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:

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!

Hello again. (Insert funny reference to the passing of time here)

Well, hello. We meet again. Again a short recap of what I've been up to. I'm nearing completion of the 3d printed set of Gallowdark Terrain. Which means that is finished for now, until I find files for the parts from the new expansions. So, for the time being, if I do more Gallowdark terrain, it will be the official stuff (more on that later). For variation, alongside the Gallowdark set, I've also finally painted the Samurai Village I've had in storage for a couple of years:

I've been doing some painting on my Space Hulk Terminators, but ran out of steam before I could finish them. I did make some nice progress on my Space Hulk terrain set, though, spurred on by the Gallowdark frenzy:

So, that's the "tech" for doors and bulkheads sorted. Through the open door/bulkhead you can also see who I intend to approach my Space Hulk terrain in the future: No more painstakingly handcrafting repetitive items, but 3D modeling/file-bashing and printing those, and then add the additional touches and details through kitbashing and scratchbuilding.

I also found a source for larger containers of Dirty Down Rust, as I expect to use a fair bit of that in the future:

The left one is the standard 25ml one that you can find in more and more hobby stores. The right one is the 250ml one I found at a store specializing in weathering and aging products for stage and movie props. They even had Dirty Down Rust in 400ml spray cans!

And finally, the Space Hulk milestome I'm most happy about: 3D Blip markers!  The tops are adapted from an existing file, and I modeled the bases myself. The tops were printed in clear resin and then given a thorough gloss varnish. The bases simply primed black, the numbers/letters painted in white and airbrushed over with a fluor paint. Here's the results: 

Sadly, I forgot to take pics of the regular green blips before I safely stored them all away...

In the set are all the blips I need to play any edition of Space Hulk. :) 

As a sidestep, I painted two sets of Ironhead Armour for the Iron Kingdoms RPG:

One of the Ironheads was 3d printed, I modeled a boiler, firebox and chimney onto what was originally a Steel Golem model.

Since I had some leftovers of the red and green resin for the Space Hulk blip tokens, I also printed some Space Hulk fauna, just for fun and maybe some special scenarios: 

In that picture you can also see a hint of what I'm currently up to...

While I had intended to keep going on the Gallowdark and Space Hulk projects, due to having to interrupt hobbying for two weeks because of a stubborn cold I lost steam. 

Just around the time that Games Workshop had their Warhammer Fest and teased Adeptus Titanicus maybe getting infantry and non-titan vehicles... Which I personally found more exciting than 40k 10th edition. So yeah, I started figuring out how to get my own low-cost titans (see the tiny reaver) in the background of the above pic. And having Titans on the brain again, I also took the large 28mm lad out of storage. It's now fully magnetized and primed, ready to get painted over the coming sunny weeks.

As I said, I'd be coming back to Gallowdark in this post: I may not be able to get the complete set. As I said in an earlier post, Gallowdark was my last automatic must-buy from GW for the foreseeable future. And if you've seen the discussions on social media this weekend, you may have guessed why: I missed out on the woefully understocked pre-order. I may, just may have a chance with an independent game store, but I'm waiting to hear back from them whether or not they'll get the supply they ordered or if GW short-stocks them again...

More news next time!

Sunday Musings: Space Hulk/Gallowdark and abandoning an ancient empire.

 I had the past week off. Which meant that what little energy Long Covid allows me has gone towards my hobby instead of my job. I've also been looking at/seeing things and musing.

What did that musing lead to?  I think I'm done being an active Games Workshop Customer.

Let's preface this with some background and then the causes that led to this conclusion.

I've been a GW\40K fan for my entire adult life. I discovered them around 18 years of age, during second edition. Since then I've bought EVERY edition of 40K starter, and have collected a large portion of the 1st edition books too. Several editions, I didn't even get to play a game in, due to gaming groups drifting apart. But I still kept up, because Warhammer/40K was my main "thing". Even if it was never exclusively so, I do play other games and settings. I have many of the secondary/Fanatic games, and love them dearly, especially Battlefleet Gothic, Necromunda and Space Hulk (Kill team combining these two in Gallowdark was a stroke of genius which is mainly responsible for this only coming now, and not several months sooner, tbh). The shared love of the games and setting has given me the vast majority of people I now call friends, both online and in "meatspace".  The 41st Millennium runs deep with me.

So what prompted this disentanglement from the company that produces it? In no particular order:

-While never a cheap hobby, the game has become downright unaffordable over the past years. The Hobby™ has never been cheap, but the past and upcoming price hike have, for me, broken the limit of value for money.

-GW's relentless release pace means you don't have the time to enjoy new mini's or spend time with a release to get to know it's ins and outs. It's all so rushed and stressful. It's exhausting. 

-And many of the newer releases, despite being of high technical and sculpting skill, aren't very good, lore and design-wise. There's nothing joyous or inspired about them.

