Wasteland ruin progress and Frostgrave

Increased the spectacular factor of the ruin by adding bright orange rocks and pink big grains of sand all over for rubble, making sure to leave places clear where I want to put miniatures or stuff.

I did the borders as well. I can always make rubble piles to slide up against the walls later.

Also, played my first game of Frostgrave since November I think? I'd been guiding games at my house, which is fun, but playing is more fun. My Necromancer did rather well till he got mauled by a couple of marauding wolves that bit him for 13 hitpoints. With 1 life and 1 action he managed to Leap to the top of a tower, and my opponent instantly attempted to Push him off (but failed, even when I rolled a 1!). Erik, you bastard.

Anyway, I made myself a promise that for the time being, each game I play, I will try and paint all of the monsters that show up (if they are in my inventory or if I can trade them with other people). So for this time I'm supposed to paint up 2 armoured skeletons, 2 wolves and 1 ice toad. Skeletons no problem, I traded a second hand mostly basecoated and on the sprue undead army a while back, and I found some old Games Workshop wolves in my stash. I'm stumped on the Icetoad though, I know of a few nice ones but can't afford them at the moment. Maybe when Erik buys some more, I'll order some with him, if I can sell more Epic that is. Currently 12 euros in my Paypal left as I had to go out and buy new Matte varnish, as the pot is getting way old and it is almost impossible to stir properly. I'll also need to replace some Vallejo paints that I use a lot, notably Flat Brown that I use for all of my basing.

Anyway, here is a shot of the skellies and the wolves in their unprimed goodness.

I based them all on thin flat bases, I don't like the GW plinths. 1 of the armoured skeletons has the body from the Frostgrave soldiers sprue and this works very well with the newer GW Undead. When the glue and basing stuff has dried (meaning tomorrow) I'll sculpt some tatters on the shoulders of the soldier conversion to blend the arms in, and then they will head for the painting line next week. There's no particular reason I went with squares btw, but I can't find the round 20mm bases I have *somewhere* and aquare fits just as nicely with Warhammer Quest so no problem there.

I've also taken up a comission of sorts to trade a lot of Post Apocalyptic miniatures for 2 painted 40mm objective bases for a "Mad Max styled game". I'm thinking water and gas canisters, maybe a Raider idol/marker, not sure yet, I'll cobble up a few things and see what he thinks of it. Will be fun to do, and a good investment to get models to go with Fallout as the entire lot seems to be made up of Raiders.

Some kid lost his bike and Mail call!

Thx guys, I'm hanging in there. Only managed to finish the varnish and basing of these today and tried to start some more and bigger wreckage. Also have a offer to make a deal for 8 Marx cars for 10 euros that Kim said I can do so I will add those to my painting list soon. Deltadogs stuff has priority but I want to do it right and I'm really not clearheaded right now.

It's a pity it ain't a tricyle, but what can you do (other then convert one). Looks sad enough as it is.

 Letterboxes and kids bicycle by Black Cat Bases. The bike is exteremely roughly cast, with extra metal bits everywhere from mould wear, mould slippage and plain bits missing. No pedals even. The letterboxes have caved in sides from when the metal cooled but that actually helps with the beat up look! Did my best to make it....interesting!

I feel this is going to be a slow week, and I'm sick and tired of sitting at home not working so wondering if I can't just ask the fysiotherapist to get me a knee brace so I can get back to work. If they will let me. I know my chest still hurts and my arm still goes numb on and off but it has been 5 weeks man.

+24 HP, + 4 Rads

...is what you get when you drink from one of these in FA:3. Fire hydrants.

I picked these up recently when Black Cat Bases was having a 20% off sale and it and the rest arrived within 2 weeks time. I had some issues with the casting quality of some of the pieces so these just got based, basecoated and set aside till I had heard from them.

FFW to this monday, a reply from Jo with an explanation for the quality, a Sorry-note and a very generous offer for my next order which I would like to try and make before April if funds agree (and Kim of course)

So, mondayevening they get paint and there is not much work to them. I had removed the mouldlines as good as I could, and they are not the best of casts, but for fire hydrants, they will do. It is not like I need loads anyway! 2 coats of varnish lastnight and a bit of tuft and newspaper today and all is well.

Something that really cheered me up (more about that later) was a small box from Germany, from DELTADOG over at the LAF

In it are 5 FA Desktop PC's, 2 FA 4 Sentry Bots and 1 freebie, a locker, that can actually open! I will do a review on these asap, as I want to get these built and ready and because they are great sculpts with hardly any flash. And cause he asked me to :) Same goes for painting them (which, as I don't own the game, will involve quite a bit of Youtube and Google to get enough shots of them so I can copy that)

Does this mean all is well in the house of Gunbird? I wish. Currently on antibiotics cause I had this cough that after almost 3 weeks with heatspikes and general nausea just didn't go away on its own and was interfering with the healing of my bruised ribs. All of that combined had my doc worried so here, have some pills. Also, my right shoulder and left knee have now been taped by the Fysiotherapist to restrict movement to speed up the healing, with plenty of excercises to keep them going for as much as possible. Sadly, my knee isn't cooperating so I was told today to only walk on flat surfaces, no kneeling or putting my full weight on it, period! And preferably no stairs too, but taking 1 step at a time and going at it slowly is approved else I can't make it to bed. Spent most of the past few days in bed feeling miserable, and worrying a lot about my job cause it has been 5 weeks now since the accident and I don't want to lose it :(

Merry Christmas to you all

Merry Christmas from me and my little family (Kim, Emma and Nikki) and I wish you the best of luck in 2016. (If you would happen to have some spare, send me some?)

