor Scales to block in the panels but it was far too green for my liking, so I stuck with this option.

Also, I was an idiot for fully assembling this miniature. Base coating the cloak was an absolute nightmare. I'm now going to drop in the rest of the colours to get him finish off, then move on to the Terminator.

The bases, however, I'm not loving. The crackle paint isn't as robust as I'd like, and the colours I've gone for just aren't appealing to me. I'm going to base up a whole bunch of 25mm bases and blitz a ton of colour options until I see one I like.

I was hoping to get out for my first game of 9th edition 40K, but a combination of circumstances including not being able to find one of my Deathwatch cases from where its been tidied to meant we called it off for now. It's frustrating, but it's highlighted to me how much there is still to do at the flat.

I've also started on the not at all photogenic job of tidying up the black undercoats on all the remaining O-12 I have that aren't ready for paint yet. There's a lot of half finished jobs lying around I'd like to finish up before the end of the year if I can, and this is one of the biggest.

Weekly Update - Warlord Games Orcs, Basing Woes and Frameworks Progress

 

Painting wise this week, I've finished up these orcs that are now produced by Warlord Games (previously they were made by Wargames Factory). These models are awful. While multi-part with an assortment of weapons, the weapons are separate from the hands and the posing is mediocre. The quality of the detail is also pretty poor, with sections of detail fading away or blending into other parts. For cheap models where you want shades and dry-brushing to take most of the work, and the shoddy detail makes this much harder.

I experimented with using GW crackle paint for my Horus Heresy characters. I came back the following morning to find that it still hadn't finished drying.

Coming back that evening, I found that leaving it a full day seemed to have worked pretty well, until I picked them up to give them a coat of varnish...

... as a lot of the crackle just fell off! I'm told that doing a coat of PVA before undercoating may help the crackle paint stay attached. I'm trying to decide if I persevere with this method or move to a different basing scheme. The uncertainty of the crackle paint isn't endearing it to me... 

The Frameworks Mind Flayer is turning out pretty good. The Magos Purple Contrast paint got me a good pale purple Mind Flayer skin colour which I quite like.

The Intellect Devourer is also nearly done, but if he gets finished first, I'll wait until the Mind Flayer is done to photograph them together.

What I'm working on and what got finished - Halfling Rogue and Infinity Defiance Supply Crates

I've got a bit of a deadline at the moment to getthe hobby room tidied so some relatives can use it as a guest room. For a while, this meant that I ended up feeling guilty about painting when I wasn't up for doing tidying, which was a daft thing for my brain to do, because doing something fun with a break means my brain ends up happier.

So I took a deliberate short break to do a little bit of painting, and I had some productive results! First up is this Heroines in Sensible Shoes Halfling Rogue by Oathsworn Miniatures. (You may have trouble reaching their website as it was shut for maintenance for a few days, so I've linked to their Facebook Page.)

I'd ended up with a particularly strong spray zenithal on the model from the side the torch was on, so I decided to play with that a little. Most of the model was painted with contrast paints over the zenithal. I added a little detailing with Kislev Flesh on the face because it was too dark and looked a little weird. As a pure experiment, I drybrushed some light blue and light orange on the sides of the grey base to match the torch, and I think it's ended up turning out really nice. It's a very very lazy "Object Source Lighting" but I think it works and looks nice from a tabletop standard point of view.

 

I also threw some quick contrast over the crates for Defiance that I'll likely also use for crates in Infinity for a while until I get something a that's not limited edition that I'm terrified of losing. I feel like I should have drybrushed up the orange panels a little more with white before adding the orange as they're a little dark, but also, life is too short so I'm not going back to them.

With the things that have been on my desk for ages all finished, what's on my desk now? I'm finishing up some Warlord Games Orcs, which are getting a pretty basic paint job due to them winning the award for Worst Models I've Dealt With All Year. Next up for painting are a couple of Horus Heresy characters to decide if I hate painting Alpha Legion or not, and a Frameworks Mind Flayer and Intellect Devourer, which once painted will get a bit of a review that's been a few months in the making.

I've taken advantage of a couple of online D&D games I'm playing in to start "assembling" the Battletech Game of Armored Combat boxed set and my Urbanmechs. By which I mean "removing the mould lines". Once that's done and I've added basing paste, their getting undercoated will be a bit weather dependent now, but having them ready to go will be great.

The pace over the next couple of weeks may get a little slower as I hit the crunch for making the hobby room an inhabitable not-death-trap, but hopefully a few bits and bobs will make it onto the blog. I am definitely looking forward to it being done, because then I'll be in a much better place with my hobby space from that point onwards...

Future Friday - What's Caught My Eye

I've been looking thoughtfully at a few different game systems of late, so I thought I'd have a little ramble about them. First up is Battletech, where I've already painted up a local militia Wolverine, and am planning to paint a bunch more as Lyran Guards. Once I've got enough painted up, I'll find some folk to get a game with. They don't take up much space and it will be a nice thing to dip into now and again.

