An ancient carcass, drifting without rhyme or reason...

 But, enough about me, let's talk about the hobby! 😄

March has been a Battletech month, with me painting a mercenary group, including their dropship, and some buildings: 

I also printed an extra set of tokens as we turned out to run out rather fast of those during a 4-way test game, and painted some support vehicles.

After that, the hobby muse drew my attention towards Space Hulk. (Hence, the title of this post.)

Digging out my stash, I found I still had three corridor sections built, but unpainted. So these were up first.

Which put the total amount of finished pieces to this:

While I was painting these, I was printing and gathering more parts and building another set of 3 corridor sections. Looking at my finished pieces, and the hordes of amazing Necromunda terrain out there, I wanted to play with weathering and textures more. What I have made so far looks old, but well-maintained. Future sections will look more dilapidated and abandoned. 

I'm currently painting those three sections. I've started with a basic mottled metal on these, followed by varnish and chipping medium. After that I airbrushed the core colours of the walls and floors and finally I chipped these with lukewarm water and a stiff brush. You can see these steps below.

Next steps will be painting the various details, before going at it with oils and washes.

The textures are still quite minimal and subtle on these, but for future parts, I know I can go harder on the textured and crackle paints, and general detritus.

Once these three are painted, I only have 3 more corridor sections to go before finishing all the corridor sections for the first mission. After that, I really should start on the rooms. As these are often the focal points of the various maps, and often objectives of different missions, I'll need to put some more care and thought into those... Either way, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself working again on this long suffering project again. (I started working on my Space Hulk terrain set in  2007!!!)

Anyway, see you next time!

Let's get medieval!

 Hello again!

Like I said in last post, I'm working on a small Baron's War army to have a game with a mate some time this year.  I've been chipping away at my troops, one unit at a time. 

So far, I've got my peasant levy spearmen done, they're basically just farmers with whatever long pointy implement they had available.

The peasants, pulled from whichever village pulled the short straw this time round...

Second on the billet are the serjeants on foot. As they're not actually nobility, they're wearing livery in the colours of either of the two flags of Brabant (the flag for the Duchy of Brabant is a yellow/golden lion rampant, clawed and tonged in red on a field of black. The other flag, chequered red and white, is the modern flag of Brabant, but can be traced back to the middle ages, so I feel justified in using its colours.) The still to be painted archers will also have tabards or hoods in these colours, over their regular clothing, as a nice bridge between the peasants and the serjeants.

The serjeants, trained fighters in the permanent employ of Brabantine nobles or cities. 

As a nice added bonus, the Brewer's Guild militia I painted back in the day for my Fantasy/Dungeoneering project, the ones with spears and pavises/large shields, also have a red-white heraldry, so they can fit in with this force. The sergeant even has the city arms of a local Brabantine city, matching even more perfectly.  They make a nice expansion for this force, as well as a nice bridge between my historical and fantasy medieval project. :) 

Left to do are the archers, and my complement of mounted knights. You'll get to see those once I'm done painting them.  Once the weather improves come spring, I want to get to work on some medieval village terrain, as that needs me able to work outside in some degree of comfort.

As I had my paints out, I also did a quick paint job on a bunch of sci-fi Hull Crabs, that had been languishing on my painting table for way to long. Just a quick couple of drybrushes, and some partial glazes with red and blue tones of ink/contrast paints. They'll be fun in things like Necromunda, Five Parsecs, Inq28, maybe even the upcoming game Scrapjacks from the creator of Zona Alfa?

As part of the whole "Medieval stuff is cool" phase, I've also finally finished Kingdom Come Deliverance, and have now started on part two. I bet you can guess why painting is going a bit slower... 😁  

This week I've also started playing Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries in co-op with a friend, so there is a none-zero chance some battlemechs will be deployed to the painting table soon as well. 

I've also been experimenting with printing some Crimson Skies planes in 1/300, but with mixed succes, the planes are very fiddly to print with any degree of consistent success. A shame, as I'd rather like to put Crimson Skies back on my gaming roster.

