2024 Year in Review: Meh!

 Hi!

Well here we are in the last few days of 2024 and it's high time for me to look back at the year, what progress I made, what games I played, figures painted and plans for next year.

Looking back at 2024, I must admit that its been a major disappointment hobby wise, with very little of any of the above. With a combination of repeatedly catching the lurgy, lots of real life shenanigans and some really bad cases of loss of hobby mojo, I have pretty much written off the year from a hobby standpoint having done less over the last year than I can remember in over a decade of running my blog.

I'd had big plans for Leviathan and Land Ironclads at the start of the year but our car having massive repair costs pretty much put the Kibosh to that and from there, I found my hobby retreat utterly uninspiring and what should have been a way to destress, doing the opposite and stressing me out to the point that I've not picked up brushes or miniatures in literally months.

I've managed to get a few odds and ends done this year but I think that I'm going to reexamine my hobby in 2025 and try to do some actually manageable and small projects to start the year and go from there.

With that in mind, I've got out my copies of Brutal Quest and Planet 28 as they are my favourite rulesets and have been scribbling some ideas for what I want to do.

Hopefully 2025 will see me playing some games and painting some stuff so fingers crossed!

Until then, All the best and thankyou to everyone who has read my ramblings and commented over the year and hope you all have a fantastic new year!

Richard

Not Dead!

 Hi!

Sorry for the lack of updates for the last couple of months folks but I've had a bit of a combination of work and the worst case of painters block that I can remember having in ages.

In what seems to be a reoccurring mantra, I seem to go through spells of almost manic activity followed by increased work and then creative doldrums but this time seems to have absolutely knocked me for six and been a bit of a slump that has lasted for most of 2024.

I'd started the year with great hopes of actually getting Leviathan as the core project I was going to work over the course of 12 months but almost immediately ground to a halt with unexpected car repairs which ate up almost the entire hobby budget for the year and various work stresses killing what little enthusiasm I had left.

I've posted about my struggles with loss of hobby mojo before but have always found a workaround that seems to do the trick but this year has been a bit of a wash out and I've not even wanted to pick up a brush for months, let alone play any games and with us entering the silly season, work is going to be manic and I'm already knackered after getting home so doubt I'm going to be much use for much of December and January is going to see the arrival of guests for much of the month which means the mancave is going to be out of commission.

While this sounds very much like a Woe is Me sort of gurn, I have been keeping some sort of hobby related bits and bobs going by using the dreaded AI art generators to help me visualise the world of Aeroth that I've had stuck in my head for so long.

While there is a lot of controversy over AI art, I must admit it has been incredibly helpful in the visualisation process and keeping me motivated. I've no real ability at drawing my own landscapes, being more interested in drawing characters so this sort of visualisation aid has been really handy.

Hopefully this will aid in getting the hobby mojo going again and next year will see me actually making some proper progress with some sort of Leviathan themed stuff but hopefully it won't be months before I actually post again.

In the meantime, All the best!

Imagi-Nation Wargaming

Hi!

As per usual, I find myself run off my feet with work with precious little time for anything else but something I've been pondering for a bit is to delve into Imagin-Nation wargaming.

This interest has partially sprung from following the AK-47 Republic group over on Facebook which has had all sorts of interesting bits and bobs posted but I'm not too keen to delve into historical gaming as I must admit I'm a bit uncomfortable with playing games set during actual conflicts. 

Boarhound Armoured Car

Instead I've been pondering more on my Farpoint setting and using some of the fantastic historical ranges out there to come up with my own imagi-national games as just look how cool the Boarhound British armoured car of WW2 looks! 

Looking back through my blog, here's some examples of Rdnrundt forces that I painted up years ago:

Count Cassitor and Henchmen

I'm still unsure as to what sort of basing to go for as the single figure style I've been using for years is perfect for small skirmishes but for slightly larger games, I'm not so sure and may go for a Flames of War or similar style but still can't decide.

Converted Civilian Armoured Car

Many moons ago, I picked up some vehicles from Peter Pig and in the ensuing years lost the turret and ended up bodging up Old Thunder here using a turret purloined from a Mechwarrior Dark Age clicky tank:

This is the sort of vibe I want to go for, low to medium tech level with a decided dieselpunk style to things! I've got some bits and bobs kicking around that I'm going to see if I can get a coat of paint on to see how I get on with this random side project.

Galactic League Peacekeepers

I don't know exactly what I've got lying around at the moment but I'll see what I can rummage out and in the meantime, All the best!

Grubby Adventurers

 Hi!

Just a quick post this evening with a sneaky peek at some adventurers that I put together from the Frostgrave plastic range.

