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 Sense of Projects - Rulebook Rampage

Hi!

So I've got an absolute ton of stuff painted but not had the chance to take photos of them yet! I've also been going through my rulebooks, both physical and PDF and sorting through my frankly staggering collection of rules.

I've posted quite a bit about my love of collecting old rulebooks over the years so I don't think I need to wax lyrical about the joys of delving into old games that nobody plays anymore but my new method of constructing tiny troops, I've got a really good chance of actually trying some of them out!

Thus far, I've been concentrating on making stuff for long running projects that I've wanted to have a bash at for ages, such as my Farpoint Salvage company for Star Mogul:

Farpoint Salvage

I've also been working away at my Orks and Imperial Guard for Rogue Trader and 2nd Edition of 40k:

But I also have a fair amount of 6mm built now as well as my somewhat neglected Monty Python themed army for Dragon Rampant which I really need to get back to...

Imperial Patrol

As I'm now half way through the year and only a single game played, I need to look to remedying the situation now I'm starting to get towards having decent playable forces. Sadly my perusal of my wargame collection has got me thinking of making more and more different bits and bobs with the intention of trying out games I've not played in decades so I'm in a bit of a bind.

Do I tamp down the enthusiasm to keep making stuff for existing projects or do I embrace the ADHD and just go mental, making whatever catches my eye? Both have their pro's and con's but I do worry that if I embrace the modelling madness too much, I'll end up with a plethora of unfinished projects like I usually do...

With this in mind, I'm trying to keep some sort of focus and build enough to keep me on the right track while knocking out projects at a reasonable pace, hopefully without losing interest or hobby mojo. Thus far it seems to be working and I've restrained my over-enthusiasm enough to complete one project, namely Star Mogul (build two forces and play at least one game using them) and my Rogue Trader/2nd edition project is nearing 500 points a side of Imperial Guard and Badmoon Orks.

Once they're at that level, I think I can tick off another box but keep going with them with an aim of reaching 1000 points worth of each before the end of the year and then focus on getting my Dragon Rampant army up to spec...

Mindful of not getting bored, I do think that I'll be adding in a few mini projects along the way as I know from bitter experience that I can get easily frustrated and bored with a project that drags on too long so I'm hoping to use these small projects as palette cleansers between my main projects which will allow me to keep forging forward without the danger of burning out.

With this thought, I have been looking through my collection to see what mini projects I can delve into and have a few up my sleeve that I'm really looking forward to trying out but I also realise that quite a few of my rulesets are generic enough that my figure collection will do the job in several with only minor tinkering.

Hopefully as the nights start drawing in and I slow down with making stuff, I'll be able to try out several different games and post some mini reviews of my ponderings on them.

Anyhoo... Enough of my rambling! I've got to head out to work so until then, All the best!

Making Sense of Projects - Farpoint

 Hi!

While work has been busy, and at times needlessly and inexplicably stressful of late, I thought I'd spend a bit of time looking at my evolving Farpoint setting and try to make some sense of where its going and what I could do with developing...

The Farpoint Sector is located at the north western rim of Imperial space in my own re-imagined Imperium. Chaos and the Warp isn't a thing and instead of being stuck in a technological dark age and beset by foes on all fronts, there is no GRIMDARK in my setting (not that I don't appreciate it but my painting style and figures just don't lend themselves to it). 

Space travel is much more secure these days with the discovery of the Tannhauser Gate, a gigantic space station that opens wormholes between far flung planets that does away with the warp and all the chaotic madness that can be found within. Ships also have FTL drives which will allow for interplanetary travel too but the Tannhauser network is at the core of the system with the core worlds having one in each system and each frontier sector having one located in the sector capitol world.

The Imperium is in a Renaissance of sorts with lost technology and ideas being rediscovered, new and long forgotten planets, clusters and secrets long lost being explored by a new wave of Imperial might. Brave expeditions are being launched out from the core systems and humanity is going back into the dark wilds beyond the frontier!

Similarly, the obsession with the Emperor isn't there, the Golden Throne doesn't have a corpse sat on it on ancient Terra. There is currently an Empress, Lionstone who is a force to be reckoned with and decidedly mercurial and Machiavellian but a generally just ruler.

