July, another hard month on the old brain but still slowly working through it. At least the heat wave is over.
That said, productive month for painting. Also managed to do a little bit of a tidy up, part 1 of fixing up my workspace. The room I work in is mostly done, but I still have to work through the backroom where Is store my terrain and the 3d printing setup is.
The other thing from this month is realising just how much shit I have and how little I’ve actually painted up. I really need to stop purchasing things! Luckily, I’ve reached a point where I actually don’t need anything for the projects going forward (at the moment). I’ve also got plenty of 3d printing to look at.
Project 365
Another month, another graph style change. As you can see, I’ve started separating out my purchases and painted to reflect actual purchases and 3d printed elements. This is mostly for my own tracking – I want to reduce how much I’m buying, so being able to see that bar reducing is a great motivator
Speaking of, lets see how I did last month.
Painted: 34
Description | Maker | Number |
Torgillius the Chamberlain | GW | 1 |
Gorslav the Gravekeeper | GW | 1 |
Corpse Rats | GW | 6 |
Bat Swarms | GW | 6 |
Gnawbone Stray | GW | 2 |
Dire Goyles | GW | 2 |
Golem (3d Printed) | GW | 1 |
The Sewer (Warcry Terrain) | GW | 1 |
Gravestones (Cursed City) | GW | 2 |
Crows (Cursed City) | GW | 2 |
Gibbets (Cursed City) | GW | 2 |
Camp Terrain | Making Tlon | 8 |
Purchased: 50
Description | Maker | Number |
Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear | GW | 1 |
Lord-Imperatant | GW | 1 |
Gryph-hound | GW | 1 |
Knight-Vexillor | GW | 1 |
Praetor | GW | 3 |
Knight-Arcanum | GW | 1 |
Annihilator | GW | 3 |
Vindictor | GW | 10 |
Golem (3d Printed) | Last Sword | 1 |
The Changeling | GW | 1 |
Covert Operators | Spectre | 6 |
Overt Operators | Spectre | 6 |
Realmscape Objectives | GW | 7 |
Adventuring Camp | Making Tlon | 8 |
Painting is over the target (always a good sign) and the purchases were what I was expecting (Dominion release and a new Spectre release) but still a fair amount.
Battered Brush 2021
The event continues and I’m doing pretty well! I’ve managed to claw a little bit of headroom pushing forward so I’m not burning on the edge struggling to keep pushing. To illustrate this, here is a graph!
One thing as part of it is that I’m not really doing an offical Battered Brush, mostly because I keep doing non-Games Workshop products (partially thanks to my 3d printing additions).
At time of writing I am 58 days in with 64 models painted.
Project Fantasy
As a running trend, Fantasy was the main focus this month. As I mentioned last month, we kicked off with the release of AoS 3’s Dominion box. After separating it all out (and having to deal with a misprinted rulebook) I managed to build up a few of the figures. The standout so far has to be Yndrasta, the winged hero above that is a glorious figure. I still need to do a few tweaks (making the bases look a little less swampy) but I can’t wait to try out some things when painting them up.
At the start of the month, a friend pointed out someone was selling one of the old Warhammer Watch Towers on eBay. I’ve wanted one of these things for years, ever since they were first released. And seeing as I’m now running a fantasy campaign, it made a lot of sense to get a watchtower to fight around. It turned up rather promptly and I have to say it’s a lovely piece of kit.
The big painting progress this month was continuing on with Cursed City. At this stage, I’ve painted up the big three groups of bad guys (Zombies, Skeletons and the Menagerie) as well as the three villains to lead them. I’ve also cranked through the side objectives (partially to avoid painting big things) but all I have left before I work on the heroes is the vampires.
A new addition to the collection was this 3d printed Golem from Last Sword. He’s actually a pair of golems combined together, the mace wielding Pernach and the extended arm of the Sword Golem. This is the second 3D printed model I’ve painted up, and I’m really happy with the final result. Especially with the steam/smoke cloud which I painted up with a mix of hexwraith and nihilakh oxide over a white base. Seeing as I’ve used green to be the identifier for magic across models so far, it gives the golem an arcane look to it. I’m looking forward to getting it on the board.
And speaking of being on the board, I’ve played more games! With The Sister visiting every other week, we’ve finished off the first three missions of our ongoing campaign featuring the Swordmasters. These missions will form the first episode of the storyline that I’m writing, and even had a suitable finale that reset the cast ready for the second episode!
