From Curt: Resurfacing, a Mine Entrance and a Construction Project

Forgive me hobbyists, for I have sinned. It's been over a month since my last submission...

Yes, work has certainly amped-up, there is that, but in fact it's more about the wonderful spring weather we've been having that's stolen me away from the hobby desk. While our winters here in the Canadian prairies can often be brutal, the other three seasons can be glorious, and when this happens the paints, brushes and figures play second fiddle to the dogs, deck and yard stuff. 

Nonetheless, while I've been shamefully absent from posting to the blog, I've still managed to keep involved in a few hobby-like things. 

First, my rather uninspired submission to the QC is this protected mine entrance for my Siege of Malta project. 

During the siege, the Ottomans made very clever use of sappers who dug shafts and mines meant to collapse the island's outer defenses. I thought it would provide for a nice scenario where the defenders sally out to try to disrupt the besiegers.

This is a one piece vac-formed terrain piece from Vatican Enterprises (previously Hudson & Allen). A great piece and a good value.

The other hobby project that has been absorbing a BIG portion of my spare time has been the planning for the construction of a hobby-studio on our property.

Having a gaming studio has been a long-time dream of mine. Our home, while very comfortable, is limited in its layout in providing a dedicated space for gaming and hobby stuff. I typically host games on our dining room table (with all the frantic game preparations and laborious tear downs which that entails), and my hobby storage is limited to where I can find nooks and crannies around the house to squirrel things away. One scenario had us looking for a new house that could accommodate our various wants/needs, but we found the search next to impossible as we've grown quite attached to our existing home and were loath to leave our beloved neighbourhood. So the resulting compromise was to construct a structure on our existing property that could serve as an additional hobby space. So we contracted an excellent designer who took my notes and did a great job of drafting up a few concepts for us to choose from. Below is the one we went with.

A few views from the architectural plans of the proposed hobby studio.

It's a bit of a Q-Ship really. For the purposes of getting a building permit and local tax assessment the structure has been disguised as a 'detached single-car garage', but in reality the interior will be kitted-out for full-on hobby geekery (i.e. loads of shelving, figure storage and a decent sized game table). With us living in Canada this project involves lots of infrastructure considerations like heating, cooling, venting, vapour barriers, water drainage, property line setbacks, the works. It's really like building a separate mini-house.

One of its best features is that it features a 12' bank of glass sliding doors overlooking our deck and garden. This will allow in lots of light and provide a nice place to step out have a drink or two during games. 

Anyway, the building site has been cleared and we're just awaiting the city's go-ahead to begin foundation work and construction. To say I'm very excited would be an understatement. My plan is to have the basic structure up and enclosed by autumn with the finishing work to be wrapped up next spring. Wish me luck!

Curt

From NoelW: Playing both sides: Lord of the Rings

As time is running out, I thought I’d try hard this week to do something for as many of my outstanding projects as possible, to see how close I could get to achieving my original plan. It turns out: not very.

My son decided we should watch The Fellowship of the Ring. Dammit! I’ve been such a sucker for that story all my life, since first picking up the book in the school library in 1967. So, whenever we watch the film, I automatically resurrect a LOTR project. It's a compulsion. (You don’t want to know how many LOTR projects I’ve started. I’ll give you a hint: currently there are 11 Gandalfs in the house. And possibly some I've forgotten).

So this time I made another stab at forces for the Pelennor Fields. For the side of all that looks real Good wearing of the white hat of truth, justice and the Gondorian way, here are 12 Swan Knights, currently looking for their horses:

Whilst for their dastardly foes, representing all that is Dark, Evil and almost certainly unnecessarily smelly: 6 mounted Haradrim 

and 9 on foot:

That’s 21 foot and 6 mounted 28mm figs (all GW, of course), so 165 points, making my imaginary total for the Challenge 1454 points (although nothing for the side challenge with Stuart this week. He may have me beat.)

So far am I from the plan I began with, I'm not posting an update this week. Just imagine everything is going amazingly well, on course for a spectacular successful save in the final fortnight, then if you expect to be disappointed at the finishing line at least that expectation will succeed.

From TamsinP: Citi Def Troopers for Judge Dredd

Following on from the Justice Department, this time we have their civilian support, the Citizens Defence. In Mega City One each block has a militia which citizens can join, the Citi Def. Their role is to defend their block during time of emergency and to assist the Judges when called upon to do so. Some block Citi Defs are reasonably well trained and competent, others less so.

When you consider how bored, stupid, downright nuts and generally ornery most of MC1's citizens are, you can well imagine that giving them access to military grade weapons is potentially not the wisest of moves. They have regularly been the instigators of or involved in the frequent block wars (where citizens of one or more blocks start fighting those of other rival blocks) which occur.

