Busy and bad

Well, I have been very busy. And very bad too. Let me explain.

After sorting out everything in my storage box in Tilburg on monday I have counted 22 boxes that I need to take back home, store in the attic, and then sort and sell/keep AFTER I have created my new room. (not throw away as I managed to dump 19 boxes of stuff, including almost my entire collection of RPG books from various systems and almost my entire collection of wargames magazines and what not. Considerable effort was exhausted :(

I then started clearing out everything that could be thrown out from our attic....that was tuesday well spent. On wednesday I did my best to help my mother-in-law in cleaning the hosue and I got pretty far, rebuilt the girls beds so they no longer sleep in a cage (not a cage of course, but I don't what the word is for a childs bed with bars on all sides) but one side is open, vacuumed 2 floors and was very supportive in whatever chore she gave me, but after she left I kinda broke down. I've been throwing away huge parts of my former life, my body is fighting me whenever I do something that should be a normal days work and I got really depressed. Like really really depressed. So I kind of shut down and went surfing on various websites.

I should not do that, it costs me money when I'm depressed.

So, 2 Calth dreads, 9 plastic RT marines, 4 metal RT marines, 2 Necromunda models, 1 WHQ Warrior Priest and 1 incomplete pit slave later, I have enough stuff for a Rogue Trader game, extras for a TNT game and another figure closer to collecting all of the WHQ figures.

But it wasn't all bad.

Yesterday, the mailman dropped off a small box with the 3mm order from Fighting 15's. Lastnight, i unpacked and checked them all, and made 1-3 moulds of each vehicle I had ordered, and made the first casts. I made more casts this morning and more casts this evening. I'll make more casts again tomorrow morning and in the afternoon. Enough to have 9-10 of each MBT and less so of the other vehicles....almost all will become wrecks, others will be converted into new vehicles.  Someone is picking up my Star Wars AT-AT, Millenium Falcon and Tie Fighter for 50 euros, money that is going straight back into the hobby pot and creates quite a bit of room in the attic.

Tomorrow, Erik and I will play our first testgame of TNT. I just fnished printing and laminating all of the markers. I think I will grab some Necromunda models and write up a 400 point Raider for testing tomorrow. But with my background, a Caravaneer or Preserver warband is what I will end up with, I think. I'd like to end this week on a high, thank you very much.

Terminated

Well, thus ends my final day at my current job. Boss didn't come and say goodluck, nobody arranged anything for my keys and passes so I just left them on my desk for my chef, I shook some hands with gloomy people and that was it. I can't remember having such a weird and uncaring last day at the job, ever!

Well, nothing I can do about it. Next up is waiting a few weeks to be called up for checks, and until then I'm going to make every day count by doing my best to clean out my storage locker asap and store what I want to sell and keep, and trash the rest into the bin, and terminate the lease. After that, it is all hands on deck to swap out the hobby and kids room, so getting the hobby room cleaned out is a high priority. When the kids are away for almost a week (to be planned) we, well, I mostly, can move the kids stuff into this room and and when that is done and sorted, make sure to get the new hobby room asap as well....working on the kitchen table is fun with mates but I need a proper room with lights.

I do worry that I will try and overextend myself to get the job done asap. My knee is giving me a hard time and I'm doing my best to ease up on it but this is a task that has to be done now and has to be done fast, as I want to get help, get training and get back to work in less then 6 months time preferably. Before I turn 40 at the latest.

So, what changes for the hobby? While I'm sorting the rooms, no painting. Building at the kitchen table will be possible, so more work to be done on the foamboard stuff. No buying (no change there) and focus on selling, AFTER I finish installing everything in the new room and I'm taking down stuff from the attic one box at a time. No point in trying to sell stuff now as I'm not focussed on that. I'm expecting a shipment of 3mm tanks in 2weeks time and I'm waiting for a friend to use his lasercutting skills to produce all of the bases I need plus more. Other then that, my 2 other wishes (the TNT rulebook and the new Battlegroup book) have been sorta sorted for now.....Piers can help me with Battlegroup, and the TNT rulebook can wait as I have to give the sample rules a few test runs with Erik. This means I have no planned purchases. I do have some wire and a few bottles of paint on my list, but I can pick those up at the Impact show on the 3rd of April. I'm actually thinking of culling the herd quite radically after I move into the new room. There is only so much room to fill and so many games I want to play.

You know, being sensible :)

My Oyumaru order arrived so I can now make more 3mm moulds so I can make more conversions, and, as it seems, tanks in sandbagged positions as it turns out the Iraqi ones didn't move a lot.

Speaking of 3mm, I've been reading and researching on the internet and what I read sofar isn't a lot of good to be honest. I can see why people think this is a good scale for massed battles, but just painting them green and putting them on green bases and calling them done or using elaborate basing labels is not something I'm willing to do. Ok, you can't see much of what I do on the table, but at least contrast the camo with the ground cover so you can see them. Good Blogs or websites on 3mm are very, very scarce, but I'm reading up on this one right now > Very Tiny Wars A good read I think, with plentiful posts. Air gaming is way better represented online.

Tonight we have a hobby night with the guys instead of gaming, so I'm hoping to either get stuff done for La Maisontaal or prep some more concrete blocks for sale. Either will do me good.

