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!

Progress Of Sorts!

Hi!

Well I'm back from a very busy few days of work and have settled down to get a little bit of painting done this evening and try to get to the halfway point in my first Dwarf regiment but thought I would post a bit of an update on the gubbins I've been working on over the last few days when I've managed to snatch a few minutes to paint!

First up, I have finished a couple more SD figures complete in the form of a rogue Mage and an evil minion:

Mage and Minion

I've also taken advantage of ZOMBIESMITH'S summer sale to pick up a few bits and bobs for War of Ashes Shieldbash:

I've blogged about the assorted fantastic alternative style figures that some companies are producing at the moment before and after a great deal of procrastination, decided to pick up some True Atronian's in the form of a Command, Skirmish and Gromal pack. I love the whole dark age muppet look of the miniatures and their Dark Crystal sort of vibe and can't wait for the figures to arrive so I can have a bash at painting them.

As my latest projects don't really fit with the rest of the content with this blog, I am porting the whole lot over onto my SOMEWHERE ON THE BORDER blog so I can keep Tales From Farpoint more traditional Warhammer Fantasy/Rogue Trader themed.

I plan on keeping developing the alternative Imperium here as well as Aeroth on this blog but will be using Somewhere on the Border as a chance to develop something a bit different which will incorporate my own gubbins, War of Ashes, Relics and World of Twilight miniatures to boot!

Hopefully I will be able to get some bits and bobs finished this evening for a bit of Warhammer/ Kings of War/ Skirmish related gubbins and will post some pics tomorrow at some point but in the meantime, All the best!

Assorted Reinforcements

Hi!

Well I have had a rather nice day off following a rather manic couple of weeks at work and spent most of it driving around the highlands which was fun but did manage to complete a couple of bits and bobs that I've had lying around for a bit:

First off, there's a new addition to my slowly expanding Dwarf army:

 Converted Mantic Dwarf

I actually enjoyed painting this chap and I think it's possibly because I have got the knack of painting the plastics without spending an age on them and I discovered that with a bit of a fresh beard, the Mantic Dwarves actually don't look at all bad.

The figures below illustrate my point:

 A Bearded Trio

The figures on the left and in the centre have new beards sculpted on while the one on the right is the original. Maybe it's because it looks a bit more realistic or more exuberantly hirsute, but I do like them more than the rather sad chappy on the right who seems to be suffering from a touch of beard envy.

 The Unit Thus Far

Now it's not all been Dwarves that I've been working on. I also finally completed a figure that I have been struggling with for some time now in the form of an old D&D Chainmail Half Orc:

 Half Orc Hero

I must admit that I didn't really enjoy painting him as he's just a bit too bland for my liking. Yes he is well detailed but there's nothing to make him stand out or look interesting to be honest. I had the same experience painting up another of Kev White's figures a while ago. They are really well sculpted but just seem to lack life for some reason but maybe it's just me.

Saying that though, he's been languishing primed but unfinished for a couple of years now and I originally picked him up in about 2007 so it's good to actually get him finished as he makes a handy leader for my Half Orc warband that is slowly beginning to come together:

 Half Orcs

Last up, here's a quick shot of a skirmish between my Dwarven troops and an Elven patrol from House Helios:

Elf Versus Dwarf

I have also had a bit of a rummage through my painted figure collection and have discovered that I actually have about half a dozen half formed warbands so want to spend the remainder of the summer occasionally chipping away at my leadpile to add the odd figure to them till I have decent sized forces for some skirmish action!

All the best! 

Army Building the Slow Way

Hi!

Well I am back from a couple of the busiest days I've had in ages! In case you have been living under a rock, most of you will know that Harper Lee's controversial sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird, Go Set A Watchman was released yesterday and it's been utterly mental in a good way for those of us in the book trade. But enough shop talk and onto the miniatures!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am slowly (albeit almost glacially) painting my way through a bunch of Dwarves, mostly from Mantic Games plastic range. It's not exactly a fun experience as some of the detail is a bit soft but I must admit that the style is kind of growing on me.

Dwarves

The plan is to base them in units of twelve ala AZAZEL'S BITZ BOX (an excellent blog that is well worth a peruse!) so I can use them for Warhammer, Kings of War or any number of skirmish type games. Handily the front rank, including dead Dwarf is now finished and I can get on with bulking out the unit a tad as I have enough of the little chaps to make two units of twelve warriors and a unit of eight Thunderers which is enough to get me started.

 Dead Dwarf

I have no doubt it would be much quicker to batch paint them in groups of five or six but I couldn't bare the soul crushing tedium of the process. I am more than happy to spend a bit of time over each of them and slowly paint up one or two a week and eventually discover a full force!

The hero miniature is from the Grendel Leviathan range and is fantastic fun, if a bit too big for most Dwarf ranges. I have a few more on the paint table waiting to be primed and several more having been converted to having more impressive beards.

Hopefully, the next update will have a more complete regiment and the bases will be getting a bit of static grass and snow effect finish to make them a bit more interesting. I plan on making a force from the Crown of the World, a bleak and cold region to the far north of Aeroth that bounds the Arctic Tundra and will be commanded by a unit of Frost Giants.

For now though, I am off to finish some sculpting!

All the best!

Age of Sigmar Stormcast Eternal

Hi!

Well it took me a bit of time but I finally finished painting up the Stormcast Eternal that came with White Dwarf the other week and I must admit he's turned out quite nicely!

 Stormcast Eternal

You may notice that he's mounted on a 30mm base as I felt the 40mm was just a bit too big, despite his impressive stature. I went for a simple gold and silver armour with royal purple and white details to brighten him up a bit.

 More Views

I can't seem to get over how much the figure reminds me of the Chronopia Firstborn so went with it and included the classic pattern to his shield. Game wise, I plan on using him as a Knight of the Eternal Light, a faction of templars that were briefly mentioned in Leviathan. I must admit I wouldn't mind picking up a few more of the fellows to create a bit of a skirmish force but we shall see how the range develops first!

Here's a few scale shots showing him next to some other common races:

 Bigger than a Savage Orc!

 Towers over a Dwarf

Much the same height as an Elven Noble of Helios

I have to say that he is quite an impressive miniature being highly detailed but rather straight forward to paint, if a bit time consuming to get him right and he makes a good edition to the post apocalyptic fantasy world of Aeroth, even if folks might not like him for Warhammer!

All the best!