#workbenchWednesday 14/11/18

Well, I really dropped the ball keeping this updated, right?   My deepest apologies to all 7 of you.

At least I have a few things to show off today.   I've been working at getting my mojo back for painting with the 30 minutes a day for 30 days challenge on facebook, and have had quite a successful run so far.  I've pretty much stopped keeping track of games played as I've been playing a lot more, and my #hobbystreak tallies.

So, the workbench...

Reaper Bones Ogres - to be Daisho Oni

I am currently working on a trio of Reaper Bones Ogres that I plan to use for Daisho at the club, possibly as the start of an Oriental Dragon Rampant force, along with my Savage Wave stuff for Bushido.  Although, painting red might put paid to such grandiose plans...

Just off the workbench is a pack of 6 Mantic Werewolves.  Can't say I love the models, they are pretty underwhelming after the kickass kickstarter preview art, but, I have 120 of them, so I guess I better start working on them.

Very basic paintjob to tie them in with the Draugr, guess I can use them as either "Berserkers" for Viking Haerthguard, or a Greater Warbeast Pack in Dragon Rampant.  At a push they might wok for Konflict '47 too.

I've also finished up a few more Reaper Bones models, the Large Earth Elemental and Well of Chaos.  Probably cost more in basing materials than it did for the models...

Really enjoy going OTT with foliage and stuff on models, I feel a Feral Elf/Wild Hunt/Trees and Golems and Elementals army coming on.


That's not everything I've done recently, but it's enough for now, I'll save the rest for the end of month round up.


Cheers,

John

#workbenchwednesday 01/02/17

So, I did good keeping this updated last month, and hope to do so for the remainder of the year, if not beyond.

Having finished the Circle models, I've got a few Saga models up next.

The 2 units of mounted hearthguard have been drilled and glued to paperclips for priming off of their horses, and I've started with a colour primer of Platemail metal, followed by a Dark tone wash.  The skin has been blocked in with Tanned Flesh.  Once all the other details are blocked in, I'll give them an all over wash with Dark Tone, then highlight and layer up.

The Horses have been primed Leather Brown, basically because it's easier to paint the horse another colour and the basework is already done, and the texture has been washed with Strong tone.

The 2nd unit of Warriors was also primed Leather brown and hit with the Strong wash, and the skin was blocked in.  The plan is to drybrush Leather Brown over the bases, followed by Skeleton Bone, then re-do the rims Leather Brown.  That is how I do the majority of my bases these days.  It also gets the messy drybrushing out of the way before painting really begins.

Yesterday's review post got me thinking though, with 16 hobby resolutions, which is basically crossing off 4 every 3 months to keep on target.  Some, like keeping the Games room tidy or Ironmanning the PP forum painting challenge are obviously end of the year things, whilst others can be completed much sooner.  So, highlighters in hand, I set about provisionally planning how I would break them down over the year.

January - March - Finish the Microworld Beastmen, Paint a Gargossal, Play 6 new Opponents, Go to 2 Shows or Conventions.

York and SmogCon cover the latter two, and hopefully I can find the time to get a Gargantuan painted before then.  Then it's just a case of finishing off the beastmen and getting started on the next things.

April - June - Run a 2 day event, play 6 different boardgames, Place at Welsh Masters, Finish 6pts of Saga.

Well, the Saga stuff is halway done already, with more on the paint station so that's a big plus, Welsh masters and my event are in April and May, and the Boardgames breaks down to 1 a month.

July - September - Konflict '47, Warband Dark Elves, 20 Frostgrave figures, 2 Hordes Battle boxes.

OK, so, errrrr, basically this was all the choices that were left that after the first 8, and working out what 4 I couldn't tick off until the end of the year...

October - December - Tidy Games Room, Keep Butcher's Guild fully painted, Transfer Paints to Dropper Bottles, PP Forum Ironman status.

As above, mostly stuff I won't know I've done until the end of the year.

Month in Review - January 2017

Well, first things first, go me for actually updating this thing on a regular basis.  Even if I don't hit any of my Hobby Resolutions, I feel that that is a great achievement.

