Planning some actual miniature hobby

 

With the realisation that I'd been too busy to use up my holiday allowance this year, I have the week off. The eBay clear out continues. The unpacking continues. I've got two games of Infinity booked, so we may see a battle report of some kind if I remember to take enough pictures...

But I also really wanted to start getting into getting some miniature assembly done. First up on my to do list is a Halfling Blood Bowl team. With the new edition out, I'm sure there will be some folk interested in getting some games in.

More experienced players of Blood Bowl may be asking where on earth the Treemen are in this picture. Well, I haven't bought any yet! The new rulebook and the team's Treemen will be the reward for getting the rest of the team assembled and ready for paint. I'm not daft enough to try and play Blood Bowl with a Halfling team without any Treemen...

I also could really do with getting my Dungeons and Lasers set off sprue and into a storage box. They're pre-painted, so it's not really an "assembly" job, but it's something that will take time.

As a potential bonus, I found this box of assorted Frostgrave sprues. I may be joining a Pathfinder campaign in the new year, so knocking up an assortment of generic baddies could be a fun little side project.

Now, where are my clippers?

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.

Peach Con - Painting Competition

 

I did not get many photos of the Peach Con painting competition, because a lot of people were looking at the pretty miniatures, and I didn't want to elbow my way to the front to take photos with my phone camera.

There was plenty of good stuff, though, like this medieval marginalia warband.

Unsurprisingly, given the fan crossover between Peachy Tips and Rogue Hobbies, there was a Rascaltown Gnome.

There was a whole bunch of cool big monsters and vehicles.

I often find, looking at painting competitions, I start thinking "I should do some painting myself". Do other people get that?

And thus we come to the end of my Peach Con coverage. Sorry for the delay on this last post, life got a little busy for a few days. Still at least I can leave y'all with a smattering of other people's painted models and get back to trying to bring a degree of order to the chaos.

Peach Con - Mermaids (Siren's Oath) and Paint Brushes by Tesseract Miniature Studios

 

Continuing my "Peach Con" coverage, there were a couple of other small companies promoting cool new stuff that caught my attention. First up is Twisted Spire, a sister company to Warp Miniatures. They're producing a series of mermaid miniatures and a one shot TTRPG to go with it.

They were showing off some of the painted miniatures (one not shown here as it was in the painting competition), and had a preview miniature available for sale. I was reminded not to buy the preview miniature while we haven't finished unpacking at the house, but I was very tempted and needed some moderate arm twisting!

This is an upcoming crowd-funder. It's going to be on Gamefound rather than Kickstarter. You can give the campaign a follow so it reminds you when it starts. I'm super excited for it.

Also with a stall at Peach Con was Tesseract Miniature Studios. Stu has started a range of brushes that he's developed with a partner company, and it seems like they've been flying off the shelves. The stand had some little 3D printed frogs, wet palette, paints and brushes so you could try them out for yourself. I sadly didn't manage to drop by any time the space was free, but that's probably a good sign.

Stu was kind enough to gift my me and my wife a "Workhorse" brush to try out once our hobby stations are back up and running. He had a whole bunch of his recent pieces on display, as he's been getting more into display and competition painting lately.

He's also got some plinths for sale, and I believe his first miniature bust is due to be released soon.

I've assembled this Infinity TAG, and it's in my paint queue, but I don't think I'm going to be able to quite hit these heights. It's always lovely to see some miniatures you've seen pictures of online in person.

Peach Con was definitely a bit of hobby balm for the soul. Seeing this cool new stuff from Bad Squiddo, Twisted Spire and Tesseract has got me really fired up to finish clearing the space to start sorting my hobby area out. We're still a little way off yet, but there's a lot of enthusiasm for when it arrives...

Comm-link Guard, More Sorting, and Finding More Work

 

I've finished assembling the comm-link troops I need for my Imperial Guard update. I'm not painting these immediately as I've got Too Much On right now, but they'll be an easy quick paint job in a free moment.

