Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 4

 Hi!

Here's the next of my lockdown projects, a Leviathan Orc from the Grendel range (still available from Scotia Grendel)

He's a hefty beast and I must admit that I had been hesitant to paint him as I'd thought he was an ugly sculpt. However as I primed him, I realised that he's quite.a nice model to work on. He's still ugly but in a good way! 

I quite like the trophies that he's adorned with and leering savagery really helps. I realise he's not painted in the more usual green of an Orc but it fits better with the setting. I plan on adding to the collection with a few sculpts from other companies as the post apocalyptic Aeroth with it's magical fallout can see Orcs mutating in all manner of interesting ways!

Sadly my varnish has given him a bit of a glossy finish in the photos but in person he's got a more matt finish. I've rather enjoyed working on him and will need to paint up some more during the lockdown!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 3

 Hi!

As promised, here's the Elven Voltigeurs from the Flintloque boxed set that I've been working on!

Voltigeurs

The elite light infantry of the Ferach Elven empire, these Voltigeurs came with the original Flintloque boxed set and have been rather a lot of fun to paint. The detail is chunky and bold and they've got loads of character. 

I am always surprised by the size of the Flintloque range as they are mounted on lipped 30mm bases and are closer to 30-35mm scale than 28mm but that is fine with me as it's making them easy to paint.

I painted the first before realising that Voltigeurs are supposed to have yellow collars and cuffs so may go back to fix them but that's a job for another day!

To break up the monotony of painting up nine of the pointy eared types, I'm currently working on some other odds and ends of a more Orcy variety and have just finished the base for my Leviathan Orc and begun work on Richard Sharke of the 95th Rifles!

In other news, I noticed that I didn't play a single game of Leviathan this year which is entirely unacceptable so we shall see what I can do tomorrow, especially as the short daylight hours are meaning I have a limited window for painting figures and am going to try and get some counters drawn up for each of the factions from the original rules to allow me to try out a few different armies.

It's not quite miniature gaming but will do! If all goes well, I may try a similar approach for some other rulesets I've got a hankering to play but we shall see how I get on.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 2

 Hi!

I'd planned to get some photos taken today but ran out of daylight so will need to show the first painted figures of Lockdown 2.0 tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've been rummaging around my leadpile to see what suitable gubbins I can make use of for my lockdown painting queue and have stumbled upon some of the original Leviathan Orcs.

I was very generously donated the chunky fellows along with the resin Elves that I've posted about previously but I've been hesitant to paint any of them as I'd been under the impression that they were pretty poor sculpts but having worked on Flintloque figures over the last couple of days, I decided to give them a bash and as with the resin miniatures, I'm pleasantly surprised by how much fun they are to work on.

I seem to be averaging about 1.5 figures a day at present and hope to keep the progress up during this enforced confinement. I have also got a load of assorted gubbins on the go and will try and get a few shots from the painting table tomorrow along with the completed Elven Voltigeurs and first Orc warrior.

I must admit there is something really pleasing about painting old and somewhat shonky figures as the stylised sculpts and cruder (compared to modern sculpts) style and they don't require much effort to bring out the best in them and the results are so much better than new and technically advanced designs and require a fraction of the time to complete which is proving a real plus for me. Combine this with a wide selection of random gubbins to work on and I think I am going to actually enjoy my lockdown (or at least survive it!)

We shall see if this hobby enthusiasm will keep going for the next three weeks, or however long it may be before I get back to work but I seem to be off to a good start!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 1

 Hi!

Well it's the first day of the new lockdown here in sunny Scotland and I thought I'd best start it off by going through my lockdown challenge and generally doing a bit of tidying of the assortment of disparate blogs that I have found myself collecting over the years.

My initial challenge has been to paint my way through the contents of the original Flintloque boxed set, namely six Orcs of Sharke's Rifles and the nine members of a unit of Ferach Elf Voltigeurs (sadly I'm currently missing one of the original ten but if all goes well, I hope to get the last remaining sculpt from Alternative Armies!

