Hobby Wobble

 Hi!

It's been a busy few days and I find myself having a bit of a hobby wobble. 

This year I've found myself making tons of stuff and generally enjoying the whole process of creating tiny troops, 2mm and 6mm randomness but as we rapidly draw near to the tenth month of 2026, I find myself having a bit of a pause for thought.

I've been sculpting my own figures now for quite a few years but instead of increasing the complexity and skill levels, I seem to be simplifying them for the sake of limited hobby time and to get things done and I have come to the conclusion that maybe I've been making a bit of an error.

Looking back at my older sculpts, they had some real character and personality to them and I was pleased with how they turned out, even if they were a bit rough and ready around the edges. Now I'm making things that are literally basic shapes and I can't help but think that I need to try something a bit more interesting or challenging.

While my sculpting in larger scales lends itself to cartoony and rather stylised figures, I used to have great fun making them and yet here I am churning out tiny and simplistic stuff simply because I just haven't the time to do more and I'm beginning to realise that I need to buck up!

Bloodaxe Boyz - SD style

For the sake of simplicity and speed, I seem to have devolved into very basic figures that do allow me to play games but feel unsatisfying in some way that I can't quite put my finger on. Looking back through the blog, I realise that even my first real attempt at sculpting, a 15mm scale rogue wizard who would later become Marik Goldhelm a notorious denizen of the frontier and sworn nemesis of my Dwarven Boar Company, looks better than the stuff I've been making this year.

Marik Goldhelm

It's a bit perplexing as my Tiny Troops have been pretty popular but I'm beginning to think that I've strayed too far from the sheer enjoyment of making interesting figures into something that's just too simplistic and not really a miniature anymore, more like a token and I'm wondering what I can do to remedy things.

My most recent figures

I realise I'm being a bit daft as it shouldn't really matter but it does and while I'm flailing around trying to settle on something that I can't even define, my projects have suddenly ground to a halt. On the one hand I'm heading to a record for painting figures and I've had a lot of fun doing so, but on the other hand, once they're done, I've not found myself too keen to actually use them in a game and am heading for my worst year's gaming total in some time.

The tiny troops were designed to allow me to quickly make forces to play games and they seem to have done the opposite.

I'm not going to stress myself out over it but I do think that 2027 will need to be a bit of a change with what I'm doing with my hobby and I want to try and focus more on some fun sculpting projects and maybe do something completely different.

I don't know if anyone else has similar moments when you've had a really productive hobby time only to suddenly realise it's not what you'd had in mind but I refuse to have a loss of hobby mojo like I did last year and will keep on with the tiny troop styles for the moment but I think I need to do some sort of palette cleansing exercise to get me back on track...

We shall see what I can come up with but thank you all for reading my ramblings and until then, All the best!

Richard

Charity Shop Finds and Zombies!

 Hi!

I've got a much needed weekend off work and am about to head out to the local farmers market and craft bank in Blairgowrie but wanted to post a quick update!

We were in a local charity shop the other day and I spotted theses mighty tomes for the princely sum of £11.25:

Now I've no real intention of playing either 3rd edition of Age of Sigmar or indeed 9th edition of 40k, but I rather liked the look of them, if for no other reason than to add to my ever growing rulebook collection. 

As an aside, it's fascinating to see how Age of Sigmar has moved from a pamphlet rulebook when it was first released to a 300+ page tome in three editions. I suspect I'll be using elements of the background and factions in future projects and the artwork is pretty good too!

As for 40k, 1st and 2nd edition are the go to for me but I do have a 4th edition rulebook as I'm drawn the the streamlining they did, much like 2nd Edition epic and Epic 40k and at some point I do want to give it a try but that's for another day I think!

Possibly at some point, I would like to collect an army for 1st edition then upgrade it to 2nd edition and finally 4th edition as beyond that, 40k seems to become a sprawling beast with so many rules that I suspect I'll never get my head around, but I do have a more recent tome to add to the mix if I'm feeling bold!

Note: When I was about to post this, I discovered much to my surprise that I had a tag for 8th edition 40k. A quick peruse of said post had me tooting about how it looked really interesting and possibly a return to something a bit closer to my interests so maybe I should have a bit more of a look into 40k 9th edition than I'd initially thought!

In other news, I also picked up a copy of a very old rulebook from ebay in the form of Raven by Harlequin Miniatures!

I had picked up a copy of this in the 90's from Macs Models in Edinburgh and had obsessed over collecting and making armies using it and found the artwork by Pete Knifton to be awesome but the multi-base nature of the rules off-putting for a Warhammer gamer. I'd sold my copy off when I went to university and had a massive clear out so was really happy to add it back to my collection for a couple of quid.

Re-perusing the rules has made me realise it's possibly more suited to smaller scales, either 15mm or even 6mm which I'd not considered at the time and I'm quite intrigued to see how it actually plays. Sadly I've been unable to find any examples of anyone actually playing the game but would love to hear of anyones thoughts about it if they have!

Finally, I've got some more tiny troops made for an upcoming Brutalquest campaign!

Zombies!