While searching my boxes for plasma gunners I found that I actually had one more than I thought I had. After I'd bought a metal Cadian plasma gunner from eBay as an inferior substitute, obviously. At least it was before I'd painted things.

As a first pass of getting these ready for undercoat, I dropped them into a sonic cleaner bath with hot water and washing up liquid. This didn't get much paint off, but did clear off the basing sand and broke down the basing glue enough to get them separated easily. Next step will be an acetone bath, but I need to find a good container for that so awful fumes and stuff don't make my tiny flat sad.

On the subject of making me sad, I found three more baskets of part finished projects that need sorting. Oh bother. I haven't even fully gone through this basket. There's a couple of Inquisitors in Terminator armour that need a little more assembly and can then go in a box, much like the Comm-link Guard I just finished.

There's a bunch of Deathwatch repairs in another tray. This should be one of the easier jobs on the "to do" list.

There's also a tray of "stuff that's difficult to fit in things" that need putting away. I should do that. I have put away two trays of minis already, but that heart warming feeling of tidying up isn't particularly photogenic for blogging purposes.

I got a little more base coating done on the Conquest Druid. It's not a finished thing, but it's progress.

In the coming week I have my Infinity campaign game and the finale of our 40K campaign as well. That might mean I don't get a huge amount of hobby done, but we'll see how it goes.

An elegant handbrake turn

 

There's nothing new on the paint table this week. For once, this is mostly deliberate-ish. We've started planning our upcoming house move. Looking at the time we have left before I need to pack up the hobby station, it's not long. There's a whole pile of part assembled things I could really do with finishing up before I pack them.

I'm keeping the Templar for Frostgrave out in case I get a moment, but I'd rather complete the Druids and the assembly as a priority. But no paint was applied this week, as packing up the eBay sales took up a whole chunk of my free time.

The long delayed "Leshy Window Box" for Pathfinder Battles finally made it to the UK, which I'm very pleased to have picked up. I'll hopefully get some proper pictures and maybe a review done in the next week or two.

My mini Guard project has been going well. I've picked up two plasma gunners from eBay, and need to dig one existing plasma gunner I have out from the cases and get it paint stripped. There's one last comm link trooper to go. Then it's just a case of some basing paste and some undercoating. Properly painting them can wait to the new place.

This tray of "ready to paint" miniatures just needs to go back into cases. These are still good models if I want to do a casual paint alongside a project, but that can be a new house problem.

The Bretonnian Men at Arms need to get done. Right now their sprues are sitting loose without a box and I really don't fancy sorting that out at the other end of a house move. This is probably the biggest job that needs doing in terms of straight up time, though it's mostly pretty simple.

The Exrah from the Combined Army Reinforcement Box, however, are the exact opposite of simple. These are absolute bastards to put together, and I've been putting them off. But I got them all out of their packaging so it's essential they are together and in a KR case before the move.

Various repairs and half painted models are on this tray. There's a couple of "to be painted" models also sculling about on this tray too, so I need to grab those and put them away. Going through this tray will probably have a bunch of "quick wins" where a little work will get a miniature to the point where I can put it away...

Considerably more cursed is this box of Infinity bits - whether repairs or miniatures that need assembly. These are more "transportable" than the Exrah, so are a lower priority, but ideally I'd like to get them done before we pack.

With all this catalogued, it's pretty clear why I need to park things in the interest of getting things transportable. Wish me luck...

Aenor Goblins Finished

 

I finally finished the goblins by Aenor Miniatures that have been stuck on my desk forever. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, and a bit annoyed that the passage of time has meant I forgot a few bits of how I did them, which meant when bits needed fixing due to overpaint, I struggled to get the right colour match.

This does remind me that I really need to work on getting half done bits and pieces finished before I move house. Not just because half finished projects are harder to move and you're more likely to miss things, but the delightful feeling of Just Finishing Things is probably going to be needed for morale purposes in the run up to the move.

