Let's get medieval!

 Hello again!

Like I said in last post, I'm working on a small Baron's War army to have a game with a mate some time this year.  I've been chipping away at my troops, one unit at a time. 

So far, I've got my peasant levy spearmen done, they're basically just farmers with whatever long pointy implement they had available.

The peasants, pulled from whichever village pulled the short straw this time round...

Second on the billet are the serjeants on foot. As they're not actually nobility, they're wearing livery in the colours of either of the two flags of Brabant (the flag for the Duchy of Brabant is a yellow/golden lion rampant, clawed and tonged in red on a field of black. The other flag, chequered red and white, is the modern flag of Brabant, but can be traced back to the middle ages, so I feel justified in using its colours.) The still to be painted archers will also have tabards or hoods in these colours, over their regular clothing, as a nice bridge between the peasants and the serjeants.

The serjeants, trained fighters in the permanent employ of Brabantine nobles or cities. 

As a nice added bonus, the Brewer's Guild militia I painted back in the day for my Fantasy/Dungeoneering project, the ones with spears and pavises/large shields, also have a red-white heraldry, so they can fit in with this force. The sergeant even has the city arms of a local Brabantine city, matching even more perfectly.  They make a nice expansion for this force, as well as a nice bridge between my historical and fantasy medieval project. :) 

Left to do are the archers, and my complement of mounted knights. You'll get to see those once I'm done painting them.  Once the weather improves come spring, I want to get to work on some medieval village terrain, as that needs me able to work outside in some degree of comfort.

As I had my paints out, I also did a quick paint job on a bunch of sci-fi Hull Crabs, that had been languishing on my painting table for way to long. Just a quick couple of drybrushes, and some partial glazes with red and blue tones of ink/contrast paints. They'll be fun in things like Necromunda, Five Parsecs, Inq28, maybe even the upcoming game Scrapjacks from the creator of Zona Alfa?

As part of the whole "Medieval stuff is cool" phase, I've also finally finished Kingdom Come Deliverance, and have now started on part two. I bet you can guess why painting is going a bit slower... 😁  

This week I've also started playing Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries in co-op with a friend, so there is a none-zero chance some battlemechs will be deployed to the painting table soon as well. 

I've also been experimenting with printing some Crimson Skies planes in 1/300, but with mixed succes, the planes are very fiddly to print with any degree of consistent success. A shame, as I'd rather like to put Crimson Skies back on my gaming roster.

So, that's what I've been up to in January, as far as hobbying is concerned.

Where did the year go?

Another year past, and I haven't been posting for the latter half of it. Had lots on my plate, and not much energy or excitement for documenting my meagre hobby efforts.

For those wondering, the Patrol Skiff is finished and is now available on Cults3D

I did manage to do some hobbying in December, mainly focussed on finishing some 3d printed 28mm scale Battletech mechs. I printed and painted a Thunderbolt and a Commando and painted them in a generic mercenary-like scheme, to stand against the League of Rasalhague Warhammer and Locust I painted a while ago. Between Christmas and today, I managed to put the last touches on them: 

The Thunderbolt

The Commando

In December a friend and me discovered we were both planning to do some medieval stuff, which turned into us both planning to build a small Baron's War warband. We're setting our warbands in Brabant, using heraldry from that area. I'll be building mine to be 14th century, rather than Baron's Wars "native" 13th century as:

A. It's an era of Brabantine history that I'm already a bit more familiar with.

B. I prefer the look of mid-late 14th century arms and armour

C. Information about 13th century Brabant is extremely thin on the ground...

I've printed my warband using models from Reconquer designs, Epizion and a few Medbury bits. And now that the mechs are off the table, I can get started on the warband. I think I'll start with the peasant levy, to get back into the swing of things. 

See you again next time!

A quick update

 Hi folks,

Still working on the Arbites Patrol Skiff, I've made a successful test print of the main body. Some minor tweaks, but luckily all just cosmetic, to get bits looking a bit better. Still working on the turret itself and the turret and sponson weapons. Not the most exciting parts, so I'm stalling out a bit on those. 

I also got the Space Wolf helmet finished, bar the eyelenses.

And I grabbed some WIP 3d Space Hulk corridor sections from my long-suffering Space Hulk Project. This one was one of my first attempts to combine 3d printing (which wasn't a thing back when I started this project, it's that old!) with more traditional model building techniques. This one leans more heavily on 3d printing. 

Maybe I'll even finish the tiles needed for the first mission before the end of the decade...

Anyhow, I hope the summer is treating you well,

See you next time!

Time is an illusion...

 Hello again, time does seem to slip away from us, doesn't it?

I have been hobbying, but at a leisurely pace, and part of it digitally. My inspiration/drive has been all ove rthe place though.  And they say an image says more than a thousand words. So, lets get to the pictures, after the break:

Taking the helm. ;)

 Two months on now. I feel I'm settling into a rhythm of life at home. I've also seem to have reach the point where the accumulated stress and exhaustion of the past couple of years has started to dissipate. Which means I can start carefully working some of my previously abandoned projects again. As well as just follow my muse when it strikes me. 

I have been doing some hobby projects in the past two months, but nothing really wholeheartedly enough to warrant posting about it.

This week is different. Thanks to Galactic Armory's Patreon, I'm realising a long held dream of having a life sizes Space Marine helmet for display in my hobby room.

The past few days have been spent filling, sanding, filling an sanding again. 

Yesterday I could undercoat the helmet in black and then gunmetal. Today I could paint on some chipping in liquid latex and spray on the grey basecoat. I'm now cutting some stencils to sponge some decoration onto the helmet before weathering.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the process: 

Any guesses to what Chapter helmet I'm building? 

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!