What I've been up to in September

 

My September has mostly been taken up with LARPing, so I don't have a huge amount to report right now. I did buy a couple of painted figures cheaply on eBay which have now arrived.

These are kit bashes by Ricki on BlueSky. I put in some low bids and was lucky enough to win them. I've grabbed them to use as antagonists in RPGs, so they'll be packed away for a bit until I have an in person campaign.

I had another game of Infinity down at Dice Cup. We're trying to have regular Nottingham meet ups every first Sunday, so if you're into Infinity and in the area, please do get in touch and pop down.

I wanted to get some bases for the Fenris KoFi models, so ordered some cobblestone bases from, unsurprisingly, Fenris Games.

As I was already ordering something, I also picked up another couple of bits. First were these resin Rubble City barricades. They're lovely, detailed resin casts. The large stakes mean that they're probably an "at home" only bit of terrain as they're quite challenging to transport, but I still love them.

There was also this lovely dwarf hero going, and I like a nice dwarf miniature. He'll go into the "to do" pile for now, as I need to finish painting a few more things before I assemble anything new.

First finished figure of the new house

I've finished my first figure since my house move. It's the Shieldkin from Krakon Games that I was working on last week. Once I'd got the base colours down, I drybrushed the green skin and shell, did an Agrax Earthshade wash, then lightened up a few points that had gotten too dark with the wash. He's still a little dark, but is fine.

I did the next stage of the Reaper Miniatures Gray Maiden. The metal got a drybrush, while the red got some traditional blending to compensate for the blotchy coverage of the contrast paint. I'm currently considering whether or not to paint the filigree gold, because it will be a big faff, but look great if I do it right.

Blending a red cloak is kind of a traditional "practice" piece to do, so I've had fun with it. It's not quite there yet. My dark red layer paint has separated so needs replacing. There's a couple of spots I still want to bring up to the lighter colours too.

We've got a few more colours on the Bad Squiddo Guinea Pig Witches. We're getting to the point of the last few details, and then any bits that need highlighting, like adding more contrast to the fur on this witch.

Thinking about "what next", I'll be starting on the Fenris Games plinth if I'm able to find a weather window to sort out the last few sticky spots where the undercoat hasn't properly cured. I'm a little torn after that as to whether I  do the Mammoth Miniatures dragon, which is the next oldest piece on the tray, or if I jump over to the 4A Minis Spirit Host, which will be super quick to do.

On the assembly front, I've still got a bit of clean up on some Mammoth Miniatures scenery pieces to do, and I need to fix the annoying gaps caused by my own incompetence on the Dungeons and Lasers Minotaur. For the next assembly, it's between the Blood Bowl Treemen I need for my Halfling team, and the Dungeons and Lasers Ettin, who is annoying to store...

Remembering how to actually paint

 

I finally got my paint set up sorted. Due to it being a dining table rather than a dedicated painting table I've taped a bin bag to it to protect it from paint spillages! It isn't perfect - in particular I haven't sorted out the relevant extension cables to have a dedicated painting lamp on it, so it gets a little too dark to use during the evenings.

The original plan was to paint this Fenris Games plinth. It's a chunky bit of resin that I was planning to use for miniature photography once it's done. It's been undercoated black, then grey.

Unfortunately, I undercoated it while it was very damp out. As a result, it was quite sticky to touch, and I realised that the paint was coming off when I held it tightly. This is deeply annoying, but down to my own mediocre short cutting and impatience rather than the quality of the piece!

After a little bit of research online, the two recommendations I saw were to either strip it and redo the undercoat, or to varnish it. I decided to go with varnishing first, because it was the easier option. After a pass of spray varnish, and leaving it a few days, the problem seems to be fixed. There's a couple of spots around the sides which are still a little sticky - but I reckon one more pass should solve it.

But, this means the plinth needs to move down the painting list while it gets fixed - so what have I picked up instead?

Here's what I'm pai . . . ooh, that's a lot of back lighting. I definitely need to sort out that extension cable soon. Lets break down what we've got.

First up is a Gray Maiden by Reaper Miniatures. This is a Pathfinder figure with a "canon" paint scheme. I think I originally bought her to be a Slaanesh chaos champion, but now I play Pathfinder, she's getting returned to her original setting. The Gray Maidens were bodyguards to a particular queen in Pathfinder 1st edition who has since been deposed. I like having a Gray Maiden miniature available as the idea of a former bodyguard who's been hired by some new employer is an interesting option for a henchwoman level antagonist.

I started off painting her with contrast paints, but it got quite patchy in places. I'm going to go back in with some layering and drybrushing to try and fix this.

