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 Finished a few items from the WIP box. Couple of things I bodged together from the various 40K Mechanisu something scenery sets that tend(ed) to go cheap after another box release. Ah well. More to come, no idea when I will finish them.

WIP Walls (Killteam, Stargrave, Post Apoc, anything 28mm)

 Had a hobby night lastnight that was cancelled at the last moment, so donned the painting apron and went ahead with a quick (turned out to be not that quick) drybrush of all the walls I made, painted the metal parts and did the rust on everything. Next up is detailing, rubble, posters, and some more weathering. I'm really trying to get this all done in another 1-2 painting sessions. 

All made from foam, MDF bases and cocktailsticks for rebar, with some lights made and printed by Modhail tossed in. Nothing too fancy, base, some bits with a highlight color to break up all the grey, and detailing. Get it done man, get it done.....

Arrow Sign Warnings for Gaslands, 40K, Post Apoc etc (28mm)

 These were made as a custom order at Pat's Lasercuttings and paid for by my own money back in October 2021. As usual, took me a while to get going and get shit finished. (basically I found the box while sorting stuff to sell, sat down cause it was warm today and the laundry was running anyway, and finished it all in one go)

Size reference pic:

15mm (well, more 20mm tbh) Grav Van and 28mm GW figure for size reference

I ordered and painted 12 of each direction.Twas a nice afternoon spent and another item scratched off the WIP list. I left the backs plain, no posters or anything. K.I.S.S. and all that.

Clean and ready to be dirtied up

Even more guns! Flakk Trakk WIP

 Picked up a bag of bits and it had a Invictor warsuit (whatever GW....) big Assault Cannon, so replaced the one I had with NEWER! BIGGER! BETTER! assault cannon. 

Size doesn't matter....is something no Ork would ever say. 

I think it needs more sensors.....

Thanks to Kees I now have a huge bag of Ork Dakkajet bits (thx bud!) and already set aside some parts that will be going into this build (more guns!)

Also had hobby night tonight, Modhail brought some more (well, alot) 3D printed parts so I spent some time washing and cleaning them right away, and fixing what is broken (remember kids, resin is brittle) and basing some of the stuff of the STL's I purchased, more on that soon, I hope. 

A generator with a shattered base, fixed with epoxy, I trimmed a statue in Blender to affix to the ruined high rise I'm working on, and have a 3 up (or something) Autogun for the gunshop I'm making. I've asked Modheil to make me another one 180 degrees reversed so I can combine the 2 on a big pointy arrow on something I finsihed but never showed. Again, soon. And some rock grubs in the back.

Shine a little light on me

 Finished the worklight on the back of the van Rhino. It came from a Sentinel, and the base is from a Ork Gargant, cabling is soldering wire.

I recycled a Chaos vehicle ram into a light bar using more 1/24 truck parts. It needs more work and cabling, but after that small details, cleanup and tracks and ready for primer!

Knock knock? More like DAKKA DAKKA!

 As a Ork Ambulance has to be the most hated kind of ambulance in 40K, it should look accordingly. 

Guessing eveyone and their pet Squig will shoot at this, so added more bulletimpacts. Most likely it will get more before primer hits it.

What's up, Doc?

 Finished the detailing of the big symbol on top, revealing who's ride this is.  Well, as far as white on whiote is easy to photograph anyway....

Yup, it is for a Ork Painboy and his crew. Painboy has been on order for over a month <sigh> but I have a gazillion bits for his crew. Next up is more work on the rear doors

Smokey and the barrel.

 Removed the right front armored exhaust cover (God I love my Japanese saw) and replaced it with something more....Orky. I guess fuel drums will always be a useful tool for any Ork Mek. Almost done now with all the modifications, work is now to be done on the top and rear section, then slap on the tracks. And to find my missing Rhino headlights....somewhere.

Top of the line Grot-O-Matic Big Shoota

 The best weapon teeth can buy. Well, maybe. Ah, who are we kidding. 

Armor plate protects the ammo feed, sight is underneath the Big Shoota (and partially covered by the front armor plate on the Rhino, of course). Just needs the magnets, when I find them. Added the most useless ram spike on the Rhino ever.

Now to further detail the rest, add 2 more exhausts, and start work on the rear doors.

Full Frontal

 Frontal armour plate finished. Then added blunt force damage with my burner, melted half the bolts, and redid those. There is such a thing as planning, and I'm not good at it :)

Also did the drivers cuppola in the cheapest way possible by recycling one my failed Grot mini tank. 

Next up either a new rear door or the top, which will be raised a bit. Then small details before paint. Now that's been a while, painting stuff. 

I might even finish something. There, now I've jinxed it.

Back to the Orks

 Finally more or less settled in the flat, with a routiune and everything. Long Covid is still hitting hard, test after test and lot's of therapy and no dicsernable improvement. Taking better care of myself and really conserving my energye to what needs to be done, not chase every pipe dream that enters my head. 