Instead of the cult of the Emperor (or in this case Empress), the Greek Gods are still worshipped. These iconic manifestations of some of humanity's oldest creeds are very real and as with the gods of old, love to meddle in human affairs. They have their heroes and demi-gods, avatars of faith and all manner of other interesting manifestations can be found in the galaxy at large. It will also give me the excuse to integrate some of the mythological characters, locations and monsters into things.

Imagine Ulysses 31 meets 40k with a bit of British Empire thrown into the mix...

Farpoint itself is a frontier sector and as such, there is lawlessness and opportunity to be found in equal parts. The sectors previous Governor was Baron Alexandr Vosk, a venal and corrupt individual who made himself immensely wealthy by shamelessly taking bribes, theft and essentially running the place like a personal fiefdom. 

Unfortunately for Vosk but fortunately for the rest of the sector, the Empress has got word of his injustices, and the reduced revenues from Imperial tithes has seen her unseat Vosk and replace him with Laars von Dorn, a loyalist and rather incorruptible sort who she's tasked with bringing the sector to heel and profitability.

While Vosk has lost his position, he has enough clout and blackmail amongst the levers of power within the Imperium that by greasing quite a few palms with bribes, he's avoided official sanction and has retreated to his expansive estates to plot and intrigue to dispose of von Dorn and reclaim his lucrative position.

As such there is a secret war taking place across the sector as von Dorn and loyal Imperial units fight shadowy skirmishes with Vosk operatives, criminal organisations and various alien warlords who want to use the upheaval to settle scores or reclaim lost territories.

There's a patchwork of alliances, rivalries and vendettas forming between the assorted lesser houses of the sector with sides being chosen and old grudges being settled. Be it the Longmyres siding with von Dorn or the crimelord Lucius Goldberg supporting Vosk from the shadows.

It's proving to be an interesting mash up of a setting and slightly a somewhat bewildering prospect to try and shape and navigate!

A few years ago I put together some articles on different elements of the reimagined Imperium and I think I need to re-investigate it as well as making some dossiers on my assorted characters and their backgrounds and exploits as it gets a bit confusing (I've at various times called Laars von Dorn and van Dorn for example!).

As such, I think that I'm going to begin by trying to dig into the background and setting to give my characters and factions something to stick to and take a bit of a look at the systems within the sector and begin trying to stitch it all together into a more unified whole.

I've been influenced by all sorts over the years so do expect to see some elements pulled from all over as its my setting and I want to make it a fun experience!

Expect to see all sorts of random posts over the coming months as I try to integrate and flesh out all the elements I've got in my head ranging from the Space Marines being normal humans for the most part, not superhuman psychos, droids and AI being a thing in the Imperium, slightly civilised Orks, resurgent Eldar, sinister cults of the Titans and so much more!

Hopefully I'll have some more stuff to post over the next few days and will keep you updated but in the meantime, All the best!

Off on Holiday!

 Hi!

I've got a much needed holiday and we've headed down south for the week so blogging is going to be rather sparse until our return next week.

On the plus side, I've got a load of stuff to share when I get back with new Tiny Troops, Tiny Tiny Troops and some other odds and ends I've been working on.

I'm also hoping to actually get some games in upon my return with the newly restored gaming table in the spare room (if I can persuade the cat to get off it long enough!) and will be focussing on some Planet 28 skirmishes using my Inquisitor Fisher warband to pick up the quest to track down Murdoch Foyle and the Hathor campaign.

Farpoint's Tannhauser Gate

I'm also hoping to play some games using my assorted Tiny Troops which I'll be playing larger scale skirmishes than Planet 28 as well as adding to the collection of warbands and even plan on trying out a small game of 2nd edition 40k with my Imperial Guard with a small squad of Space Marine allies against a troublesome Badmoon Ork warlord who seeks to seize upon the unrest caused by the arrival of Governor General von Dorn.

 The Governor is currently trying to quell a rebellion from the traitorous and venal Baron Alexandr Vosk, the previous governor of Farpoint who has allowed such corruption and lawlessness in the sector that von Dorn is going to struggle to bring back law and order.

I'm hoping to delve into some more sculpting too for Planet 28 as I've got quite a few ideas I'd like to turn into miniature form!

It's looking like campaign season is gearing up and Farpoint is going to be an interesting place for the next few months!

Further Thoughts on a Hobby with (almost) No Budget

 Hi!

I've been giving my prospect of an almost no budget hobby some further thoughts and decided to post some additional rumination to my original post.

As a quick recap, its becoming increasingly clear that my hobby budget has been squeezed by Real Life and the general cost of living so I've been casting around for cheaper but still satisfying wargaming/sculpting projects that still give me the option to enjoy my hobby and the much needed tranquility and satisfaction it brings while not breaking the bank.

In my previous blog post, i rambled a great deal about my Tiny Troops which have breathed new life into so many stalled projects and have been giving me some real inspiration for taking it further and making stuff I'd wanted to collect and paint for decades but didn't either due to cost, availability or whatever.

 A small part of the Rule Horde

With this in mind, I thought I'd take a peek at some of the esoteric projects that never got off the ground and how they are suddenly achievable!

First up, I've been blogging for 18 years now, which is mildly terrifying and looking back, there are several projects I've wanted to do which either stalled or never got started:

Leviathan, a game I've been obsessed with for thirty plus years but never managed to get an actual warband painted, let alone fully fleshed out armies! The closest I've managed was back in 2011 when I had the bits for an Orc horde but Uni got in the way and the project died. Over the next decade or so I tried to revitalise it and get myself moving but it's never been doable. 

Saying that, with my new approach to making my own miniatures cheaply and quickly, I suspect I could make a decent stab at it if I tried. I may need to do a bit of experimentation basing wise but it may be something to put on the backburner for later in the year as the prospect of actually having enough painted miniatures to play a game of my holy grail of hobbying is awfully tempting!

40k 2nd edition is another perennial temptation for me as I have really fond memories of playing it back in the 90's and my ragtag Imperial Guard getting hammered by my friends Space Marines, Eldar or Chaos. He got pretty much every single new 40k release from GW from 91-97 while my pocket money would only stretch to whatever hodgepodge of figures I could afford but it didn't matter, the games were fun and my Guard fought bravely!

The Oldhammer movement has sadly moved collecting my dream army well beyond my meagre budget these days and my assorted attempts to paint forces have been fairly desultory to be honest.

Saying that, I've already made a start to a new Guard regiment and have a small platoon worth of them made and have been beavering away with some Orky boys to face them in classic 90's battle but without the cheese power gaming of my erstwhile opponent who I've not spoken to now for almost 30 years!

This project will keep ticking over but I'm keen to not bore myself which results in nothing at all getting done so have been swapping out what I'm working on regularly.

Rusty Robots is another small project that I've pootled about with since uni but i's never really taken off but with a simplified approach to making robots, I think I can make a fresh stab at it!

I made the little blue tribe robots using a simplified approach to making and while they're a bit smaller and simpler, they're rather fun and I want to sit and make more of them, hopefully getting the five core warbands made, painted and some games done too!

While simplified and hyper stylised figures are giving me a much better grip on my hobby, I also want to go back to my Somewhere on the Border project as I have a genuine soft spot for all the work that went into the sculpts, and want to see if I can challenge myself with some more sculpting in a similar style as it's great fun, just as long as there's not the added stress of having the intention of getting them cast and up for sale...

The exploits of the Boar Company and their dreaded rival Marik Goldhelm has made for a brilliant ongoing gaming narrative over the years and I want to delve back into it as I've so many ideas for similar quirky and fun stuff and I'm hoping that my rediscovered joy of making things will help me reengage with making more fun sculpts.

Finally I've got a few bits and bobs that I've got on the backburner in the form of my imagination games in 6mm and 2mm scale. These will be my only outgoing in hobby expense for the foreseeable future and I'm planning on using Rebels and Patriots, Lion Rampant and Land Ironclads for some mixed era shenanigans once I get round to it.

