Record number of posts and plans for 2023

I tried to put a bit more effort into maintaining my blog last year and it has paid off, with 80 posts - the most I've ever managed!

Looking back over the last 12 years, I can see how the events of my life affected my spare time.

Starting with 60 posts in each of the first couple of years, I managed to up the number to 65 for 2012. Things dropped off in 2013 with only 51, then down to 24 for 2014.  In 2015 we had our first child, as seen by the fact I only managed 9 posts!  I crept up to 11 posts in 2016, then 34 in 2017.  2018 I fell back to only 12 posts.  When our second child came on the scene in 2019, only 6 posts.  2020 was a strange year, partly due to COVID and working from home, but also for family reasons that I'll go into on another post.  The end result was that I completely missed the 10th anniversary of my blog, but never mind.  I've managed to slowly build up again since then, thanks in part to the AK-47 Republic Facebook Group running regular competitions which kept me particularly focussed on finishing things this last year.

T-55s for AK-47 Republic

I started off my blog to document my move into 15mm sci-fi wargaming.  Since then, it's expanded to include other scales and periods.  I have always enjoyed Heroquest dungeon escapades and I've been constructing plenty of scenery for this and have run several games.

Part of my Heroquest dungeon.

 

I've played Epic (6mm) gaming ever since I got the original Space Marine & Adeptus Titanicus back in the late 1980's and having a 3D printer has allowed me to indulge in expanding my armies with minimal effort. I've also been putting a lot more time into 15mm scenery recently and have been making a real effort to organise my hobby more efficiently, which has obviously been yielding results.

3D printed Epic 40K.

I can see how my painting style has changed over the years.  I started off painting in acrylics - even now, some of my lesser used original Citadel Colour paint set are still going strong, 30 or so years after I got them.  I started using inks but didn't really get on with them, mainly because it never occurred to me that perhaps I might dilute them to get a better result.  I had switched to Humbrol enamels for some of my figures and most of my vehicles around the time I started my blog, but have gradually moved back to acrylics, mainly because of the wider range now available.  I particularly like the Vallejo acrylics.  Many of my earliest 15mm figures were an enamel base coat and a lighter shade enamel drybrush as a highlight.  I had tried using inks for shading but had difficulties getting good results.  I also went through a phase of using black enamel thinned with white spirit for a shading wash but looking back on those figures now, they appear murky and have some very obvious tide marks!  My earliest 15mm Old Crow vehicles were just a black undercoat, drybrushed with the camo colours on top. 

Old Crow Glaive with black undercoat.

 My painting improved considerably when I got a bottle of Pledge floor polish, the renamed version of the famous Johnson's Klear/Future floor polish beloved by modellers for many years.  A friend at Cornwall Military Modelling Society had told me about this back in the early 1990's, when he used to use it for his amazing military aircraft, but it was a long time before I decided to try it myself.  Using a coat of the polish before applying waterslide transfers really helps them blend into the surface.  I also started mixing in some black or sepia ink for a shading wash, giving far better results than my heavy handed undiluted ink shading from earlier years.

 A few years ago, I bought a bottle of Vallejo matt varnish to try and remove the shine left on models from the Pledge.  This didn't work very well, leaving a whitish residue from the matting agent in some of the creases on models.  It suddenly occurred to me that I'd been really stupid and should just use the matt varnish for the shading washes.  Nowadays, I use a mix of equal parts ink, matt varnish and water which works very well.  Vehicles tend to get their base colours, followed by a floor polish glaze to seal the surface, then waterslide transfers, then a matt shading wash over the top, with a final dusty drybrush.  Some of my older vehicles are being upgraded with polish and washes to bring them to the same standard.

Old Crow Lancer IFV with black ink wash.

I've tried to learn new techniques along the way.  I started sculpting my own stowage for vehicles from milliput and I'm very pleased with the results I can get now, especially when I mix hand-sculpted tarpaulins with 3D printed or purchased items such as Jerry cans.

Hand sculpted tarpaulin and purchased stowage.

