Acclimating

 Still acclimating to being at home full time now. It still feels like time off at the moment. Apparently that feeling, plus the habitual tension from a work rythm are currently translating them in an urge to get stuff done in the hobby "before I have to get back to work". Which, for the foreseeable future, I don't have to, if ever...  Weird how the brain works like that.

So, I've been taking advantage of the nicer weather to get some terrain things done.

I've oil-washed and rusted the second of my Gallowdark floors: 

It ended up being more black and less ruddy/rusty than the previous one, but I'm okay with that. All that is left for this one is to airbrush in the glowing pools of toxic sludge with a nice neon green. 

Today, I spent the day putting my grout-plaster-sand mixture on the Necromunda upper platform and fixing it all in place with alcohol and watered down PVA:

These will get to sleep under the stars overnight, to dry and harden up. Tomorrow, I'll be glueing the mandatory mushrooms and some other small detritus onto them to make them fully ready for primer.

Can't wait to get this finished and shove all my Necromunda terrain onto a table, see what I have now and what I want/need to add.

Finally, I glued the Zone Mortalis tiles I had printed so far onto some 1'x'1 MDF, to start my 3'x3' Zone Mortalis board. I want the boards to look varied but still have at least one, preferably two tiles on each plate that have a surface that the columns and walls can grip onto. 

The printing of the remaining tiles and Zone Mortalis terrain will have to wait, as a friend commissioned me to print him a foam dart blaster. So that comes first.

While I'm still processing the loss of a job and new disability status, I'm thoroughly enjoying being able to build terrain again. The last two years all my energy had gone into work, trying to build up enough hours to keep my job, leaving me an exhausted husk outside of work hours. Working on terrain now is part of reclaiming my Modhail-ness. 

The weather will be expected dip back down over the next week, so I'll be getting back to painting for 15mm Badab War then.

See you all again soon!

Time "March"es on...

Well, this is it. The first week of no longer working due to disability (long covid)...  Still feels like vacation for now, but different at the same time.  I'm giving myself a few weeks to rest up, acclimate and process the new situation. While I miss my job and colleagues already, it also means no longer burning up all my available energy to make the minimum hours I needed for my contract. Hopefully I'll be able to hobby (and generally enjoy life) with more regularity again.

Speaking of hobby:
I'm currently finishing the Tyrant's Claw army, and just need to print the Minotaurs and I'll have 2 loyalist and 2 secessionist chapters once all is painted. I think I'll leave the project at that size for the time being. Partly because I don't really suspect I'll find more than 4 players, but also because I find myself getting a bit of "Marine Fatigue", mainly regarding having to support all the minis for printing. 
The weather is getting better, so terrain can get back on the menu soon.  I still need to oil weather the second of my Gallowdark floor board. And finish the texture, details etc. on my Necromunda elevated platform and the pillars to support it, so those can be painted. I also found an affordable source of 30x30cm/1x1' mdf squares, so I can experiment with some Zone Mortalis floor tiles, with modular walls to slot onto them. I've got enough to experiment with a 3'x3' table and maybe a pair of set piece/diorama tiles.

Been doing some comparisons as well, and I think the Zone Mortalis columns and walls can also serve for 15mm Badab War, I just need to make a second set of scale appropriate scatter items.  They can just represent larger, more imposing walls and corridors in spaceships or underground complexes.

Which only adds fuel to the fire of wanting to do a Zone Mortalis set...

Anyway, just some waffle. Hopefully I can post some progress pictures next time!

See you then!

A tiny civil war, with tiny models (Badab War, resurgent?)

Life stuff first: As expected/feared due to the full disability assesment my current employment will end either 1 or 2 month from now, depending on the speed administrative processes. So yeah, less income, but also less exhaustion and stress, hopefully.

Anyway, on to the meat and potatoes of this post:
For some odd reason, looking for painting tutorials for red, to paint a small House Draconis Battletech Lance, led to seeing lots of Space Marine tutorials. Which led to thinking about marines again, which led to try a grimdark/gritty Raptors Terminator squad (for Space Hulk). Raptors led to seeing the Imperial Armour art for them again, which led to Badab War, which led to my 15mm Howling Griffons:

So, I'm thinking about having another go at Badab War games/hopefully a campaign, but this time in 15mm.

 

I don't have a concrete plan yet, just musing. Maybe use this as a project to soften the sting of being at home full time. Like Battletech, I'm hoping to go for a "show up and play"format, where I build a couple of forces, probable for the most iconic and active factions of the Badab War. And once these are done, invite some friends for a day/weekend of gaming.