I'm finding it rather refreshing to get the hobby mojo back and with a vengeance and I'l try to keep it going throughout the year. The only side of things that needs work is the fact that I've only managed to play a single game thus far in 2026 but with the assorted little forces I've made thus far and my gaming table finally being back in use, I suspect that's going to change soon!

I suspect I'll post more on this as I go through the year and I'm sure there will be triumphs and tragedies ahead in the hobbying year but if I can keep up the level of enthusiasm that I've had in the last six months, I think I could be onto a bit of an epic year!

In the meantime, All the best and thanks for everyone who still reads my ramblings and offers support as it's most appreciated!

The Hobby With (almost) No Budget

 Hi!

We're into June already and I thought I'd spend a bit of time rambling about my hobby choices for 2026 and on.

A lone adventurer in Stump

Sadly my budget is being increasingly squeezed by the cost of living and the dreaded Real Life and one of the cuts I've had to make is my hobby budget. In years gone by, I'd have £25-£40 a month to pick up new figures and whatnot which led to an ever increasing number of projects I'd want to try out but thats now being spent on necessities and I was faced with the real prospect of having to just abandon any hobby stuff until things improved.

My hobby is really important to me though as its my way of relaxing and de-stressing from said Real Life shenanigans so I started rummaging round for ideas for wargaming on not only a micro budget but also with limited amounts of space as our spare room, my mancave is pretty packed with books (the perils of being a bibliophile and working in a bookshop for 20+ years!) so my gaming board is 3'x3' and I'm never going to be able to get anything bigger, let alone the gold standard of a 6'x4' board.

My ramblings initially brought me to the solo RPG option and I've played quite a few now and really enjoy them but its not quite wargaming so I migrated onto combining the two, as can be seen with my Inquisitor Fisher campaigns which combined small numbers of figures into a narrative driven campaign with a lot of RPG lite additions and its been great fun. 

Stump Art Scribbles

The increase of cost of living and a bad case of loss of gaming mojo last year saw even this outlet curtailed as I found myself completely de-motivated and everything I tried just seemed to go nowhere.

I'd considered moving scale for my figures but 15mm and even 6mm figures are ramping up price wise to a point I realised that I couldn't really justify.

Things were looking a bit grim until January this year when I decided to do something completely different and just make some tiny figures that would quickly tick a box for a project I'd wanted to do for years and I made my Star Mogul Farpoint Salvage crew over the course of a week between work, quickly followed by Bossman Salvage, their sworn rivals.

Farpoint Salvage

For the first time in quite a while now, I felt the return of my hobby mojo, I was enjoying making, painting and creating entire narratives about these tiny, blocky guys and I realised that I'd found the answer to the malaise that had been effectively ruining my hobby for so long and answering the question of how do I keep the hobby that I've been immersed in for the last 30+ years going.

Bossman Salvage

While the Tiny Troops aren't too detailed, they do have a certain charm to them and with miniatures being so expensive these days, they'll do the job!

Men at Arms

Now I'd love to be able to collect and paint armies of old school figures, or pick up new games and whatnot but I just cannot afford to do so and my tiny figures have enough of a feel of wargaming miniatures to do the job.

I've used about £5 worth of materials and constructed and painted 108 figures in five months which is pretty good going covering fantasy and sci-fi. I've got the beginnings of entire armies that I never thought I'd get round to done for the fraction of the cost of doing it with actual miniatures.

While they may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I seem to have found real pleasure and a sense of achievement working on them and suspect I'm going to be making a lot more of them as time goes on. Handily I've now got my gaming board back up so I expect to be able to play some actual games in the not too distant future too.

I must admit that I've been seeing quite a few folks branching out into a more crafty hobby approach either making their own or kitbashing everything from pebbles to army soldiers and its been fascinating.

Hopefully I'll get chance to post some more pics of my next batch of stuff soon but in the meantime, All the best!

2025 Review

 Hi!

Well it's been a bit of a year of it with all sorts of real life shenanigans taking centre stage and my hobby being very much crushed into the dirt beneath it for most of 2025 but I seem to be ending on a bit of a high so I thought I'd post my year in review and ponder on some possible challenges for the new year to get my back on track again!

