Last model of 2021 - Mordheim water pump

 The very hard to find 1/35 scale Italeri water pump makes a great piece for Frostgrave or Mordheim. Guess for which game this one is? :P

Goodbye 2021

 A few more days to go till the end of 2021, but for me it can't come soon enough. While it is nice to be painting again, the level of shit this year is getting to me. I've treated myself to a few things at the last minute. I've been dumping quite a few paints from my stash, I have waaaay to many and quite a few have gone off or solidified. Also want to go over all of my brushes to see what can be saved and what can be tossed. I still have a pack of unused sable ones that I'm saving for miniature painting (so not waste them on scenery). My old blue pot of water effects from ages ago had gone off so I picked up a new one, transparant this time, so I can mix it with the paint and skip a step. For now it is meant for my 3mm aircraft over water bases, maybe later when I pick up targets, I mean ships again I will use it for those. Picked up some Flanker Blue as this Russian Blue is great for weathering anything Soviet era stuff. Mecha Rust textture to see if it does anything extra compared to my Vallejo Rust Texture....I doubt it but who knows.

Some airbrushing stencils (or more likely stippling in my case). The Radiation ones are on the big side for 28mm, but the barrel marks are just fine and will save me a ton of time.

And more tufts, as you can never have enough of those. Some spring flowers, some large scale big leaf weed tufts that will come in handy for Vietnam, and some wintery grasses for expanding my Germans into the winter period.

Atm I'm waiting to receive 2 1/400 scale freighters to convert for Cruel Seas, I have a stash of ships for it that I want to paint up in 2022 even though the game isn't very good, but you can use other rulessets with it so.

I don't have many plans for 2022 tbh. Work my way to clear the room, make the gaming table clear again, sell off/trade/give away what I don't want/need, bin what is crap and paint what I want to keep. Basically what I am doing now, forcing myself to make some hard choices. I want to keep this? Sure, paint it. Too much effort? Sell it.

 Gaming wise, the focus isn't changing much. Paint what is fun, painting so we can have a game is even better. Thx to Jacks motivational blog posts 3mm is back on the menu. Bases have been bought and are being made, a set of Jungle, Water, Desert and Winter are planned. My worry about the lack of decals has been negated by a new player in the USA. I do need new epoxy as mine has solidified again....that stuff only lasts a year or so after opening....to put the magnets on the planes. And I need to fix some magnets on older aircraft, the tiny ones don't work and 2 of the bigger ones have shattered. But besides that, I want to get back into air wargaming, and I'm starting with more stuff for Desert Spitfires 1948, as I have some stuff finished for it, and I refound some B-17's and 109's that will be prepped and finished for the Israeli's

20mm wise....my focus is all over the place so anything goes.Still looking at Middle East rebels and expanding my Germans. I hoped Stalingrad would have given me a boost but not (yet). I doe have quite a few Berlin buildings to get through.

28mm. Well, I'm pushing myself to paint faces again as those scare me immensely. Give me machines and wrecks every day of the week, but now that I have painted the 2 ghosts I feel less worried. And I should, as I have plenty to do for Stargrave, Mordheim, Rogue Trader, This is not a Test, Kill Team etc

BFG. Space ships. What is not to like. 

My best step forward this year has been opening the WIP drawer, grabbing semi finished stuff and just getting it done, and this will continue for 2022 onwards. I should also take a step back from making scenery all the time and into finishing more models, but those 2 goals are not mutually exclusive.

And I might even get me a display case. Show off what I make instead of hiding it all in drawers. Purely for motivational reasons, of course.

And that is it. I wish you all the best of luck for 2022, stay safe and happy painting.

Last 50 cent challenge of 2021

 Last one of the year, not bad for a 10 cent purchase and a bit of filler with a snazzy paintjob.

The last picture is the color as I see it. No idea why my camera made it more blue in the first 3 (yet another reason to get a proper one I suppose). 