I’m going to be writing up a post for these games (once I get round to it) while The Sister will be writing the story up more narratively over on her own blog. I’ve also got some terrain pieces on the way to the second episode, so there might be a little gap before we start playing on episode 2. But I am also very excited to detail more about what’s going on and write up stuff on my setting.
Project Necromunda
Seeing as I was ahead on my painted models for July, I decided to take a look atht he Escher figures I’ve had sat waiting for me to start on the project. I have a rough idea for the scheme – inspired by a recent Kill la Kill watch, and having been told off for painting things in shades of brown, green and tan, I’m going for a scheme inspired by some of the clothing in that show, both in terms of colours and some design elements. I need to finish my test model but it setups up some cool ideas for the gangs theme – these Eschers being fashion focus, making clothing that is lined with chems to make the experience everything. Once the test model is done, I’ll get to work assembling the rest.
Project Moderns
I am getting excited about restarting my Project Moderns. With this focus on getting fantasy stuff painted, I’ve been spending some of my non-painting time writing up the details for the various nations of my fictional setting. I’ve come up with a few so far and I’ve been writing the details on my personal wiki. It been interesting trying to make setups that actually feel unique rather than just “what if USA but a different name.”
Perhaps more exciting than my dabblings in writing plausible nation states, we got some new Spectre figures this month (at the last possible moment). Six new sets, each comprised of matching Covert and Overt figures. This has been something people have been wanting for as long as I’ve been collecting Spectre’s figures and don’t get me wrong it’s a cool idea. But I can also see how hard it is to do, how it affects the miniatures pipeline (you’re getting 6 new models rather than 12 different ones) and if you’re trying to be sneaky with them, anyone who knows the range will spot them. But, thanks to the 3D design, Spectre have managed to get it done. Current favourites are the US and UK operators – I especially like the photojournalist look, so I will probably get plenty of use out of her in the civilian form even when she isn’t being sneaky.
In more practical things, Project Moderns and Project 3d printing has been crossing over. I’ve been taking a look at the various models from the Quartermaster War in Iraq Kickstarter I backed earlier this year. Perhaps the big standout from it was the MH-6. I’ve got a few plastic kits (in various stated of repair) but found they were a little fragile for wargaming. A resin model should be a little bit more “playing piece”, with far fewer little details about to fall off. Overall, I was really impressed by this model. I need to do some clean up, and there are a few bits of misprinting but nothing unfixable. Definitely a promising sign.
This does open up the possibility of attempting an armed version through some tweaking and I will probably replace my model kits with a 3d printed version. The next stage is working on a flight stand
Another item on the 3d printing chart was the BRDM, also from Quartermaster. This one came out well (aside from some curling on the rear portion due to some supports giving away). I’m going to mod this a little, opening up the turret ring to allow other turrets on there – making your own fictional setting means you can do crazy things like putting HMVs or RWSs on there.
I’m currently working on a nation which doesn’t have an army, only a religious police force. These BRDMs would be great for them, something with a touch of armour to them.
Finally for the 3D printing side, I’m taking a look at some figures that people have been producing as STLs. Combat Octopus and Turnbase Miniatures are two Patreons I’ve joined onto offering Modern/Ultramodern figurines. So far I’ve been impressed with the detail of each of them – there is a sculpting style difference to both of them but nothing too major. I’m going to dig in a little more on each of them – the scale difference on Combat Octopus might need some adjustment with the scale and the support situation is not great for either. But once I’ve nailed it down, expect some more details.
Project 3D Printing
But my 3D printing adventures were not just limited modern wargaming. At 9pm the night before my game with The Sister, I suddenly realised I needed a campsite for the party to begin in. In years past, I’d probably have just realised I was buggered and I’d be missing the cool centrepiece. However, thanks to the 3D printer I was able to go purchase some camp elements, start the printer running and by the time I went to bed I had… one failed print on the item you see above and one bed missing but overall not bad. Luckily, I just ran another job for the following day. A quick paint after work and I was good to go!
And here’s the final result. It’s not the best paint job but it definitely added to the game. I think this is something that 3D printing is excellent for – getting those extra little details that you might not buy in an order by themselves but are relatively quick to print and get ready to just add that extra edge to your board. I’m especially thinking street furniture for Ultramoderns, just adding extra cover or even vehicles to fill the streets.
That’s it for this month’s update, I’ll see you in a month!