29 August 2016
Somewhere on the Horizon
So far the new schedule isn't as bad as I had expected, in some ways. (But worse, in others.) So... sort of a wash, I guess? I'm still managing a little bit of time now and then for painting, etc. AND sleeping in an extra 15 minutes in the mornings.
So now my chief complaint (there's always got to be something, right?) is my desk. I've been trying to work around the tight work & storage space, but there are two remaining problems I need to work out. One is the inability to leave unfinished projects laying around. Coupled with the loss of a heat lamp for curing putty, this is kind of tricky and will become more problematic when I start working on some of the large vinyl toys (which I need to do ASAP.)
The second problem is the desk height. It's 28". I'm used to working at a drafting table that I kept at 36" high so I could sit upright. But after just a short time at the 28" desk my back is sore. Since have an armchair I sit on while working at the computer (and 28" is a decent height for that) I'm thinking about chopping down the legs to my painting stool. I'd hate to do it, because they're apparently not sold in the US anymore, and I'm still holding out a desperate hope for some sort of studio space again. The other option would be to build some sort of desktop "riser" for painting, etc. It would be doubleplusgood if I could work out something with some storage. I'm thinking maybe something like a box with a drawer. Maybe that could be the storage for works in progress? Or throw caution and thermal comfort to the wind and make it an epoxy oven? I'll keep working on my back hump for the time being, but I think I can work something out -- maybe even re-purpose something that's already built.
Enough of my rambling. On to some pictures. Y'all don't come here to "read the articles."
Two things. One is this:
Yeah, a full unit (in my terms) of skeletal ogres. The two on the ends are from Ral Partha Europe, as I've already shared. The center-left is a familiar looking (minus his flesh.) If I understand correctly, this is the first full sculpt from Justin/Golden Age Miniatures. If that's the case, I can't wait to see what comes next! The resin figure center-right is "Slanga" from Krakon Games, the same place/sculptor as Morrighu, the Fomorian witch I posted a while ago. Another excellent sculpt. I can't wait to get started on this ragged crew. I've been looking forward to a unit of four for a long time. I had started trying to sculpt my own to go with the two RPE figures, but never got past two badly misshapen skulls. I'm grateful that Justin and Ross came along with similar ideas and did it right!
Next... I've decided that I'm going to find a way to get to the Oldhammer USA weekend no matter what. So, with that in mind, I wanted to bring a 1500 pt. WFB 3rd ed. army. As much as I would love to bring Fimir, there's no way I can have enough done in time. (But I've got my eyes on you, Oldhammer 2017!) All of my undead is multi-based, and really not built around the practicalities of WFB. So Marienburg seems to be the logical choice. Unfortunately, I find the Empire list in WFB3 to be among the least interesting.
But I eventually worked out (well, I'm 95% of the way there) a 1500 point army in character with the Marienburg theme. (Sadly, no pikemen at this time, though.) As long as I'm going Oldhammer, I may as well make my roster fit the look, too. They're not done yet, but this is the basic idea...
I still need to photograph a cannon & crew, tweak it, and add it to the entry. I'd like to re-shoot the knights & gunners too -- those were the first two I did and I prefer the more sparse look of the other entries, which are more in character (sort of) with the old Armies book.
The halberdiers ("Helblitzen") are still being painted. Yeah... all these years, I've never had any halberdiers. So I'm trying to speed paint some before the event. Always need to have some last minute pressure for every event, right? I was actually in the middle of painting some for someone else when the move happened, and I thought about racing to get those done. But I don't want to rush myself on someone else's figures. Luckilly, I did have some of my own assembled & primed.
So that's where things are headed.... quick halberdiers & skelogres, plus some minotaurs and Empire figures I owe two other people. And some antiquated 3rd ed. gaming!
24 August 2016
Last Minute Cramming
Last day before the aforementioned schedule clusterfuck. I ended up squeezing a final half hour of painting to finish my super quick & dirty (as it should be!) skeleton giant. My basing materials are still packed away, so it may be a while before hes 100% finished. (I think I need to give the teeth a little more definition (between them) too.
23 August 2016
Reductions
(Random image found on FB.
Because every blog entry needs a picture.)
Still settling in and getting used to the new house. And starting this week, the new school schedule as well. (My daughter is starting kindergarten.) Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to need to continue reducing, both time and stuff.
