I updated my hobby workspace with a new modular storage solution

Four years ago I moved into a house that offered me the luxury of my own hobby workspace. I blogged a lot of happy thoughts about that here. Over the years my hobbyzone was slowly getting swamped with hobby stuff (I could have seen that one coming). It got to the point that a recent newsletter by Green Stuff World announcing a modular storage solution actually made me go: "you're right I do need that, put in shopping basket." I'm a sucker for advertising. Long story short: a box of laser cut MDF goodness arrived on the day I went on vacation. On return I went to work and ended up with this.

Ah a fresh workspace to mess up...

Take the kiswa maker hook and ride Squeek-Hulud like a leader of ratmen!

Yeah the 'conversion' that had to happen, has happened. Egged on by regular readers Toby and Lasgunpacker I looked around for a kiswa hook, settled for superglue (I'm short on Arrakis Fremen gear) and made one spare Skaven ride Squeek-Hulud like a leader of ratmen. Frightened squeels and regular spraying of the musk of fear have not been included with this picture. 

Polish comes from the cities, wisdom from the desert and Hell Pit Abominations come from the Hell Pit.

Buddy gets company: Master Moulder and two 3D-printed Hell Pit Abominations finished

Almost six years ago I finished my Skaven Hell Pit abomination Buddy Since that day he's seen quite a few battlefields. As he survived no battle so far, I thought it was past time to get him some friends and a proper handler. Without further ado: here's a group shot of Buddy (a GW original), two 3D-printed friend (yet to be named) and their handler, a Master Moulder (by GW).

Okay I've named the center one 'Buddy', perhaps I should name the one on the left 'Fluffy' and the one on the right 'Spot' (<- deft McDeath reference right there (also misplaced, but let's ignore that)).

What is the consistency of milk? (And other airbrushing questions for miniature painters)

A recent comment concerning airbrushing and miniatures triggered some pretty unpleasant memories from when I started out with the great clogging cash-eater (also known as an airbrush). As I painted mostly stand-alone miniatures the past few days I thought I might as well type a blog with some airbrushing answers I couldn’t find when I was starting out. Hell, let’s turn it into a semi-faq for when your spoken faq is spelled slightly differently (usually with paint on your face due to the umpteenth clog in your airbrush). Shall we start with the consistency of milk perhaps? 

Am I supposed to go for whole, semi-skimmed, skimmed or 1% milk? 

Fixing some ancient Chaos models

With the number of reasons to go out reduced and GW closing down, I've had all the time in the world to work on my backlog. The recent restorations of Maalicia Ironhoof and Lt. Varras motivated me to fix some more models I've owned since I discovered Warhammer. Here is the result.

The good, the bad and the ugly?

In come the other Madboyz

Oh dear, I got so carried away with other things, I actually missed the deadline for the painting competition I entered. A day late I did however finish the other two ancient Ork Madboyz I pledged to paint. A day late, or thirty years late? You decide ;)

Who you tryin' ta mess with ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

First fukushima kami-crazy Madboy finished

Painting a miniature that has suffered a few decades of neglect always feels special. This classic Space Ork Madboy is the first of three I've entered into a competition and I'm quite satisfied with him.

I just had to add a modern oversized Space Ork shoota to this model. In case of Orks bigger is better. 

Painting Ork Madboyz step one: Warhammer 40K style Industrial basing for impatient people

My hobby painting got slightly delayed by a major real-life project. I had to build a 1:1 scale shed after a fire wrecked the previous one. Aside from that activity I've got a lot of half finished projects (including some playing around with contrast paints) crowding my painting station and no real inclination to finish anything. Time to end this lazy attitude! Luckily a painting competition was announced on the Oldhammer Community group on Facebook. The mission: to paint Bob Olley sculpts. In other words a call to start a small project with a tight deadline (for painting purposes). Now that sounds like a lot of fun.

Joining a painting competition on the Old Hammer Community is a bit foolhardy. The best painters not actively working as pro-painters tend to hang out here (in my very humbly opinion).

Shaking paint pots like a pro (or maybe a lazy person)

My soft spot for new paints is almost as bad as the one that makes me buy silly stuff on Aliexpress. This made my purchase of a Nail Lacker Shaker inevitable. But does it actually work?

I think I should paint this machine, add some decals and a purity seal.

Preparing metal miniatures for paint

This weekend I completed a set of ten classic Plaguebearer models using (and adding to) the new contrast technique I picked up on the airbrush course last week. The trick to really make Nurgle models pop is adding yellow, purples and reds to the green skin. As the models themselves are metal I thought it would be a fun idea to write a quick tutorial on the proper preparation of metal models for paint. At least my take on it. 

Plaguebearers, now with added contrast!

Airbrush workshop weekend: taking it up to 11

Over the course of this weekend I partook in an Airbrush Workshop organized by our local pro-painter Scar's Miniature Madness. The subject of the workshop was infantry and we were asked to bring three Primaris Space Marines, one preferably with a plasma gun. At last I had an excuse to apply glue to Imperial side of the Dark Imperium sprues, Me being me, I brought five Primaris Marines all holding a plasma gun. I also decided to go for a quick practice round at home, painting (basic layers on) five Bolter wielding Primaris marines.

