Catching up

As I said, I haven't been able to access my full hobby toolkit these past few weeks. That doesn't mean I've been idle. I packed my painting kit to take along with me. And with it I managed to paint the seven Plague Marines from the Dark Imperium kit:

This is the first time I managed to paint and complete miniatures from a 40K starter set in the same year as I purchased it! Shocking, isn't it?
I've chosen colours close to the original Death Guard scheme, but all icky and gross. :D
Now all that's left to for this is the three characters, the Foetid Bloat Drone...oh, and 20 Plaguewalkers! After that, no more Death Guard, a nice, tidy, open and close project. No pressure, no demands, just the enjoyment of painting them.

While I was away I visited a local thriftstore and claimed these two for Gaslands:

Great, aren't they? I think the pickup in the front will become a so-called Claw Car, armed with a harpoon and a plow/claw, meant to  drag other vehicles to a standstill ( Like the cars that shoot harpoons into the War Rig towards the end of Fury Road...). The other one will, no doubt, join my cavalcade of rat rods. I also found a VW van derived truck/trailer set that may become a second War Rig as well as a close to scale train set that will become terrain pieces.

I also managed to sneak away to my workshop for an afternoon and made a little progress on the rocky hills:

Once the filler has been sanded smooth, I can start adding sand and rocks, after that paint (sadly all outdoor jobs, and the weather is threatening to be abysmal this weekend...).

Plus, when I returned home yesterday, a new toy had been delivered and was waiting for me:

Which means I now have a syphon feed basecoater and workhorse for terrain and a dual action airbrush for more controlled excercises! It's an off-brand cheapo one, so I'll have to try it and find out how well it works. Nevertheless, I'm excited to have it.

And ofcourse, GW dropped a bombshell this past week:

I loved Necromunda back in the day, and can't wait to get started again! I hope the game will live up to the expectations, but if not, it's new miniatures and old rules all the way... So I'm not too worried.
Several folks in the newly emerging gaming group (all old buddies who found each other and wargaming again after several years) have also expressed interest/enthusiasm, which gives good prospects to have some games and or a campaign or two. Happy days ahead!
What makes this a very fortuitous coincidence is that I've been dreaming and stockpiling materials to build Necromunda terrain for quite a while, and between the foamcutter and the airbrushes I finally have the tools to do a proper job of it.

I've been taking stock of what's on my plate hobbywise for the coming period and, with the recent revelation from GW, it breaks down to this:
-Gaslands: Build more cars and terrain. (The core set of this terrain can also do duty for WWII Afrika, which is good because:)
-Battlegroup: Follow along in Johan's painting challenge with my DAK (this does mean I have to complete two Recce choices before the end of August, I need to hurry!) and build some terrain, which again, will also serve for Gaslands.
-Warhammer 8th edition: I had planned to have a serious go of getting my Howling Griffons up and running, but that may get superceded by the imminent arrival of Necromunda (see below). If I need a palate cleanser from other projects, I can do some more work on the Death Guard part of the Dark Imperium set (the Primaris will be absorbed by my Howling Griffons).
-Necromunda!!! I intend to finish painting my Escher miniatures and build a nice, atmosperic set of terrain. Hopefully before/at the November release.

All this will be in addition to finding a new job (as my current project is about to end soon) and spending time on woodworking again, plus all the usual day to day stuff. This means you shouldn't expect lightning progress from me and I will need to find ways to use my hobby time more effectively. A.k.a. streamlining and de-cluttering things!

So, the coming months I've got plenty to do, hobby-wise! For the coming weekend the plans are to, if the weather permits, make some more progress on the Gaslands terrain and/or try out the new airbrush. If the weather is non-cooperative, I will be cleaning up and re-arranging the hobby den for all the construction and painting that lies ahead of me... If any time is left, I should get cracking on those Recce choices for Battlegroup before the deadline expires.

See you next time!