Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

It's been a full on week work wise but I have done some hobby bits. I've finished the Stug IIIG that's been sitting on the table for ages.  There's more of it here . The regiment of 10mm Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses for Warmaster Revolution is nearly done.  Just the command stand and some final texturing of the bases to do which I hope to do this weekend.  Research & Reading I've been watching The English on BBC iPlayer.  I think it's superb and makes me want to give the Old West collection a run out.   I've continued alternating between reading Iron Kingdoms, the history of Prussia 1660 to 1947 and Sharpe's Fortress.   Incoming! I've got a few orders on the way where I've reinvested all the money from my eBay sales and some birthday money I was given.  When these arrive they'll form the basis of my projects for a fair bit of 2023.  

I've finally finished the Sturmgeschütz IIIG that seems to have been on the table for months. This is a 1/76th resin Butler's Printed Models FFF print.  It's very well scaled and almost exactly the same proportions as my old Fujimi kits.  The FFF printing leaves a lot of marks on the model, which I'm explaining away as field applied Zimmerit!  BPM now do a High Resolution Resin version of some of their models which may improve on this.  I don't really need any more Stugs but they are my favourite German AFV of the war so I won't say that I won't be acquiring any more.

 I've had a decent week hobby wise. I've made steady progress with a regiment of 10mm Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses for Warmaster Revolution.  Learning from my first batch of Chaos Dwarfs I split a lot of the strips as I find them easier to paint this way.  They're quirky, characterful little models which is why I chose to collect this army.  I've done more of the Stug IIIG that's been sitting on the table for ages.  Just details and weathering to do now. Dwarfs and a Stug in progress I've finished adding the magnets to my Warmachine and Hordes figures.  I like mixing this sort of practical, straightforward job with painting.  Handling the figures gives me a real appreciation of what lovely sculpts most of them are.  If I say so myself there's some decent paint jobs as well. Warmachine   Hordes I got the time to take some photos and write a post about the 10mm Ogres that I finished last week.  You can see the ugly, fat blighters  here ....

I'm pleased to say that I'm feeling much better and as the week has progressed I've felt more like hobbying. Painting/modelling   I've been continuing to work on the two 10mm  Ogre Bull regiments for Warmaster Revolution.  The painting is almost complete, but being a resin rookie I failed to notice the bases were warped so I've been looking at how to sort these out so I can complete them.  I've started on two 10mm Chaos Dwarf Blunderbuss regiments for Warmaster Revolution.  Over the weekend I didn't have the patience to do any proper painting and thought they'd be an easy way to at least do something as Covid left me.  And you know what thought did?  As well as warping, I've started to discover how brittle resin is, so I had a bit of fixing to do before I could prime them.  But they're all now ready to start painting once the ogres are done. I've done a tiny bit more of the 1/76th Stug IIIG from Butler's Printed Models.  As soon as the O...

I was having quite a productive week hobby wise until an unexpected and unwelcome visit from Covid scuppered things.  I’m amazed I’ve got away with it this long really and grateful I'd had all my vaccinations,  because I wouldn't want to feel any worse than I did during the latter part of the week.  Gaming I posted the AAR for the Warlords of Erehwon game I played at the tail end of last week. This was the second Celtos semi-final between the undead Fir Bolg orc Formorians for the right to play the elven Sidhe in the final.  You can see what happened here .  Painting/modelling   I've nearly finished painting the first two 10mm Chaos Dwarf regiments for Warmaster Revolution. If it wasn’t for that pesky Covid I reckon I’d have finished them. As I was focusing on the Chaos Dwarfs I've only done a tiny bit more of the Butler's Printed Models 1/76th Stug 111G.   I've been improving the storage for my Celtos figures.  As I mentioned last week ...

Overall a good week hobby wise.  Gaming I managed to fit in another Warlords of Erehwon game using more of my Celtos collection, this time the undead masses of the Fir Bolg and the unwashed orc and goblin hordes of the Formorians.  The AAR will be posted next week.  Painting/modelling   I've been progressing with the first two 10mm Chaos Dwarf regiments for Warmaster Revolution.  My 10mm technique is evolving and I'm enjoying painting up the little chaps, of which I've got 60 on the go at the moment.  I've done a bit more of the Butler's Printed Models 1/76th Stug 111G.   Research & Reading I've finally finished Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy.  A really great read, it's a very accessible work from an academic and whets the appetite to learn more.  I worked on the army lists for Fir Bolg (Undead) and Formorians (Orcs, Goblins and Beastmen) for Warlords of Goria ready for the game I played.  Having bought 300 or so 10mm fig...