Since there are 18 chapters involved in the Badab War, I'll need to make some choices on which chapters to build forces for. While 15mm paints a LOT quicker than 28mm, making 18 full armies for 4-8 players is insanity.

My current thoughts are as follows:

Secessionists:

-Astral Claws: can't have a Badab War without the Tyrant of Badab and his army! Plus the Marines and Imperial Guard hybrid force seems like an interesting project.

-Lamenters: Gotta rep the sad bois!

-Mantis Warriors: They're just cool, and I like their green with yellow shoulders.

-Executioners: Might as well complete the set.

Loyalists:

-Red Scorpions: Well, they're the Forgeworld poster boys, and in-lore leaders of the loyalists, so they're a given.

-Howling Griffons: A minor role in the conflict, but they're my lads! I have to include them.

-Minotaurs: The whole chapter was there, and they got special character models, so yeah, can hardly leave them out.

-Carcharodons: Not a big role in the most of the Badab War, but again, cool guys I want to include.

By the  "entire chapter was involved" criterium, the Fire Angels, Fire Hawks and Star Phantoms could also be included. But honestly, 4v4 feels nice and shouldn't be too unmanageable.

If, during the prep, any players express an interest in a particular chapter not in the list above, I can always add them, as I have the files already and most marines paint quite fast in 15mm scale.

Anyhow, that was my ramble/musings.

Until next time!

Time flies when you're (not) having fun.

 I think this has been the longest I haven't paid attention to this blog...
The past year has been...a thing. Sorry about that.

Between long covid, struggling to build up enough hours with that to be able to keep my job, two losses in the family within 6 months, and several other things, it's been a struggle to find the energy to hobby, let alone reporting on a blog about it. 

Things my change in the coming time though. 

Because I lost workable hours due to the disabilities/limitations from long covid, I've had to apply for disability, hoping to get enough disability pay to make up for the lost hours of income.  Just before Christmas, I was told my disability level was set at 85-100%, aka 'fully unfit for work'. Now I need to figure out with my current employer whether that means I can still work for them. Due to the holidays, illnesses and time off of various parties involved in that decision, as well as the unemployment office taking quite some time to send the official report confirming this, I won't know more until next Thursday. Luckily, this has given me time to mull over and get used to the idea, and, honestly, I'd be fine with either outcome.

So for the coming year(s) I'll either have more time and energy to devote to the hobby, but less money, or it'll be more of the past year. Which makes it a bit hard to plan ahead for the coming hobby-year...

Anyway, here's some things I hope I can work on the coming year:
-Battletech: Had the first game in decades the past week, and all involved enjoyed it. So I intend to paint more mechs, do some more terrain. Maybe try and make this a (semi-)regular thing. I'm finding it refreshing to have a "new" yet familiar universe to explore, play with giant stompy robots. In a setting that, while grim, and dark, isn't Grimdark and gothic all of the time.
-Roleplaying: After a year of mostly cancelled sessions and a player dropping out, I'm putting in extra effort to try and keep my Traveller RPG campaign running as regularly as the mutual schedules allow. I also want to do more with props and phys-reps.

Something similar has happened to the Iron Kingdoms RPG I play in, so for the time being that has become a monthly boardgame night.

If it does turn out I'll be on full-time disability pay, I would also like to have a go at reviving my long, looong-dormant Mythological Japan DnD Campaign.

-Space Hulk/Gallowdark/Necromunda:  While the spell of GW has been mostly broken in the past year, I do still like the setting and minis, even if the company, their current game and most especially their pricing, leaves me distinctly cold these days.  And I like tunnelcrawlers and skirmish games. If I do become a househusband, I'd like to work on my terrain and minis for these again, and maybe, finally, get some games in.

-Cyberpunk: Yeah, it still has it's magic for me. And, apart from terrain, it can be done in small bursts and manageable chunks.

-Dungeoneering/fantasy game: I still have fond memories of the year of near-exclusive focus on my fantasy mini collection. And it connects to my love of terrainmaking and tunnelcrawling. I have enough minis painted, I just need the dungeon for them to fight in.

-Terrain: I really miss building terrain.

-Gaming/meeting friends: This may be the most important/valuable one of all. Due to having to put all my energy in work/regaining job security the past year, I have become a bit of a hermit. In general, I want to game and meet up with friends more often, but energy has to allow it.

Anyhow, braindump done. Nice seeing you again, and until next time! Have picture of last weeks Battletech game as a reward for reaching the end of my ramble: