OK, before my big plans for a fresh start come the new year (see last post) can flourish, I need a new hobby area.
I figure instead of simply carting my woefully inadequate hobby desk into the new space, it's a great opportunity to revamp my working area.
So I've drawn up a list of everything I've ever wanted or needed from my hobby desk, which I'm going to incorporate into my new area.
1. Obviously I need a surface to work on
2. A place to tidy away my paints, brushes, glues, etc, away from marauding kittens and little hands (my first kid is due in march, so this is especially important)
3. Shelves to display finished projects and store current WIP's
4. Storage for my many bitz boxes (I have nearly ten years worth of these, which number in the dozens), or at least a way to categorise the bitz for easy access
5. A decent lighting set up
6. Noticeboard to store ideas, army lists, sketches and painting recipes
7. Space for my laptop (i need music, videos and access to the blogosphere when i work), but far enough from the working area to avoid splashes and spillages
8. (although optional, due to space restraints) A light box for photographing models
9. Storage for all my old projects that I've thought I'd abandoned but could switch back to at a moments notice
It's fairly basic stuff, but every bit of it's important for me, seeing as i only have about half this list in my current kitten-infested set up and if I'm going to make this change, I'm going to do this properly.
While this seems simple enough, I also only have a small space to work in, so all this also needs to be quite compact.
I'm going shopping tomorrow to see what i can pick up and hopefully by the end of the weekend i should have something that's at least starting to resemble the idea I have in my head.
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Thursday, 17 November 2011
A mighty hobby quest
I should know better than to venture into GW in the run up to Uni deadlines. I always end up with far too many ideas for projects that i have nowhere near enough time for.
But, in a feat of incredible self-control, I've decided that those can wait until New Year, when i have a six week break and my student loan. In the meantime, I'm going to focus my hobby efforts on getting my current projects done and dusted.
Here's my 'To Do' list to lead me nicely to the 1st of January. You'll notice most of it's stuff that's been featured on The Wandering Mind over the course of 2011 and never seen again.
- Build my new hobby area (more on this next post)
- Finish up my Dark Elf Corsair and Witch Elf units
- Paint my Dark Eldar Kabalite unit that's been sitting on my desk for the last 4 months
- Finish painting my Hochland Empire force
- Finish building and painting my first Grey Hunter unit
- Finish painting my Soul Drinker Tactical and Assault Squads
- Finish my Thunderwolves, including my Lord
- Finish Bjorn
- Paint my Rune Priest
- Paint Trazyn the Infinite
- Finish building and painting my Zombie Dragon Bloodthirster/ Shard of the Void Dragon
- Paint at least 50 (out of 350)of my Zombies
- Strip down my previous failed attempt at Deathwing ready to start anew in the new year
- Build my Throgg the Troll King conversion, ready to lead my Ogre Kingdoms/ Warriors of Chaos monster force
As you can see, it's a fairly substantial list, but one I feel i can manage. The theory is, if i get all this done, I can start the new year without an huge backlog of stuff, allowing me to focus on my new projects.
I'll post the stuff up here as I do them, so you can see how I get on and I'll do a follow-up post in the New Year, where hopefully I can congratulate myself on a job well done. Hopefully.
Here we go then...
But, in a feat of incredible self-control, I've decided that those can wait until New Year, when i have a six week break and my student loan. In the meantime, I'm going to focus my hobby efforts on getting my current projects done and dusted.
Here's my 'To Do' list to lead me nicely to the 1st of January. You'll notice most of it's stuff that's been featured on The Wandering Mind over the course of 2011 and never seen again.
- Build my new hobby area (more on this next post)
- Finish up my Dark Elf Corsair and Witch Elf units
- Paint my Dark Eldar Kabalite unit that's been sitting on my desk for the last 4 months
- Finish painting my Hochland Empire force
- Finish building and painting my first Grey Hunter unit
- Finish painting my Soul Drinker Tactical and Assault Squads
- Finish my Thunderwolves, including my Lord
- Finish Bjorn
- Paint my Rune Priest
- Paint Trazyn the Infinite
- Finish building and painting my Zombie Dragon Bloodthirster/ Shard of the Void Dragon
- Paint at least 50 (out of 350)of my Zombies
- Strip down my previous failed attempt at Deathwing ready to start anew in the new year
- Build my Throgg the Troll King conversion, ready to lead my Ogre Kingdoms/ Warriors of Chaos monster force
As you can see, it's a fairly substantial list, but one I feel i can manage. The theory is, if i get all this done, I can start the new year without an huge backlog of stuff, allowing me to focus on my new projects.