So, how are things looking for my 16 Hobby Resolution challenges?


1 - Build and paint a 1500 point German Force for Konflict '47.  in 15mm.  (3/34 Infantry, 0/4 Weapon Teams, 0/4 Vehicles)

I've assembled and primed pretty much all of the standard infantry and weapon teams, still have the Shrekwulfen to clean up, and a 2nd NachtJaeger to source.  Not great, but at least I have stuff ready to work on.

2 - Continue painting Microworld Beastmen for 6mm Warmaster to hit 2000+ points.   (0/17 Stands)

Yeah, took one look at the Chariots that needed glued together and promptly put them back down.

3 - Paint one of the 6 WARMACHINE Colossals or HORDES Gargantuans I have in my Backlog.  (0/1)

Nope.  Still not assembled one.  That might change this week, as I want to try and bust out a few more Circle models before SmogCon.

4 - Maintain a relatively tidy and clear games room.

Yeah, this one is happening.  I've pretty much managed to keep the table clear, to the point that games can be played on it, and my desk is still relatively clutter free.  The floor needs a bit of work, loads of stuff that could get thrown into the loft or sold.

5 - Maintain Butcher's Guild being fully painted. (1/3)

Progress was made as I painted Truffles.  Still have the other 2 to pin and prime, but they are cleaned up.  Veteran Ox is out next month, so I'm ahead of the game for the moment.  Being handed a full Hunter's team didn't help...

6 - Organise and run a two day Warmahordes event, (0/1)

Still working on this.  Ticket sales are slooooooow though.

7 - Play 6 different Board Games. (1/6)  (Zombicide: Black Plague)

So played Duffy and Sarah at Zombicide: Black Plague last week.  Probably something to add to the collection at some point.  More my style than standard Zombicide because of the fantasy setting.

8 - Paint a Dark Elf army for Warband in 15mm. (0/66 Infantry, 0/1 Monster.  0/12 units)

Not even started assembly.

9 - Place in the top half (or at least top 2 thirds) at Welsh Masters for Warmahordes in May. (0/1)

Still months away.

10 - Transfer my flip-top paint collection to dropper bottles. (1/too many)

Nope.   nope.  NOPE.   Really need to clear a space downstairs and just get started on this, I can do batches of 10 at a time, so should try and get 2-3 done a month to begin with.

11 - Paint 4-6pts of Normans for SAGA for the Falkirk District Wargames Club Campaign. (3/6pts    17/41 models)

This was probably my biggest focus this month.  Painted my Warlord, 2 units of foot Hearthguard and a unit of Warriors.  Started working on the crossbow armed warriors, then thought about picking up the official models.  Also assembled and primed 2 units of mounted Hearthguard and another unit of Warriors.

12 - Play 6 New Opponents. (3/6)

Halfway there after attending the Age of Sigmar tournament.

13 - Go to 2 Gaming Shows or Conventions. (0/2)

Nope.  But SmogCon is next month, as is Vapnartak, and I managed to shift my shift times around to make the bus trip down with the Falkirk lot.  Should be complete next month.

14 - Paint 20 Random Frostgrave Figures. (0/20)

Nope.  However, I have cleaned up and primed a bunch of random Osprey/Northstar figures for this.  Still have to do a post about my choices, but at least they are ready to start work on.

15 - Finish the Privateer Press Forum Painting challenge with Ironman Status (10+ pts painted every calendar month) (1/12)

Painted Kaya2 and Laris, the 2016 Gheorix resculpt and a Druid Wilder, so 25pts plus a Warlock.  Currently on track to complete should the following months prove half as successful.

16 - Paint 2 new Warmahordes Battle boxes for demoing.  (0/2 Starters.  0/8 models)

Not started on clean up yet, as Circle was my pre Smog focus.

Overall thoughts are that I am pretty happy with this month, still feel relatively fresh and invigorated to be working on different things, and it is satisfying to even have a bunch of primed miniatures waiting to be started as I was generally only assembling to paint before.  Other than actually keeping this thing updated, my biggest achievement is finishing off the Circle models, as it means that both lists I ran at Scottish Masters last year are now fully painted, so, that's great because it means I never have to worry about playing with a half painted model or proxy because something is sitting half done on my desk.