Figures Painted

First up, I managed to paint 116 things ranging from 2mm up to 1:32 and everything from fantasy to Sci-Fi to Historical and Steampunk which is actually surprising considering how naff of a year it's been hobby wise.

While I got stuck in the doldrums in the middle of the year, the last month or so has seen more enthusiasm and success with painting than I've had in ages, even if I've not had much chance post about it so I'm going to take it as a bit of a win.

I've begun my Spruequest challenge and have rather enjoyed putting together the first little warband which seems to have had another figure added to it which had sat unpainted but built in a box for at least the last 12 months! I'll post a complete breakdown of the project as I get the chance as well as the thinking and process behind it but that's a post for another day!

Looking at the painted total, a fair whack of them are small scale but I'll take it as a win none the less at this point so won't complain. Sadly quite a few of the bits and bobs I've painted thus far haven't made it to the point of being photographed but hopefully I'll get chance to remedy this in the new year as I crack on.

Speaking of the new year, I have a few bits and bobs sitting that I'm keen to try painting up but I need to finish my last two Frostrgave soldiers first before I embark on getting them painted up.

Games Played

Sadly I only managed a piddly seven games from three systems this year and they were very hurried sorts of affairs that I threw together on the occasions I had a moment to spare but they're an improvement on 2024 so Huzzah for small wins!

A large part of the problem has been that our spare room has been out of action for a mancave over the year with the spare bed meaning my gaming table was unavailable for extended periods but we have a plan that should see the room emptied and turned into a more usable space in the new year which is very exciting and will hopefully allow me to keep my table up all year and play a lot more games too!

We've also reorganised our living room fairly drastically this year which has allowed me to finally get a small painting desk up and it's been really making its impact known as I can now get up and paint with a proper light first thing for an hour before work rather than while trying to sit on our sofa in the evenings too.

I've also begun working on organising my rulebooks and having a look through the dauntingly large collection of old and largely forgotten games and plan on doing something about breathing some life into them in the new year too with some possibly daft but also fun ideas!

Plans for 2026

Now I had hoped to make a go of 2025 for the year of Leviathan and various other obsessions but it turned out to be a year of not much at all so I'm not wanting to make too much of a fuss about planning ahead but will just potter on painting whatever I find interesting and trying to get back into the swing of things rather than having any great plan and then not managing to make it turn into anything!

Instead I think I'm going to try to just have a bit of fun and paint what I want and aim to beat this year's miniatures painted and games played total and will take it as a win if I do.

In the meantime, thank you to the 178 blog followers, occasional visitors and random passers by who have taken time to read my nonsense! Its lovely to hear from you and thank you for all the support and kind words over a challenging 2025!

All the best!

Richard

SprueQuest

 Hi!

So I've been having a bit of a rummage as we finally get round to clearing out a decade worth of junk from the flat and I have found a plethora of sprues which has given me a bit of an idea for a project for 2026 which will not only clear up some of the stuff I have kicking around but will also hopefully give me some interesting gaming opportunities!

The plan is to rummage out all the sprues I have and over the course of each month construct and paint one of them. Further I want to create a warband or squad using just the stuff I have and then stat them up for either Brutalquest or Planet 28, create a small character bio and then hopefully play some games with them (once our spare room/library/mancave is fixed up!).

I think this could be a fun little project to do with low quantities of figures, next to no expenditure, at least initially, and it also means I can start clearing out the surprising numbers of bits and bobs I've got kicking around that I've not done anything with thus far.

To get the ball rolling, I will be painting up a sprue of Frostgrave Soldiers, of which I still have a couple:

Earlier this year I actually painted several of these chaps to use in my Longmyre setting which sadly kind of stalled out but hopefully I'll be able to kick things into gear with a bit of a mini challenge over December and into January 2026!

Longmyre Militia

I'm interested to see how things go with the project as it's got lots of random components from different genres and theres also the option of doing some converting and kitbashing too as the random bits I have left over get used up too.

