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!

More Musings on Necromundan Environs

 I'm still figuring out the how and what of my (hopefully) imminent Necromunda terrain building and painting spree.

As I said in my previous post, I want to make a number of taller terrain pieces, that will allow me to add some more verticality and upper levels to my Necromunda table.  I'm thinking of building some "tower-like" terrain that can act as risers to support higher level walkways on the table, or maybe even a larger platform that acts as a full extra layer to the game/table.

But, if I were to go that route, how tall should these towers be? The obvious, initial, thought was to make these one foot high. But then I started thinking (uh-oh!) and comparing sizes:

-A Zone Mortalis wall piece is ~6 cm tall (if you average out the height of the risers that allow room for platforms)

-A Sector Mechanicus walkway is ~12.5cm tall

-A Gallowdark wall piece is ~6cm tall.

-The classic 90s Necromunda Bulkheads are ~7.5 cm tall

Looking at this measurement, and accepting that the old Necromunda bulkheads will be the odd one out, it seems that a height about 24-25cm would allow the best compatibility with the various forms of "official" terrain.  Now guess how tall a Pringles can is... 😉

So I guess height is sorted, now to get some inspiration for style and shape. 

I think I want to make a shanty tower, climbing up a derelict pipe or something. Maybe with enough of a platform on top that a second tower can be put on top.  Lots of platforms and walkways to allow passage around and up and down the column, with areas for walkways to hook up to.

Then I just need 2-3 other ideas for colums to support a second level. And some higher towers/terrain to allow traversal between the levels/layers. 

Random though as I'm typing: Maybe I can design/3d print some sort of bayonet-locking connector, that allows me to either put endcaps or platforms, or even the second tower layer securely onto these risers?

Something more to ponder...

Pondering a return to the Planet of the Dead, and of terrain.

 It's been a while, hasn't it. Long Covid has still got it's claws in me, limiting my ability to hobby, or to hobby and then write a blog post about it also..

I have been doing stuff, though, but slowly and often without pictures or posts; As when I have to choose between doing hobby, and documenting hobby, the doing wins out. The past month has been Fallout themed (because TV show, etc.). And I'm currently trying to find/maintain the time and energy to finish that table terrain set (I'm so close, just final touches and some scatter)!

But since this weekend, unsurprisingly, my mind wanders to the blasted hives of Necromunda again. Games Workshop's preview of the Malstrain Genestealers and eerie and alien Spyrers has got me excited about crumbling industrial edifices again. I was getting more and more disinterested in Games Workshop/Warhammer as a company and product line/sales model, but the grimdark, dank and wretched corners of the 40K setting do keep their appeal and fascination.

Anyway, enough ramble, on to the meat of this post:

I want to expand my Necromunda terrain.  I have some nice pieces I built over the years, but I don't yet have what I'd consider a complete or cohesive table. That and I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of height and verticality of my terrain. I want to fix that, but that'll take some wearing of the old thinking cap. 

See, there are two main ways to play Necromunda. GW codified these as "Zone Mortalis" and "Sector Mechanicus" originally. Since then, added "Ash Wastes" and muddied the waters between Zone Mortalis and Sector Mechanicus... What do I mean by that? Well originally the definition was clear "Zone Mortalis" was very much 2D: combat in a warren of hallways and rooms, "Sector Mechanicus" was the 3D variant, with raised platforms and walkways at multiple levels. But then, GW addes a 3rd dimension to Zone Mortalis, by releasing kits that put walkways on top of the walls, and added extra floors and watchtowers...

Which means that if I talk about "Necromunda Terrain" I have to decide and define what I mean by that. And then I have to decide with path I want to take: Separate terrain pieces or modular tiles. Separate terrain pieces means more modularity, but offers less chances for integrating the terrain and making tableaux that showcase the setting. Both are desirable to me... Variation is the spice of life after all, but there is something so cool about having a small shantytown or a mushroom farm on your table.

I like both variants of Necromunda terrain, especially as the Zone Mortalis can also be co-opted for, say, Killteam Gallowdark or Space Hulk, and vice versa. I have several Gallowdark sets (to be built and painted), have my long-suffering Space Hulk project, and have plenty of stls to print Zone Mortalis style terrain. So I'm considering those needs met, or easily made such.

This leaves the Sector Mechanicus style terrain, or as I view it "Classic Necromunda Terrain" as it hearkens back to the old 90s cardboard Necromunda terrain and all the gorgeous Necromunda tables you see online.  This will be my focus for the upcoming build and paint cycle. 

What do I want to achieve?  More levels, and more interconnectedness than I have available now... One of my ideas is to build a few tall columns, with plenty of platforms and stairs/ladders, so lots of walkways can extend from them. I want them to have a flat top/small platform, so I can put a few together and either put walkways between them or put a larger platform between them to create a whole upper level to the table. I just need to figure out how high I want them. And how minis can move from the lower level to the upper level?  Holes in the plateau, perhaps? Or stairwells passing through? I could also just dangle a platform with a crane over the edge... 

Lots of stuff to consider and designs and ideas to ponder on.

And yet, I live....

Well, we survived 2020...

And I seem to have been neglecting this blog, my apologies. Between corona, depression and a busy year at work, what rare time and motivation I had for the hobby, I elected to spend on the hobby itself, rather than posting about it.

Anyhow, time of a big catchup dump of pics, and then on to the next year.