So, that's what I've been up to in January, as far as hobbying is concerned.

Where did the year go?

Another year past, and I haven't been posting for the latter half of it. Had lots on my plate, and not much energy or excitement for documenting my meagre hobby efforts.

For those wondering, the Patrol Skiff is finished and is now available on Cults3D

I did manage to do some hobbying in December, mainly focussed on finishing some 3d printed 28mm scale Battletech mechs. I printed and painted a Thunderbolt and a Commando and painted them in a generic mercenary-like scheme, to stand against the League of Rasalhague Warhammer and Locust I painted a while ago. Between Christmas and today, I managed to put the last touches on them: 

The Thunderbolt

The Commando

In December a friend and me discovered we were both planning to do some medieval stuff, which turned into us both planning to build a small Baron's War warband. We're setting our warbands in Brabant, using heraldry from that area. I'll be building mine to be 14th century, rather than Baron's Wars "native" 13th century as:

A. It's an era of Brabantine history that I'm already a bit more familiar with.

B. I prefer the look of mid-late 14th century arms and armour

C. Information about 13th century Brabant is extremely thin on the ground...

I've printed my warband using models from Reconquer designs, Epizion and a few Medbury bits. And now that the mechs are off the table, I can get started on the warband. I think I'll start with the peasant levy, to get back into the swing of things. 

See you again next time!

A quick update

 Hi folks,

Still working on the Arbites Patrol Skiff, I've made a successful test print of the main body. Some minor tweaks, but luckily all just cosmetic, to get bits looking a bit better. Still working on the turret itself and the turret and sponson weapons. Not the most exciting parts, so I'm stalling out a bit on those. 

I also got the Space Wolf helmet finished, bar the eyelenses.

And I grabbed some WIP 3d Space Hulk corridor sections from my long-suffering Space Hulk Project. This one was one of my first attempts to combine 3d printing (which wasn't a thing back when I started this project, it's that old!) with more traditional model building techniques. This one leans more heavily on 3d printing. 

Maybe I'll even finish the tiles needed for the first mission before the end of the decade...

Anyhow, I hope the summer is treating you well,

See you next time!

Time is an illusion...

 Hello again, time does seem to slip away from us, doesn't it?

I have been hobbying, but at a leisurely pace, and part of it digitally. My inspiration/drive has been all ove rthe place though.  And they say an image says more than a thousand words. So, lets get to the pictures, after the break:

Acclimating

 Still acclimating to being at home full time now. It still feels like time off at the moment. Apparently that feeling, plus the habitual tension from a work rythm are currently translating them in an urge to get stuff done in the hobby "before I have to get back to work". Which, for the foreseeable future, I don't have to, if ever...  Weird how the brain works like that.

So, I've been taking advantage of the nicer weather to get some terrain things done.

I've oil-washed and rusted the second of my Gallowdark floors: 

It ended up being more black and less ruddy/rusty than the previous one, but I'm okay with that. All that is left for this one is to airbrush in the glowing pools of toxic sludge with a nice neon green. 

Today, I spent the day putting my grout-plaster-sand mixture on the Necromunda upper platform and fixing it all in place with alcohol and watered down PVA:

These will get to sleep under the stars overnight, to dry and harden up. Tomorrow, I'll be glueing the mandatory mushrooms and some other small detritus onto them to make them fully ready for primer.

Can't wait to get this finished and shove all my Necromunda terrain onto a table, see what I have now and what I want/need to add.

Finally, I glued the Zone Mortalis tiles I had printed so far onto some 1'x'1 MDF, to start my 3'x3' Zone Mortalis board. I want the boards to look varied but still have at least one, preferably two tiles on each plate that have a surface that the columns and walls can grip onto. 

The printing of the remaining tiles and Zone Mortalis terrain will have to wait, as a friend commissioned me to print him a foam dart blaster. So that comes first.