I'm aiming to get 1 or 2 reviews up during the holiday season, but I'm sticking to 30 minute PC intervals atm to help me rest enough. Current prognosis is another 2-3 weeks of physical pain and limited mobility. Mental health they can't tell me, but I've been quite mad for years, thank you ;)


Best wishes!

Speedweathering

This weekend I'm trying 2 things. Less painkillers and speedpainting/weathering an item I received fridayevening by mail. In between family life and visiting friends so time is short.

Teaser pic:

Old Crow order review

My Old Crow order arrived yesterday. But....you would not buy any more stuff? Well, I haven't....much. But not this order. I made a inquiry for items suitable for 20mm Sci-Fi back in July 2nd 2015, and then.....silence.

Lots and lots of silence.

Then October 13th a general Old Crow email arrives, aimed at (what I assume) was everyone who emailed him for the last 6 months or so, with apolagies and a offer for free postage. I got a reply on my more expanded request on the 15th of October and I made my order on the 21st using Crisis funds, with a confirmation and final quote on the 22nd. I was then told that his current workload it would take him about 2 weeks to get everything cast and ready to ship out.

But alas, it would take a bit more time then that, but on the 25th I got a reply that everything was ready to ship, I made my payment, and waited. But not for long :) Yesterday on the 2nd the small box arrived. I ha to wait till tonight to open it, so just made a group pic and did a head count. Uh oh, something doesn't add up.....

First, the overall shot:

Brilliant as always, with all that resin there is only 1 bubble on the underside of a base. So, that's like perfect :) The metal parts have some minor mouldlines but nothing that can't be fixed, the only problem I see is that 2 from the 3 twin gun miniturrets have 1 of their barrels miscast (only half ot it cast). I can snip em and drill in a new bit of brass rod no problem though. They are very delicate and that might even be smarter, brass rod is much more durable.

Anyway, I'm missing stuff.

My order:
25mm Fixed Turret Base; 4 Pounds x2 = 8 Pounds Check, ok

25mm Point Defence Turret; 4 Pounds x2 = 8 Pounds Check, ok

25mm Support Turret; 4,50 each x2 9 Pounds Check, ok

25mm Gun Barrels (30mm) pack of 6; 2,50 Pounds - I can't find any other then the 4 that go with the Support turrets? These are the ones I need for my tank conversion

15mm White metal laser turret on the Outrider and Glaive, I'd like 3 please. Price? Just the laser one was good enough, but I like the missile variant too, excellent.

6mm Small Double Barrel Gun Turret (10mm) pack of 6; 2 pounds Check, but there are only 3 and 2 have 1 of the guns miscast, around half length is missing?

And there is a small bag with 6 triple barrel mini turrets?

Ugh.

I see no real problems though. Jez is a stand up guy (if a very busy one) and people make mistakes, so I have emailed him and let him now what is the issue. The 25mm gun barrels are not even the biggest problem as I could use the ones from the Support Turret to get a head start on the tank conversion as I don't think I'll start any of the turret systems anytime soon.

But still, I'm having terrible luck with orders and trades lately.  The LE pre order starter model from the Antares game that was a gift from Portugal? Lost in the mail. The 2 Cars cars I overpaid for? Way damaged. The bottle of paint I managed to lose in an hour time? Ugh.
Anyway, I'll update this post as soon as Jez gets back to me.


Edit: Jez got back to me lastnight. Barrels will be sorted asap, miniturrets were his last remaining stock so he sent all, miscasts and everything, plus the 3 gun turrets as replacements for the incomplete 2 barrel ones. Grand service I say.

Not so easy rider, part 2

Added the 4th bike, even if it has no wheels, it will make great filler. Speaking of which, I added and opened 3 of the 4 filler caps just for fun. I think the bikes could use some more work, I'm just not quite sure what. As soon as my head is a bit clearer (change in medication, taking them in the evening cause I was getting drowsy after taking them in the morning....driving and work not a good combo make....but now I'm bobbing my head like crazy.....<yawn>) I'll give them a rethink. Maybe some GS work.

Also in the mail today, I picked up a set of 2nd hand Dora DVD's for the girls, and as the seller had some cars from Cars I picked up 2 of those as well. Auction stated zgan (as good as new) and she asked 7,50 a piece for them but in the pics I could see some chipping so I talked it down to 5 euro a car. Shipped, loose, in a huge box (so more chipping) and when I got them out, 3 of the 4 axles are bent and the bottom of the car is toutching the floor. Also way more damage then was first apparent. If I had bought these for the girls I would have been really pissed, now I'm just slightly miffed cause I overpaid, 2,50 would have been enough for the condition they are in. Great for Fallout.

Anyway:

I like em. When based, they will fit in better. Just wondering how to get rid of the eyes....anyone have any ideas?

Finally, just finished matte varnishing the space junk. I can see I missed a few spots but I will let this lot dry and redo those parts tomorrow evening so I can finish them off on thursday and be done with it. And then on with the next lot, either the bikes or more Frostgrave scenery.

Speaking of which, I bought a really big scenic item you will  love. But more of that in the future.