Turelio's Hobby Hoard

I've been busy yet again, bit I've managed to start getting into more of a routine, which means more hobby! This is the most recent progress at my desk... First off, ALL THIS TEAM YANKEE! This is a Charlie's Chieftains box I got just before the end of the year. I magnetised the turrets, but need to go back and green stuff them for more security. This will be a basic tabletop army, but construction wise, there are very few mould lines to clean over the entire box. I really appreciate that this took a few hours, but it was so much less time that if I had to clean each individual track. A gelatinous cube was built as well. I already had one done, but after finding the one I thought I lost, I figured I should put it together. I plan on doing a few glazes in places to make details stand out, but these are always fun to use, especially when they swallow the healer. So why not two? Finally, these two little Flameskulls. One gave my dnd group some trouble a few games ago, then tw...

I've been really busy lately (for good reasons, so I'm happy to be busy). I did manage to knock these out over he course if about a week though. Initially they were for a challenge against two friends (more on that in a future post), but they saw table time in DnD this weekend as some goblins interfering with the heroes (and critting one!). For the green skin, I used the same method I've been trying lately with washes and drybrush steps. It's not perfect, but works well for the tabletop. It does seem more suited to heavy textures though.

NB: This was written a while ago, but never published. When I say 'over the weekend', it was a few months ago... Over the weekend I encountered an RPG in play, and overheard one of the NPCs interacting with the players, and I overhead a snippet of the game which was something like: She waves her hands in a strange pattern and mutters some arcane words you don't understand. Her appearance is no longer disheveled. She thanks you for your help. When the players asked about her, she replied: "I am but a simple merchant, who was waylaid by bandits..." Wait a moment... I've heard this before... I've realised that there are some tropes about role playing characters that do get played out a bit. Quests turn into the murder-hobo tour, princesses are captured by dragons, magic swords are a standard first magic item reward. But I never twigged to the following formula being used so much:  I am but a (adjective indicating they do not think highly of ...

Warning - This will get gruesome... Last night, with more KD:M games looming next weekend, I decided to start my own solo campaign. Gems Light. I wanted to run through the game a few times in the hopes of starting a full blown campaign. I was tired from the heat, but I still wanted to do this. As you might guess from the title, it didn't end well, but nonetheless I'm going to blog about it, and turn it into a learning experience... I hope... For some reason I decided to name the survivors after gemstones, and after trying to recall more than about two name in the heat, decided metals could be used as well. Later I would just name survivors after things like Cordite, which in retrospect probably means I gave up on these survivors quicker than I thought I did.. Anyway, my previous times through this game had all started very positively as I recall, with survivors getting home in one piece, and nothing bad happening. This was different. Quickly surrounding ...

My first project to start and finish this year was some terrain, which was immediately uses in DnD the next day. It was a few simple pieces; the base of the GW Arcane Ruins set, and a Lord of the Rings statue. As it was terrain, I wasn't too fussed with gap filling. The base had the tabs trimmed off and undercoated, and the statue was glued together with excess poly cement, which was trimmed back later in an effort to hide the seams. It was also stuck to a 40mm mdf base, but not textured. Everything was given a white undercoat, a coat of P3 Hammerfall Khaki, then a wash of Army  Painter Strong Tone. I then drybrushed with Menoth White Base and Menoth White Highlight. The base of the statue was painted with Reaper Dirt Brown before being coated in PVA glue and static grass. This meant any static grass that rubbed off had a dirt colour underneath, so it wasn't too obvious. The skull on the ruins was painted Reaper Stone Grey, washed with GW Nuln Oil, gla...

I've almost got my painting desk clean again. It's been months since it was this clean, and every time I try to do anything here it gets worse. Hopefully I'll be doing normal painting again shortly...

I have a two in one update! I've been really busy the last few weeks which has worn me out and stopped me painting much. On top of that, a lot of hobby time was spent prepping for the next chapter in the DnD game I run for my friends, The Band of Bakers: Currently the Band of Bakers are on the second of a series of trials set to them by several gods, each of which has an association with a member of the party. This weekend they faced the second trial, which usually involves a party member being separated to prove their skills while the others fight, effectively splitting the party for a few rounds. This weekend the party's ranger Varis faced the Trial of Melora, and the Bakers were victorious. Everyone seemed to have a good time, including myself, aside from the party wizard Miri, who wasn't able to make it, and was therefore planeshifted away for the game (With soon-to-be-mysterious results!). My friend Garry managed to nab some photos during the game, and kind...