While I'm still processing the loss of a job and new disability status, I'm thoroughly enjoying being able to build terrain again. The last two years all my energy had gone into work, trying to build up enough hours to keep my job, leaving me an exhausted husk outside of work hours. Working on terrain now is part of reclaiming my Modhail-ness. 

The weather will be expected dip back down over the next week, so I'll be getting back to painting for 15mm Badab War then.

See you all again soon!

Time "March"es on...

Well, this is it. The first week of no longer working due to disability (long covid)...  Still feels like vacation for now, but different at the same time.  I'm giving myself a few weeks to rest up, acclimate and process the new situation. While I miss my job and colleagues already, it also means no longer burning up all my available energy to make the minimum hours I needed for my contract. Hopefully I'll be able to hobby (and generally enjoy life) with more regularity again.

Speaking of hobby:
I'm currently finishing the Tyrant's Claw army, and just need to print the Minotaurs and I'll have 2 loyalist and 2 secessionist chapters once all is painted. I think I'll leave the project at that size for the time being. Partly because I don't really suspect I'll find more than 4 players, but also because I find myself getting a bit of "Marine Fatigue", mainly regarding having to support all the minis for printing. 
The weather is getting better, so terrain can get back on the menu soon.  I still need to oil weather the second of my Gallowdark floor board. And finish the texture, details etc. on my Necromunda elevated platform and the pillars to support it, so those can be painted. I also found an affordable source of 30x30cm/1x1' mdf squares, so I can experiment with some Zone Mortalis floor tiles, with modular walls to slot onto them. I've got enough to experiment with a 3'x3' table and maybe a pair of set piece/diorama tiles.

Been doing some comparisons as well, and I think the Zone Mortalis columns and walls can also serve for 15mm Badab War, I just need to make a second set of scale appropriate scatter items.  They can just represent larger, more imposing walls and corridors in spaceships or underground complexes.

Which only adds fuel to the fire of wanting to do a Zone Mortalis set...

Anyway, just some waffle. Hopefully I can post some progress pictures next time!

See you then!

A tiny civil war, with tiny models (Badab War, resurgent?)

Life stuff first: As expected/feared due to the full disability assesment my current employment will end either 1 or 2 month from now, depending on the speed administrative processes. So yeah, less income, but also less exhaustion and stress, hopefully.

Anyway, on to the meat and potatoes of this post:
For some odd reason, looking for painting tutorials for red, to paint a small House Draconis Battletech Lance, led to seeing lots of Space Marine tutorials. Which led to thinking about marines again, which led to try a grimdark/gritty Raptors Terminator squad (for Space Hulk). Raptors led to seeing the Imperial Armour art for them again, which led to Badab War, which led to my 15mm Howling Griffons:

So, I'm thinking about having another go at Badab War games/hopefully a campaign, but this time in 15mm.

 

I don't have a concrete plan yet, just musing. Maybe use this as a project to soften the sting of being at home full time. Like Battletech, I'm hoping to go for a "show up and play"format, where I build a couple of forces, probable for the most iconic and active factions of the Badab War. And once these are done, invite some friends for a day/weekend of gaming.

Since there are 18 chapters involved in the Badab War, I'll need to make some choices on which chapters to build forces for. While 15mm paints a LOT quicker than 28mm, making 18 full armies for 4-8 players is insanity.

My current thoughts are as follows:

Secessionists:

-Astral Claws: can't have a Badab War without the Tyrant of Badab and his army! Plus the Marines and Imperial Guard hybrid force seems like an interesting project.

-Lamenters: Gotta rep the sad bois!

-Mantis Warriors: They're just cool, and I like their green with yellow shoulders.

-Executioners: Might as well complete the set.

Loyalists:

-Red Scorpions: Well, they're the Forgeworld poster boys, and in-lore leaders of the loyalists, so they're a given.

-Howling Griffons: A minor role in the conflict, but they're my lads! I have to include them.

-Minotaurs: The whole chapter was there, and they got special character models, so yeah, can hardly leave them out.

