The month of May is over and we are soon heading into June, and with that summer. This month was actually a bit of an up and down. Had some really bad times but I’m hopefully starting to push through them and onto new things. More importantly, next month is starting with me taking the first holiday away from home for SEVERAL years. Things might be a little bit quiet while I take some time off – in fact I’ll be setting off when this post goes up!
Anyway, back to the update.
For the first time, this monthly update is also available in video form. Why not take a look to see some models slowly spinning in place?
Collecting
Well the big thing for collecting last month you all know about and I won’t shut up about! Finally got my hands on Black Powder Red Earth 28mm and I’m really happy with it so far. Still in the process of getting it all together but this is definitely something I’m excited to get on the table with people.
I was also dragged into the Games Workshop FOMO sphere – with the announcement they were withdrawing some of the earlier Warhammer Underworlds gangs were moved to last chance. For my Fantasy collection, I’ve really wanted the Dread Pageant as some special characters for future adventures into the land beyond the snow I’ve been planning. These are the usual high quality GW figures, and the Underworlds sets are very good at giving you some varied figures to play around with.
3D Printing
Due to everything else, the 3D printer has had a little bit of a break this month. However, I did buy into the Spectre Miniatures Patreon and got the two models they released last month printed off. I’ve got some “opinions” on the whole thing of them going into the Patreon market (as well as some of the things that I’m still deciding if I want to write up or not. On the plus side, these models are vey nice sculpts but I’m still not sold on their distribution.
Building
After picking up the Dread Pageant (and then assembling them once they arrived), I had a couple of evenings where I just felt like building some more of Games Workshop’s plastic figures. As I’ve said before, for all of the issues I have with Games Workshop, their figures are incredibly fun to assemble, filled with some really clever design choices to make them go together. Even if the newer plastic boxes aren’t as easily kit bashed as the older space marines, I think you do end up with better looking models overall.
Thanks to not actually playing Age of Sigmar, I did have a lot of fun with mixing the two units in the box of Slaanesh-y warriors I had. This definitely has given them an air of elite bodyguard warrriors to my Lord figure I still need to paint. I also tweaked the Shardspeaker model – as she is an important character in my head (being the mortal form of my Greater Demon that I also need to paint), she needed a suitably grand base. Her tactical rock was then replaced with a lantern from the Frostgrave kit, making her look like she’s hunting intruders who dare enter her realm. I’m really looking forward to sitting down and working through this force in preparation for some Fantasy skirmish.
After unboxing the BPRE figures, I then had all the resin pieces to assemble. As I mentioned in my blog post on this, it wasn’t the easiest job, with plenty of filing and filling to be done. However, after finishing and starting to paint them, I’m really happy with how these models are going to turn out. There is a really nice level of detail thanks to the resin construction and the idea of getting them painted is pretty exciting.
Painting
First up, we have some Dogs of War 3D printed figures. These were some of the first Kickstarters I backed for purely STLs and were actually printed off last year. I’m a big fan of this style of figure in a fantasy setting, the almost historical human vs the fantastical and monstrous. I’m actually happy with how colourful they ended up being – most of the figures I paint end up various shades of brown so having yellow on there is a nice change.
I’ve got quite a few left to paint and I might go back and do some touch ups on these first ones. But, this is a good start.
As a break from all the assembly, I also painted two Vae Victis models I 3D printed last month. These are both going to be part of my fantasy skirmish gaming, but also a chance to try out something new and different from my usual style of figures.
The Butcher Witch is one of those figures that appears on a 3d printing page and I just had to take a look at it. There is some really nice design to the figure, such as the bare leg through the side of the dress combined with the practical apron and gloves. I enjoyed painting it so much that I’ve been scribbling down some lore for how “The Butcher Witches” fit into my fantasy setting. Hopefully I’ll get that done soon!
Finally for painting, I took a break to take a look at the Necromancer model from Vae Victis. There are some really cool features on this guy, from the rib decorations to the spider on his shoulder, to all the detail work on his clothing. I decided to make him look rather well dressed instead of going for the traditional dark and brooding necromancer look. A red and gold colour scheme on his armour should make him stand out from the more ragged cultists – perhaps he is a more approved style of Necromancer, less shambling skeletons and more speaking to the dead… for the most part.
Gaming
A gaming light month sadly – between work stuff getting in the way of preparing my usual Wednesday games and the Dastardly Regular opponent busy on our usual wargaming weekend, I didn’t actually get a chance to put figures onto a board. Hopefully next month I’ll get more some dice rolled.
Writing
Similarly, writing slowed down as well – I’ve got a few little things in the pipeline but all my free time playing with things was spent on something else…
Blogging
Yep! It finally happened. I finally pulled my finger out and kicked off the YouTube project by putting up two videos covering the new Black Powder Red Earth 28mm box that arrived. The whole video making process is something I’m still getting used to, as well as getting all my tools together for it (learning how the camera I bought is perhaps not the best for what I want it to do due to the lack of manual focus settings and auto only video was a pain in the ass).
That said, it’s oddly fun to do the videos. I’m definitely still in the learning phase – I’m working without a script as I struggle to speak at a reasonable pace when working off something I’ve pre-written. As I read quite fast, I need to learn to slow down a touch. For now though, you get to hear me talking off the cuff which works pretty well for the aim of the blog which is charting my journey through the hobby.
In terms of the actual blog, I managed 5 posts last month, including a look at the Anthalonica models from their last Kickstarter, two sitrep posts and two posts linked to the videos above. I’d prefer to have written more but there was a lot of time spent learning this month.
If you want to know what’s coming next month, why not jump over onto the Patreon? I’ll be putting up a preview post there around the same time as this goes up, detailing what’s on the docket for next month. If you like the sound of what I mention, then you can become a patron to help fund it. There are no tiers to choose between – just pay what you want and the support is much appreciated. Click the button below or follow the link to my Patreon page