I painted them with a mixture of my usual acrylics and some of the Army Painter Speed Paints 2.0 range and I must admit I'm really pleased with both the figures and the paints!

The Frostgrave miniatures go together well and are rather characterful with a good selection of grubby looking types for a great price and have enough options to ensure that no two are the same and have enough interesting accessories and details to be fun to paint without being fiddly. My only criticism of them is the cast on knives that the figures all have at their waists are a bit blobby but as they're mostly covered by arms its not really noticable.

 Similarly the detail on the entertainingly massive two handed sword hilt is a bit vague but it still paints up well but otherwise the figures are cracking and just what I needed to get out of the hobby slump and represent a bunch of suitably shady types for hire!

As I mentioned, I used a small selection of the Army Painter Speed Paints and I love them. Burnished Red applied by itself on a grey undercoat gives a rich dark brown that is easily highlighted while slightly watering it down and applying it over mid brown basecoat makes for a really nice wash. 

I've got a couple of other colours namely Red, Blue, Green and Yellow as well as Rosy Flesh and they're making painting fun and a relatively speedy experience again and while I'm probably not using them as intended, they are absolutely doing the job to the point I think I'm going to expand my collection in coming months!

I've still got another 15 miniatures from the original box to construct and paint and at present I'm not sure if I'm going to make them all blue themed or make a few different groups but the figures will come in handy for all manner of games which is why I went for a fairly neutral base with light texture and some washes of browns and orange.

While I've now got some goons, i want to paint up some heroes to do battle with them so I'll have a rummage in my bits box and pile of shame to see what I can find.

In the meantime, All the best!

Rumblings from Leviathan

 Hi!

Just a quick post this evening as I've decided to re-activate my old LEVIATHAN BLOG!

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the game's original release and its been a bit of an obsession with me on and off for nearly that entire time. I had originally intended on getting a Leviathan project off the ground this year but had a bit of a hobby slump combined with real world getting in the way of things so it got shelved but I've decided to have another bash at least getting the blog up again without all the spam comments and having it as a reference to folks interested in the game, its development and what might have been.

The Old Horde (sadly mostly gone now!)

I've also tentatively decided on putting together some small warbands for at least the four original factions over the course of the year like a lunatic.

I have however decided to do something a wee bit different with it though as there's no way I have enough space for the required 4'x8' board and tons of resin and lead figures which I'd never get chance to actually paint, let alone get a game for so I've delved back into my notes from previous projects and have decided to make it a bit more doable.

While the original game was supposed to be clashes of large armies, during a brief conversation with Neil Dunlop, the original rules writer for the game mentioned that it had originally been intended to be a skirmish game and I'm going to lean into this and make something more akin to Mad Max with magic.

Orc Spearmen

Using a mixture of resin, metal and plastic figures as well as a bit of sculpting and conversion, I plan on playing something a bit more like Gorkamorka with small gangs roaming the wastelands of Aeroth in search of loot! 

Orc Necrodon

The whole premise of the setting is that a magical apocalypse has happened so the survivors must explore the wastelands with all its perils in order to scavenge supplies so I think a skirmish game along these lines is potentially rather fun and will make for an interesting and engaging project for the medium to long term.

Lesser Goblin Wartower

With this in mind, my Leviathan blog is going to delve into the setting, its factions, the development of the original game, its figures and whatnot as well as the forces as they begin to develop!

This blog will continue as usual with everything else that I ramble on with but as Leviathan has been such a part, not to mention obsession of my hobby, I think it deserves its own record of progress, especially as its been running even longer than this one!

I'll be posting an update a week going forward on the Leviathan blog, initially focussing on getting the old articles revamped and more legible before then moving onto a project log next year. It will hopefully help me focus on the driving force of my hobby that has been one of those things that just hasn't worked out over the years.

In other news, I'm hoping to get some pics of my latest painted stuff tomorrow (weather permitting!) so until then, All the best!

Richard

Scrapbooked RPG Adventures

 Hi!

Just a quick update this afternoon as it's the last day of my hols and I'm back to work tomorrow!

I've got a group of minions painted up but its too gloomy to actually get the chance to take photos of them so I thought I'd post a quick run through of another project that I've been rather enjoying working on, namely my Wandering Library scrapbook RPG.

The premise is that you are the owner of the Wandering Library, a magically moving library that travels throughout different locations while you record the progress and write the story of your adventures.

It's an incredibly simple one page RPG set and its a rather charming process which has resulted in my character first being summoned into a new world in true Isekai fashion and then having to repair the rather ramshackle library before trundling around having slow life style adventures.

Thus far my story has seen my character arrive in the library and meet Mora the Golem who inhabits the library and is responsible for his summoning and set about exploring the Oakheart Forest and happening on a long abandoned city which has been largely overtaken by nature.