I got a free Krakon Games Shieldkin at an event last year, so I've used contrast paint to drop in some base colours. He's a nice simple sculpt so should be nice and quick to finish.

And finally, we have these three Guinea Pig Witches by Bad Squiddo. Again, these will be for Pathfinder, and I picked three fur colours to get started, and am just happily dropping in some basic colours with contrast paints to start off.

It's good to be back painting again. There is an itch in the back of my brain that I want to finish painting something. With quite a few models lined up that need painting, I'm really keen to get a feeling of progress. But that's for another day.

Getting set up for painting, a new project, and my favourite thing this year

 

I'm getting itchy about not having painted in a while. I'm perfectly set up to assemble a few more things (a Dungeons and Lasers Ettin and the Halfling team Treemen) but this won't make me feel quite the same in terms of getting something finished. So there's some set up I need to do in my hobby space to be ready to paint anything, so that's next on the docket.

I had XNOO by the Merry Mushmen arrive. This is a huge 276 pages of comics, articles and short stories with an old school fantasy feel. I've absolutely adored it. I definitely had some "misses", but it reminded me of reading 2000AD magazines as a child in terms of the type of content and the general vibe of the thing. It's quite possibly my favourite thing this year, and I'm really happy to have got it.

Also arriving this weekend was the new Necromunda. I'm deeply annoyed at the end of Warhammer Digital, but my reasoning for not getting into Necromunda before was always that the rules had gotten too complex across too many books. With some local folks interested, I decided to grab the new edition and get something sorted.

While I probably have all the models I need to paint up a Genestealer cult gang, I'd read some advice that indicated that they weren't a great idea for a starter gang. So I decided to pick up a box of Cawdor, the gang I played as a yoof, as a small and simple project. It'll probably be a little while before I start assembling these as I do need to read the rules a little bit and understand how gangs get assembled before I go and put together an unplayable combination of options or something.

Two Weeks of Hobby: Infinity game, Bootleg BOYL and PeachCon

After a bit of a hiatus, I had a busy couple of hobby weeks so I'm summing up the previous two weeks, rather than one. There will be longer posts about all these things, but for now here's a few short summaries to let folk know what I've been up to.

The weekend before last, some folks decided to arrange an day of Infinity games at Dice Cup. I got a game in, but in future it should be possible to get a couple of games in. I'm moving onto running vanilla Combined Army for a while, so ran a first pass at a list to start shaking out what I agree with and what I don't.

 

Bring Out Your Lead has been a bit of a UK institution for Oldhammer, but it was sadly cancelled this year. War Dollies Collective and Lead and Steel combined forces to host "Bootleg BOYL" in Nottingham. It was a fun day out with an assortment of vendors, folk playing old games and participation games in which I partook.

Sunday was PeachCon 2026. This is a small convention organised by Chris Peach of Peachy Tips. It's a mix of vendors and demo games. I'd planned to do a bunch of demos but got to chatting with folks and before I knew it the show was over. I am sometimes not a smart man.

I now have nothing much planned for the next few weeks. Obviously, I'll write up all these things for the blog. I'm hoping to get the hobby room sorted out sooner rather than later, and get back to clearing things out on eBay. I'll report back next week on how that's going...

Halflings and Weird Lil Guys

 

The Halfling team is finally assembled. Since this photo was taken, I've undercoated both them and the tokens and balls that come with them, but I failed to take a photo and I can't face venturing to the conservatory to take another one. 

Next up are the two Treemen who make the team actually viable to play with. I'll probably look to get something else painted first, just so I've had a bit of a break from Halflings being the main thing on my hobby table!

I got this Krakon Games Shieldkin at "Nottingham Gaming Fayre" last year. Not quite "done over Christmas", but I'm definitely feeling a bit more on the horse.

Also undercoated and ready for paint: Bad Squiddo Guinea Pig Witches. Sculpted by Kinsfolk Miniatures, I'm very excited to get some paint on these.

Finally, I've undercoated this dragon by Mammoth Miniatures. As a bit of an experiment, I gave her a blast of Midwinter Blue as a zenithal over a black undercoat to create some interesting vibes for when I start adding paint with a brush. There's no intent for her to end up blue, but it was sitting there in my box of spray cans and I wondered what would happen.

Next up on the assembly table is a big chunk of metal miniatures I've picked up at various things I've been to - the Gaming Fayre, Lead & Steel, and Salute. As my dearly beloved is allergic to nickel, I'm going to try and get a batch of these assembled and undercoated on a weekend she's away. Pictured are a couple of a "Big Mr Tong" Sample pack from Lead and Steel.