Optimistically my work & family schedule is going to keep me busy from 5:30am until at least 10pm on most days. The remainder is for sleep and any sort of personal/leisure stuff I can try to squeeze in as an alternate to sleep.
I posted a pic of my new painting/sculpting/hobby space a few days ago. It's a file cabinet and the last 30"+/- of surface space on my work desk. I can fit most of my painting & sculpting supplies in the file, though some of it is in the little green toolbox on top of the desk. I've managed to put many of my gaming & reference books on part of the shelf tucked under the desk. Everything else is temporarily in the garage or damp basement until I can figure out what to do with it.
I've been theoretically "planning" on going to the Oldhammer Day US in about a month, but I haven't been able to find the time to get away for an afternoon of gaming (or anything else) let alone disappearing for three full days. The move and other unexpected expenses have really drained my finances, so I'm not sure the cost of a weekend trip is responsible, or even possible to begin with.
So there it is.
22 August 2016
18 August 2016
Savage Fomorian Conversions - A Bit O' Paint (Also, the ShackDesk)
Not in the mood for commentary. So just some pics. A bit of paint on some Fomorians converted from Citadel plastic savage orcs and other bits. Second pic is my new work, art, painting, sculpting, miniatures/gaming etc. set-up.
14 August 2016
Further into the Mists
Another brief bit of time to work on minis. Small stuff, I know, but I'm trying to keep morale up by getting excited over even the tiny bits of time I can manage.
Hard to tell, though hopefully the pics are better anyway, but sculpted a bit of neck to connect the heads to the bodies, made some tails and then glued & sculpted them onto the bodies, which are now on bases.
I've also included a shot for scale comparison between one of my Reaper conversions on the left, and an original Fimm on the right. Pretty good fit, in terms of scale! I still have some reservations over the differences in style, though. I'm going to wait & see how some paint impacts that, though. Also thinking a lot about hand/weapon swaps for the rest of the savage orc conversions. I'm just not into the stone-age weapons.
Hard to tell, though hopefully the pics are better anyway, but sculpted a bit of neck to connect the heads to the bodies, made some tails and then glued & sculpted them onto the bodies, which are now on bases.
I've also included a shot for scale comparison between one of my Reaper conversions on the left, and an original Fimm on the right. Pretty good fit, in terms of scale! I still have some reservations over the differences in style, though. I'm going to wait & see how some paint impacts that, though. Also thinking a lot about hand/weapon swaps for the rest of the savage orc conversions. I'm just not into the stone-age weapons.
13 August 2016
Fimm?
I managed to get my hands on some of the plastic Citadel savage orcs, and have made a few attempts at converting them to Fimir, as I've seen elsewhere. The idea is to use these as the lesser Fimm warriors, and the Reaper conversions would be the elite Fianna warrior caste.
Above shows the heads on the bodies and some minor conversions. I just did some putty work on the necks and built some tails.
I've got mixed feelings on these. Too many bones, teeth, and other junk stuck on them. I prefer the simplicity of the old Citadel Fimm. I'd also like to try working in more advanced weapons -- a few bone & flint weapons are OK, but I'd still like to see worked wood & metal. I also prefer not to have them all look like chiseled body builders. It seems like a lot of work for less than impressive final results so far. But I'll wait and see how they look painted up. I still may end up trying to sculpt a few simple Fimm, closer to the originals, and cast some of those up.
(I'd prefer more figures like the oldschool Fimm, below.)
Unfortunately, both painting and major sculpting will likely have to wait a while as I continue to unpack and deal with other crap. But, hey, I managed to unpack my small sculpting box and sit down and work on minis for a couple hours this week!
09 August 2016
Pure Rock Fury and Giant Cards, Round One
Pure Rock Fury
While unpacking and digging through stuff yesterday, I unearthed my "Pure Rock Fury" CD, by Clutch. I hadn't listened to it (nor had much certainty of its whereabouts) for a while, so I tossed it in the car and was listening as I drove around running errands today.
It struck me that a few of the songs make a perfect soundtrack to the overblown but still unfinished oldschool narrative campaign I've been overworking in various revisions. And it's funny, because that fed back into my gaming ideas and gave me a few fresh ideas/adjustments. In particular, "Immortal" could be Zogmar's theme song...
And "Drink to the Dead" reflects some of the odd blend of fey & undead that I've had swimming around in my concepts for the Wasteland setting...
