Wednesday 30 April 2014

Hey, wait...

Why does my paint caddy smell so strongly of TCR?


Bugger. Consider that barely used pot a write-off now I suppose...

Let this be a lesson to you all, always double check your screw top lids are properly done up!

In entirely unrelated news, I have also learnt that you should probably worry about tidying up spilt paint before taking a picture of your mishap with your iphone, lest you leave TCR fingerprints everywhere. Entirely unrelated. 

On the workbench right now

The wife is off at a candle party (because we are adults now that we're married, and that is apparently the sort of thing that respectable married ladies do) so I'm sat at home gorging myself (this is my view right now): 


And hopefully making some progress on little metal men.

Having recently bought the Firefly boardgame:


I had the urge to rewatch the series and dig out my old semi-abandoned miniature project (which handily was stored in a single Baggie, with the exception of a box of Starship Troopers Light Armour Mobile Infantry to use as Alliance Troopers):


Although it appears that I have somehow managed to glue my superglue shut, so I might have to see about getting some painting done instead! 


Wednesday 23 April 2014

Blogs on mobile devices?

Generally, I mostly read everyone's blog posts on my iphone. I'd not been able to find an app that let me import my existing list of blogs that I follow from blogger, and couldn't be doing with manually adding a couple of hundred of them... Somehow along the way though, I managed to import my blog feed to Bloglovin, and although I can't seem to get the app version of it to do what I want, every day I get an email with all the posts from the previous day for me to peruse at my leisure. 

However, this morning I noticed something at the end of the email:


"See 17 more posts"? Is that always there?

Checking back through some older emails, it turns out yes, it is. But I'd never noticed it. Which means I've been missing a lot of people's posts. 

Does anyone have a mobile solution that they use that works?

Saturday 12 April 2014

Sa-loot 2014



So, another Salute has been and gone, leaving us with tired feet and empty wallets.

As per usual, the amount of photos it felt like I took turns out be be less than it seems I actually took, leaving me with these:

A snazzy VSF game, put on in conjunction with Oshiro Model Terrain iirc

3-ups at the Perry stand of their upcoming foot knights - I'd hoped that they might have been ready for Salute (and would have been an automatic purchase), but alas it was not meant to be this year...

A rather smart VBCW game - one day, I'll get around to painting my VBCW minis that are currently sat under coated, as every year I see a game at Salute and it makes me want to game the period!

Batman miniatures game demo - another one that made me think 'hmm, I really should paint mine up, that looks pretty cool!'

An epic Dune inspired board, put on by Frothers!

A somewhat tempting offer of a detailed Blood Bowl board (I forget who it was that does these though!)

Either I'm getting older or the re-enactors are getting younger each year...

I especially enjoyed this little bit of detail on an 'In Her Majesty's Name' board that I thought I'd taken a picture of the while of, but apparently not. 

And so ends the pictures from Salute, but fret not, as there were plenty of other photographers and videographers there! I'm looking forward to seeing the group shot from the bloggers meetup, as I actually made it to the right place at the right time this year!

And now, to count the costs; as the tally takes the hit from the loot:


First of all, let's compare what I brought home to my original list:

Salute list

Pick up Hasslefree pre-order
Done, not- Ellie and Joel, and a free zombie and sweets!

Vallejo smoke
Done! The first thing I picked up, and then inevitably saw cheaper everywhere else at the show for the rest of the day...

Westwind heads (bare)
Done! Annoyingly, they didn't have the welsh heads I was originally after, but I managed to pick up a couple of blisters of likely looking heads to hopefully inspire some conversions for the ASOIAF project:


Other bare heads
Done, thanks to Anvil Industries (although their heads are scaled to Space Marines, but we'll see) and Crooked Dice (who told me they have a photo of me at the stand from last year, which was nice!)

A Juan Diaz Daemonette
No dice.
Lelith hesperax?
Also no.
Wracks?
Nope. Admittedly, I'm not particularly fussed about these last 3, as they're for conversions for a second Path to Glory warband, and I've not even finished the first!

Quidditch teams (haha)
As usual, I enquired, but it seems less and less likely that these will ever get released. Eh, I live in hope still though...

Miniature Mojo running zombies?
Miniature Mojo alas weren't at Salute, and as far as I saw no one was carrying their minis, so I think I might have to place a sneaky order once I've painted a few more miniatures!