The ruins are not entirely uninhabited though as a small settlement called Oak Springs has grown up among the ruins. Here I meet Breglor, the owner of the Leaning Cloak Tavern, which has served customers for over a thousand years. Breglor is also a Golem who is mourning the disappearance of his creator, Pela who was somehow caught up in the magical catastrophe that resulted in the city being ruined.

He mentions that the city once had a library and I set out to explore the place but come a cropper when I fall off the ruined watchtower I've been using to survey the area and end up returning to the tavern empty handed. I do manage to salvage some much needed supplies to repair the library. While on my way home I stumble upon a fairy pool and have to deal with some meddlesome fae (one of whom ends up squished in the pages of the journal).

I get back to the library to find we've had company and end up meeting an Elven waywatcher called Eluned who is keen on us getting the library moved from the sacred glade she's charged with protecting and is supremely unimpressed by my diy skills so offers to get some craftsmen from her village to come and effect enough repairs to get the library moving.

With the library fixed up to at least a reasonable level, Mora and myself and vanish from the glade and arrive in the settlement of Oak Springs. Upon our return, Breglor suggests we may want to go see the local herbalist who knows the ruins like the back of his hand and may aid us in finding the lost library.

We go and visit the old man and find Helebore's Herbal and its rather crotchety old man called Helebore who tells us he's not encountered the library but his grand daughter Flora arrives and tells us about her invisible friend Boo. The next morning sees the library opened and the locals headed in to see what all the excitement is about and Flora and Helebore visiting to get some books and the young girl tell us that her friend is keen to meet us.

The next day sees us meeting up with the herbalist and his grand daughter and heading out into the ruins in search of both the missing library and indeed Flora's mysterious friend. We eventually encounter amid a tree chocked ruin a ghostly figure who Flora identifies as Boo, her friend. It is then revealed that Boo was the librarian Golem of the lost library and even after death she's kept the place as best as she could but it's become an increasingly difficult task as unfriendly ghosts have been drawn to the place and begs us to help deal with them and save her home.

This gets us up to date with my progress thus far! Its been really enjoyable to just potter about doodling and developing the story using all sorts of bits and bobs I've picked up over the years and making something a bit more interesting than my somewhat illegible scribblings in a journal!

I think my next step will be to clear the haunting menace from the library, which will hopefully give me a clue to the disappearance of Pela and possibly repair Boo before moving the library onto its next location.

I'm thinking of doing something similar for a campaign journal for an upcoming campaign game but tying it into my Miss Fisher project but we shall see how things go.

Hopefully my next day off will see there be enough daylight to get some photos taken of my warband progress but until then, All the best! 

Pootling Around in Felstadt

 Hi!

I've been humming and hahing about Frostgrave for a while now. On the one hand, it's been around for a while and gets a lot of support, be it supplements, new miniatures and lots of folks playing it. On the other, I'm not sure I want to play the actual game as its just not quite my cup of tea. I'd prefer to have a more Mordheim style sort of a thing that doesn't focus quite so much on the mad wizards blasting each other with spells.

What I do like is the background that's lightly touched on, that a previously lost city has been rediscovered and bands of adventurers flock to it to explore and plunder the place.

I'm thinking of doing a somewhat toned down version with my bold adventuring party, led by Miss Fisher delving into the forgotten ruins in search of lost relics of a previous epoch and fighting all manner of villains, scoundrels and monsters!

I don't know if it's going to be set in the frozen wastes of Felstadt or in the post apocalyptic ruins of Aeroth or even the stinking boggy mess of Stump but I think it could be quite a fun mini project, especially if I use Brutalquest as my ruleset and build some characters loosely based on the Miss Fisher Mysteries, much as I did with my Inquisitorial team for Rogue Trader.

With this in mind, I nipped to my local model shop and picked up a box of Frostgrave Soldiers and have put the first sprue together to create a bunch of mercenary types to use as friend or foes for Miss Fisher.

I'll post some pics of my progress in the next couple of days but the figures are just what I needed to get out of my hobby slump as they are really easy and fun to paint, especially as I picked up a couple of Army Painter Speed Paints 2.0 at the same time which I've found to be really handy in getting figures done quickly but still looking good!

Once I've got the first five done, I'll post my thoughts on them and see how the project proceeds!

In the meantime, All the best!

Richard's Wargaming Remedy

 Hi!

I've been having a bit of a ponder upon my recent hobby block and have sat down and written up a list of what has worked for me and what succeeded in getting me back into the swing of things.

Here's the list as it stands:

Use 28mm Scale. It's got the largest selection and while it's getting more expensive, there's still a lot of pretty cheap but characterful figures to be found. While I do love 15mm, it just lacks the character of the larger figures and I've been really struggling to paint the smaller scale stuff lately.