At any rate, the music is neither fresh nor does it fit everyone's taste, I'm sure. But I just felt like rambling on about my love of Clutch and creating fantasy settings/narratives. ;)
Giant Cards, Round One
I previously mentioned working on giant cards. I think I've got six more or less ready.
The remaining two in prep are for the still-unpainted Warploque giant and the "Middlehammer" metal giant from Citadel.
I may do a set for the skeletal giants next.
07 August 2016
Giant-O-Rama
More thoughts on giants. I'm not sure if I can make it yet, but I'd like to attend the Oldhammer in the New World event coming up soon and get a little bit of 3rd ed. on for the first time since I was young. I was thinking about what I could do... finish enough Fimir for a small list? Empire? With all of the time lost in our move, I don't think I can get the former ready in time, and for some reason I'm not feeling the call of 3rd ed. Empire at the moment.
I half-jokingly considered (and mentioned on the FB group) using a mercenary list for a full army...
Not something that I, or probably most opponents, would want to see on the battlefield as a regular thing. But seems like it could be a fun diversion, and a few people enthusiastically mentioned they'd be willing to face off against an army of giants.
Considering the practical issues of using a bunch of giants, I thought it would be easiest to have a bunch of pre-rolled giants. That would avoid spending a lot of time rolling them all up before each game, and would also give me a chance to make some stat cards for both myself and any opponents.
Since I'm not quite set up for painting yet, and don't have a lot of time, I did take a bit of time to indulge in some prototype giant cards...
Stats were "rolled" up using dicelog.com. I'm still figuring out how to make the recorded logs public -- otherwise I would add a link here. What I will do is have one of these made for each giant, number them, and randomly roll up which giants are being used before each game. Unless they're all slated to rumble, of course. :)
Giant Rumble
A while ago I had started jotting down some ideas for a Giant Rumble game. All giants, no popcorn. So I'm thinking about revisiting this idea and may post some rules in future.
05 August 2016
The Unpacking Continues - Lost Causes Unearthed
More unpacking. But I'm slowly getting a multi purpose computer-work/art-work desk together. We'll see how this goes, it's going to be a major change in the way I work .
At any rate, I've also been uncovering various odds & ends as I've been unpacking. Here are a few things on my to-do list for years, for the Marienburg army.
First is a quick color study for the old metal "Elector Count on Griffin" miniature. It's my favorite version of the Citadel Imperial griffin, I like the lean feline predator look of the body. At any rate, I was looking at alternate color schemes to fit better with the Marienburgers. Something coastal and cool. At this point, I don't recall the real-world birds I pulled this idea from, but here's my quick paint test.
I've also got a few more designs for standards waiting to be painted. These obviously aren't detailed, just the general layout of the major element or elements. More like reminders than even a rough draft.
This last one is hard to see, but started to get drawn out in larger size with layered watercolor & tracing paper before I decided I didn't like the proportions. But I've had plans to revisit the idea... for years.
03 August 2016
Big'uns
I came across the box in which the two other big giants were packed, so thought I would take a pic with the Black Scorpion giant for comparison. I think if they all stood up straight, they would be pretty similar in height -- though slightly different in proportions.
Putting them together, I also noticed that the Black Scorpion giant, which was not painted be me, fits pretty well with my own painting. :)
I had previously photographed the Ultraforge giants with the classic Marauder giant. So a little review, just to emphasize the ridiculous size of the big'uns.
I think the next step is to simply glue small children's feet to a wooden base and put them on the table as even larger giants.
Putting them together, I also noticed that the Black Scorpion giant, which was not painted be me, fits pretty well with my own painting. :)
I had previously photographed the Ultraforge giants with the classic Marauder giant. So a little review, just to emphasize the ridiculous size of the big'uns.
I think the next step is to simply glue small children's feet to a wooden base and put them on the table as even larger giants.
02 August 2016
Demogorgon!
I don't usually watch much TV, but after reading an article about the new Netflix series, "Stranger Things," my wife and I started watching it as a way to relax a bit after our long days of work, moving, cleaning, unpacking, etc. It's fairly short -- just eight episodes. But it hit all of the right buttons for me: nostalgia, retro-pop-culture allusions, and geekery. The setting was a little more small-town than where I grew up, but it was the right time period, and it still felt familiar enough. We both enjoyed it quite a bit.
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