I've got a couple of Voltigeurs just about ready and will post up the first of them tomorrow but my new enforced lockdown has got me expanding my plans for 2021. With this in mind, I've refreshed my old blogs with some vague muttering about my hopes for getting an assortment of bits and bobs done for each.

I know folks get irked by my tendency of having multiple blogs but I just can't bring myself to clutter up this blog more than it is already so will be using Tales from Farpoint for my lockdown project log and to showcase completed gubbins while each mini project has it's own dedicated space.

I hope to post here daily during the lockdown and each of my other blogs once a week with a bit of a progress report!

Tomorrow should see some Flintloque gubbins and some Leviathan ponderings so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!

Seasons Greetings from Farpoint!

 Hi!

Well Christmas is almost upon us and following that a three week enforced holiday for me!

Before the festive shenanigans begin, I wanted to take a quick peek back at the year to see how I got on with all things hobby related.

First off, to date I've painted 139 assorted figures, scenic gubbins and whatnot in every scale from 2mm to 28mm and above so from that perspective it's been a productive year, primarily driven by my three months of lockdown in March to June. This is an improvement over 2019's total which is fab!

I'm really pleased to have made a bit of a bash at my Rusty Robots project that has been well and truly on the back burner for almost a decade now as work has kind of taken up much of my spare time so it was really great to finally see some figures and scenery make an appearance.

I also got some Mechs built to play some Battletech using my own SD sort of style which was fun but ultimately frustrated by a series of badly sculpted infantry that required chucking. Hopefully I'll get back to them in the future and flesh out a couple of lances...

Meanwhile, my fantasy Land Ironclads trundled slowly on and I pretty much finished my Dwarves for the time being and introduced the Vongola City State to the selection of forces I can field. I really need to take a week or two to finish everything up for this project but have as usual galavanted off on a tangent more than once!

Speaking of which, my War of Ashes saw me add a bunch of Kuld but I still need to make more of the voracious little eating machines to give me a proper force. Maybe I'll get around to it during this lockdown if I get my other challenges done first...

I also managed to paint up the entirety of the original Deadloque box for Flintloque, something I never thought I'd do as I'm fairly sure that in the 28 years I've been gaming I've never completed any boxed set before!

Next up, looking at my gaming progress, I managed to play 21 games using six different systems which is also an improvement on last year but it felt like I could have done more, especially if I could just knuckle down and finish off a force or two rather than gadding off on a tangent every five minutes.

This brings me to my mini plan for 2021!

First and foremost, I really, really want to get my Rusty Robots done so plan to concentrate on getting a starter gang for each of the tribes done and a bunch of random civilians, scenery and denizens of The Scrapyard made.

The plan is to get sculpting whenever I can to build as many of the little guys as I can and then paint whatever of them catch my fancy so that I don't bore myself with doing all the same stuff. This may mean a bit of an eclectic mix of odds and sods making an appearance but it can't be helped and if I can put together enough stuff, I can start playing some games which will see rumbles in The Scrapyard making their appearance here which should be fun!

I forsee needing to invest in a hot wire cutter soon to make lots of blocky terrain but it will come in handy for lots of other bits and bobs when I get around to my other plans for the year...

I've got so many things I'd like to do given the time and I figure a three week lockdown will give me a chance to make a bit of a start on them!

It's not all going to be Rusty Robots though this year! I also have set myself the challenge of painting my way through the original Flintloque box too so will need to get cracking to get the 15 figures done and if possible try out a game or two!

Back in the mid 90's after leaving the GW hobby, I stumbled upon Flintloque and have a hankering to paint some more of the chunky little chaps so will be making a bit of an attempt to start putting the collection back together. My buying approach back then was to pick up whatever blister pack appealed to me so I had a very mixed collection with Elves, Goblins, Orcs, Dwarves and all manner of odds and ends but it somehow fitted with the game and I am keen to revisit the joys of Valon and it's assorted races. 

The need to play Flintloque isn't as great as to just enjoy the experience of painting the figures and every so often plonk what I have on the table for a bit of a RPG lite sort of scenario driven wander around the edges of the wars of Mordred.