Longmyre Militia Art

In other news, my previous post mentioned a Weird Western project I've been contemplating and its still going to go ahead but in 28mm rather than 15mm scale as I was saddened to realise it will actually be more cost effective to work in the larger scale than in the smaller one!

Instead of stressing about it, I plan on picking up a couple of the Gunfighter sprues produced by Great Escape Games and adding them into my Spruequest.

As an added bit of incentive to play some games, I also hope to produce a piece of scatter terrain each month that will eventually add to my collection and make for some interesting games.

Hopefully the low model count and lack of focus on any single subject or genre will get me 

A Return to Basics

 Hi!

I can't believe it's been a month since I've updated the blog! Its been a busy wee while as we get closer to the festive season and I must admit that hobbying has had to take a back seat. 

Looking back at the year, I must admit that its been a pretty naff year for my hobby with pretty much any project that I have decided to work on having been without fail utter failures which has been incredibly frustrating and left me dreading even thinking about a hobby thats supposed to be relaxing.

I've had this sort of thing happen to me before so I have taken a break and rethought what I want to do as the whole point of my hobby is that I should enjoy it but as the month went on I just couldn't summon up any real enthusiasm to explore the options.

With that said, I do think I'm going to aim towards a project that will be easy to complete for next year but I am still settling on what exactly it will be...

There are a few ideas I've got swirling around in my head at present but I do need to bear in mind that it requires to be quick and easy, small in scale and not take up much space as my gaming table is currently packed away so my gaming surface is going to be limited to one of my mini pinboards.

I'm currently leaning towards some 15mm scale bits and bobs as it is a scale that got me back into gaming back at uni in 2007 and I have a hankering to play some really small scale skirmishes but we shall see what I can come up with.

A Grand Day Out

 Hi!

Apologies for the lack of updates recently but work has been properly busy! Coupled with a manic day of culture, museums, food and monster trucks in Glasgow last week I've been utterly shattered which has resulted in complete lack of hobby time.

Nice bit of Rennie Mackintosh

While the enforced lack of hobby has been kind of frustrating, it was brilliant to get out about and run all over Glasgow and indeed ride their underground system followed by an evening of Monster Jam, a most exciting show with monster trucks, motorbikes and a wall of sound!

Windswept and Bearded, Just Like Me!

By the end of it, I looked a bit like the chap above but it was a really great day. I also picked up a couple of RPGs in Forbidden Planet including the new edition of Colostle which was really nice to see and I do hope to get chance to delve into them at some point, possibly the end of October when I finally have some much needed hols!

Stunning artworks have been perused, all the while having an organ recital in the background which was pretty novel and rather fun too and I wish we'd have a bit more time to really enjoy the Kelvingrove as we had to kind of rush from one room to the next while trying to take in as much as we could in the time we had.

I thoroughly recommend Koko House, an amazing Japanese cafe which serves Souffle pancakes which were absolutely amazing and worth the trip just to eat there! Behold my Souffle Pancake below:

Japanese Souffle Pancakes

After a full day of running around, we ended up at Monster Jam, possibly the noisiest thing I've ever experienced. Imagine six massive monster trucks hammering around a stadium revving their engines, jumping ramps and doing donuts! Mad but brilliant fun!

Monster Jam!

Now while the Glasgow trip was great fun, I do realise that I've not been blogging or in fact doing much, if any wargaming, painting, sculpting or the usual stuff that I would do for much of this year which is pretty sad as I really enjoy it but with Real Life, work and whatnot, I've just not had much of a gaming year.

I've gone through several gaming slumps over the last few years, and it seems that this year is probably the biggest of the lot. With this in mind, I plan on taking a small break to refocus and try to get a small project done and finished.

I've got so many ideas floating around but a total lack of focus on which one to concentrate on actually getting done that it's making my head spin but I think that I want to focus on a small one that I can complete with relative ease.

We shall see what I end up coming up with but I have a hankering for something that I can make myself and have a bit of an idea of what I'd like to do!

Hopefully I'll be able to post an update in the next few days but I'm back at work tomorrow and will no doubt be running about like an idiot!

In the meantime, All the best!