And lastnight, I finally had some energy spare, and with a second hand Rhino in my hand and pictures of the Forgeworld looted Rhino front of me I managed a whole new door in about 3 hours time. Time wise it's glacial, but at least I did a thing. I hear looted Rhino's aren't a thing anymore, but I'm pretty close to just giving up on wargaming and just painting what I like, without the pressure of making a force or army or whatever. It's not like I finished one in the last 10 years anyway, so....

So yes, I did a thing. Might do another door tonight or just watch some TV, I hear Obi Wan is on tonight.

How are you all doing right now?

Choose wisely, A or B? I'll take C! Buying the farm, but bigger.

 So, finally got out the foamcutter and the handsaw to make the ruïned farm for the 40K scenario for next year. Well, as I was cutting anyway I ended up with a lot more. Lots and lots.....oh well, why not? Ruined buildings work for a ton of things so ok. Cut the entire sheet I had left and with the odd part left over a bit thats fits the rest but is different. It's all modular, you can mix and match.

You'd think after all these years I learned my lesson not to bite off more than I can chew, but guess not? So, yes....it is a bit dangerous starting these tbh. But for a changen I've got a plan that I put to paper. Next up is rough sanding the ruined bits, tomorrow attack with a pointy file for other battle damage, then add steel plates on the corners. Rubble after that, trim and sand the edges to fit and then a coat of primerpaint and wall fillermix. Simple weathered concrete, moss, dirt, crap. Done.

Ah well, a man can dream,,,,

A bit of recycling never harmed anyone, did it now?

 I barely surf online anymore, I removed a good 2/3rd of all of my FB groups as there is only so much time in a day and after 8-9 hours behind a desk and my PC.....you kind don't want to sit here for another 3-4 hours. But I ran into this pic:

Sadly I cannot for the life of me remember who made it. I liked the idea, not so much the pristine barrel and GW style blood.

 

 

So....made my own. Bit more like what I'm used to blood wise (please don't ask) and should come in useful someday. Or not. It was fun to paint again, and finish something. I'll focus more on these little things for a while. Sorry if it is a bit too graphic for some....it's a gamepiece, nothing else.

 

 

And my God is my camera and light combo a big pile of steaming......ugh

50 cent challenge - strange steel towers

I picked up a lot box at the Goodwill store this week, containing finger skateboard scenery, Matchbox copy cars, Matchbox scenic stuff, some Playmobil mand a set of girder ish towers. 36 items in all for 7 euros, so that falls nicely into the 50m cents challenge catagory.

There are no markings on them, but I suspect they are for supporting a Matchbox playset bit of track? I really don't know. It had some sort of pin system on the underside and on the top. I cut those off and filed it smooth.

(28mm figure for scale reference)

In my mind, I can see these work as some sort of equipment rigs, floodlight towers, VSF moorings for airships, or relay towers for a (sci-fi) airfield. Anything goes really. I've decided to paint these up in a weathered beat up style, so they fit a backwater, abandonded or post apoc area (which covers 100% of my gaming needs). I'm also leaving off anything scale realated. Right, added a triangle base so I can shove them together as a single unit, or keep them seperate. Epoxied a lot of fishing lead to the base for stability. Added sand. Delved into the bits box and grabbed some 1/24 truck kit coils, pinned and glued those to the top, and another greebly on top to cap that. Sanded the sides smooth to remove the tiny mould line.

I thought it needed more so grabbed my spool of 1.5mm soldering wire and added a thick electrical cable from the base to the top, and tacked it in place.

Added another greebly on top, did a little clean up and everything is setting and drying now. Will give a good alcohol rub down in the evening before basecoating it, as for the first time in a long time, I feel like painting again :)

Wasteland ruin progress - grey sorted

Finished sponging grey on the model all over, even inside where it is bloody hard to reach. Did the tops with a almost pure white highlight, only picking up the top and some of the other straight edges, but it hardly shows. Finished painting the rebar in the base brown tone, will do a brown wash to pick up all the crusts and then do a orange drybrush tomorrow evening. Also just finished painting (well, using a sponge) 2 weathered green doors and a wooden door with glass. Just need to clean the edges a bit. I'm thinking of doing the tiles in a Khaki colour, that seems to match the ones I saw in the bunkers and KPN building I frequented over the years.

I'm expecting a envelope with a dozen or more sheets of posters and newspapers to cut up, bathe in coffee and spread all over the floors. After that it is time for washes and final weathering, before reprimering the plasticcard edge that has worn a bit and painting it black with 2 good coats of gloss and a matte varnish to end it. I don't see a point in varnishing the model atm, It is built pretty solid and not likely to be tossed around by me anyway...

In other news, I traded a big plastic Space Marine statue on the sprue that should be here by the weekend too. I'm planning on giving it a raised base and adding 40K posters to it, so it will be easy to change the theme of the ruins to 40K/Inquisitor by just placing that in a central square or in front of a ruin.

I'm having a hard time keeping my chin up. The physical pain is getting less with each passing day, though I still have plenty of problems with my back and knee, but I and Kim have detected my mood has gotten a lot darker over the week since I got the news of my job loss. I'm having trouble enjoying my kids and even getting a bit of a temper now and then. These are the first signs of a (coming) depression for me and I need to nip this one in the butt.