I'm also side eyeing these two critters from Dungeons and Lasers because I got them in the Kickstarter and they don't pack well into my storage boxes, which makes them very tempting as a little side project while I have the plastic glue out for the Treemen.

A little bit of hobbying

 

I've started making a little time for the miniature hobby again, and am back on sorting out the Halfling Blood Bowl team. They're the big project at the moment and I am very ready for them to be assembled! I suspect I may set them aside for a little bit once they're ready to paint as I'll want to look at something else!

I'm now up to eight Halflings done, with four left to go. There's also the Treemen and other bits and bobs, but once the core team is assembled it'll really feel like things are moving along.

I got this plinth by Fenris Games undercoated. I went black first, and it ended up really quite tacky - I suspect the weather wasn't quite undercoating weather. Once things dried out a bit, I gave it a spray of Mechanicus Grey and that seems to have gotten it back to normal. So this is now ready to paint.

While I was undercoating, I also undercoated a 3D printed dragon skull plant pot that my wife picked up at a craft fair. That's now done and in a box ready for her to paint.

Finally, I based up a few bits ready for undercoating. Miniatures here from Mammoth Miniatures, Krakon Games and Bad Squiddo. I used Krautcover for these ones as that's what I could find lying around. It's quite powdery so I want to put a light coating of glue over the top and let that dry before I undercoat them.

Cleanliness is next to...

 

Sunday is a travel day for me, so I just had Saturday to put some time into hobbying. And it turned out that what that really turned into was a big ol' tidy. It seems the reason I've not been hobbying is that I'd let the hobby room get into a bit of a state so it wasn't easy to pick up and do a little.

Some of my club mentioned spending 45 minutes each morning doing a little painting, and that's something I might try after I spend the Easter weekend setting up so that's possible. Pictured, by the way, is my new Infinity mat that I picked up from Deep Cut Studios, via Wayland Games. It took a little while to get in, but I got it and a nice carry bag for it that made me do a little happy dance around the room when I put it all away.

I did get a little hobby done, in that I washed a few resin bits and pieces I had lying around. The idea had been to get some of them undercoated once they'd dried, but it was really windy where we live, so that ended up not happening just yet.

Here we have a bit of Rubble City from Fenris Games, and a critter and some scenery from Mammoth Miniatures. The Fenris Games piece I bought to use to put models on for miniature photography, while the Mammoth Games models were bought at a little show as a nice easy project.

Then, the smaller pieces. On the right, a Krakon Games miniature from the same show as the Mammoth Miniatures pieces. On the right, three Guinea Pig Witches from Bad Squiddo Games. As a note, Pathfinder 2nd edition has rules for both a Witch class and an ancestry called Awakened Animal, so they could be a legitimate player character with no homebrewing at all. It's very tempting...

Blowing dust off the blog

 

Oh, it's, um, been a while since I posted here, isn't it?

So, it turns out I rather over-committed myself in February. As a result, I ended up either not doing very much blog-worthy, or simply not having the time to write it up.

I went to the "World Premiere" of a new set for the card game Flesh and Blood that I've been getting more into. It was excellent fun but I think I played more than 40 games of cards over the course of a long weekend. I definitely needed some time to recover after that.

I've played a couple of games of Infinity - one in person and one on TTS. I have another TTS game in the coming week for my club's current campaign. Meanwhile, assembling and painting models has taken a back seat while I do other things. I'll get back to it, but we're not quite there yet.

All in all, I'm not unhappy with how February and the first part of March went, but I wouldn't want to get that busy too often! I definitely needed a break after all the fun things.

The first Halfling

 

With the Dungeons and Lasers dungeon tiles put away, the next thing on the hobby desk is a Halfling Blood Bowl Team. With the new edition out and plenty of folk playing GW games in Nottingham, it seems like a nice little project. I don't have the new rulebook yet, nor any Treemen, but I want to get these assembled before getting anything else.

I've gotten my first Halfling assembled. I also cleaned the mould lines on the coins, turn markers and balls that come with the team. There's a couple more Halflings I've started on too. It's been a while since I assembled any GW miniatures. The last one I tried to do was one of the Inquisitor characters, and they were incredibly fiddly and awkward. This halfling was a joy - three parts, relatively limited mould lines, and brimming with character once done.

The trick now is going to be setting up a regular schedule to put some time into assembling models. The aim for the next year is to try and be steady with progress. I have a lot of ambitious ideas, and I need to put time into the hobby to try and achieve them.

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...