I still need to finish up the new Conquest Druids, but the new item for the paint table is this Dwarf from Otherworld Miniatures. She's going to serve duty as a Templar in my Frostgrave warband, so I need to get her painted up before my next game.

Hedge Witches, Goblins, and a Plinth

 

This week, I finished up the Hedge Witches from Conquest Games. They were a good couple of miniatures to get my vibe back for painting. They're good options for Frostgrave, too.

I've also been plugging on with the Aenor Miniatures goblins. I got started on them ages ago with a sepia wash over off white, and they've been sitting for absolutely ages. I was very pleased with how a little drybrush really brought out the details on the cloak.

Three of the five are now finished and waiting for photography. I'm going to finish the last two before I count them all as "done". I'm also pondering the Steel Legion Drab base rim - maybe I should change it to black?

My big purchase that arrived this week was this 5" x 5" plinth from Fenris Games. I've picked it up for miniature photography so I've got an alternative way of raising miniatures up to the hills I'm currently using. It'll need washing and cleaning up before I get started on painting it, but I'm going to finish a few bits and pieces first.

End of month check in, and Marching forward

 

February has been really busy. I went to Tinbot III in Norwich, I've been busy having a clear out on eBay, I played a bunch of games at the club again, and my work was really rather busy as well. That did mean I didn't get quite as much painted as I'd have liked, but it was still a good month for hobby all told.

I got Dukash painted early in the month for the tournament, and he did well in one of the games I played him in..

The Tiefling Warlock also let me experiment with a possible Morat red skintone, but while I liked this one for the Tiefling it's not what I'm looking for for my Morats, so I'll try something else on another model until I work out what I'm looking for.

I had a bit of a painting stall for a couple of weeks after that. A mix of being exhausted after work, spending more time playing games, and prioritising getting stuff listed on eBay to sell over painting meant I didn't get anything else finished. This is fine. It's about priorities, and things being out of the flat before we move is more important than a few extra miniatures getting painted.

That said, the goal for March is to finish my half finished jobs - both these part painted models, but also finishing those half assembled Exrah that I abandoned out of frustration a while back. Which I definitely need to space out given . . . you know, that giving up in frustration issue I mentioned.

I also got in my first ever game of Frostgrave, which I'll write up on the blog later. It's a fun, swingy game that I really enjoyed. I think it's too random to try and make it competitive, which helps keep the pressure off.

I also picked up the John Blanche paint sets from Army Painter at the end of the month which I'm planning on using in some projects in the future. I'm pondering doing my Imperial Agents in a limited palette scheme using these paints but I'll need to do some test models to decide if that's the right call or not.

Overcoming brain weasels and finding joy

It has been a bit of a rotten week, and I'd stalled out a bit on painting. I've been working on my plans for 10th edition Astra Militarum, plus considering paint schemes for my Nomads and Bretonnians. I'm also really keen to get the Aenor Goblins that have been my Cursed Side Project for too long now.

I was getting to feel like I had a lot of painting I should be doing, and that was making it feel like a chore. So, one evening I grabbed some miniatures I wasn't at all invested in and just threw some contrast on them.

This Conquest Games Hedge Witch ended up being the one I got the furthest into. If you look closely there's a few spots I've missed on the base coats, but it's not far off getting finished up. It'll probably be one short paint session to finish her up.

I got in my Infinity campaign game for this round, playing a 250 point custom mission with my Shasvastii, and trying out some profiles for the new edition. More on that later.

I've also had a couple of arrivals in the post, too. First up are these miniatures from Black Magic Craft. They're produced in short runs, so when I saw a post mentioning they were available, I couldn't resist.

I also had this Bad Squiddo Pulp Heroines Kickstarter arrive. It's a nice, small set of six figures. I was thinking I didn't have much to use them for, but Annie has done a partnership with Forbidden Psalm to have free rules to use them in Last War or Endless Horrors from Between the Stars. That suddenly makes them a nice quick project with a purpose, which is quite exciting. I'm sort of day dreaming about how to base them, which is probably a good sign.