However, they have played important roles fighting alongside the Judges in numerous major stories: during the East Meg Sov invasion of the Apocalypse War; and Judgement Day when the necromancer Sabbat traveled back in time (pursued by Johnny Alpha) and raised an army of zombies which attacked many cities.

I've just primed the next batch of figures, so I should have some more to show you soon.

From TeemuL: Weekly update (5 points)

Trying to keep up with the one post a week schedule and real life tasks I only have a small offering today. Finished this beauty late last night. Invisible Frodo with the Ring by talented Citadel/Games Workshop sculptors in clear plastic. Based on my usual Lotr style, brown sand all over the place.

This is from my Wacky list.

U: 0 (total 10)
N: 0 (total 8)
W: 1 (total 2)
F: 0 (total 16)
R: 0 (total 14)

S: 0 (total 2)

Points:

5 points (total 308)

From Minion TeemuL:

This kind of smaller miniatures are great for trying out new technics, I really like the extreme edge high lightning on the cloak, OSL around the Ring and NMM on the Ring itself. No wonder it took a whole week to finish!

From MikeV: 6mm Portuguese Line Infantry and Cacadores

As a continuation of my current Peninsular project I have this week completed a further two regiments of Portuguese infantry - the 5th Line (First Elvas) and the 2nd Cacadores regiments. Both regiments belonged to the Second or Centre Division and carry the distinctive white standard.

I am now close to my 24 stand target for the Portuguese, with only four stands to go. At 20 stands strong, they are now the equivalent of a 7,200 force on table in Age of Eagles terms. I cannot say that I am pleased with my progress - it is quite possible to be much more productive when painting 6mm figures but I have other life stuff going on which obviously take away precious painting time. This week I hope to wrap up painting figures and concentrate on a few terrain items.

All figures from Baccus as usual.

Cheers all!

The two regiments completed this week

2nd Cacadores

5th Line Infantry

The full Portuguese complement

From StuartL - Free French Goumiers

Some models are easy to paint, others can be a challenge. Minis that make us question our life choices are, thankfully a rarity. However, that is probably the category that this group fits into. I've had these on my workbench for a while now and getting them done was a grind. Painting (somewhat) neat lines onto their djellabas (robes) was a very challenging task.

These figures are the start of a Late War, Free French army for Bolt Action. Thankfully, this bunch represents the entirety of the Goumier contingent. The Goumiers were originally from Morocco and served as local auxiliaries for the French Army of Africa. When France signed an armistice with Germany, the Goumier were designated as Gendarmerie, to get round the limits on soldiers the French were allowed to have.

The Goumier fought alongside the allies in Tunisia, Italy, France and Germany, as part of the Free French forces. While highly regarded as tough, reliable fighters and excellent mountain troops, they also had a reputation for committing war crimes against civilian targets, leading to several of them going in front of a firing squad and others being sentenced to hard labour.

In total, I painted up 2 units of 12 and an officer with an assistant. All of the models are from Artizan Designs. Ideally there should be some support weapons like mortars and machine guns, but Artizan don't produce them sadly. If anyone knows of any company which does, please let me know in the comments section.

So, for my imaginary scoring, that's 26 minis at 5 points a piece giving a respectable 130 points to both my AHQC score and my side duel score. The current results therefore stand at 939.5 and 737.5 points respectively.

KenR 28mm 7tv Baddies

A little update on the 7tv Cops and Robbers mini Project which is now almost done and this post covers (mostly) bad guy bosses.

The figures are all 28mm Crooked Dice and excellent quality. With the camera counting as a crew served weapon it's equivalent to 14 Figs at 5 points a piece giving me 70 points and a virtual Quarantine Total of 1378.

I'll do a post on the buildings when they are finished (there's another in the builders yard at the mo) but they do work lovely with these figs.

Here's the lone Cop in this batch, the 7tv Tough Detective, who is a dead ringer for John Thaws character Jack Reagan in The Sweeney.

No points for these but I've picked up some more vehicles for the period, no painting awesome 👍

My favourite is the Camera Man and Camera, for those who don't know 7tv is set in a TV Studio and has casts battling against each other for ratings. He has been painted up in Yarkshire TV colours and is likely to appear on a regular basis over on my YouTube channel.

I do have a group of 3 Scooter riders left from my 7tv stuff but I've put them to one side for the moment. I'm working on the terrain for the Sweeney stuff and building up some Scenarios whilst gaming is on hold.

Next up on the paint table are some WW1 British Cavalry, it's a big unit so it might be some time before I get them done.