Any other fungus zombie standins?
Nope, although at the Heresy stand I realised that I already own a zombie sculpt that would be a good base model for a bloated conversion. I also had a soft through some boxes of heroclix looking for generic looking humanoid figures that could get hacked up, but didn't turn up anything interesting...

War doctor - heresy or cd?
Heresy, in the end, as I like to try and buy at least something from my favourite sellers every Salute!

Bushido gorilla?
Done, and he's as chunky as I'd hoped! I'm sure I'll find some use for the little girl that comes with him too eventually...

Pretty much anything that's a bargain...
A GW ghost, an oldhammer era wardancer and a copy of Ravening Hordes (in case I ever need to start a Chaos Dwarf project) for the princely sum of a pound each.

Having stripped out everything that was on the list, my remaining deviations don't look as bad as I thought they might:



The Salute freebie miniature (I've no idea what to use it for, but all else failing the dog might see some play) and a badge;

Army painter inks (soft, strong and dark) because I'd heard good things and fancied giving them a go;

Dice because well always dice;

A Nezumi from Four-A that I'd never seen before (although when I asked apparently it's been out for around a year);

A free building sprue from mantic;

Some munchkin cards;

A Terry Pratchett puzzle (Josh Kirby art, y'know?)

And a Dark Sword Gregor Clegane. Expensive, but very nice. Although every other miniature in the range is too large to mix with the rest of the project, the Mountain is huge anyway, so shouldn't look too out of place. 

As well as all these goodies, I also have enough cards fliers and catalogues to wallpaper a moderately sized room. 

The final count for toys this year brings the tally to:

22 vs 30 = -8

Turns out this year I mostly bought heads rather than whole miniatures!

Live from the bloggers meetup


OK, it's not the best picture, but hey...

Salute in progress 2014

So, here we are at the excel centre again - oddly this year, we seem to be queuing a seperate hall before being led to the actual event:


Which is probably for the best, as historically I've joined the wrong queue, and had to trek to the other end of the centre to find the right place...

Although I doubt anyone is going to read this until this evening, this is me today:


 Ahh, awkward selfie. I'll probably be laden with bags though...

Friday 11 April 2014

Pre-Salute post 2014


As happens every year, it's time for the pilgrimage to the Excel centre for Salute tomorrow!

As also happens each year, my pre-show list making is getting more and more refined (to the point that in probably 5 years I'll have a list that's actually practical):

Salute list

Pick up Hasslefree pre-order
Vallejo smoke
Westwind heads (bare)
Other bare heads
A Juan Diaz Daemonette
Lelith hesperax?
Wracks?
Quidditch teams (haha)
Miniature Mojo running zombies?
Any other fungus zombie standins?
War doctor - heresy or cd?
Bushido gorilla?
Pretty much anything that's a bargain...

Find the Dark Templar to blag a freebie!

Find Battlescribe to blag a freebie (even though he's local to me, it turns out, if twitter is to be believed)

Check out Stafford Games for goodie bags if I get a flier!

So, most of these are 'things I'd probably buy for the right price, as I don't really need them but would happily own them', or 'things that I'm not going to be able to get because they're never going to be available (quidditch players) or the trader isn't actually at salute (Miniature Mojo)'. And as I'm sure you're all used to by now, there's no clear focus in any one particular project - the heads are for the ASOIAF project (as I'm finding my lack of conversion bits to be stifling my enthusiasm for converting personalities); a couple of bits would be to go towards a second Path to Glory warband to complement the first one that I still haven't painted or posted; and the majority of pieces are to go towards a speculative 'the Last of Us' inspired project, but as theajority of miniatures for that fall into the 'trader not at Salute' category, I'm not sure how successful I'll be...

Well, all else failing I usually have good fun digging through bins of old blisters at the em4 stand!

In other news, unusually in the last year I actually painted some of the miniatures I picked up at the last Salute! Only 9, mind you... Well, and the miniature that I posted a peek at last post that I was hoping to get done before tomorrow, which looking back at old posts seems I actually got a couple of years back, not at the last one...

So, I'll see you all tomorrow! This is me:

(Please note- I'm not actually a massive canniballistic giant. I'll most likely be the geek in the Jayne hat. Please also note - this joke only really works if you're aware of Attack on Titan/Shingeki No Kyojin, so I apologise if it falls flat. Curse you, free titanifying app!)