The start of the week was quite productive hobby wise but it tailed off as work took over.  Gaming I wrote up and published the AAR for a Warlords of Erehwon game using my Celtos figures.  You can read it here .   Painting/modelling   I've stopped working on the 1/48th Revell/Eduard Sopwith Camel.  I've done as much of the assembly as I can, everything is painted and varnished and I've added all the decals.  I'm still unsure about how to tackle the rigging as I don't want to do anything that will make that even more fiddly.  I've therefore decided to leave it as is and return to it after I've looked into it more. I've completed the first test strip of 10mm Chaos Dwarfs and have started on another 8 strips (40 figures).  That's half of that type in progress. I've finally gotten round to painting a Butler's Printed Models 1/76th Stug 111G which I bought almost a year ago.  It's an old school resin print with lots of lines but I'm look...

As with all things repetition allows for improvement.  After I'd completed the first batch of bases I'd already thought about how to speed up and improve the process. I am going to do a post of the complete process step by step. Here's a Red Army platoon all assembled on the latest batch of movement bases I've made.

If you're interested in the thinking behind these bases and the previous stages please look here , here and here . For this final stage I wanted to add some texture to the edges of the 2p movement bases not only for aesthetic purposes, but also to provide a sort  of cup for the figures to sit in.  I mused about using household filler or Milliput/green stuff but felt I couldn't do this neatly enough.  In the end I opted to use sand. I'd already marked out the position for a  figure on each 2p.  I carefully brushed PVA onto the outer part of each coin and then dipped them in a pot of fine sand.  Using fine sand for this initial layer meant I could get a neat "doughnut" of sand on the coin.   I waited for these to harden and then added a layer of mixed sand.  Once this layer had set I added a further layer of mixed sand.  I could have gone on doing this if I'd wanted to sink the figures base further on the movement base but I quite liked ho...

The day after preparing the figures I grabbed a bag of 2ps to get on with making the movement bases.  The first job was to mark out where the figures were to go.  I got one of my least favourite figures, postioned him centrally on a 2p and drew round him.  And repeated another 50 or so times.  I did this so when I painted the 2ps I would ensure leaving a gap where the magnet would be. The next step was to form the movement bases.  Initially I went for three figure trays.  Ask any designer or gardener - things look best in threes.  I used a commercially bought 1p movement tray to get the general shape.  I did vary the angle of these as well as I didn't want them to be all the same.  The 2ps were initially joined by lengths of duct tape.  This is exceptionally strong and quite flexible but it's horrid to cut with scissors.  Once the bases were formed I cut away any excess tape with a sharp hobby knife.   This forms the basi...

With all the coins checked and the magnets having finally arrived I could get on with the next phase which was to attach all the magnets to the underside of the figures. As mentioned in the introduction post , the figures were based on washers which are much more magnetic than the base of the figure and the magnets automatically snapped to them.  To resolve this I prepared a load of green stuff and added a blob to the bottom of each base.  I always find green stuff much easier to work with if you put it in your pocket for awhile before use to warm it up.  I also found a useful video on the best way to mix it  here .  This method worked well (the relevant bit of the video is from 20 seconds to 50 seconds). Germans in progress It was then a simple matter to pop the magnet into the centre of each blob and then press the figure down on a flat surface to even it out.   Partisans all green stuffed with nowhere to go To speed things up I found it be...

I started my 1/76th (20mm) WW2 Eastern Front collection in 2001.  This was when you still sent off for a printed catalogue /black and white list from the manufacturer if you wanted to see what they did.  Internet shopping for niche hobbies was in its infancy. There was no Flames of War or Bolt Action.  WW2 was mostly gamed in 6mm or 20mm.  You had to read books to research your forces blah, blah, blah  Anyway enough of my old man's ramblings and let's get to the point.  My SHQ WW2 collection This was also before pre-cut MDF bases were available.  I based all my figures on 17mm washers which I felt worked well with the slim, well proportioned and cleanly sculpted SHQ figures.  I based them singly apart from lmg teams which are on 2ps and a few 3 man teams on bigger washers.  Singly based figures are fiddly to game with though. To solve this I looked at various products.  The problem was that no-one makes any movement trays to fit the 17mm...

My retail therapy is continuing.  The first delivery this week was One Faith, One Law, One King - French Armies of the Wars of Religion 1562-1598 from Helion.   I'd expressed my interest with Helion in the title prior to publication and was very pleased when I received an email announcing it was now available and offering a £5 discount.  My order was placed straightaway on Friday and the book arrived Tuesday post free.  I'm happy with that.  I've had a glance through and this sort of information is gold dust in the English language.  The colour plates aren't great but the rest of the book is.   On the same day my order of 3x1mm neodymium magnets arrived.  I've been looking at how to base all my single SHQ WW2 20mm figures so that they're easier to use when gaming and wanted to try out something using magnets.  I won't say anymore as I'll be doing a separate post on that soon. On Wednesday my order from Butler's Printed Models came....