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...

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.

Tiefling Warlock and Combined Army Agent Dukash

 

In last week's update I mentioned I'd finished a couple of figures but hadn't had time to take fancy photos. Well, here's the fancy photos! I feel like I'm definitely getting the hang of this photography business.

First up is Agent Dukash, another Shasvastii for Infinity. In N5 he's now a Parachutist (Deployment Zone), and is pretty fighty. He's a hefty chunk of points, though, so he's not going to taken all that often. He's been very hit and miss for me so far, though I'm not sure if that's because he's very hit and miss, or just that it's a skill issue on my part.

Meanwhile, I also painted a Tiefling Warlock. This is a Frameworks miniature, and it's painted up really well. When I first got these models, I thought the details were a little soft, but I've been pleasantly surprised how it painted up. There's still a few areas of meh detail, but they aren't in areas you'll focus on.

To get this miniature done quickly, I painted it with contrast to start with, then gave it an Agrax Earthshade wash. Once this was dry, I drybrushed it with Karak Stone before picking up a few details, mostly with the skin. If I was doing this again, I might pick a couple of block colours to drybrush a more specific colour on, and other areas where I don't drybrush at all and use manual brush highlights.

I'm not sure if that's going to add a lot of time onto painting a model like this but I suspect it won't add much time on but will look much better. I'll give it a go in a future model and report back.

Painted models! A practice game! A tournament!

 

It's been a busy week. I finished up a couple of figures on my lunchbreaks, had a practice game at HATE for a tournament at the weekend, and then, you know, went to the tournament on the weekend. As a result I've not had the time to do the fancy backdrop photos of my finished models, so you'll have to make do with badly lit photos from my painting table for now.

I finished Agent Dukash for the tournament. Another model that got a "glow up" for N5, and now has a very different role to the one he used to have. I'll report back with more details in other posts.

Obviously, there was the tournament itself, which was held in Norwich. I travelled up from London, staying in a hotel before and after. The tournament was excellent, and I believe they're planning to hold more that are more widely advertised now they've had a good practice run at it.

I also finished this Wizkids Frameworks Tiefling while waiting for the paint to dry on Dukash. It occurred to me only after base coating him that I could be using these figures to test paint schemes for my Bretonnians. So, umm, expect some more D&D figures painted up in some more colours while I work out some paint schemes, I guess...

A pilot, a rogue, some unexpected weather and behind the scenes footage

 

I managed to get Oktavia Grimsdottir finished up for my first game at the club slow grow. She's a human pilot who works for Aida Swanson the Shasvastii smuggler. It was a little bit of a challenge to come up with colours that fitted my Shasvastii scheme, but by painting her jacket the colour I use for their tech, and her hair the colour I use for their guns, there's enough visual clues to tie her in.

I also finished the elf rogue by Strata Miniatures. This is from their "Dungeons and Diversity" range of a bunch of traditional fantasy heroes in wheelchairs. If you want to run a character in a wheelchair, there's homebrew rules available for a combat wheelchair for D&D, while Pathfinder 2e remastered has equipment rules for wheelchairs in the Player Core book.

I will need to get a bit of a shuffle on with painting. Blue Giant Studios was ending a few lines of minis and having a sale, which meant a few bits and pieces of those turned up. I also ordered the Blood Bowl "Made to Order" Halflings, which turned up within a week rather than 180 days later, which is inconvenient for getting ahead of my painting numbers. With the "Made to Order" for the Empire Wagon just announced, I'm looking a little nervously at the paint desk.

While Storm Eowyn meant I was mostly expecting the weather to be absolutely awful, I woke up Sunday to calm, sunny skies, and rushed to find everything I've been putting off undercoating over the winter. This was definitely the right move as it turned absolutely miserable on the Sunday, and I'd have got nothing done.

Two Daturazi Witch Soldiers and Bit and Kiss now have their zenithal finished and are ready to paint. These are pretty staple picks for Vanilla Combined Army, especially the Daturazi. They're not going straight onto the paint table just yet, as I've got a tournament in early February. I use contrast a lot in my Combined scheme, and I worry about it rubbing off if I take a half finished model that hasn't been varnished to a game...

Meanwhile, I've also finished fishing out an assortment of minis I've painted over the past few years to use for Frostgrave, written a list and picked my wizards spells. That will be a future blog post, and while I was taking photos of this week's completed miniatures, I took a few glamour shots of them too. I still want to play with my lighting set up a little more - I'm not 100% happy with it - but I do feel that my miniature photography has been improving of late.

Weird little jobs and weird little miniatures

 

It's been a busy week, but I did manage to finish re-undercoating the base on this Rasyat with Boarding Shotgun so it's ready for paint. I'm rushing to try and complete Oktavia Grimsdottir for my Shasvastii so I can use her in a game, but it's going to be close...

I had a little store credit with Bad Squiddo Games, so picked up a couple of sculpts as I was ahead on painting having finished the Lyran Battlemech lance this month. Old Man Shroom is an interesting weird little sculpt that can be a good Pathfinder NPC. Meanwhile the other sculpt is a Kasa-Obake, a spirit possessing an old umbrella from Japanese folklore. I grabbed this because this is a valid PC option in Pathfinder from the recent Tian Xia Player's Guide, and I couldn't not.

Upon purchasing miniatures, I was immediately struck down for my hubris by the arrival of more miniatures. From Bad Squiddo. In my defence, these are Community Miniatures Project minis from last year. These are the last of the "catch up" minis, so the project will be re-launching shortly. As it is, I have two pirates and an angry lady with pigeons who will all happily turn into fantasy NPCs without any work on my part whatsoever.

I've been continuing my clear out, and sorted through all my cases for miniatures I no longer need. I pulled out all the ad hoc ones for listing on eBay, but kept back these two Servitors with Heavy Bolters, as they're going to fit nicely into my Imperial Agents army along with all the random Inquisition stuff I already own...

The other half of the case trawling exercise was pulling out miniatures I can use for Frostgrave, so here's the starting candidates. I need to dig out the rules for what soldiers have what weapons and how many points / gold my warband is so I can have a shuffle through some builds / work out how many of my favouritest models in the world that I've painted I can fit into a single warband...