Made using my typical beads and EVA foam style they're going to be menacing my adventurers soon. I also made a hulking zombie thing using a number of wooden beads and a bit of EVA foam for details and had great fun slavering it in red paint to give it a suitably gribbly look!

I've already played out the first game and it was a bit more touch and go than I expected and I'll post the battle report in the next day or so and am looking forward to playing game two! 

I do need to make some more art cards and whatnot for my characters which will add to the flavour of things and I should be able to post an update presently with much more detail of what I'm doing.

Hopefully I'll post more shenanigans soon but until then, All the best!

Blogger on the Blink! UPDATED!

 Hi!

Just a quick post this evening to say that Blogger seems to be on the blink a bit at present. My blog reader list isn't updating and it's incredibly irksome as it's usually super handy for seeing what awesome projects others are working on at present. 

For some reason, it's not updated for a week now! I've tried the usual fix of clearing cache's, trying on different browsers, threatening with sticks and so on, but no success.

I don't know if others are having similar issues but hopefully Blogger will fix the shenanigans soon!

Until then, All the best!

UPDATE!

Huzzah! As always, the threat of a good thrashing seems to have worked on blogger/my aging laptop and things seem to be working again.

Gremlin Issues Solved!

Hopefully I'll have a more interesting update to post soon, but until then, All the best once again!!

Making Super Cheap 6mm Infantry

 Hi!

Just enough time to post a quick update before I head off down south for a week!

Vosk House Troops

I've had a lot of queries on how I make my own 6mm scale infantry so have decided to post up a bit of a tutorial on the process.

Materials

Materials

To make my 6mm scale infantry, I use EVA foam, ideally a sheet of 2.5mm thick available from Hobbycraft for about £1.25 and will make loads of infantry. The second sheet I use is slightly thinner, approximately 1.5mm which I think I picked up in a pack from The Range for about £5 for a pack of five.

The only other materials I used were plastic sticky backed gems that I got from Hobbycraft for £2.99 but has enough to make literally hundreds of infantry.

The bases are 40mm lollypop sticks, again picked up from Hobbycraft for about £1.25 for 50. 

Other materials are a metal ruler, a sharp hobby knife and a pair of scissors to cut small pieces. I've found that Gorilla Glue is the best for sticking the bits together but any superglue should do the job.

Construction

The first thing to do is to cut long strips of the EVA foam into 5mm strips. For this I use the sharp hobby knife but be aware that EVA foam will blunt a blade quite quickly for some reason!

Rule (Ironically I dislike this metal ruler!)

Next I use scissors to roughly cut little rectangles. You can measure them to keep them uniform in size but I don't really bother as they look ok even if they're not identical! I picked up a pair of sharp thread cutters from a charity shop which is ideal for this sort of thing but you can grab some cheap ones from The Range for under £2.00.

Chop Chop

Next up, glue them to their bases with some superglue followed by some small strips of the thinner EVA foam to represent guns. I've not tried making fantasy or pre-gunpowder figures with this method but will do some experimenting to see how it works out but in theory, it should work just as well!

Tiny obelisks begin to look like actual figures

The final step is to add some extra details. For this I stuck the little gemstones onto the top to give them helmeted heads and a small square of EVA foam on their back to represent backpacks.

Infantry taking shape

Painting

Once I've made a platoon worth of infantry I primed them all in pale grey then started painting proper!

Infantry nearing completion

I tend to paint using bold highlights and let the paint do much of the detail work in this scale as there's no point worrying about making super detailed paintwork as you won't see it on the table! The visors are just painted on as are the infantry's hands on their weapons. The legs are similarly painted on using some small stripes of paint and voila, they're done!

Complete infantry

The last element is to prime the bases with dark brown then add some flock and the figures are done and dusted. Hopefully folks will find this useful and I'll see about making a separate page on the blog for a guide to making them, updated to show different kinds of infantry figures once I've made them!

I'm about to pack to head down south for the week so updates won't be happing until I return so until then, All the best!

Land Ironclads: The Dwarves Steam Forth

Hi!

I've been hard at work on constructing some new Land Ironclads for my Leviathan project and have finished the first two squadrons as well as some tiny infantry to support them!

Deep within the Axeblade mountains, the Dwarf Technomancers and engineering guilds have been hard at work, foundries and furnaces ring to the sound of steam-hammers as teams of guild engineers and craftsmen work tirelessly on a project that has consumed countless hours of research and development.

Now the gates of Kareth Dull grind open and the first of a new generation of Land Ironclads rumble forth into the Axebite Pass, their task to break Krull's siege of the Great Wall that defends the pass and push the Orcish horde back into the Endless Plains along the Old Road. 

Supported by the great guns of Dur Zamor and a squadron of Digs from Mal Hrakken, the Dwarves aim to make the most of their overwhelming firepower to hammer the Orcish forward positions and allow them to secure the approaches to the Axebite Pass and eventually hammer the Orc city of the Kragh.

Dwarven Landfleet on manoeuvre

The Ironclads are made from a core of EVA foam with thin cardboard details and the most expensive thing about them was the MDF bases so very in keeping with my super cheap 2026 thus far!

