Weekly Round-up #003

So a couple of days late, but not without good reason (I promise!).  So what have I been up to this week?

A)    Rumbleslam Heavy Pounders

The Heavy Pounders ready to hit the ring!

The first of the two teams that come in the Rumbleslam starter set.  As per the title of the blog (which I should probably do an explanation post on) I don't consider myself a good painter, I rarely have the confidence or the concentration to spend too long on stuff.  This is where Contrast Paint has been a revelation!  This whole team took probably about 4 hours all in to get to a perfectly reasonable gaming standard.  They wouldn't stand up to too much close inspection, but given they will be getting constantly handled, knocked down and thrown out the ring (figuratively speaking hopefully!), they weren't going to need a world beating paint job.  Next week I'm hoping to make some progress on their starter box opponents, the Green Bruisers ...

B)    Monstrous Encounters Pot-De-Fer (counts as Ballista)

Front view - Drop the flag, hope it doesn't blow up in your face!

In a crazy quick turn-around time (at least for me!), I also managed to get the Pot-de-Fer that I printed out last week painted up.  The base isn't quite finished, but I'm going to count the Pot & the 3 crew as painted, and the base will get it's own count once it's done (so 4 crew, war-machine & base would be 6 in total - seems fair).

Side view - Having read a little about these machines, I'm not sure the guy with the flag would be 'safe' stood there!

Given I'm intending on using this for the Warhammer Armies Project Bretonnian's and The Ninth Age Kingdom of Equitaine, I'm going to paint up a 4th crew member to take up the last base slot.  The artillery display base is from www.blotz.co.uk, and this one has worked really nicely it has to be said.  I have a bunch of them for various armies, but this is the first one I've based up, and it's been easy so far.  Hopefully another picture once the last crewman has joined them. 

C)    Purchases

So, first weakness of the year, although not as bad as it might sound (at least that's how I'm considering it ... I appreciate I'm probably in denial!).  I had some vouchers for www.the-outpost.co.uk from the Christmas period.  As I required a few extra paints (for my Bretonnian archers who will hopefully be making an appearance in the next couple of weeks) I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to pick up the Necromunda Orlock "House of Iron" book, as I've loved the Orlocks ever since I got the original Necromunda box-set in 1995!  And given I was getting the book it would have been rude not to pick up this at the same time:

They have cyber-puppies and grav chutes - which for me have a massive "Fury Road" vibe ...

So this means that at running totals have modified as follows:

Painted : 2 + 9 (5 Rumbleslam + 4 Bretonnians) = 11

Printed = 11 + 0 (no change this week - I've been printing but not miniatures) = 11

Purchased = 0 + 8 (Necromunda Orlocks) = 8

However, this week that is not the end of it!

D)    Ebay

So it had all got a bit ridiculous, and over the course of 2020 during lockdown I went a "little bit" overboard on my optimism on how many projects / games I wanted to get into.  However, in a more sombre (sober?!) moment, I realise that I'm never going to get through the projects and painting I already have, so it was time to let some of my projects go.  As such (and given the £1 selling fees offer) I listed a couple of larger projects ... including a Tau Army I was very kindly given for free by a colleague who no longer played, some Deus Vult medieval kits from Fireforge games (as now I have the 3d printer I have no need of them) amongst others.  As such, and given the bids I have already received on some of these items, I know that by the end of next week I will have sold 54 medieval soldiers, and in the region of 80 Tau (I will do a proper count before they go so I can account for them properly).  However, this negative will be necessary as I try to balance the books, as before too long I'm hoping I'll finally get my pledge from the TTcombat Desert of the Dead kickstarter ... and that will create a BIG swing.  But that's an article for another day ... until then I'm just going to be happy that for sometime at the beginning of 2021, this number will be negative!

Until next time ...

-  Bsking

Weekly Round-up #002

Far closer to "on-time" this week, lets see what the 2nd full week of the new year brought:

A)    Highlands Miniatures Damsel

Shiny (or I like to think - 'varnished')

Highlands Miniatures were running a competition for their Patreons, to paint up a print of any of their December releases.  Unfortunately, as I can't really see a use at present for their Warrior Ladies (maybe they may become some 'Fey Spirits' for a Warhammer 9th Ed Bretonnians?), I chose the above model.  It was done very quickly, mostly with contrast paints (except the cloak), and doesn't / didn't stand a chance in hell of winning.  But this was about the taking part, and the fact that it was the first 3d printed figure I've fully painted up ... so there you go!