[Also also: normally I'd go through the post and put links to manufacturers and whatnot, but I need to be out the door in a suit in 15 minutes, so I may have to add that (and correct any typos) in post...]

Sunday 6 April 2014

Back in black! Zombies, an ape and what purports to be a cat...

With my wife having gone out today, I found myself finishing a few miniatures to take the tally back into the positive!

First of all we have a pair of zombies, one from Heresy and one a repurposed Black Cat Bases mini:


Because hey, I haven't painted any zombies in a while and I'm working through the drawer(s) of undercoated minis to make space for new ones!

A Black Cat Bases Gorilla, to join the Orangutan from this post in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes project:


He was a little smaller than expected when he arrived (two or three years ago admittedly), but he can be a baby in my gang of revolutionary apes I suppose (playing little brother to the gorilla from the Bushido game that I'll probably pick up at some point in the future).

And finally, a cat, one of the freebies from Black Cat Bases:


Not a great pic, of an absolutely tiny mini. Looks a little like a bear, truth be told, but woo, tiny cat!

4 finished miniatures takes the tally to:

22 vs 19 = +3
(and yes, I did have to look through old posts to check if I used a '+', it's been that long since I was in the positives...)

There was another miniature that I was hoping to post finished pics of tonight, but I couldn't bring myself to start the detailing on his suit, so he stays like this on my painting tile for now:


Here's to hoping that Salute doesn't send me too far back into the red!

Friday 4 April 2014

Else Wechler, Axe Wielding Baddy

Yes, that title is how she appears in my D&D notes. So, shortly after posting my completed Gotrek and Felix, I also managed to finish this little beauty from Hasslefree Miniatures:


Who despite being an absolutely beautiful sculpt, was an absolute pig to get a photo of that wasn't even worse than this one... For example, the axe head is actually shades of purple highlighted all the way up to Rotting Flesh, but it doesn't really show up here... Normally I'm not one for excessive gore on a miniature, but as she's carrying a severed head I got a little carried away using Blood for the Blood God (which comes up a little bright, I think I will probably go back to my old TCR and ink mix for blood effects in future...)

She's another miniature that I started painting a fair while back and kinda stalled on - at the start of December, she looked like this:


And that's how she stayed until a month ago, when I decided to crack on and actually get her finished (as she is the last mini needed for the D&D adventure that I wrote that we may end up at some point actually playing)! Her skin got completely repainted, as I couldn't get a 'deathly pale' tone that I was happy with. Not that I'm super happy with the current finish, but it's better than it was (and I didn't feel like stripping her and starting again!)


Other milestone reached: this is the first pair of naked miniature boobs I have painted. Is this what growing up feels like?

Gah, looking at these pics, maybe I'm getting worse at this whole painting malarkey in my old age...

Well, another finished miniature is another finished miniature though, which takes te tally to:

18 vs 19 = -1

So close! Unfortunately, my pot of Vallejo Smoke (that I use in painting every single miniature ever) is pretty much dry, so I may not actually be able to finish any miniatures until post-Salute, when the tally will take it's next hit...

Thursday 3 April 2014

Gotrek and Felix

For what seems like the longest time, I've thought about painting Gotrek and Felix, with the vague intention of either painting up a handful of Skaven and running some sort of Warhammer Quest-esque dungeon crawl (complete with plenty of random tables of enemies in each room), or a slightly grander in scale project inspired by the novel Zombieslayer. Well, rambling aside, I've managed to finish painting the Old World's least successful Dwarf slayer and his human companion:


So many mistakes were made during the painting of these two (which I'd go back and fix, and then inevitably make another mistake again soon after), but now they're done! I especially enjoyed painting Felix's cloak, as there's something therapeutic about layering on something with that sort of sculpted detail:

(Excuse the dodgy WIP pic that I meant to post a couple of weeks back when I started painting them)

Felix's trousers, in the other hand, were less fun to paint (and I swear the stripes looked the same thickness when I did the first layer...)

Finishing these two miscreants takes the Tally to:

16 vs 19 = -3

Although we should bear in mind that it's Salute in a little over a week. Admittedly, I plan to only buy two miniatures (which reminds me, I really need to get my Hasslefree pre-order in ASAP), so the tally shouldn't swing too far away from where it currently stands, but we all know the old saying about the best laid plans...