BEYOND THUNDERDOME

I'm not dead!

The blog has been quiet but that's been because of holidays and my lungs making a spirited attempt to kill me but I have been chunking away on some hobby related stuff. I will try post some stuff over the next few weeks.

In the meantime - Gaslands. Bought on the recommendation of a number of people the attraction here was a) Mad Max b) being able to repurpose my sons' toy cars they have no interest in and c) Mad Max. The fact that the rules themselves look great was an added bonus.

So in order to test the rules out I needed some toys. Here are my first three tester teams

There was nothing fancy here: six hot wheels cars, some bits from the box, some plasticard armour, a zentihal prime and a base coat of Contrast paint. The posh team got highlights, the others didn't. Then rust:

Finally, weathering pigments

So these guys are ready to roll - will try and have a game soon and report back if it's as good as it looks. 

Guardians of the Forest

I wanted to experiment properly with the contrast paints while I was still countering away on the Napoleonics. So a quick warband was in order.

There are only five paints (6 if you include the nedium) in use here. All the variations in tone and colour were done by either wet blending the paints - much easier with these thick, heavily pigmented paints - or layering them one over the other. The skin and hair were done using Nighthaunt Gloom (which is basically a grey blue contrast paint and is one of the most useful shades I have).

Some moss effect was added on the bases to finish them off.

The biggest advantage of these paints is, of course, speed. These four figures took about an hour and a half from start to finish including drying time.

Next up: more Nappies and some 3d printed scenery.

Sepulchral

Things have been a little quiet lately as I hit a bit of a snag - I couldn't see to paint! It turns out that old age has snuck up on me and I need reading glasses. 

Still a quick trip to the opticians and then the pound shop and I'm back in the groove. 

These are the Shadespire Sepulchral Guard, a lovely set of miniatures which my two lads clubbed together their pocket money to buy me for fathers day. So obviously these were the first things I cracked on with when I had my new eyes. 

The red and brown here are the new Contrast paints over my usual zentihal prime. They're very interesting and a useful tool in the armoury for my usual style. The black and the white are particularly good.

You can see here the new load of the ModelMates rust effect - still as good as the old one. On the bases theres some of the Moss effect which is equally interesting. 

As usual with the Shadespire warbands, lovely little miniatures and a fun project. 

Back to Napoleonics after this!

The Future is Now

The other thing that's been keeping me occupied alongside my new Napoleonic project was a new bit of kit. Having played with them at work quite a lot I decided it was time to get myself a 3d printer.

Building it was the first job - and as it was a job requiring quite a degree of precision it was quite outside my usual slapdash wheelhouse - and then working out what to print.

I started simply with some Necromunda walls; the first test piece was successful so I will be printing a full set of these in due course.

Next, a dragon for my youngest to test organic shapes. Pretty good again and a couple of important lessons learned about how to slice the projects for printing.

Finally, a house. This will have three stories, including interior details. This has obvious applications for AoS, Middle Earth, Mordeim and Historical.

All of the above were from a single roll of filament; about 750g in total, so cost about £10. The electricity cost is negligible, about the same as an old 60w incandescent lamp. Overall I am very impressed; as long as you have good stl files to work with, the possibilities are endless. It's like have a Star Trek replicator for wargames terrain. 

The first major project will be, I think, the gatehouse to match the medieval house and then a full set of Necromunda walls. Then I think I'll be looking for a model of the Nostromo....