What is better than 1 effigy? 3 effigies!

Not much to say here. 3x 15mm Eldritch statues from Copplestone, now sold by Northstar. Fun quick multi use scenery. Just some washes, 2 coats of gloss varnish and a good dusting.

Skulls! Skulls for the.....skullpile?

I picked up this resin skullpile at Figz 2018 a few months ago. 50 cents from one of the painters who was selling some no longer needed stuff. Based it on a rough plastic base and sanded it. Added a Ork and a Human skull, as I felt it was lacking skulls....(don't be silly).

Couple of washes, drybrushes and a bit of dust later.

And it fits in really nice with the efigy.

Question time. Does anyone recognise the skull pile? I have no idea if it is homemade, commercial or even recasted. Just curious.

Every man needs a shed - part 1

Kim is, and I get that, none too happy with the large amounts of scenery being built on the kitchen table. Me too would prefer to have that in a different location.

Kim wants a clean kitchen table.
I want a clean shed and get rid of anything we don't need.

So I've put the scenery building on hold and taken on the project of emptying out the shed and looking online for used furniture, lighting etc. I have a budget of 250 euros from our mutual funds for this.

After a bit of pondering and doodling....

The reality is though......

 So, I got cracking, and picked up a used kitchen cabinet. That fll off my cart as I turned around to open the door....

But with some help of Kim and a couple of screws....that got sorted.

Ripped off the rails from this part of the wall, as well as the line to the power socket.

But yeah, this won't move on its own....so more work.....

Also started filling in the many, many holes....

Cleared more from the back, re hung the rails on the back of the wall that the previous owner once had hanging here but removed for some reason. Did have to add over a dozen holes to fix them to the wall as he had sone it pretty hap hazardly. And filled more holes.....plenty more to do.

For the left side corner I had planned a tall cabinet, and the person I bought it from lives 10 minutes from me and mentioned he could deliver it for 10 euros on top of the sales price of 20 euros. She turned out be a old 70s German build quality one. (I feel I overpaid for it)

Just one problem. Doors swing to the right (Did I mention it is made in Germany?) and it needs to swing the other way. These older ones are not swappable like modern Ikea stuff. But measure 3x and drill 1x and you get.....

Sure, the handles are in the wrong place, but those are old so I will drop by the Goodwill and pick a few others to replace these. Or not and just move them to a lower position.

Also did a lucky find at the Goodwill and picked up 8 wooden folderboxes, so I replaced my old cardboard ones.

And my girls celebrated their birtday i school so I had to bake cupcakes. A LOT of cupcakes. MONSTER cupcakes.....

As I'm currently pretty exhausted Kim basically ordered me to stop working and take the night off. So I'm a bit busy now catching up with emails etc and now it is 01:30 again.....<sigh>

50 Cent challenge: "I'm lovin' it!"

The return of the 50 cent painting challenge!

Also: The end of my painting dry-spell!

Jay!

<enough sillyness>

Last week there was a end of the school holiday childrens market, so toys galore. I picked up 2 cars for Gaslands, 1 Tractor for 20mm and this .....thing.

Someone, somewhere was "lovin' it" in a Happy Meal many, many moons ago. There is a spring inside so you can make the head pop-up. Well, the girl selling it asked 25 cents, and how could I resist something with so much potential?

After removing the top-bit from the heads-bit with a saw, and then cutting the spring inside I epoxied the top back on the rest of the .... thing. With a scrap bit of rough plasticcard for a base I grabbed the Milliput to fill in and clean up the screwholes and the slight gap on one side. I grabbed my still mint (and now no longer) Citadel skull box, put a few alien ones on one side and a few human ones on the other. Added sand to taste.

 

 

 Bring on the cheap discount automotive primer thats sticks to everything.

After that just a few washes, quite a bit of use of the dairdryer to speed things up and some powders to dust up the base.

And with that - Challenge completed! (...until the next one...)



For uses.....28mm scaled effigy....Congo? Any Pulp game? Something in Warhammer Quest? Let me know what you think.

Where shall we go from here?

Right guys,

I've not been around a lot. Well, I have, just not here. Life has been busy (self imposed) and I just have not planned in the time for this as friday night was my Blog night and friday night is usually also the only possible gaming night.

But just to keep you updated.....