Nice sci-fi thingamabob or shipping crate. And in case you are wondering how this started life as, well, it's this: 

Till death do us part

 Just finished these 2 Ghosts (yes, I know the lady is technically a Banshee). This picture really is 2021 in a nutshell for me, and the irony is not lost on me the model is also named Johan(n)......

But at least I had fun painting them!

Really starting to dislike my phone cam. No matter what settings I use, frame, timer, etc...I just cannot get hots to focus. Everything is just off by a tiny margin. So for 2022 I will look for a proper camera.

Battery acid, more cargo, big alien egg, lonely robot, desk job and Merry Christmas of course!

 Finished some stuff before Christmas.

Battery Acid (Cargo for Stargrave, repurposed 15mm Old Crow container and a small 6mm one). Red is a hard color to weather, and the 2 on top completely desintegrated, but I managed to salvage it.

More cargo (More cargo for Stargrave, Necron container pieces that, with a different paintjob, make perfect scatter scenery. Cheap too, I can get a set from the box for between €10-€15 that has a lot of parts, just need to find a use for the doors.

Big alien egg (one of my first wargaming purchases ever at the Crisis show, 15+ years ago. It's huge compared to the models but it just works. A bit of contrast, a wash, some gloss paint)

Lonely robot (my scratchbuilt maintenance robot for Rogue Trader/Necromunda, and I'm not sure if I posted it before? Gave it another coat of 2 of matte and redid the lenzes, and now it feels much better)

Desk job (2 Sarissa Precision desks with the tops reversed so they are more like the metal working desks. Again, not saure if shown before, but gave them another good coat of Matte and now happy with them)

And with that, I'm done for today.

Merry Christmas to you all, hope you are having a better time of it then I am. Too much pain to properly enjoy anything at all right now, hope 2022 will be better.

The girls painted their first miniatures

 Local shop has a painting contest, so picked up the models and spent a fun 45 minutes with them.Emma went for full on pink (as always) and Nikki went for a more bright blue. The Emperors Finest, now in fashionable colors.

1948 is back on the menu boys!

 With a little motivation from Jack and a bit of cash sent to my favorite lasercutter this project is back on track. 

 

 

(though the 40mm bases are for Vietnam.....no other way to fit a B-52)

 

There could be the slight issue in the future when I start running out of certain aircraft and Brexit increasing shipping costs and time by a factor of 25%. Same for decals, but at least a US supplies has stepped up in the void left by Dom's Decals going....somewhere?

Anyhoo, bases need to be produced. And then the Netherlands went in lockdown. Again. Jay.

Quiet evening

 Alone at home with the kids, Kim is out for the weekend. Did some chores, cleared out more stuff and grabbed a lot of stuff to varnish. Should be quite a lot finished soon.

Choose wisely, A or B? I'll take C! Buying the farm, but bigger.

 So, finally got out the foamcutter and the handsaw to make the ruïned farm for the 40K scenario for next year. Well, as I was cutting anyway I ended up with a lot more. Lots and lots.....oh well, why not? Ruined buildings work for a ton of things so ok. Cut the entire sheet I had left and with the odd part left over a bit thats fits the rest but is different. It's all modular, you can mix and match.

You'd think after all these years I learned my lesson not to bite off more than I can chew, but guess not? So, yes....it is a bit dangerous starting these tbh. But for a changen I've got a plan that I put to paper. Next up is rough sanding the ruined bits, tomorrow attack with a pointy file for other battle damage, then add steel plates on the corners. Rubble after that, trim and sand the edges to fit and then a coat of primerpaint and wall fillermix. Simple weathered concrete, moss, dirt, crap. Done.

Ah well, a man can dream,,,,

New stuff = Old stuff

 Grabbed some things out of the overflowing drawers. Some new, some very, very old.