Ironsides class Land Ironclad

Ironsides are a new class of Land Ironclad. Developed by the Dwarves to transport a company of infantry and provide blistering short range fire support. While some of the engineering guild think they are undergunned and counter to the standard Dwarven Land Ironclad philosophy of using long range fire to pound foes into the ground, they have proved effective in early encounters with Orcish squadrons.

Anvil MkII Land Ironclads

The Anvil MkII is a revamped upgrade of the original Anvil, the first of the Dwarven Landfleet to see action following The Death. While the MkI served well and formed the backbone of the Dwarves Land Ironclads, the new version extends the hull slightly and adds a light gun turret to the design which has given the tank more flexibility and durability.

Game wise, they're going to probably be used in Land Ironclads but I changed the bases to round from the standard 40mm squares the game called for as I just didn't like how they looked! The Ironsides are classed as Class 3 Land Ironclads or cruiser level while the Anvil MkII is a Class 5/4.

I've really enjoyed making them and plan on adding to the force in the coming weeks and also adding some opposition in the form of Orcish warbeasts and crude Ironclads of their own design!

I must admit that its been really great to get back to Aeroth and the ongoing campaigns on the frontier of the Axeblade mountains.

Axeblade Mountains Campaign map

I'm about to head down south for my hols so won't have chance to get anything else made until I get back but do hope to keep building background and doodling up some more designs too, but in the meantime, All the best!

Longmyre: Blackpowder

 Something a little different this morning!

I've been footling around with EVA foam to make some units with the vague intention of playing some Rebels and Patriots.

Longmyre Infantry

I'd been kind of wondering what to do with my Longmyre setting as it had kind of stalled out so I had a bit of a think about a fun mini project to get the creative juices flowing and ended up with a Black Powder one with Longmyre having to defend it's borders from the notorious robber Baron Vosk of Voskovia (Vosk is the villain in everything!).

Infantry Detail

The infantry are made from three strips of EVA foam glued together and scored on the top and then just painted to look like tiny men. It's kind of blocky but does the job and I'm rather pleased with how they turned out. 

Skirmishers

These figures predate my other 6mm stuff as they got made earlier this year and its taken until now to actually get them photographed. They were the inspiration for my later projects and I must admit that I haven't done anything more with them for a while now and really need to make them some cavalry and artillery to complete the force and then make some of Vosks own regiments to fight them!

Tally Ho!

I'll need to get some more stuff built as I do have a stand of test pieces that I'd made for cavalry but it's a lot more convoluted to make than the infantry so I suspect that further experimentation will need to be done to get the look and feel of cavalry without spending an absolute age making them!

Hopefully I'll have some Orks to show next but until then, All the best!

Imperial Reinforcements

 Hi!

I've been steadily working away on my scratch built 6mm Imperial project for Farpoint and have finished a new infantry platoon, this time for the 50th ''Forgotten'' Frontier Foot:

Like my von Dorn house troops, they're made from a two strips of EVA foam, one forming the body, the second their weapon. This time round I added a small plastic rhinestone to the top as I wasn't 100% happy with how my von Dorn infantry had turned out so decided to experiment a bit.

The little rhinestone gives the figure a head and I really like how the resulting figures turned out.

50th "Forgotten" Frontier Foot Infantry Platoon

The 50th "Forgotten" Frontier Foot is one of the Imperial Guard regiments deployed in the Farpoint sector. Due to the rampant corruption and neglect of the previous Governor, much of their gear and indeed new recruits were siphoned off to Baron Vosk's personal forces leaving them a shadow of their former glory. 

Infantry with Copperhead support

von Dorn's arrival has seen the regiment beginning to be reconstituted but it will prove to be a lot of work to root out the corruption within the ranks, get each unit fully equipped and ready to perform their duties. von Dorn has instituted a crash training programme with officers and NCO's from his own house troops to work with the rather ineffectual 50th's command to get them back in order.  

Thus far, I've got a full platoons worth of infantry completed for the force consisting of command squad, six infantry teams and two heavy weapon stands to give them a little more firepower. I do have transports built but haven't had chance to paint them up yet.

My von Dorn force has also been given some reinforcements, adding a command squad and HQ vehicle for the platoon as well as a pair of Sentinels to complete the force for the time being.

von Dorn Command squad with Party Wagon

I've got a plan for making a second platoon of infantry, this time riding either bikes or skimmers which is in keeping with the rapid response theme of the army but will need to footle around with some gubbins to see what I can make...

von Dorn MKIV Sentinel scout walkers

After I've got the 50th Forgotten's transports painted up, I plan on making some rebels and Orky types for my units to fight but haven't settled on anything quite yet as I have several other projects to complete or indeed work on first!

von Dorn rapid response force

I must admit that I'm really pleased with the progress I've been making with my small scale projects and I've got high hopes of being able to play some 6mm scale reinforced platoon level up to company v company games by the end of the year. As its costing me virtually nothing to make them, its also a good budget miniature project too!

Hopefully I'll get some more stuff bashed out soon as I've got several other bits and bobs finished over the last weeks but just haven't had the time to get pictures of them but expect another update in a few days with more goodies to show.

Until then, All the best!