Ofcourse, the Indomitus box got acquired:

(And ofcourse the image is rotated... Sorry.)

I also managed to snag a piece of classic Space Fleet art:

Which reminds me, I still need to get that framed... What do you think, a clean, sleek modern frame, or go baroque and gothic for it?

I printed the start of a Japanese village, for a long suffering medieval/mythological Japan project: 

As frustratingly many projects this year, I lost steam before I actually got them painted...

I printed and built some more Necromunda stuff (again abandoned before I got to painting, see a pattern?

Around this time, our PCs main storage HDD was starting to give out. (I've yet to recover all files on it, including notes for a decade+ spanning DnD campaign....)

I built another Destiny 2 Ghost, again a gift for a friend from across the Channel:

(The overspray on the icon on it had been fixed before sending it off.)

The unpainted Necromunda terrain I had set up in previous post did finally get painted, even though it took until Oktober:

Hmmm, tasty....

Ofcourse I had to join in the McFarlane Primaris craze:

Can you guess from this pic, which Chapter I will convert and repaint him into? ;)

Fine, work in progress pics to give some hints:

 Because my Howling Griffon would be a Lieutenant, he needed a Power Sword, just a small one:

Again, this project has yet to see paint...

Gears once again shift, now towards Orks:

Freebooters to be precise:

Ofcourse, Freebooters need to ride in style:

True to form for this year, paint is yet to come...

Final leg of the year, and final projects (still ongoing): Cyberpunk City. A third building was erected:

 While working on this, a long-awaited treasure arrived:

I'm waiting for work and life to ease up again a bit to properly get into this and read it from cover to cover. Hopefully next weekend!

That brings us back up to current affairs. This weekend I added lighting to my Brutalist Cyberpunk building: 

 And with that, that project is ready to receive paint as well. :D

Till next time, hopefully sooner than last. ;)

Catching up over the summer

 Hi folks, 

Here I am again. 😄 With travel abroad and camping scuppered due to Covid I had to entertain myself in a different way over the summer holiday. Luckily (?) I'm always virtually drowning in projects and things to do...

So, here are the fruits of this summer's labours:

 

First up: The big one, the Necromunda terrain project (still ongoing, btw). Here's what I built over the past few weeks:

This a collection of all the Necromunda terrain I have built so far.The new additions I built over the summer are (from left to right): The large Synthstill/destiller column, the bucket elevator, the old power reacter (partially hidden behind the nuclear waste silo), and the Necromunda dice tower.

Below you can see the reactor and the dice tower front and centre: These two items are fully 3d printed items, the two other ones are a mix of traditional terrain building techniques and materials and 3d printed parts. I really like the results I can get with this mixed approach.

I had a lot of fun building these and experimenting with new techniques (using a sand/tile grout mix for the basing and texuring of dirt and rust. Using AK interactive streaking grime and generally building in a more free-form and messy approach.)

But ofcourse, this table is nowhere near filled. I built more, but didn't get around to painting it, before work had to start again:

Sets of walkways, as well as a corpse-starch processing plant on a raised platform. (And as I type this, I realise I totally forgot to add my toxic pools to these photos! D'oh!)

 Hopefully I can get these painted over the next few weekends...

And now as to why I didn't get these painted during my vacation...

Ghost of Tsushima was released. And while I don't own a Playstation, seeing the enthusiastic responses from people, as well a playthrough by a friendly streamer got my love for (gaming in) medieval/mythological Japan again. Which prompted me to finally finish a 90mm samurai model I had lingering in paint in progress for months now:

She isn't still 100% finished, as the base still needs grass and tufts etc. added to it.

And I had to 3d print and paint this fun thing, couldn't help myself...

I maybe could have spent some time sanding out the print lines, but it was a spur of the moment thing, and they are a lot less noticeable in real life. I'm just waiting for the oil paint in the recesses to dry, and then I can varnish it and add the cords to wear it.

 

See you all next time!

Catching up

With the social distancing in effect, I've done some more hobbying that usual in the past weeks...

The start of the medieval farmstead that I built ages ago has finally had it's date with the airbrush and paintbrush, just basing/flocking remains to be done:

I've also been assembling a core force of  Space Wolves, which required some greenstuffing:

In the meanwhile, in the background I was printing stuff. Unfortunately I suffered a major clog in the print head.This forced me to fully disassemble and clean the hot end, as well as replace the bowden tubing... After several days (over several weeks) of tweaking, I have it running reliably again.

But the major endeavour of this month has been two buildings for my Cyberpunk terrain project. They still have some small touches to do (matt varnish, windows and the till on the store interior still needs to be painted), but for the moment, they're finished enough. Both have accessible interiors and locations where signage can be magnetically attached.

The front door is reversible, with a regular door and a quarantine door. :)

 The 3-story building is 3D printed, with some scratch-built additions, the shop is from large scale train terrain. Graffiti and tags are decals (home printed), posters and signs are printed paper, while the magnetized signage is all 3d-printed.

As I was airbrushing a lot anyway, I decided to paint up this little thing as well:

I've also started up a new set of meads. The theme for this batch is "pear". 

Centre is a pear melomel, made by adding chopped pears to the mead recipe, the rightmost is a pear-cyser, made by substituting the water in the mead recipe with pear juice. The leftmost is just whatever pear juice, pear bits and honey I had left over from the other two batches. ;)
(They're in buckets because I tend to have a fairly energetic fermentation the first few days, and I like to contain the spillage.)

See you next time!