Hobby Update

Hi!

Well I find myself on my first day off since returning to work and thought I would take a pause and look at the state of my hobby following my holiday.

It's been an interesting time here as I have sculpted and painted quite a few figures and even actually played several games using them and am even having some success at painting a decent sized warband, namely my Boar Company:

Boar Company!

While I have had huge amounts of fun sculpting, painting and gaming with the little chaps, I have totally ceased work on any other project I was working on, be it warbands for Rogue Trader or my Warhammer/Kings of War army. Instead of mourning the loss of all that Oldhammer, I am having far too much fun with a project I feel I have literally made my own and sunk my teeth into. 

I do apologise to the folks who have been following this blog for quite a while about the sporadic nature of the posts over the last few months and suspect that the stylised stuff I am working on now isn't a lot of folks cup of tea but frankly, I am really enjoying my hobby for the first time in what feels like ages and don't think I am going to be losing interest any time soon.

This does leave me with a bit of a quandary though as what about the other projects I mentioned. Do I simply pack them up and get rid of them, leave them to one side or try and continue them as well? I must admit that I am tempted by the first option, more likely to do the second and worry that the third will result in me doing nothing to be honest...

The sad thing is that I seem to have fallen out of love with most of the stuff I have done over the last few years, be it the fantasy or sci-fi, 6mm-28mm scale stuff. Since I moved house I got my own man cave and a decent sized gaming surface which should have meant that my productivity and hobby related fun should have gone up, instead it's fallen and is littered with stalled and abandoned projects.

Compare that to all the work I have accomplished in the last month or so with Somewhere on the Border. I have found myself revitalised and thoroughly enjoying my hobby again and will soon be adding a third warband, new characters and assorted denizens of Aeroth at a rate that has taken me by surprise!

I must admit that I have a sneaking suspicion that many of my miniatures collection will be making their way to ebay to make space for a project that really seems to have developed a life of its own. Part of me will miss all old school figures but if I am honest, it will only be a very small part of me as I was increasingly finding the whole thing rather stressful.

Therefore, I think it might be a plan to mothball this blog for a little while and see how I feel in a couple of months time. I may find my current project revitalises me and get a fresh urge to paint lots of bits and bobs, but I somehow doubt it.

It's been a good run and thanks to everyone who's followed my ramblings over the years and if you do happen to fancy dropping in on my new project, feel free to take a look at SOMEWHERE ON THE BORDER.

All the best

Richard

Revamped Rogue Trader?

Hi!

Well I am now into my second week of holidays and sadly I've not managed to get any of my current leadpile painted but have been ruminating on Rogue Trader.

I constantly see lots of beautifully painted Rogue Trader era lead posted up on several of the rather fantastic Oldhammer blogs out there and it gets me wanting to paint some of the bits and bobs that I have kicking around but as soon as I pick up something to paint, I put it down again in abject failure. I think the problem is that over the last few months, I have been tempted by different styles and scales of miniatures rather than the traditional GW heroic 28mm style of sculpting.

I've been having great fun over on my SOMEWHERE ON THE BORDER blog sculpting super stylised figures such as those seen below but I can't seem to summon much enthusiasm for traditional Citadel or similar.

Boar Company

What I have been tempted by is some of the really amazing figures that the likes of Dark Age is producing of late:

I do believe that Dark Age have really raised the bar on their miniature quality over the last year or so and the combination of good CG sculpts and traditional work as well as the more realistically proportioned figures themselves look fantastic. It has to be said that the painting quality of the figures they showcase looks totally brilliant too (and I would suspect, far beyond my own humble talents!)

Looking at them has given me a bit of an idea though. The visual aesthetic kind of reminds me of Rogue Trader somewhat with the mixture of tech and savagery as well as lots of quirkiness to set things off pleasingly.

Could one use these figures to represent some far flung colony world on the edge of Imperial space? I think they could very well do! Coupled with some of the other bits and bobs that have been creeping onto the market over the last few years such as Malifaux, EDEN and even some of the newer Mantic sculpts, one could represent some of the races of the Imperium without too much difficulty.

With this in mind, I am thinking of picking up a few bits and bobs and painting them up to represent some of the small warbands that inhabit the Farpoint sector as I quite like the look of them and think they fit the reimagined Imperium I've been working on a bit better than the classic Citadel figures I have been failing to make any headway with up til now.

Who knows where this latest foray will take me, I may stall and give up or it may be a bit of a breath of fresh air but we shall see. I am not going to be going mental with ordering lots of bits and bobs though as I don't want to add a mass of stuff to my leadpile, instead I will try a single pack and see how I get on and will post my progress up here but I do think I could do with something different to paint for a change and it may clear the painters block I seem to be having at the moment!

All the best!

Holiday Fever!

Hi!

Well I've finally started my two weeks of holidays and I must admit that they've been much needed! As much as I love my job, it's been a really mentally busy few months and my hobby time has been seriously curtailed because of it.

But now I have holiday time, what am I going to do with it? Well I must admit that I am itching to get some painting done and can't wait for my War of Ashes miniatures to arrive from Zombiesmith (see previous post!) but I also want to keep up with the attempts to clear my leadpile a bit so am going to crack on with painting my way through the odds and sods that I have collected over the years while I am waiting for the new goodies to arrive.

In other news, we've been running a games night in Waterstones Dundee for the last couple of months and are regularly getting a turn out of 60+ folks in to play Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and a wide selection of boardgames but there have been requests to expand it so theres going to be a RPG group meeting instore for the next and I will be taking along some miniatures goodies to tempt folks with some good old fashioned wargaming too!

I am tempted to run a game or two of Rogue Trader fielding my gangs of assorted scum and villainy but I don't really have access to enough scenery or a decent gaming surface yet so I'm settling on the super simple Song of Blades and Heroes to get folks started.

 Maybe next time...

I will be taking along the new Boar Company as well as a rival warband formed from of the retinue of Marik Goldhelm!

Boar Company!

I still need to finish sculpting one or two bits and bobs but it should be quite a bit of fun and if anyone is lurking around Dundee on the 17th, please do feel free to head Waterstones from 6pm and who knows, maybe next time we can sort out a game or two of Rogue Trader and introduce a new audience to the joys of Oldhammer!

In the meantime, I am off to get some sculpting done so all the best!