A quick Hobby Update!

Just a quick update on what I've been working on. This month, as per my hobby resolution, i haven't really been messing around with much GW stuff (but, from the leaks, that's about to change);
 

Firstly, I've dipped back into Kings of War and decided to start putting together a Undead Samurai army, I've only got a Necromancer with 10 skeletons and 5 Zombies so far (these models take much longer to put together than i expected!) - Once I've found them, the Wraiths in the background are going to get some old Rackham Oni Masks.

Also, when I've not been messing around with undead samurai, I've started to pur together a Malifaux Arcanist Rail Crew Box (With the Rail Golem and Willie):

I've gone for a railway (no surprises there really...) theme for the bases - I was googling ideas for basing and found the idea to use model railway tracks, and they do look pretty cool. Awful to cut tho.

Anyway, that's all for now! I've got some gushing to do about the new WoC models, but I'll save that for another post.

One last thing! My copy of Sedition Wars has arrived!

I'm very impressed, although there is quite a bit of warping of my models .Which is a bit of a disappointment (a disappointment that's becoming a more and more common occurrence with models made from not-HDPE plastics - my most recent batch of Reaper Bones models has a couple that needed re-setting), but one that should be easily fixed (although, to play devils advocate, it's a bit like the Finecast situation - even though the fix is relatively simple, i shouldn't have to do it. But that's a different post all together.)

My year in hobby - a roundup

Turns out, the world didn't end...

So as 2012 drew to a close (noticeably un-apocalypsey) I decided to sit down and take a look back over the last 12 months of hobby (the awkward past-tense is because I missed the end of the year. Sorry about that) and make some 2013 hobby-resolutions.

That many

Well, looking back over the last year it's fair to say that my entire hobby life has been dominated by a single word - Kickstarter - I've personally backed 17 projects (it would of been 18, but I missed the Zombicide one)

Overall I'm pleased with my kickstartering, and I'm happy that I helped (although in a small way) to push though some cool products (2013 is the year of the board game, take my word on that). One downside is that kickstarter has contributed, in a major way, to the Hobby ADD that I, and most hobbyists, suffer from (more on that in the resolutions).

As well as all that GW have released Dark Vengeance and whatever incredibly long title they've given the Hobbit boxed set. Both of these are pretty cool (I'm certainly going to pick up the Hobbit box as soon as a have the cash spare) but Dark Vengeance have helped me in two ways. Firstly it gave my the right kickstart (arh, it's everywhere!) a Lost and the Damned army for 40k, and secondly the bits helped me establish my small eBay shop as a genuine place that people goto to buy stuff, we have repeat customers and everything now! (More on that at the end).

Anyway, enough looking back, lets look forward with the hobby resolutions!

1: Choose a damn army, and finish it! - I've got a pile of unpainted models that's just going to get bigger and the total number of painted armies I have is still zero. In 2013 I want to redress the balance slightly and end the year with at least 1 painted army.

And, in direct contradiction to the above...

2: Get into some of the smaller games systems - the initial buy in for 40k and Fantasy is too high now, so I'm going to investigate some of the smaller systems (I.e. Kings of Warpath, HoMachine, Malifaux, Dystopian Legions) and see how I like them.

3: Make a games table and play some games - I've finally got a hobby room now (so I can stop doing my hobby at work), all I need is a games table (related to resolution 2, I can only spare 4'x4' so the skirmish style games would fit just fine).

4: board games! - I've already pronounced 2013 to be the year of the board game (just up there, see?) so it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is and actually buy some.

I think that's all the resolutions for now (hobby ones anyway, I've got a re-occurring rowing machine related one from outside of the hobby) but what else for the future?

Well, I mentioned above that I have a small eBay store called Pandemonium Games. I run it mostly in my spare time (my main jobs are running an online store that sells recycled and environmentally friendly gifts and operating a Waterjet Cutter - how do you end up with jobs so diverse? Finish university with a BA) but recently it's started to punch above its weight and is beginning to prove itself as more than a distraction and is starting to turn into a viable business.

Whilst currently we're no Wayland, or Troll Tader, or Bitz Box we are starting to carve out our own little niche. All of this is great news, because owning a games store would be pretty awesome. To further help this, once we've got the website up and running, I'm going to make Officina Chaotica the official blog of my store.