• Recycled the never finished La Maisontaal tower by making a few cuts and cladding it with tin sheet so it can go, once finished, into my Post Apoc / Necro collection. Still contemplating if I should add a slightly bigger base to it.
• Based up the glass container from a bits lot I bought last year
• Based up a large Alien sack I bought way back, I think 2005ish? 
• Dusted off a parked bike for my Post Apoc collection I started a few years ago to see if I can finish it,
• Grabbed a box of bits to see if I can make a Space Station out of it as well, though atm I'm not feeling it.
• And one of those new Ork type small guys got converted into a Post APoc one with the addition of bolts and a proper VW hubcap shield

So that will be what I will be working on this week(s). ALso my 7mm dice arrived to start making bases for air wargaming.

 Though with not a lot of air in my lungs, it remains to be seen what I can do and when.

Space. Lots of it.

 Sorry for the short break, caught a bug that knocked me down for a few weeks. Then caught Covid cause why not. Today is the last day of quarantine for me and my family, and I still have the stamina of a dead horse. Jay...

Painted more cargo ships courtesy of my buddy Erik (Modhail), made 2 more planets out of styrofoam and cobbled up a Space Station out of 3 GW bits

 

Tsade-74 is basically a giant plasma reactor from the Age of Technology that was found drifting in the Koronus Expanse. The meaning of the number 25 on the side is unknown, though it is assumed that more of these existed at one time or another. Taken over by the AM it now serves as a back up generator and monitoring station. Well, that is what their official stance on it is anyway....

I had a scrapped/damaged hatch ring from a Rhino, and was sorting through bits for something else when I noticed how well a repulsor exhaust from the new Primaris tank fitted on it, and the power whatever from a Knight or Armiger or some AM contraption fitted on top of it. The 25 was shaved from the srpues of an old Airfix kit as well as some bits of plasticcard and round boltheads. Several shades of washes and clean ups with water for the worn and beaten effect later, a Israeli tank decal and some details later she is done. Nifty little thing. Really happy how the top turned out with the swirling reactor effect. It has 3 shuttlebays, in case you are wondering what the black squares with 1, 2 and 3 means.

"That's no moon..." Well, 2 planets and 1 moon. Meet Coffe with Milk and the Jalapeno cakepop moon, and Swirly Smurf. (don't down on my lack of creativity in naming these)

Styrofoam balls from the Goodwill, spackle for the basing and experimental paint jobs. Used Contrast on Swirly Smurf, but went over it again with white as the grey (Apothecary White) just wasn't to my liking. The Terradon Turquoise came out great. Coffee with Milk and the Cakepop were done with normal acrylics, nicely washed and blended as much as I could stand. Basic, simple, and easy on the table. 

Next up are the 4 ships I painted. From top left we have, in the red and green scheme, the "Withe Roos", in the grey and yellow scheme "Lucia", the very garish yellow and blue is "BGA" or as we know him, the Rogue Trader Big Gay Al. And finally the red and dirty white scheme we have the "F-Bomb"

Starting off with "Withe Roos". Family run for generations, carrying liquified rare and noble gasses to Manufactoriums that need them. Their familily sigil marks the bow of their ship. (from the very useful new Sororitas decal sheet, though in hindsight I think I should have used the slightly smaller one)

"Lucia" is a a small independant cargo ship, hauling what she can to where she can if there is a profit to be made. Not the best looks but she has it where it counts and her engines are running at peak efficiency. Lucia decal is from the new Sororitas sheet.

"BGA" is a bit of an oddball. Garish in color, Eldar (I refuse to use the new name btw) markings, the Rogue Trader known as Big Gay Al carries all the right papers and clearances to not be shot on sight. His alien wares are higly sought after by planetary government elites for various reasons. best not to associate with him though. "BGA" counts as a Large Transport, decals used are the ancient ones from the Eldar sheet.

 "F-Bomb" a munitions tranport, went missing during the turbulent times after the Horus Heresy and returned decades later, returning home as a Fire Ship used by Pirates to (succesfully) cripple the Mars class cruiser Saint Emmerich that was coordinating the defence against the pirates in that area. Made one hell of a bang! The markings on her bow are from my sheet of German WW2 Infantry divison decals which is damn perfect for makings at this scale. The F is from the new Sororitas sheet.

I really wish I had a cost effective way to get white decals with their names made, but alas, this will have to do.