Lastly (for now at least!) there's Leviathan. It's a project I've repeatedly picked up and put down over the years but never really stopped obsessing about so I figure I'd best use 2021 to finally get it out of my system and work on a monthly challenge I've set myself. I want to paint at least one figure, be it resin or metal from the range every month and see what I end 2021 with. 

I'm not sure if I can bring myself to use the metal figures from the range as they are massive but after painting the resin Dragonbane rider and being pleasantly surprised by just how good it was, I may try using an entirely original figure approach (for the most part as the old Heartbreaker range has lots of goodies that complement the concept!). 

I've no idea how things will turn out with all these options but I look forward to having a go and who knows, the Boar Company may yet ride again with new allies, old foes and more sculpts to boot!

Folks may notice that smaller scale projects are absent from my 2021 plan at the moment. I have found myself somewhat indifferent to 15mm and 6mm for a while now but feel that if the right inspiration struck, I'd have a great time painting those scales again but we shall have to see what next year brings. 

I'll be taking Christmas day off and then starting up my Lockdown 2.0 daily project log for at least three weeks and will see how I get on.

In the meantime, All the best and hope you and yours have a fantastic Christmas and wonderful new year!

Richard

Lockdown 2.0

Hi!

I had planned to take a break until the new year but with the utterly depressing news of a new lockdown, I feel compelled to restart my Lockdown Project Log!

This time it's going to be a wee bit different as I may be working flexi furlough (depending on if and when Sturgeon gets around to telling businesses what they can do, something she seems to be in no hurry to do) so I'm not sure I'm going to be posting every day but I plan on using this enforced break to get my original Flintloque set painted up.

I started the first lockdown painting up Deadloque so it seems fitting to start this one with Flintloque and I'm hoping that three weeks doesn't turn into three months like last time so aim to get the 15 miniatures from the set (Sadly I'm missing one of the Elves!) painted over the initial three weeks and if the worst comes to the worst, I've got lots of other odds and ends that I can work on.

Ferach Survivors of the Witchlands

As I've been feeling a bit meh about my hobby of late, I figured that painting the chunky and characterful miniatures from Flintloque may be just the thing to keep me from stressing out of my gourd about things and also reinvigorate my hobby.

If things go according to plan, the end of the three week lockdown will see all the figures painted and I'll try and get a game or two of Flintloque in as well to see how well I remember the rules from way back when. The only niggle will be that my gaming board is considerably smaller than the suggested 6'x4' of traditional gaming so it will be interesting to see how Flintloque copes in a confined space.

I hope you are all ok and the thought of another, possibly interminable lockdown isn't getting you down and the consolation of miniatures will see you through.

If it's of interest, there is a RETROLOQUE Facebook group which has been running for a couple of months which has had some really great posts which is well worth joining for some retro Flintloque shenanigans. From it I have discovered that my Sharpes Rifles figures are actually some of the original masters as they're incredibly difficult to clean due to their high tin content and apparently got shipped by mistake back in the day! 

In the meantime, All the best!

Richard

Taking a Break

 Hi!

I've got this week off work but most of it is going to be spent working on our flat so sadly once again hobby time is taking a bit of a back seat.

I have however, been reading a lot of really enjoyable pulp fiction in the form of Doc Savage, Bulldog Drummond and The Shadow.

Each of these characters tend to have fantastic adventures in the 1920s and 30s and make for great fun reads of the pulpiest sort with cliffhangers aplenty, vile villains and square jawed heroes and it's got me looking at some of my old rulebook collections and having a bit of a ponder.

There's something deeply satisfying about reading pulp fiction from back in the day as it may not be quality fiction but it's loads of fun, the only downside is it can be difficult to find but I've found a decent cashe on The Faded Page, a repository of old books which are free to download and I highly recommend having a peruse!

Sadly what little time I've had for painting has been an intensely frustrating experience as I cannot seem to get motivated or get any decent results from my painting which may be due to me just not being in the right mindset for it or a lack of inspiration but we shall see...

I've decided to take a bit of a break and get the festive period out of the way before having a fresh bash at things in 2021 which will hopefully prove to be a bit more inspired than 2020!

I may yet post some more odds and ends as I've got one or two ideas floating around but in the meantime, All the best!