Use Planet 28, Brutalquest or my own hodgepodge ruleset. They're rulesets I've used for all sorts of games and are easy to play and great fun without a tomes worth of rules, tables and gumf.

Low figure count is king! The above rules only require a handful of figures a side be it 2-4 heroes or villains or a small group of goons and underlings. This allows me to create a warband quickly and easily and lessens the perils of hobby burnout.

Make games strongly narrative! Make the games a loose ongoing campaign but don't get too bogged down by the details. A game should be fun but not be a slave to making sure all the details are stuck to.

Strong visual element! Allow me to use my creativity to flesh out the setting, characters and narrative of the whole thing. This is a really enjoyable part of the game, drawing character portraits and whatnot.

Space is Limited! My gaming space is at most 3'x3' but at present my gaming table is packed away so 2'x2' or even my pinboard board size should still make for engaging and enjoyable games.

Budget! Get the most you can get out of a tiny budget. £15 a month should be ample.

With all this in mind, I think I'm going to re-investigate Inquisitor Fisher and her retinue. I'm thinking of finishing off her retinue and other characters but want to recreate other iterations of her in fantasy, historical and whatnot.

She's based on Miss Phryne Fisher from the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries that we binge watched during the lockdowns and has a host of brilliant characters that could be easily be transferred into other settings and I'm rather keen to bring her back to the centre of my gaming as she's somewhat a totem of a brilliant series of games that I played over the course of years!

I've also been playing The Wandering Library of late which is a roll and write solo rpg which I've then built up into a scrapbook of sorts which has been rather fun too so I'm planning on doing this to create a journal for my adventures.

I'm going to be doing a bit of a rummage of my collection to see what the state of my sci-fi stuff is and see what I've got and what I still need to work on before moving onto either fantasy or 1920's pulp. 

Hopefully I'll put together an update soon with some further musings but in the meantime, Thanks for reading my ramblings and all the best!

Kind of Stuck

 Hi!

Apologies for the lack of updates but I seem to have got myself into one of my occasional hobby slumps where I just can't seem to find anything that I want to sit down and paint.

I've picked up and put down a ton of different things but can't seem to find anything thats really getting my attention or indeed interest which is most infuriating but something that does seem to happen from time to time.

While miniature gaming has kind of left me cold, I've been enjoying pottering around with some solo rpg's which is giving me a bit of creative freedom but I do wonder if I need to have a bit of a small gaming project that will get me back into the swing of things.

Over the last few years I've been more than happy going my own way which has been awesome fun but I do think that a bit more focus on a small project could be just what I need to rekindle the wargaming side of my hobby.

I'll have a rummage and see what I've got that could possibly do the job but I'm currently unsure what to do!

Fingers crossed, I'll get myself sorted out and post without a months delay but in the meantime, all the best!

The Lurgy Strikes Back!

 Hi!

I've been feeling decidedly rough over the last few days and have just been sent home from work as I was feeling (and apparently looking!) awful. I'd thought I'd just got a cold but when I described how I felt, one of our customers suggested it might be covid. 

When I got home I rummaged out the test kit and lo and behold I do seem to have the dreaded lurgy!

Sadly, I'm not feeling up to doing much but I have managed to get some more drawing done for my Stump project over the last week or so with a selection of character sketches and vignettes of the world of Stump so I figured I'd post them up here:

Assorted denziens of Stump

I'm not sure I'm going to be getting much done today but we'll see how things go...

The world of Stump

In the meantime, All the best!

Inspiration Overload

 Hi!

We've got a guest coming to stay tomorrow so I've spent much of this last week clearing out our spare room/man cave/library and am desperately trying to avoid spotting yet more projects that I want to start up or re-explore as I see more fascinating books that I had forgotten that we owned.

I have managed to get some more doodling and inspiration materials from a recent visit to Hawkstone Park in Shropshire. Its a mad collection of 18th century follies, hills, caves and possibly ancient copper mines. Handily it also has more than its fair share of interesting stumps too!

Not only that, there's some really interesting cave faces that look like they may actually be inhabited by tiny people too:

I've also picked up a sprue of Perry British Napoleonic riflemen, Wargames Atlantic riflemen and some Warlord armoured Saxons and have begun the rather fun process of kitbashing some suitable figures that I'll try and get painted once our guest has left.

I'm rather excited to crack on with the project and see where it goes but I don't want to abandon some of the other bits and bobs I've got kicking around so I may end up switching between projects to stop myself from getting bored or the dreaded loss of hobby mojo!

I doubt I'll be posting again before next weekend but in the meantime, All the best!