B)    Rumbleslam Deluxe Championship Ring

Let's get ready to Ruuummmmbbblllleeee(slam)!

For all intents and purposes, I'm considering this generally finished.  The final rope is now trimmed, and I will find a way to support the turn-buckles to prevent them from all pulling in like they are in the photo, but generally job's a good-un!  Final task is to just paint in the green-stuff, but I've run out of the bone paint colour, so it'll have to wait till I can get some more.  However, it is now generally ready and waiting for it's first Royal Rumble!

C)    Highlands Miniatures Stony Bases

Pegasi and a Green Knight bases

I managed to steal a little time over the weekend whilst the little one was asleep, to do some dry-brushing of these stone textured bases, for 3 Pegasi Riders, and the Green Knight, once again all from the Highlands miniatures Patreon.  The other parts of the models are printed as well, and I'll feature them once they're suitably ready for sharing.

D)    Monstrous Encounters Bretonnians

Breton War Machine Set 1, plus some extra squires

Final piece of hobbying for this week was the above from the 3d printer.  Additions for the painting pile for my Bretonnians / Kingdom of Equitaine force.  The eagle eyed will notice a lack of arms for the 3rd crewman on the left.  Rather than use the '1 of each arm' that I had originally printed off, I'm going to quickly run off a couple of extra arms the next time I put a print on, and have something much closer to one of the crew on the right.  However, I'm very happy with these as they are a Bombard and 'counts as' Ballista for the Bretonnians.  The squires are to complement the unit I printed off last year, then smashed on the floor, so don't really count!

As such, starting a 2021 running total we have:

Painted = 2, 

Printed = 11 (2 machines, 6 crew, 3 squires),

Purchased = 0.

This doesn't quite tell the whole story, as some late night Sunday hobbying has no photo's, so will be shared next week that changes these numbers, but that's for next time ...

-  Bsking

Weekly Round-up #001

Usually will try to get the weekly round-up done on a Sunday night, but not quite managed it this time round.  However first week back at work, plus getting a full year's goals together meant that I didn't get together for yesterday.  So instead, here is what I've achieved in the first full week of the year:

A)    Gargant / Giant for AoS / Warhammer - Sons of Behemat

Started putting some paint on this 3D printed fellow from 'Duncan Shadow' on patreon.  Not got far with the painting yet, but trying to get down some initial base coats on various large surfaces.

In fact, he's one of a pair that I've printed of Duncan's 'Gargants'.  Below they are both shown flanking the Cyclops from the Monstrous Encounter's Patreon (from the welcome pack), who could possibly form the core of a Sons of Behemat force for Age of Sigmar (or just look cool in the display case!)

I'll probably end up basing them for Warhammer / The 9th Age, as it's where I'm most likely to use them, but having just received the latest issue (460) of White Dwarf, there was quite a lot in there on the Son's of Behemat, including a "free mini-game", which these guys could be used for in the future potentially?!

B)    Rumbleslam Deluxe Championship Ring

The second thing I worked on this week was for a game I got for my Bday (although it arrived about 3 months late due to COVID!), an MDF ring for Rumbleslam from TTcombat.  It's a game I've only seen played in the introductory Youtube videos, but I'm a big fan of sports-based, small model-count games so this seemed like a fair shot (especially when the core game intro-box was available for less than £40!)

As will eventually become obvious as this blog progresses (and face-to-face gaming becomes possible once more), the vast majority of gaming I get the chance to undertake is actually Blood Bowl (with the London based Blood Bowl League, the ECBBL).  This game seemed like it would be a fun distraction that could fill time either whilst waiting for an opponent to show up, or indeed whilst finishing up the beer post-game!

The ring itself is (very loosely) based on some pictures (and what I remember) of WWF rings (as it was back then) when I very first saw "Pro-Wrestling" back in the mid-90's.  I only have a few "teams" for the game at the moment: the Humans & Orcs that come in the base box, and the Carnevale cross-over event exclusive team.  Once my Desert of the Dead kickstarter order arrives (hopefully sometime soon!) I'll also have the Khemri themed team as well, and unusually for me I'll probably stop there until there's a chance to actually give the game a go, as I want to try it out before investing too much in it!  However, assuming it is popular I could see me going for quite a few of the 'obvious' 90's wrestlers that I remember so fondly (especially the "not Hulk-Hogan" Orc they've got!)

