Fogou Stone Ruins

So I've been in quite a terrain mood lately (for a couple for months actually) but these things taking so much time, I usually putting them on the back burner and do the heavy lifting during holidays and then details pretty much when I can.

Now one of the last sets I've been working on is this set of stone ruinsfrom FOGOU from their latest (at the time of writing) Kickstarter LIFE IN RUINS.

At this points, if you're checking this space now and then you might know I'm a huge Fogou fan and I love their stuff, it paints itself, requires little to no prepartion (it's really paintable out of the box) and is modular enough to suit several settings, historical, fantasy, weird wars and sci-fi.

Crashed Aquila and Scatter terrain

Hey all ! Sometimes it's not about painting little models to your finest standard, it's about giving them a frame to shine in and a setting to tell stories in. Well today is about just that.
During one of the lockdowns here, I had taken all my scatter terrain out and started priming it and putting some basecoats on with some help and the lot has been resting in a box since then until a couple of weeks ago when I decided a sunday with bad weather was all the excuses I needed to finish it. It actually took me another lazy sunday afternoon to complete it but that's another 27 bits in the bank !

A knightly Shelter

Alright people, now here's something a little different. A few years back, I claimed I wanted to use the imperial knight kit to make something fun out of it. Well as slow as I am, I can also be a stubborn one sometimes and the idea never really left my mind.
If you don't know what I'm talking about just take a look at that brilliant picture from White Dwarf #133 :

Fort Hardknox Kickstarter !

Painted set by Curis from Ninjabread

Now some time ago I painted a set of barricades that build a post apocalyptic fort, well of you folks feel like it, now is the time to go and pledge for it !

You will probably don't do much promotion here apart and try to keep posts about what I paint but I really believe this Kickstarter project is absolutely great. I've had to the chance to paint Fogou's scenery and I have to say it keeps being an absolute pleasure.

The quality is incredible, it is easy and enjoyable to paint (which is essential for that amount of stuff) and durable which means it's a really good investment.

Time to set the scene - Fogou Fort !

OK so I've been pretty quiet for some time now, several factors  could explain that but one of them was that I've been slowly bt steadily working on a lot of scenery for Fogou Models' upcoming kickstarter !
I had the chance to paint their former kickstarter last year so I was pretty chuffed to get to work on this new one !

This one is considerably more ambitious with a whole post-apoc fort !

Houses of the city - Post-apoc/Sci-fi scenery

In the last couple of weeks I had the chance to play a fair load of games and for the second part for the french Oldhammer event (posts HERE and HERE, I had decided to build and paint a bit more scenery to have a good table.

Now I've started these a few months ago but like often I did most of the job and then couldn't get myself to do what was left.

Scatter Terrain from Fogou !

Here's the second half of the Fogou scenery I did earlier. This time it's all the scatter terrain and bits you can use to decorate the tabletop with.

Like for the rest of the Fogou pieces, it's remarkably well cast, requires little to no preparation and the details are probably finer than on some of the models you'll use it with.

A farm for a battle - Fogou scenery

Something a little different for us today, something I don't do enough but I had the perfect occasion and targets to do so this time : scenery.

The excellent Chris from Fogou Models has offered a couple of friends and myself the possibility to paint some of his upcoming models and I have to say after painting the brilliant shacks he had done earlier, I was more than excited to put my brushes on more of his work !

The stripper - Everyday life of an oldhammerer

See that imperial look, that nobility and the high standard of moral values Karl Franz embodies ? Of course you don't. Nothing here to see but inch think layers of hard enamels and gruesome gore effects... URGH...

But hey ! What's the matter, all we need is a good seesion at the strip club. We'll show those enamels (with Vincent Price's voice) the evil of the strrripper !

Now it had been a while since I last had a model so poorly painted to strip. Like 5 years ago actually. I'm going to show some models I've stripped before, just to attest (did I need to prove anything ?) that I'm not exactly new in stripping town.

The lone shacks - Fogou Models

I've recently spent a lot of time on scenery from all sources and although it has made progression on models a bit more complicated it's starting to pay off. I have a convention planned in half a year and I would really want to be able to fill a fancy table so there's no other way to achieve this than to roll my sleeves up and get dirty !
I have many projects of scenery on the go but the first I've finished were those lone shacks from Fogou Models.

Back to basics - Hacking old lead like in the old days.

If you've ever read the little text at the top of his page, you might have guessed I'm a bit of a Jes Goodwin fan like many. Now the thing is, I started my journey into the hobby by buying chaos champions and warriors of his in 91 and although I did paint the first 2 as they were (with thick coats of enamels), I quickly tried to do my own conversions, inspired by the magnificent exemples in the books and magazines.

Those essential basics... - Making modelling sand

Don't know about you but there are ingredients in my hobby I rarely think about but which are actually essential to it.

I usually buy a huge pot of PVA glue every 4 years or so, 10s of drill bits every year, modelling knife blades too. Basing sand is one of those, but I only think about it every 5 years or so.

Shadow wars Scenery : Part 2

Quick one today, just wanted to show some close shots of the scenery I painted for my games of Shadow wars and other skirmish games.

The main part was painting the pillars, walkways and platforms as well as all the little details that fit underneath.

Shadow wars tokens

OK, quick one for today. I've recently played a mordheim campaign and i'm about to play a Shadow Wars one and an Inquisimunda one. There's one thing I've learnt so far : I don't like placing my models flat on the table.

Why is that ? Paint chips, bent parts, you name them, that's the sort of stuff I don't tolerate anymore given how much time I spend on my models.

Is there a solution for this ? Yes there is. Tokens are one of them.

Shadow Wars Scenery

Still trying to make the best of the time I have before this WE, here is part of the Show Wars scenery I managed to get done this past week !

I've bought the Shadow wars : Armageddon box at its release (lucky me) and I have to say I'm more than chuffed with it.

Scatter terrain - Munitorum armoured containers

An unsual for me this time : terrain. Or to be more precise, terrain of the scatter kind. 

See I have a gaming WE in a couple of WE and I have offered to bring terrain to make a table for some 40k skirmish action. Problem is, I'm quite poor in stuff to populate my tables still.

That's why I decided to finally get this kit done.

Silos for scenery - Thank you Morikun !

Some time ago, I entered an online challenge on Morikun's blog like I had done before.
I was quite lucky to get a couple of rewards for my entry and amongst them a very nice lasercut mdf kit from Systema gaming.

Base building from French Model Workshop

After building my base building from French Model Workshop the other day, I used some spare time to get it painted. A couple of hours playing with the spray cans and washes on Wednesday and an hour or so playing with pigments and some blister foam and here I was !

New modular scenery from French Model Workshop

The other day I was reading Morikun's blog and I fell upon a very interesting post about new scenery kits to come.

I have to say it immediately pressed my buttons, I'm still looking for scenery solutions that are modular and easy enough to use and French Model Workshop seem to have come up with some really fancy stuff. 

Weathering heights - How to clean your palette with mud

Like often, I've engaged myself in a stupidly vast amount of projects at once... The good thing is that I'll be able to show you plenty of cool stuff at some point and that things get done. The bad thing being it takes some guts every now and then to get started given the amount on the table. But hey, this is not me whining or anything, just explaining why I needed a little break.

One of my favourite ways of avoiding hobby burn outs is to actually paint. I mean paint something I don't care much about and that can potentially provide rapid and high return on investment.

So here we are.