What this means to anyone reading this (and judging from my google stats, I'm talking directly to a single Russian spambot) is that very occasionally (once every couple of months probably) I'll post something along the lines of "Hey! This is a thing we have, if you want it, you can buy it here!".

The upside to all this is that since this will technically be a company blog I'll be able to work on it during work hours, so I'll be able to post more! And, if I'm cheeky enough, I could try and argue that me doing hobby is actually me working on content for the blog. That might not fly though.

Happy, belated, New Years and have a great 2013!

Matt.

 

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First few bases of Epic Orks

 

Finished my first few bases of Epic Orks! So far I've finished 3 Nobz, 2 Grotz and 4 Stormboyz (my z key is going to be worn out by the endof this project).

What? I like snow bases, ok?!

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LatD Stalk Tank finished!

Ok, so my Stalk Tank is a little different from others. And I have a very good and fluff reason for that (or, rather, I had the model and it was already base coated). It's based off of a AT-43 Cog Prowler, all I've added is the tanks at the back to make it look a bit more grimdark gothic. This is also the first outing for the the snow basing I'm doing for these guys - I'm quite happy with the... Erm... 'Melty' effect that water effects gives you.

Also, as an aside, the mould lines on these models are horrendous! And, because of the material they're made from, almost impossible to remove.

 

From now onward ive re-jiged my hobby budget allowence (to force me to paint more). So now the money I have available to spend is:

((Total value of what I've painted or sold - total value of what I've brought)/2) + (number of groups of 5 models * £1.5).

So currently I've sold one guy, and painted three, with a total value of £41.19 (this new guy weighs in at £7.50). I've brought no new toys and I've not painted a group of 5 (such as a squad or a rank, not 5 individual characters). So the total available to me now is £20.60. Hopefully this new system will make painting groups of lower value models more worthwhile.

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A good host...

Finished the first deamonhost for my LatD. Well, I say finished. I still haven't settled on a basing scheme (I'm thinking snow basing).

Anyway, the nearest equivalent for this guy is the standard GW deamonhost, which currently costs £7.70. Which sets my current running total to £33.69, so I'm doing quite well. Hopefully onto some cool stuff soon!

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Lost and the Damned Arch Heretic

Lost and the Damned you say? Didn't I just say I was cutting down on my spending? Well, yes. But the thing is, I've been very interested in putting together a LatD army for a good while and my copy of Dark Vengeance has been sitting around feeling rather unloved. On the upside, I've knocked together most of a 2000 point army from spares and conversions and the like. Like a free army. Well, not free, since I did pay for it all at some point but still...

 

Anyway, all that talk leads to this, the first painted model for my Lost and the Damned force, my Arch Heretic. They way I envision LatD is a collection of the dregs of society - so it's all zombies, mutants, pirates and cultists lead by someone who thinks himself a little too good to be in the gutter (like a fallen nobleman or some sort of rogue inquisitor);

 

This models made from an old Inquisitor Corteaz model I got in a bitz box. With the head of the Dark Vengeance heavy weapon cultist and a terminator bolt pistol and empire outrider pistol. I'm quite pleased with how he turned out and, since this is my only fawtykay army there's a good chance these guys are getting some neat backup in the form of a Titan in the near future. Sometimes it pays to align yourself with the dark gods.

 

And, as I laid out last time, this guy counts as £11 toward my Hobby Diet (I still can't think of a better name), so the current total is:

Painted: £11

Sold: £14

Brought: £0

Total: £25

 

So I've now got £25 to spend toward new toys! And yes, I did see that GW forgot to include plastic Dragon Ogres in their WoC splash release, what's up with that? Anyway, I'd best get back to painting. If they ever release plastic Battle Sisters ill drive right up to Nottingham and just start throwing my money at their giant Spess Mahrine statue. So I'd best start saving now.

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Treeman ancient WIP

Just thought I'd quickly post up a pic of my Treeman (woman?) ancient, before I start painting it.

I managed to get my hands on an, increasingly hard to find, Ultraforge tree woman (seriously, someone needs to get these back into production. And their giant).

Now, it's off to the priming station!

 

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