-Carcharodons: Not a big role in the most of the Badab War, but again, cool guys I want to include.

By the  "entire chapter was involved" criterium, the Fire Angels, Fire Hawks and Star Phantoms could also be included. But honestly, 4v4 feels nice and shouldn't be too unmanageable.

If, during the prep, any players express an interest in a particular chapter not in the list above, I can always add them, as I have the files already and most marines paint quite fast in 15mm scale.

Anyhow, that was my ramble/musings.

Until next time!

Time flies when you're (not) having fun.

 I think this has been the longest I haven't paid attention to this blog...
The past year has been...a thing. Sorry about that.

Between long covid, struggling to build up enough hours with that to be able to keep my job, two losses in the family within 6 months, and several other things, it's been a struggle to find the energy to hobby, let alone reporting on a blog about it. 

Things my change in the coming time though. 

Because I lost workable hours due to the disabilities/limitations from long covid, I've had to apply for disability, hoping to get enough disability pay to make up for the lost hours of income.  Just before Christmas, I was told my disability level was set at 85-100%, aka 'fully unfit for work'. Now I need to figure out with my current employer whether that means I can still work for them. Due to the holidays, illnesses and time off of various parties involved in that decision, as well as the unemployment office taking quite some time to send the official report confirming this, I won't know more until next Thursday. Luckily, this has given me time to mull over and get used to the idea, and, honestly, I'd be fine with either outcome.

So for the coming year(s) I'll either have more time and energy to devote to the hobby, but less money, or it'll be more of the past year. Which makes it a bit hard to plan ahead for the coming hobby-year...

Anyway, here's some things I hope I can work on the coming year:
-Battletech: Had the first game in decades the past week, and all involved enjoyed it. So I intend to paint more mechs, do some more terrain. Maybe try and make this a (semi-)regular thing. I'm finding it refreshing to have a "new" yet familiar universe to explore, play with giant stompy robots. In a setting that, while grim, and dark, isn't Grimdark and gothic all of the time.
-Roleplaying: After a year of mostly cancelled sessions and a player dropping out, I'm putting in extra effort to try and keep my Traveller RPG campaign running as regularly as the mutual schedules allow. I also want to do more with props and phys-reps.

Something similar has happened to the Iron Kingdoms RPG I play in, so for the time being that has become a monthly boardgame night.

If it does turn out I'll be on full-time disability pay, I would also like to have a go at reviving my long, looong-dormant Mythological Japan DnD Campaign.

-Space Hulk/Gallowdark/Necromunda:  While the spell of GW has been mostly broken in the past year, I do still like the setting and minis, even if the company, their current game and most especially their pricing, leaves me distinctly cold these days.  And I like tunnelcrawlers and skirmish games. If I do become a househusband, I'd like to work on my terrain and minis for these again, and maybe, finally, get some games in.

-Cyberpunk: Yeah, it still has it's magic for me. And, apart from terrain, it can be done in small bursts and manageable chunks.

-Dungeoneering/fantasy game: I still have fond memories of the year of near-exclusive focus on my fantasy mini collection. And it connects to my love of terrainmaking and tunnelcrawling. I have enough minis painted, I just need the dungeon for them to fight in.

-Terrain: I really miss building terrain.

-Gaming/meeting friends: This may be the most important/valuable one of all. Due to having to put all my energy in work/regaining job security the past year, I have become a bit of a hermit. In general, I want to game and meet up with friends more often, but energy has to allow it.

Anyhow, braindump done. Nice seeing you again, and until next time! Have picture of last weeks Battletech game as a reward for reaching the end of my ramble:

More Musings on Necromundan Environs

 I'm still figuring out the how and what of my (hopefully) imminent Necromunda terrain building and painting spree.

As I said in my previous post, I want to make a number of taller terrain pieces, that will allow me to add some more verticality and upper levels to my Necromunda table.  I'm thinking of building some "tower-like" terrain that can act as risers to support higher level walkways on the table, or maybe even a larger platform that acts as a full extra layer to the game/table.