#workbenchwednesday 18/01/17

Guess I've been a busy boy.  It all kicked off about 1.30am Saturday, after waking up on 3 hours sleep after being on the go for like, 28 or something...

Spent the wee small hours building wee small men, and made pretty good progress with the Konflict '47 force, my Frostgrave pile, and the remaining Saga models.

Currently, I have a tray sitting with a lot of models still to have bases textured before priming, and the horses need some gap filling.

So, 8 Mounted Hearthguard and a unit of 8 Warriors for Saga, a Tanks Puma for Konflict, and a motley crew of Frostgrave models.  I plan on doing a seperate post on the Frostgrave choices to discuss the reasoning behind them.

My assembly station is cleared slightly to allow me to get started with the basing work, and currently looks like this -

Couple of the Guildball Butchers still to be pinned, and some Frostgrave dudes for cleaning.  Plus a couple of Circle models for Hordes.

The Paintstation is still looking tidy, I've cleared off the finished SAGA models, and have both Kaya2 and Laris blocked in and inked awaiting layering and highlights, and the Ghetorix resculpt is also coming along nicely.  Haven't touched the crossbowmen (still on the fence about finishing them in the blue and white livery if they are to be replaced) or the Beastmen.

In other news, I managed to get the majority of the German Infantry primed before running out of Grey primer, along with my Druid Wilder (not the Convention exclusive one in the workstation shot) and Truffles for Guildball.  Not happy with just doing actual physical Hobby work, I signed up to an Age of Sigmar tournament this weekend at Common Ground Games, after my shifts got rearranged leaving me free Saturday, and I've been playing about with the site a little, adding images for the Warmachine models I have currently painted (Khador, Retribution and Cryx).  Hopefully I can cross a few new opponents from my goal of 6 at the weekend, and I've also wangled an early start and finish to make the club's annual pilgrimage to York for Vapnartak, which should prove... hopefully cheaper than previous years.  At least it counts towards a show or convention for my list right?

Fresh(er) Start - 2017 Hobby Bingo Resolutions

ORIGINALLY POSTED - 3 Jan 2017, 17:41 

Here goes with the obligatory January update, your one post for the year and all that...

Actually, I am going to try and keep this updated semi Regularly, hopefully at least once a month, whilst still tinkering away at making the site look a bit nicer and getting more pictures up.

This post was prompted by a Hobby Resolution Image that was floating about on Instagram from hobbyvices where he was looking for people to share the #hobbyresolution2017 (I think that counts) and it kinda mixed in my head with someone else who had posted up a Hobby Bingo sheet for the previous year.  So I floated the idea with Brushchewer about doing something similar.

I figured 16 various things, spread across Painting, Gaming and Hobby would be good (we both chose different amounts) and quickly set about working mine out.  Ultimately, mine ended up being mostly painting related (10 choices) then split evenly between gaming and hobby ( 3 a piece)

I'll List them here with a bit of explanation towards each, and keep them updated on the Homepage once I've worked out all the lists and what is actually done.

2017 Hobby Resolutions

1 - Build and paint a 1500 point German Force for Konflict '47.  in 15mm.

I've had a bunch of Plastic Soldier Company and Battlefront Germans lying around for a few years now, from when a few guys at the clubs I went to were all over Flames of War.  I never got beyond building and modding a few tanks before they moved onto something else, so that was as far as that project went.  So, general love of werewolves, and having a bit of an interest in Weird War, I was very interested in Konflict '47, especially as I had been following Clockwork Goblin when they were producing the 15mm versions.  Talking to my Erstwhile partner in 15mm Crime, I figured I may as well get some of the stuff painted up.  I've worked out a preliminary 1000pt list, but will take it up to 1500 or so, as I didn't add a tank.

2 - Continue painting Microworld Beastmen for 6mm Warmaster to hit 2000+ points.