The new Games Workshop release of Horus Heresy has been mega tempting. Rather than buy a billion miniatures, I've assembled and undercoated these two characters a friend gifted to me. I'm going to paint those up first, and if I enjoy doing that, I'll paint the various bits and bobs of Heresy suitable stuff I already own before I get anything new.

I've had some realisation about how much stuff I have lying around that I'm not using and I want to really start cutting back on buying stuff up in advance. I'll spend a lot less money if I buy stuff just as I'm wanting to use it, and the overhead of managing a pile of boxes is quite significant!

I did play a game of Warhammer Underworlds a while ago, and quite enjoyed it. I then decided not to get into it because the idea of keeping up with that many card decks really didn't appeal. With the new Rivals format where you can just have a warband and a set deck of cards is much better for being able to dip in and out. I have some warbands commission painted from my Stormcast and other warbands are a nice "dip in" painting project size.

So I'll probably find a couple of pick up games of Underworlds to give it a go, I don't need to buy anything new to make that happen.

Not an Elder Scrolls mini

I've been seeing a couple of YouTube videos of people playing Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms, and it's been tempting me to get into it. I've got the core box without any miniatures, which will be enough to play a test game with my own miniatures. To do that, I'm going to need to finish finally tidying the hobby room, which I should get done by the end of the year.

So, Elder Scrolls can be a nice "reward" game for me. I want to give it a go, and have been trying to move towards "no models without a storage solution" for a while now. So I won't be getting this until I've cleared the hobby room sufficiently that I can make that work - and right now I've still got a bunch of models I already own with nowhere to store, so that will need sorting first!

Not a LotR mini!

Finally, I've been looking really quite thoughtfully at GW's Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. I'm hearing quite a few positive noises about it being reasonably well balanced and fun. They've also recently released some nice starter boxes, and the new models look really pretty too.

That said, I currently have enough on and I don't really know anyone who plays. So for now, it can stay as something I daydream about and look at wistfully from time to time. It's clearly the game that got a bunch of people into the hobby, so I think a lot of this is "someone else's nostalgia" feelings. I'll be keeping an eye on it for the future, though.

Getting going again

 

Huzzah! I'm back from LARP, and had a lovely holiday before that. Not much hobby happened, but a few bits and pieces got done, so lets take stock.

First up, we've got these Novus Landing sci fi aliens I picked up at Salute from Tangent Miniatures. A simple Wraithbone undercoat means they're now ready to get painted in between projects.

More Salute purchases, this time a pair of orcs from Titan Wargames. They're based on resin bases by Cerberus Studios. These will be excellent characters for D&D and skirmish games, and I particularly love the monk, who I'm excited to get some paint on.

Last of the Salute purchases is this hag that Encounter Terrain had printed. It's a lovely sculpt with some interesting textures and should be great fun to get some paint on.

I've also got most of the prep done for my Horus Heresy Alpha Legion test paints. The plan is to use crackle texture on the bases and contrast on the models. There's a few spots the spray didn't catch on the models so I'll need to tidy that up before starting the paint jobs.

And, you know, finish the models I'm currently painting so there's room on the painting table.

Finally, a bunch more models for the Combined Army are ready for their zenithal spray. I really need the bike and the bounty hunter done in time for a tournament the weekend after next, so I need to get a shuffle on with getting those ones painted!

Where am I? What's going on?

 

I went away on holiday! I went to a friend's wedding! We went to Warhammer World, and played a couple of Escape Rooms! I took no Blog Suitable Photos of any of it!

So. I'm back at the flat and now the laundry is caught up, I need to work out what hobby stuff needs doing. These Stormcast need photographing and putting away. But that's blocked right now because KR Multicase ran out of some of the foam I need and it needs cutting fresh. Hopefully it will be here soon!

My most recent Infinity assembly batch needs basing and undercoating. A couple need some bits gluing back on. This is the Combined Army reinforcement packs from the Defiance Kickstarter, so a bunch of assorted useful models.

I'm also halfway through hand undercoating any bits of the previous assembly batch I might have missed with the spray can before I do  the zenithal prime to make them ready for paint. I need at least a couple of these models in four weeks time, and I'm away at Empire next weekend.

Here's the muddle of half finished stuff I've got lying around. The Nox Troopers and Cadmus need finishing. The last of the Underworlds terrain needs doing. There's then a few D&D figures it would be nice to paint, a smattering of models from Salute that need undercoating, and the two Horus Heresy figures I need to undercoat.

I've also sent off the last of the models for my Deathwatch to get painted by Squiggle's Studio. Once these are back, I'll get some games in and work out what the biggest priority is for gaming purposes.

There's definitely way too much "in flight" stuff, and I need to finish off some bits and bobs so I can put them away or on the "later" shelf and clear a bit of space to think. Lets see how I get on before Empire...