But, if I were to go that route, how tall should these towers be? The obvious, initial, thought was to make these one foot high. But then I started thinking (uh-oh!) and comparing sizes:

-A Zone Mortalis wall piece is ~6 cm tall (if you average out the height of the risers that allow room for platforms)

-A Sector Mechanicus walkway is ~12.5cm tall

-A Gallowdark wall piece is ~6cm tall.

-The classic 90s Necromunda Bulkheads are ~7.5 cm tall

Looking at this measurement, and accepting that the old Necromunda bulkheads will be the odd one out, it seems that a height about 24-25cm would allow the best compatibility with the various forms of "official" terrain.  Now guess how tall a Pringles can is... 😉

So I guess height is sorted, now to get some inspiration for style and shape. 

I think I want to make a shanty tower, climbing up a derelict pipe or something. Maybe with enough of a platform on top that a second tower can be put on top.  Lots of platforms and walkways to allow passage around and up and down the column, with areas for walkways to hook up to.

Then I just need 2-3 other ideas for colums to support a second level. And some higher towers/terrain to allow traversal between the levels/layers. 

Random though as I'm typing: Maybe I can design/3d print some sort of bayonet-locking connector, that allows me to either put endcaps or platforms, or even the second tower layer securely onto these risers?

Something more to ponder...

Pondering a return to the Planet of the Dead, and of terrain.

 It's been a while, hasn't it. Long Covid has still got it's claws in me, limiting my ability to hobby, or to hobby and then write a blog post about it also..

I have been doing stuff, though, but slowly and often without pictures or posts; As when I have to choose between doing hobby, and documenting hobby, the doing wins out. The past month has been Fallout themed (because TV show, etc.). And I'm currently trying to find/maintain the time and energy to finish that table terrain set (I'm so close, just final touches and some scatter)!

But since this weekend, unsurprisingly, my mind wanders to the blasted hives of Necromunda again. Games Workshop's preview of the Malstrain Genestealers and eerie and alien Spyrers has got me excited about crumbling industrial edifices again. I was getting more and more disinterested in Games Workshop/Warhammer as a company and product line/sales model, but the grimdark, dank and wretched corners of the 40K setting do keep their appeal and fascination.

Anyway, enough ramble, on to the meat of this post:

I want to expand my Necromunda terrain.  I have some nice pieces I built over the years, but I don't yet have what I'd consider a complete or cohesive table. That and I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of height and verticality of my terrain. I want to fix that, but that'll take some wearing of the old thinking cap. 

See, there are two main ways to play Necromunda. GW codified these as "Zone Mortalis" and "Sector Mechanicus" originally. Since then, added "Ash Wastes" and muddied the waters between Zone Mortalis and Sector Mechanicus... What do I mean by that? Well originally the definition was clear "Zone Mortalis" was very much 2D: combat in a warren of hallways and rooms, "Sector Mechanicus" was the 3D variant, with raised platforms and walkways at multiple levels. But then, GW addes a 3rd dimension to Zone Mortalis, by releasing kits that put walkways on top of the walls, and added extra floors and watchtowers...

Which means that if I talk about "Necromunda Terrain" I have to decide and define what I mean by that. And then I have to decide with path I want to take: Separate terrain pieces or modular tiles. Separate terrain pieces means more modularity, but offers less chances for integrating the terrain and making tableaux that showcase the setting. Both are desirable to me... Variation is the spice of life after all, but there is something so cool about having a small shantytown or a mushroom farm on your table.

I like both variants of Necromunda terrain, especially as the Zone Mortalis can also be co-opted for, say, Killteam Gallowdark or Space Hulk, and vice versa. I have several Gallowdark sets (to be built and painted), have my long-suffering Space Hulk project, and have plenty of stls to print Zone Mortalis style terrain. So I'm considering those needs met, or easily made such.