My first experiments with trying a water texture from toilet paper also yielded satisfying results, so I'll be working with that technique again in some of my scenery.

Toilet paper water effects.

Talking of scenery, this was something that I knew I needed to work on, so in 2020 I decided to try and improve my disparate and somewhat variable in quality collection of terrain.  I have learnt a huge number of new techniques, mainly from watching Geek Gaming Scenics and other channels on YouTube.  Luke showcases an amazing variety of techniques and money saving tips for terrain making and it has really inspired me.

Some of the new terrain I've made.

For 2023 I hope to finish off several part complete groups of models.  My 15mm Action Force project has received a new lease of life thanks to a Patreon with files of some of the more unusual characters. I have a large amount of MDF scenery that I have been enhancing in preparation for making a multi-level ruined urban board in 15mm.  I have several starships to be modified and repainted as scenery for 15mm games.  There are a lot of vehicles I'd like to print for AK-47 Republic, and I need to get some extra figures to build a couple of armies.

We have a major house extension currently under construction and the end result should yield a large new dining/living area (suitable for wargames) and larger garage (suitable for making more scenery and a better 3D printer setup).  I'm excited to see how things progress from late Spring/early Summer when the work is all finished.

Thank you to all those who read and comment on my blog.  Hopefully you'll find a few more items of interest over the coming year!

Oldhammer goodies part3!

 My next box contains all sorts of bits and pieces...

A few Alcatani Fellowship pikemen.These date from the "Dogs of War" mercenaries when GW relaunched their "regiments of renown", I think it was late 1990's?

The pikeman on the left has a great expression!

I have a few halflings scattered about my collection, this is the only unpainted one.  Like many of my other older citadel figures, he game from the second hand tub in our 1980's-90's local games shop Truro Micro.

Some undead, I think it's a Reaper undead houndmaster on the left, a Ral Partha liche on the right, both from the fantastic Games Room on Elm Hill in Norwich.  A proper games shop selling a wide range of different figures and lots of games books, many out of print, do be sure to pop in if you ever visit Norwich!

Beast of Slaanesh, also from the second hand tub in Truro Micro.  Its tongue has fallen off but it's in the box somewhere.

Skaven night runner, very heavily inked (back then it never occurred to me that they might need to be diluted!) and now coated in dust and fluff.

Citadel Lords of Battle.  I already have 3 others painted in my Heroquest box, again all from Truro Micro.

Brettonian musicians and a standard bearer.

Vampire.  I think this was actually the last GW model I bought from a GW shop, some 15-20 years ago.

A plastic wizard who came free with White Dwarf.  He'll be visiting Frostgrave pretty soon.

An adventurer from the late '80s Citadel Catalogue.  I had him cast when I visited GW in 1998, the same as the zombies in my previous post.  I'd always loved this particular figure and decided that if I didn't get him cast especially on my visit, I'd probably never get him.  Shame I still haven't painted him after almost 20 years!

A couple of Night Horrors, slime and a ghoul, also from the Truro Micro bargain box.

"Slime" is a particularly creepy figure, all tentacles and large teeth.

A slinky vampiress on her throne.  A Heroquest end-of-level baddie if ever I saw one.

This multi-part figure is possibly a Scylla?

A couple of nice shields, possibly Marauder?

 An old Citadel knight.  I also have a box of about 10 plastic horses so I must get him assembled and mounted.

Marauder Chaos Warrior in need of a replacement weapon.  I think some sort of axe or mace would be appropriate.

Mithril Miniatures barrow wight from their Lord of the Rings range.  Their figures were always more delicately sculpted than the GW range and came ready-undercoated, a bonus for an inexperienced novice painter like my 12 year old self.  Shame about the thick humbrol varnish I used afterwards.

Dwarf miners, part of a pack of 5 which I bought mainly because I loved the tools that came with them.  There is a pick, small wheelbarrow and a couple of other items somewhere amongst my collection. Just imagine, 5 figures plus a load of accessories for only £2.99!  Those were the days...

Chaos Dwarf bazooka.

Chaos warrior.