-Despite its grand  "Warhammer is for Everyone" statement a while back, I've not seen GW make any significant progress or effort to deal with the obvious bigot issue in their community. They're still here, and with the lack of significant push out since that statement, they're louder and more obnoxious than ever.

-GW's reliance on FOMO and flash in the pan sales and their accompanying consistent unwillingness and inability to get their product in the hands of fans instead of scalpers. It just shows such disrespect and disinterest to their customer/fanbase.

-GW's exploitative lack of respect for their artists and creators. It started years ago, with the removal of author credits on rules, artists watermarks and credits, and now after building loyalty and community through popular faces on their tutorials, they've reverted to literally faceless narration. The only ones allowed a name and face are the presenters, the one who are effectively doing a constant, barely masked sales pitch.

GW has always been a somewhat out of touch and regressive company, but they seemed to be doing better for a while. Not it just feels like their regressing to their worst habits. I just can't find any joy in THEIR version of The Hobby™ anymore.

Sum total: I don't NEED Games Workshop anymore for my hobbying in the 40K setting, and I don't like them near enough anymore to give them a default claim on my hobby budget.

Does that mean GW won't lure me back in at some point? No, if they manage to hit the perfect note with a release (Say, BFG 2nd ed or Warhammer Old World Man O'War?), I might pick that up. But I won't be a devotee anymore, just a passer by.

Keeping my games/collections up to date and assuming something is a must buy, because it's for a game or faction I collect? That's past. The only remaining guaranteed buy left is the fourth installment of Kill Team Gallowdark. Because I WANT to have it, not because I NEED it to stay current. Unless a miracle happens, 9th will be the last edition of 40K I own.

I won't sell my collections either, as I still like the setting and minis. But I'll be playing around in the universe at my pace, on my conditions, in a part of the timeline I choose, an the version of the rules I like without regard to GW's  plans or desires. MY hobby, not The Hobby™.

Anyway, after all that dour thought, let's end on something fun, shall we?

I finished painting the first/test portion of my Gallowdark terrain. These are 3d printed fanmade iterations and meant as a testcase for painting techniques, colour schemes and new materials/paints to try. (Dirty Down Rust prime among them).  They'll also mean I can fill a larger table for when we play a Badab War Kill Team campaign later this year.   You see, for this year, I want to try and focus on playing more, instead of just buying more. Let's hope I succeed!

My Void Crows scavenger team got a bit more than they bargained for inside a derelict ship!

 

Another month, a bit of this and that.

 Hello again,

I think it's time to keep you up to date with what I have and haven't been doing.

Most of what I've been doing has been in the first week of this month, as I had a week off from work:

First of all, I finished printing the Reaver Titan. Now all that's left to do before it's ready for paint is sanding, lots of sanding....

I had been having increasing issues with excessive stringing in my printer. So I bit the bullet and bought a full metal hot end. This seems to have done the trick and since then stringing has been reduced to an absolute, whispy minimum. Sadly it didn't arrive until after the Reaver was fully printed... So there is still a fair bit of cleanup to do, beside just smoothing out print lines.

I also spent an afternoon enjoying the pitter patter of rain on canvas, in the first week of the month.

I now have a clearer idea of what I need to adres in my hammock setup for poor weather (aka regular Dutch weather this time of year). 

Another batch of mead got bottled as well.

The leftmost is the leftovers of the two batches of Viking Blod. Then there is the two bottles of Viking Blod that had extra hop and hibiscus added during fermentation.  Mid is a pair of bottles of Linden mead and finally the last batch of Viking Blod, that didn't have extra hop and hibiscus added beyond the initial tea. This time around I made a less strong tea, to see how that turned out, but next time I'll be going back to the stronger brew.

And with that the week off was done.

And things went wrong... I had intended to keep working on the Titan in the evenings, but a particularly nasty stomach bug struck and lasts till today.  I was suddenly VERY constrained in the amount of energy I had available and how long I could work on projects in one sitting. 

So over the past two weeks I achieved virtually nothing.

I assembled a cheeky little squig, and managed to add the last touches to an Ironhead character for the IKRPG, that had languished at 90% completed for the past year:

And yesterday, the cars for my Cyberpunk skirmish project arrived:

3 Taxis and six little microcars. These will be added to the regular cars I intend to print in the near(-ish) future.

And that's it for now. Further hobbying has to be mostly suspended until the doc can get my innards to behave again... :(

See you next time!

The beast is done!

 The last few weekends, I've been putting the final touches to the Warhound Titan. Doing the weathering, finally painting the banners. And I can now gladly report that "Steadfast" is 100% operational!

I tried my first hand at weathering with oil paints and found it gave pretty nice results, even with basic techniques.

Anyway, some glamour shots:

 Of course, his guns are magnetised, so I can experiment with his load outs:

And here he can be seen, stalking the outskirts of some industrial wasteland:

(I really should have put some mini's in this pic, to really drive home the scale of things, shouldn't I?)

See you all next time!

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. ;)