This leaves the Sector Mechanicus style terrain, or as I view it "Classic Necromunda Terrain" as it hearkens back to the old 90s cardboard Necromunda terrain and all the gorgeous Necromunda tables you see online.  This will be my focus for the upcoming build and paint cycle. 

What do I want to achieve?  More levels, and more interconnectedness than I have available now... One of my ideas is to build a few tall columns, with plenty of platforms and stairs/ladders, so lots of walkways can extend from them. I want them to have a flat top/small platform, so I can put a few together and either put walkways between them or put a larger platform between them to create a whole upper level to the table. I just need to figure out how high I want them. And how minis can move from the lower level to the upper level?  Holes in the plateau, perhaps? Or stairwells passing through? I could also just dangle a platform with a crane over the edge... 

Lots of stuff to consider and designs and ideas to ponder on.

Hello again. (Insert funny reference to the passing of time here)

Well, hello. We meet again. Again a short recap of what I've been up to. I'm nearing completion of the 3d printed set of Gallowdark Terrain. Which means that is finished for now, until I find files for the parts from the new expansions. So, for the time being, if I do more Gallowdark terrain, it will be the official stuff (more on that later). For variation, alongside the Gallowdark set, I've also finally painted the Samurai Village I've had in storage for a couple of years:

I've been doing some painting on my Space Hulk Terminators, but ran out of steam before I could finish them. I did make some nice progress on my Space Hulk terrain set, though, spurred on by the Gallowdark frenzy:

So, that's the "tech" for doors and bulkheads sorted. Through the open door/bulkhead you can also see who I intend to approach my Space Hulk terrain in the future: No more painstakingly handcrafting repetitive items, but 3D modeling/file-bashing and printing those, and then add the additional touches and details through kitbashing and scratchbuilding.

I also found a source for larger containers of Dirty Down Rust, as I expect to use a fair bit of that in the future:

The left one is the standard 25ml one that you can find in more and more hobby stores. The right one is the 250ml one I found at a store specializing in weathering and aging products for stage and movie props. They even had Dirty Down Rust in 400ml spray cans!

And finally, the Space Hulk milestome I'm most happy about: 3D Blip markers!  The tops are adapted from an existing file, and I modeled the bases myself. The tops were printed in clear resin and then given a thorough gloss varnish. The bases simply primed black, the numbers/letters painted in white and airbrushed over with a fluor paint. Here's the results: 

Sadly, I forgot to take pics of the regular green blips before I safely stored them all away...

In the set are all the blips I need to play any edition of Space Hulk. :) 

As a sidestep, I painted two sets of Ironhead Armour for the Iron Kingdoms RPG:

One of the Ironheads was 3d printed, I modeled a boiler, firebox and chimney onto what was originally a Steel Golem model.

Since I had some leftovers of the red and green resin for the Space Hulk blip tokens, I also printed some Space Hulk fauna, just for fun and maybe some special scenarios: 

In that picture you can also see a hint of what I'm currently up to...

While I had intended to keep going on the Gallowdark and Space Hulk projects, due to having to interrupt hobbying for two weeks because of a stubborn cold I lost steam. 

Just around the time that Games Workshop had their Warhammer Fest and teased Adeptus Titanicus maybe getting infantry and non-titan vehicles... Which I personally found more exciting than 40k 10th edition. So yeah, I started figuring out how to get my own low-cost titans (see the tiny reaver) in the background of the above pic. And having Titans on the brain again, I also took the large 28mm lad out of storage. It's now fully magnetized and primed, ready to get painted over the coming sunny weeks.

As I said, I'd be coming back to Gallowdark in this post: I may not be able to get the complete set. As I said in an earlier post, Gallowdark was my last automatic must-buy from GW for the foreseeable future. And if you've seen the discussions on social media this weekend, you may have guessed why: I missed out on the woefully understocked pre-order. I may, just may have a chance with an independent game store, but I'm waiting to hear back from them whether or not they'll get the supply they ordered or if GW short-stocks them again...

More news next time!