Original 40K/Rogue Trader Tarantula weapon platform with twin Lascannon.

A couple of monstrous demon head decorations which will probably end up gracing the wall of one of my dungeon rooms.

What's left in the box?  A few Marauder wood Elf archers, a metal horse's head, another Brettonian standard bearer, Brettonian mounted musician, plastic Skink, assorted bases and shields.

Plastic Saurus from the WFB boxed set - possibly the 5th Edition?  I picked the boxed set up for £5 in the GW mega sale along with vast quantities of Epic 40K - of which more another day.

Last few items in the box include another of those free-with-White-Dwarf Mordheim Elf characters and a mounted Elf standard bearer.  I'm not sure how I ended up with him, having never had an elf army.

I might take a break for my next post and head back to the world of 15mm, though still with a 1980's theme.

More Oldhammer goodies

 The next box of Oldhammer stuff I'll delve into is this one.

What's in the box?

You can see there are a couple of Advanced Heroquest Skaven, 3 old style Bloodletters of Khorne, a partially converted plastic Beastman, half a Marauder Beastman ready to be glued to a Chaos Thug's legs.  Let's look at the rest of the contents in more detail...

Slaanesh!

A marvellous Slaaneshi Chaos Warrior.  Nice claw!  Why are the new Chaos warriors all so boringly generic?

Hobgoblins - a rare sight these days.

A couple of Hobgoblins from the steppes, ready to kill the odd Kislevite.

Grrr...

The Hobgoblin archer has a particularly satisfying expression.  He'll be fun to paint!

Aaaaaaaaagh!

A dead Squat. Rather sums up GW's attitude to the Space Dwarves, don't you think?

Imp with scrolls, "Jaw", Grimoire on legs.

3 Chaos Familiars.  These are actually a fairly recent purchase, about £2-3 each from e-bay, rather than bought new from GW for £7 each (!).

Lots of other familiars, I can't remember whether these were a Ral Partha set or Reaper.  They'll be handy companions to my wizards.

Frostgrave, here I come!

Lack of opportunity to visit a regular gaming group means that it's taken me a while to get around to looking at Frostgrave.  On the plus side, it does mean that there are already several add-ons available, so a quick visit to Wordery (faster but not quite as cheap) and Books Etc (cheaper but slower) provided me with the core rules plus a couple of sourcebooks.  Into the Breeding Pits will be especially useful, long time readers of this blog will know that my Hirst Arts dungeon is regularly dug out of the loft for a bout of Heroquest.

My next task will be to sort out a range of suitable models for the game.  A delve into my long-neglected boxes of models has unearthed a number of suitable candidates...

I have all sorts of goodies squirrelled away, let's start with the small "Chaos Warriors" cardboard box.

Thankfully this doesn't contain the hideous Chaos Warriors depicted upon the box lid.  Instead, it's crammed with all sorts of other GW plastics.

The Beastmen are a bit naff but I modified a few with alternative weapon heads - one of these has a Space Ork chainsword as his halberd head.

Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest provide a couple of wizards suitable for Frostgrave.  I'm sure the others might come in useful too (even if Elves and Dwarves don't get a mention in the rules!).

I didn't paint the Mummy, it came in a bag of other plastic tat which I only bought because it had a couple of metal Chaos Warriors in.  Might be possible to salvage it with a new paint job.

Freebie Elf who came with White Dwarf as a special Mordheim character.  Not sure about Frostgrave but he'll certainly be useful for Heroquest.

Advanced Heroquest men at arms.  They'll do as Frostgrave henchmen.  Oooh, and there's a zombie!

Heroquest zombie.  Other than the fact I didn't get around to painting the haft of the weapon, I'm still pleased with the paint job even though it's probably 15 years old.

 Assorted weapons will come in useful for set dressing in my Hirst Arts dungeon.

 A couple of Marauder Miniatures Wood Elf archers and an old GW Goblin.

 Epic scale beastman.

Lots of Advanced Heroquest... men at arms, Skaven.

Next time I'll delve into another box to see what goodies lurk within!