Warmaster was a game I really enjoyed back when it was released, and despite never playing much, I've always had a soft spot for it.  Despite owning both an official Chaos army and the Copplestone 'Honestly not Lord of the Rings' Orc army, I decided to go for 6mm as I had fallen in love with the models from MicroWorld Games and it was a lot cheaper than starting a new Ebay army.  I settled for Beastmen (although both Demons and Wood Elves were tempting) and got a fair amount painted up last year in a couple of sessions.  Currently sitting at about 1400pts painted, and I hope to get the army to at least 2000pts, which I can hit by finishing the units and characters that I had already started.

3 - Paint one of the 6 WARMACHINE Colossals or HORDES Gargantuans I have in my Backlog.

Imagine Mt. Everest.  Made of Lead...

So between the various factions I collect (read: Most) I have ended up with 6 (at current count) Gargossal models.  All of which are unassembled.  I would like to change that, and get at least one of them built and painted this year.  Current though is that it will be a WoldWrath for my new Circle Orboros army, But it might be the Storm Raptor (also Circle) or Mountain King (Trollbloods).  May even be the 7th one I get...

4 - Maintain a relatively tidy and clear games room.

Pretty Straight Forward.  Once everything starts getting cluttered it becomes a real drain on my hobby mojo.  The table becomes a dumping ground for boxes, cases and figures, and it then stops me wanting to play (as I have to clear it...)  I also immediately feel more settled when it is clear and that helps productivity.  Managed to clear my desk and the tabletop yesterday.  Cleaned out my painting mug, washed my pallet.  Was tempted to wash my painting towel, but I think it is now more paint and glue than fabric, and that is all that would survive a wash.  May just invest in a new one.,

5 - Maintain Butcher's Guild being fully painted.

Seeing as it was one of the few Game Systems that I actually had Fully Painted for a while, I figure I had better keep on top of at least one team, it is currently only 3 figures to paint to get them back there, and I have another 2-3 teams to deal with after that.  Fully Painted straight out the window...

6 - Organise and run a two day Warmahordes event,

So part of being a PressGanger is getting new blood into Warmahordes, and the other part is keeping them there with various events.  I've been running a 4-weekly Steamroller, mainly at Common Ground Games in Stirling, and I really want to put on a big two day event, as I've been to a fair few and have always enjoyed them from a Player Perspective.  I have a venue and date set up for this already, it's just a case of getting it all planned out and sorted now,

7 - Play 6 different Board Games.

Kinda self explanatory this one.  Now I've spent a fair bit of cash on various kickstarters, mainly miniature related ones, and that has included a lot of board games.  Beyond organising them, and spending even more cash buying card sleeves, I haven't really done anything else with them.  We had a kinda impromptu weekend gaming session early last year when my friend Mark was over from Northern Ireland around March, but that was really it. Fast forward to the last couple of weeks, and I managed to get Brushchewer,  Jimboba and Duffy together to play Bloodrage at CGG, which was a blast.  So, yeah, play 6 different boardgames at least once, hopefully more.  I know Bloodrage and Battlelore 2nd edition are going to be part of that, probably Zombicide, and seeing as she bought me Star Wars Imperial Assault and B-Sieged for Christmas, I figure I better play those too.  (once suitably sleeved)

8 - Paint a Dark Elf army for Warband in 15mm. 

I've painted up 3 Blighthaven warbands now for Paul at Ral Partha Europe and have amassed sizeable forces of Beastmen, Elves and various other models.  I absolutely love these sculpts, they are, in my opinion, some of the best 15mm available despite being more that 20 years old.  Seeing as Jimboba is fielding his Celts, I figured I would do something a little different for a new army, rather than the Copplestone Northlanders I had been working on.  I picked up Pendraken's Warband rules a while back, along with a Taurian army pack, but I immediately looked into switching to 15mm for this over 10mm.  I got some sabots made up at War Bases so that I could use individually based 15mm models to play, and still have them able to pull double-duty for skirmish games.  Turns out that the list I have planed for Warband will cover me for Dragon Rampant once I add a Dragon.  Go figure.

9 - Place in the top half (or at least top 2 thirds) at Welsh Masters for Warmahordes in May.

