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.

A few delightful packages

 

While I couldn't get to UK Games Expo, a friend was going, and they kindly picked up a couple of bits and pieces for me. The main one is the event exclusive Miranda Ashcroft for Infinity, who I have been dying to get since we saw the preview of her.

Also picked up are a couple of preview miniatures from Duncan's new wargame venture, and the Games Workshop AoS event miniature - sadly the 40K ones had gone a little too fast once I heard they were there and contacted my friend.

But a huge thanks to my secret shopper, and I look forward to getting these sorted.

Fenris Games runs a small Ko-Fi project each year with varying levels, and this year the reward were some slightly fishy villagers. These should be a fun little project.

Ian was also kind enough to include these duck people stickers because he knows I'm a huge sucker for ducks. You may have guessed from this that he's a big Runequest fan...

Finally, I noticed that I had forgotten to pay postage on a Kickstarter from last year, and sure enough, once I paid up, this delightful book showed up a few days later. Beyond the Pale is an RPG inspired by Jewish history and folk lore. I've had a flick through and it looks great. I'm looking forward to settling down and having a deep read soon.

Some more models prepped for paint

 

I spent a weekend doing a batch of metal miniature assembly and undercoating, and it went pretty well. With one exception, these were some of the miniatures I picked up from Lead and Steel.

First up was part of the event goodie bag - a sample pack from Big Mr Tong. I suspect these assorted sci fi figures are going to end up being volunteers for test schemes for my Infinity Nomads.

Next up are some adventurers from 4A Miniatures. I understand that this was their first event back after a bit of time away. They've got a huge range and only some of it is my vibe, but there was plenty that is for me to pick from.

Another 4A Miniature ready for paint. This "spirit host" is a cloud of spooky faces. Excellent. Plenty of uses this can be put to in D&D or other RPGs. Should be a nice easy paint job with some contrasts and washes, too.

These weird lil things are apparently called "Pumilis Lumax" and I loved the lion headed snake and they came as a set of three. They were a bit hard to photograph in the light I had, and I'm hoping that once painted you'll be able to make a bit better sense of what they are.

And finally, from an old Nottingham Gamers Fayre, a gnome from Krakon Games. This lil guy was a in a freebie bag, and should be a nice quick paint job. With this assembly batch I've now got quite a few minis out and ready to paint, so I'm looking to settle down and remind myself how a paint brush works sooner rather than later.

Bits and pieces from Salute

 

I was relatively restrained at Salute this year, but that doesn't mean I got nothing. There were bits and pieces in the goodie bag, as usual, and I bought a couple of choice pieces.

The goodie bag had the show miniature and a set of Mantic Abyssal Dwarfs. I didn't have any particular plans for these, so they've both been eBayed.

There were also some magnetic things from Warmag, which I am tempted to try out the next time I do a big Games Workshop project, as their plastics better suit magnetising than KR Multicase foam.

And finally, amid the various advertising leaflets, the goodie bag also included quick start rules for Space Gits.

Actual purchases! I grabbed two Beastmen from Red Dragon Miniatures. I mostly grabbed this for the goat beastman who'll make a great Breggle bandit for Dolmenwood. But I also love the boar headed chap, even if I'm not quite sure what I'll use him for yet.

I got this "Bound Soul" from Four Score Gaming. I'd seen it at Chillcon and had been tempted, but decided to go for it this time. I believe the sculpt is produced by "Illusionary Constructs". It'll get added to my assorted "awful fantasy RPG encounter" pile once painted.

Anvil Industry had this cool 3D printed vampire like creature that I loved and was able to pick up. It was a bit of an impulse buy, but should be a fun paint.

Finally, I picked up this art print from Greyhawk Miniatures. I just loved the cosy vibe of this mouse wizard, so picked it up to add some art to my room.

One quick purchase of a picture frame online, and he now graces the top of my shelves, making them look five hundred percent more delightful.

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.