A whole lot of text this post was. At least I'm looking forward to the future, no matter how uncertain it might be right now.

A tale of wolves, skeletons and landmines

Hmm, might make a great movie.

My fever seems to be gone so I finished what I had on the table. First up:

2 Old Plastic Games Workshop wolves that have been in my bitsbox since about the time I started doing GW games back in 1998. Rebased to smaller (and flatter) 45mmx20mm Renedra bases that seem to do them more justice. Didn't bother with greenstuff to hide the head-body join, these were quick paints to see if I could still paint figures (instead of all of the objects you have seen me paint). Grey basecoat, black wash, grey drybrush top down on most of the body and a grey+white drybrush over just the tops. Bone teeth, white and black dot for the eyes. Sure, the newer GW Wolves are much nicer, they also cost money and I had them in my bits box. Use and be happy with what you have. And these will work perfect for Frostgrave. And Mordheim. And whatever game they can appear in.

Second:

2 Armoured skeletons, the left being the newer Games Workshop skeleton, the right a mix of parts from the same Games Workshop sprue on a Frostgrave body. I can't remember having painted undead since at least when Mordheim came out, so I just looked at a few videos to get ideas and went from there. Bone spray, Deval Mud wash for the base, Vallejo Dark Sand overall, Vallejo Pale Sand highlight, done for a skeleton....I don't like the bleached skull look. The only ones I ever saw like that were the ones my fellow students bleached for their own collections, the sand colour is more natural. I've always used red a binding colour for my undead and I don't see why I should change that now. Red with a Devlan Mud wash to make it grimy. Undead don't wear shiny clothes. Undead being....dead and I doubt they give a damn... Weapons and armour went through a few trials untill I settled on just washing it all over with a brighter orange mix and calling it done. I'll go over that particular process again with the next lot, and do it better. Or different. Or the same, who knows. The weathering on the shields worked particularly well I think. Other then a few speedpainting mistakes and general sloppyness, I'm moderately happy with them. I know what look GW tried to create with the left ones skull but my painting makes him loook stoopid. Oh well.  Hey look, 2 armoured skeletons for Frostgave. And Warhammer Quest. Done.

Third:

15 landmines. Not much to say about these, I started them back in It's a Trap! (October!? Time flies!)
Army-ish green, Deval Mud wash, red trigger, normal basing style dusted on the ends of the mines. Mines themselves are Oyumaru moulding copies from the launchers op top of the Furioso Dreadnaught....I thought they would make great mines. Sue me :) Added some small tufts to a few, and newspaper bits to two more, and left the rest bare. They are going straight into my counters box. Will work fine for Inquisitor, TNT, Necromunda. 15mm round 2mm plywood bases that are sadly no longer available from Fenris Games. Damn, I like these. Might have to go 2mm MDF now.

Right, now all I need to finish is the 3 Cars cars I'm working on, and then I can put some primer on new bits and get working on those. And repeat. I have a game of Frostgrave scheduled for thursday evening, so I'm looking forward to rolling up new monsters. Or more of the same. I don't mind painting the same stuff again.

No progress on the Wasteland Ruin. Right now I will finish painting the inside grey with a sponge too, and then call it a day, maybe paint the doors and tiles etc, and just game with it. And start the other bits for the square, and do all of the additional weathering atc at the end, with a broad brush. I've been staring the damned thing to death for the last week so it is better if I take some time off that particular ruin and get started on a new ruin. Something more suitable for Mordheim. Or dare I say, Frostgrave?  Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

Oyumaru plastic clay used for miniature moulding

Last year I picked up a few packs of the stuff with the intention to make casts of stuff. Together with a box of second hand legos these ended up in storage cabinet. Cause I had a free all I can do as I want pass tonight (both the wife and kids are out) I could take over the kitchen table with a box of Legos, a ton of bitz, Oyumaru and hot boiling water. Ain't that everymans dream? :D

A quick refresher course on Youtube later I was heating up moulds and I had built a Lego casting chamber (by lack of a better word):

To keep things going, and I only have small parts to copy anywway, I made one with 3 chambers. I think I have enough blocks to add a 4th next time, but for tonight this was enough. I picked some small bits from my bits box that I want to use for my idea to make a couple of 40K roadshrines but only have 1 of, plus an nice looking Cadian skull and a sewer hatch from the OOP Forgeworld set I picked up recently. Making the press moulds is indeed really easy, though I managed to push a bit too hard at times and cracked the mould box, but this is easily repaired and the Oyumaru is easily reheated in a cup of water off the boil. I also made a few way too thick, kept 1 just to see how casting will go and recycled the rest again. Dropping the mould box in the freezer for 10 minutes was enough to set them hard and to clear the box for new moulds.I've got 7 moulds now, 3 of them will be redone at some point as they are just too thick, but the other ones flesx just fine. Stuffed them full of greenstuff and they are drying now, will have a look in the morning how well they pop out.

I used the leftover GS to make even more cables, this time from the smallest size, twisted it up a bit and left em to dry like that for use in the GS bitz box.

An evening well spent, I say!

PS Oyumaru goes by many names and is sold in many colours but transparant ones make it easier to see if there are air bubbles trapped in your mould when you press the GS in. Simple tip!