That was it for this (last) week.  Next (this) week hoping to get more of the ring done, plus maybe put some paint on some Bretonnian themed things sat on the shelf behind the ring above ...

-  Bsking

New Year's Miniature Resolutions

So, what are my plans for 2021?

If there is one thing I'm able to take from 2020, it was the surprising level of motivation that I was able to generate and maintain for myself with the 'DropUniverse' Commander Battle for Earth Blog I was writing before the sh*t-show of 2020 started!  I even managed to paint up an entire 4ft x 4ft table of the TTCombat mdf Dropzone Commander terrain:

The completed Dropzone Commander Table; laid out in the Man Cave - more of which later!

As such, to try and be consistent, and continue to be productive with all aspects of the hobby, I hope that by doing a weekly round-up of what I've done during that week will provide that extra impetus to actually progress each week.

So what am I currently working on?  The following are the projects that I'm working on at the moment:

• Project #1 - Blood Bowl stadium

During November, just after I got my 3D printer, I came up with a project for my Tabletop Blood Bowl league, where I printed out a whole bunch of the Fanath Arts fan miniatures, and asked if people in the club would like to paint them up as a fun lockdown project.  The plan was that everyone else would paint the fans whilst I did the stands etc... (which came from the Kekonomicon kickstarter which delivered in about August of this year!).  However, the plan didn't quite work as I ended up re-flooring the downstairs of my house(!), so I haven't finished the stands yet - they are built:

Showing the main stand ... fans still to be added

So given the UK is in another lockdown now till February 2021, I'm going to aim to get through some more of the painting of that sooner rather than later!

• Project #2 - Bretonnian Army

The Bretonnian Army was my first force for Fantasy, acquired in 2003 as the Bretonnian Army box released for the 6th Edition.  It's getting quite sizeable now, with a number of additions (mostly from eBay!) over the years.  However, more recently the army has taken a back-seat as Games Workshop retired the army and switched away from Rank-and-File rulesets.  However, with both the new addition of the 3d printer to my arsenal (meaning excellent sources of new figures such as Highlands Miniatures and Monstrous Encounters from their relevant Patreons), and the advent of new rulesets such as the unofficial 9th Edition rules, or the Ninth Age rules mean that there will be some new stuff to share!

• Project #3 - Rumbleslam

Just before Xmas, I picked up this game from TTcombat, as it had piqued my interest for a while.  This year I have already started painting up the deluxe mdf ring I picked up alongside the main game, so that will feature.

• Project #4 - 3D printing

Not a project per-se, it's just such a cool technology, I'll add to the grey 'pile-o-shame' with some random bits and pieces I'm sure!

And I'm sure more stuff will appear as we head on through 2021.

So onto the format.  I'm going to do a "Weekly Round-up" for each week, just tracking the random bits and pieces of hobby activity I've undertaken that week, hopefully on a Sunday.

I'll also start to record various specific articles, whenever something of value can be produced.

The final thing I will also track my painting progress, including a +/- across my whole collection for the year!  If nothing else it'll hopefully encourage me to do some more painting to get the numbers more equal if I can.

So that's the plan for 2021.  Let's see what actually happens ...

- Bsking

2021 - A Brand New Start!

Wow, 2020 was quite a year!  As well as cancelling any plans that might have existed, it also removed the prime content source for my previous blog, which was tracking the progress of a Dropfleet and Dropzone Commander campaign I was playing through from 'Battle for Earth' with a friend.

I'm still going to keep that blog going, once the ability to generate new material for it has returned, but the year of 2020 has also taught me something else.  Hence this blog will be focussed on anything and everything that takes my fancy.

This will include:

1)    3D printing (a new toy for 2020!)

2)    Blood Bowl (my main game)

3)    Fantasy Wargames (my Bretonnians surprisingly benefited from the lockdown and the new 3D printer!)

4)    My hordes and hordes of grey plastic ...

... and anything else I decide to cover along the way!

So, lets hope that 2021 will be the start of something new ...

My first task will be to set some New Year's Resolutions, so at least I have a topic for post 2!

- Bsking