This time, I blame my hobby inactivity squarely on FromSoftware's magnum opus: 'Elden Ring'.  Assassins Creed, Cyberpunk, Fallout, Skyrim, Horizon Zero Dawn are all ruined.  If I play them again, I will inevitably start drawing unfavourable comparisons about how open-world games should be designed.  Only Breath of the Wild and Subnautica can stand up to this juggernaut for me.  Odd really, because I'm not a fan of 'Souls-like' games and threw away the original Dark Souls in disgust after only a few hours.    In fairness, there's a lot of bullshit in Elden ..read more

Ok, I'm jumping on the Squaduary-not-Squaduary bandwagon.  My squad is a selection of player characters from the HeroQuest kickstarter.  We had a family game over the Christmas break and these were the chosen adventurers.  Plus the barbarian.  The barbarian is an auto-take and since there are only 4 of us (3 players and a DM) we use it as an semi-playable NPC to get us out of tight spots.  'Barb the Barbarian' is an interesting sculpt.  There are female versions of all the basic heroes in the updated set.  Very politically correct.  Continuing from lef ..read more

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a hellforged abomination!  Originally built in the Antares shipyards (Alpha Scorpii, not Ultima Segmentum), this craft was designated as a geosampler and general scout for a small explorator fleet.  The tectomagnic bombs were replaced with seismic probes and the nose was remodelled to collect samples and crack open sections of rock. Thus equipped to unveil the secrets of planetary composition, it joined the intrepid voyage to unknown worlds.  But that was centuries ago and the entire flotilla was lost to the Warp in its initi ..read more

Jandalf sat back smiling.  He never really felt like he was being a proper wizard unless he was meddling in other people's affairs and the current situation had him in a very good mood.  He was seated at a table in the tap room of an inn, with four relatively famous adventurers, all talking animatedly.  The inn served an excellent ale and much of it was free for the brave souls who had volunteered to fight for village.  The party of five drinkers would soon have to think about turning in for the night because they had an early start tomorrow.  The Tomb of Terrible aw ..read more

Not gonna lie, I spent an inordinate amount of time painting those trousers.  Painting the whole model in fact.  I don't even want to think about the total hours spent painting this week.  I'm not really complaining, this is completely fresh for me.  I think 40k was going a bit stale and I needed to do something different for a while (the grimdark will inevitably draw me back in). Anyhoo, the adventurers are assembled and ready to plunder!  The obligatory group shots above and below.  You can see the progress of all this year's Squaduary participants over on Ste ..read more

Painting marines white is harder than I thought.  Hats off to all you White Scars players out there.  I wanted to give him a bluish tinge so used Drakenhof Nightshade for the recess shading.  Trying to replicate the glorious version of the the Apothecary painted by the GW team (is it still 'Eavy Metal?) is an exercise in madness.  There was no way mine was going to be as good but it was definitely inspiration. Nevertheless, this was really enjoyable to paint. There is just something about the sculpt which fires my imagination.  The Apothecary is touted as a healer ..read more

Pretty good progress this week.   I still haven't finished Jandalf and repainted his tassels about 4 times before finally settling on a grey(ish) colour.  I tried mixing the contrast paints (terradon turquoise and black templar) but it just turned out muddy so I had to repaint him.  It works better if you let one coat completely dry and then put another one over the top but the contrast pigments are so rich, it gets very dark anyway.   Really pleased with Barb the Barbarian tho.  She is definitely the sort of tank you want to send into a room first.  A ..read more

 You can't rush these things.  Navel gazing and contemplating the universe make us better human beings.  At a rough estimate I'd say I was about 25% done.  With just under 50% of Squaduary elapsed.   I've been trying out different contrast paints.  I found that if you paint the model black and white and then just block in the main colours with contrast, it works pretty well.  I've been trying out recess shading with Black Templar before dry brushing the white highlights and the results are interesting (this is why only the back of the wizard is painte ..read more

  This is my interpretation of Joe Dredd, without his helmet.  And a chainsword instead of a stun baton.  Silly really, because Dredd never takes his helmet off.  Plus this is a sergeant, who should be setting an example to his men on battlefield protection and the use of headgear. It wasn't until I went to basecoat the models that I noticed I'd modelled the sergeant's body on the wrong legs.  So now one of the troopers had 2 helmets, one clipped to his belt and one on his bonce.  What a schoolboy error. Normally, I would berate myself harshly and immediatel ..read more

Ok I'm phoning it in.  I did nothing at all for a week and then undercoated the models in a quick burst of guilt.   I spent about half an hour trying to clean the mold lines off and was partially successful.  But that bright red plastic is horrible.  Bendy and oily it does not take well to being filed, producing a crumbly finish. The mold lines almost have to be sliced away.  I probably won't attempt any conversions with the Heroquest dudes.  The models themselves look a bit better with a nice matte grey finish (Mechanicus Standard Grey rattle can) Ev ..read more