Again, pretty self explanatory.  Went to Welsh Masters last year, had a blast, want to do the same again this year, and place a bit higher than I did with MKii Thornfall.  Top half of the table would be great, but I'd settle for anywhere in the top two thirds.

10 - Transfer my flip-top paint collection to dropper bottles.

Some of my paints are old.  Like, 15 years old or more, and recently I've had a few of my Foundry paints lid's shatter when opening them.  I have the complete collection, so that's a lot of paint.  Add the P3 line to that, as well as the newer GW line, and that's even more.  Now, most of the little nubbins on the flip tops are breaking anyway, so, 400 dropper bottles from Ebay and a bunch of little funnels are waiting for me to begin what is surely going to be a messy and tedious task.

11 - Paint 4-6pts of Normans for SAGA for the Falkirk District Wargames Club Campaign.

So Tim is running a SAGA campaign at the club, and I figured I would join in last year when it kicked off in a bid to play new people and learn a new game.  And clear some of my unpainted backlog...  The Campaign petered out after the first round or so due to various real life events, but is scheduled to start up again this year.  I am using the Conquest Games plastic Normans for my force, and aim to have 6 points done, hopefully with a few points of extra options.

12 - Play 6 New Opponents.

Again, self explanatory.   Get out the house, stop being a recluse and play games versus new faces..

13 - Go to 2 Gaming Shows or Conventions.

Similar to the above, just something to force me to get out of the house once in a while.  Between Nightshift and kids, free weekends are a luxury, and never seem to coincide with anything exciting.  Already booked in for SmogCon in February, so that's a big one.  Sadly I'll miss our clubs show (Carronade) this year as it clashes with Welsh Masters, so hopefully I can either get down to York for Varpartnak or one of the other Scottish shows.

14 - Paint 20 Random Frostgrave Figures.

Frostgrave really took off at FDWC, probably because most folk had a variety of old models to shoe into a warband (and trigger random basing OCD...) and I got pretty much all of the original Kickstarter.  Did I mention I am a huge Copplestone fan?  I painted up an Enchanter Warband (Witch and Necromancer were close choices) and both the standard and Cult Barbarians.  Added enough models to have a starting warband, and that is as far as it got.  Total games played 0.  But at least I can say that my warband has won more painting awards than it has won games, right?  I want to chip away at some of the Frostgrave drawer, probably because it is full, and just to give me some random stuff to work on.  The 20 figures I have chosen (at the moment) include the Apeman from Empire of the Dead, and the Demon gang from A Fistful of Kung-Fu, as both should fit in pretty well.  I like getting double duty from models these days (even if I continue to buy the official ones too) and the Demons should be a good choice to work in AFoKF, Daisho, Ronin and Frostgrave.  I will do a seperate blog post detail the 20 figures and why I chose them.

15 - Finish the Privateer Press Forum Painting challenge with Ironman Status (10+ pts painted every calendar month)

For the last two years I have participated in the "A Tale of Warmachine/Hordes 20xx" on the official Privateer Press Forum.  The general idea is to paint 10+ points a month (MKiii) or a Warlock or Warcaster.   You are allowed two gap months by playing a get out of painting free card, which can also be won back by painting 20+ points in a single month after that.  There was a list of various titles and achievements listed somewhere, and one of those was the Ironman award, for completing all 12 months without using a GooP card.  I've managed it for 2 years, so aiming for a third.  Should be alright with my 2 new battleboxes, a colossal or gargantuan, and adding to my Circle army.

16 - Paint 2 new Warmahordes Battle boxes for demoing.

This one is relatively easy, and also contributes to number 15.  I have a number of starter battle boxes painted up already over MKii and MKIII, and I figured that I might as well go for Trollbloods and Skorne as they are the last 2 Hordes boxes I need to do, and are also the ones included in the 2 player starter box.  Although both 0pt choices in game, that gives me 2 Warlocks and probably 3-4 months of stuff to complete for the Forum Challenge.

So, yeah, That is pretty much it for my goals in 2017.  Obviously I'll get distracted at some point, but I hope to use this as a guide to focus myself a bit.  I'll hopefully update soon with progress, or you'll be waiting until 2018 for the next post...