• I'm quitting the second hand buying and selling of kits business. I have looked at the numbers, time spent, money made, it is not worth it time or money wise and just distracts me waaaaay too much. I will still sell stuff out of the attic for a bit of extra cash.
• I've talked to mates from all over the world about planning, painting and what not. I'm building almost every night, but I have only painted a handful of times this year. Also I'm just building whatever I want....which is dangerous territory.
• The result of this is that I made a shortlist of what I can do till the end of the year.....

 It is a simple list. The first 2 are local "tournaments"....basically a meeting of 300 point armies from a certain book. MG is in 3 months, WaR in the winter, so those have priority. If I don't feel like working on them that evening I can skip a level in order of priority. Yes, I've shelved my partisans for now, as well as other stuff like 28mm and 6mm.

As much as I want to pick up my Blog, I need to plan in time....and actually need something to tell you guys. I think I will plan it in for a weekly chat as soon as I get my bearings again.

Now, back to reassembling my hobby room in a more organised fashion.

Edit: Thank the flipping much Blogger! Damn program never informed me you lot had made comments that I had to check and publish. Just put all of that on OK!

Rise of the 300 lists. And the 300 WIP's

Real life is keeping me very busy, so Blogging is very intermittent for me.

I have been rather busy hobby wise. I'm steady working my way through each of the Battlegroup books and making 300 point lists with my stash in mind, to give me a focus to work on...with. I'm putting them in Excel so I can easily modify them later. I also managed to bag BG Torch thanks to Modhail.

I've been pretty busy building wise.....

15/20mm crashed Alien shuttle. Finished most of the basics, needs some more work before I can paint.

I noticed a Middle East battlereport from Piers with a single hut and water through. As I'm scared shitless to ruin the village (THAT  I STILL NEED TO PAINT....for 3 years now) these will make a good testers. Just some scrap foam, plasticcard and spackle. For 20mm.

I built a PSC 250 Alte with a Hotchkiss 25mm as I found a photograph of it and it seems like a good Recce vehicle. The Panzerbuchse I mounted in a more static position and I will modify some troops for it. Either to use as a stand in for a AT rifle or as the real thing in the army list.

I got the box of freebies and I'm slowly working through them to get them table ready. I opened the top of the 6 wheeler so I can put a commander in it, reset the mantlet and removed the radio gear as the one without was much more common (not that this was a very common vehicle). I based the first of the 2 French 45mm for my Normandy Germans, but managed to snap the leg on the 2nd when I was rebuilding it into the towed version and it got a bit messy.

Also decided it was time to make more use of my foamcutter and do some experimentation. My logic here is: May is the medical unit paint challenge - Large German airraidshelters had room for field hospitals inside - so let's build a German air raid shelter! - And find a pretty obscure one as well....enter the Saltzgtitter type Luftschutzbunker (air raid shelter) found on factory grounds mostly. Only 1/3 of it though, one of the entry points and a bit of the main bunker (the round bit) so it fits nicely on a boardedge.

 And this is how far I am now. I'm not sure how to proceed, as the colour is quite good (as in not the usual GW codex grey bunker) and a good test for the Normandy ones I have to build (even if some of them are painted camouflage)

 The guys are doing a Spectre demo in September in the UK. Something something with Cartels...I dunno. Thought I'd make one of their drug running not-subs. Top picture is the test, 2nd pic is where I am now. Slow but steady. She is a big 20mm or medium 28mm....I've made her so she fits both.

 Oh, a great cheap source for the "pipes". .....thrift shop knitting needles. Dirt cheap, aluminium so relatively easily to cut and sand. And bend.

I have quite a few UM model kits, you can pick them up second hand for a fiver most of the time, but I absolutely hate the rubber tires they use....but that makes them absolutely (lots of absolutes here) perfect for burnt wrecks.....BA-3 armoured car

 And another one....but a few years later and used as a route marker, will have one or more signs next to it. Bit more work on this one, was fun to do opening up as much as possible. No holes in this one, just one that was disabled and stripped and just left.

The old scraped steam tractor is ready for paint, and I'm doing some minor work on the most essential of vehicles....the armoured Panzer 1 Ambulance!

And I end todays Blogpost with a happy accident....

I was unpacking my S-Models T-26B ad noticed 2 additional sets of tracks. These fit almost perfectly on the UM ones so I can now build, in a easier fashion, the AT-1 and a future other T-26 derived purchase.

And that is it for now. Lot's of WIP's, needd to finish a few and remove my thumb from the buttocks and slap on some paint.

And now I need sleep.