After these modern art master pieces I packed up and went home, there was nothing left for me to learn...

Freshly painted Swooping Hawks ready to fail (again)

Last week I finished repainting my Eldar Swooping Hawks. I'm not sure why I keep bringing these guys to battle as even Ork t-shirts tend to deflect their masterfully aimed shots. But on the bright side they aren't as much of an eyesore in the display cabinet anymore, so there's that.

Here we are, please stop killing us!

Finished my Nighthaunt (army)

My Nighthaunt army is finished. I had to keep focus over the course of this weekend and Monday night (and lost it on a few side projects), but I've managed it. This occasion marks one of the scarce moments I can say I painted every model I bought for an army (excepting one, but  the second Lord Executioner was part of a discount set and bought as conversion fodder so he doesn't count). Now this is what I call a nice start for the new year. Let's open up with a model that came out rather well due to a happy little accident.

Blood for the Blood God? I think not!

What I did during the Christmas holiday (spoiler alert: paint Nighthaunt)

Another year has past and I got so involved in enjoying a holiday I actually forgot to blog the easy and obligatory years retrospective. Maybe I'll get away with it later this month (or maybe not). For now it is time to wax lyrical about my (almost finished) shiny new Nighthaunt army. Lets start with one of my favorite modern miniatures.

Sometimes you just need to give into the urge to add blood...

Nighthaunt slightly delayed by grandfather Nurgle

It has been way too quiet on my blog this past month and  I blame dear old grandfather Nurgle. He kindly blessed me with a bad case of the flue. As a self employed madman professional I had to switch to a slightly higher gear to catch up with unfinished work after that. Nurgle aside, I also spent way too much time testing out this newfangled Elite Dangerous game. I played this game rather fanatically in the eighties and now they seem to have added textured the wireframes (and added some other stuff*). Luckily Fallout 76 turns out to be a bits of wood and metal collection simulator, so I get to use my hobby time elsewhere**. That in turns mean I found the time to finish five Chainrasps. That makes the production of a new army official. Here's a group shot of the five with some other models that accidentally fall within the range (and mostly have nothing to do with the army I'm working on).

* a lot of other stuff...
** note to self: don't ever pre-order games again...

I had to re-glue the Spirit Hosts in the back (left) for the tenth or so time just to fit them into this picture. I don't think I'll be using them on a tabletop, it will cost me too much glue ;)

Skaven Moulder Packmaster

As (hobby wise) I have been a bit pre-occupied with computer games lately, I did not get a chance to practice my painting skills. This weekend I suffered through the lousy ending of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and found myself with the time to start painting again, but where to start? A while back I was lucky enough to get some free left over miniatures from a friend at the local gaming club. One of them was this Skaven Packmaster from Clan Moulder.

That way!

Orruk Boar Boyz arrive just in time for Orctober

For a second I was worried that I did not pay enough attention to orcs/orruks this Orctober (Orruktober?). But a quick scroll through the past month shows I need not have worried. I did complete Grom (honorary orc) and had some fun with orcs in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th. Now all I needed to do to complete Orctober was to finish painting some actual Orruk/Orc/Ork (this is getting out of hand) models. Luckily two projects have been hiding on my painting station: Kaptin Badrukk and five Boarboys I picked up second hand a while back. This weekend I completed the Boarboys.

Oh what a day. What a lovely day! 

Go for the eyes Boo! (and some ramblings about Warhammer Fest)

This Sunday I visited Warhammer Fest in Düsseldorf. I know, I should try to visit Games Day UK proper (or even better yet: BOYL), but Düsseldorf, Germany is just slightly over an hours' drive away and I think the UK is hidden somewhere in the mists of Avalon (hopefully this sounds slightly better then 'I'm too cheap to buy a plane ticket'). For those of you wondering what Warhammer Fest is all about: at its core it is a great excuse to gang up with some fellow hobbyists and spend a day shopping at the ultimate Games Workshop store.

A look from the balcony at Warhammer Fest, in front downstairs the outer edge of the ultimate Games Workshop, the display cases in the back feature Golden Daemon entries.

An ancient Chaos Sorcerer returns to the fray

Even though I like a lot of the new stuff, nothing compares to the truly great classic models. The ones made when the sculptors/designers clearly where on a roll. For me that includes a number of Waaargh! Orks (space) orcs and a large number of original Realm of Chaos champions (and other models from this line). I recently got my hands on this classic Chaos Sorcerer. As I am over-obsessing about Warhammer Fantasy 4th, questing through the Silver Tower with my wife and trying to keep a grip on work, kids and life in general, my painting output has gone down a bit. Still I managed to slap some colors on this guy.

Nothing quite beats the classic GW Chaos Champions. The few I own are set up at the edge of my painting table, primed and ready to be painted when inspiration strikes. 

My hobbyzone is finally (more or less) finished

It took a bit longer then expected, mostly due to me learning how not to work with laser-cut MDF, but my hobbyzone is finally (more or less) finished. In the new house I have an en-suite room all to myself. Here is a shot of my hobbyzone.

The entry to my hobbyzone, with doors that close to keep the cat from drinking my paint water.