I'll post the stuff up here as I do them, so you can see how I get on and I'll do a follow-up post in the New Year, where hopefully I can congratulate myself on a job well done. Hopefully.
Here we go then...
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Cats and Corsairs
As I mentioned before, my hobby time has been serious cramped by these cute little gits being born underneath my painting desk
However, I am in the process of setting up a temporary paint station in another room, so I can get my army plans back on track very soon, once my uni deadlines are out the way.
I did manage to paint up a test model for my latest unit of Corsairs though
There'll be about 30 of these when I'm done, forming the perfect bunker unit for Master Hyron, who's next on my painting list. He should be done in a very similar scheme to these guys, although minus a Sea Dragon Cloak.
What do people think?
However, I am in the process of setting up a temporary paint station in another room, so I can get my army plans back on track very soon, once my uni deadlines are out the way.
I did manage to paint up a test model for my latest unit of Corsairs though
There'll be about 30 of these when I'm done, forming the perfect bunker unit for Master Hyron, who's next on my painting list. He should be done in a very similar scheme to these guys, although minus a Sea Dragon Cloak.
What do people think?
Thursday, 10 November 2011
The myth that is Finecast
Ok, so about 6 months ago, Finecast hit the shelves and the internet was instantly awash with complaints about the quality, with air bubbles apparently all over the place and even whole pieces of missing or unsalvagable, to the point where many people are put off buying Finecast because of worries over quality control
Of course, unless you've been a hermit these last 6 months, you probably already know all about this
I would like to make quite a sweeping statement:
The internet has blown this problem out of all proportion.
To date I have bought 4 Finecast models, a female Vampire Lord, two Ogre Kingdoms Gorgers and this guy:
Not one of these models has had so much as a single blemish (the nick in the shoulder pad you can see is down to me not being careful enough with the clippers) and I can honestly say these have been some of the best quality GW models I have ever bought, in terms of quality of sculpts, crispness of detail and ease to paint and build
Also, none of my gaming friends have ever had a problem with a Finecast model either, sharing my views on the quality.
Of course, these ravings on the internet have to come from somewhere, so I've been thinking and all I can suggest is this:
Any model manufacturer, no matter how big or small will occasionally make mistakes, whether it be a missing sprue in a boxed set, or bubbles in the casting, etc. For example, the very first box of GW product I bought, way back when I was eleven, was a box of Chaos Space Marines. They'd been mispacked so I only got half the marines i paid for. The manager of my local GW was quite happy to exchange them for a full box and let me keep the mispackaged box, as they couldn't sell them on for obvious reasons, but not before noting down the details he needed to warn head office of the problem.
The point i'm making is that there will ALWAYS be mistakes that slip through quality control. It's an inevitability. problem is, with the internet being a vital tool in spreading the word about Finecast, the most vocal group will always be the ones who are complaining. Always. It's human nature. People are more inclined to say 'this was terrible!' than 'actually, this model was brilliant, no problems with it at all', so we only end up hearing one side of the story.
As a little final point, I've had more problems with Forge World casts since the release of Finecast (a grand total of one problem, with some armour kits i got) than any GW product.
I suppose what this post is really saying is, don't believe the internet doomsayers and give Finecast a chance.
Of course, unless you've been a hermit these last 6 months, you probably already know all about this
I would like to make quite a sweeping statement:
The internet has blown this problem out of all proportion.
To date I have bought 4 Finecast models, a female Vampire Lord, two Ogre Kingdoms Gorgers and this guy:
Not one of these models has had so much as a single blemish (the nick in the shoulder pad you can see is down to me not being careful enough with the clippers) and I can honestly say these have been some of the best quality GW models I have ever bought, in terms of quality of sculpts, crispness of detail and ease to paint and build
Also, none of my gaming friends have ever had a problem with a Finecast model either, sharing my views on the quality.
Of course, these ravings on the internet have to come from somewhere, so I've been thinking and all I can suggest is this:
Any model manufacturer, no matter how big or small will occasionally make mistakes, whether it be a missing sprue in a boxed set, or bubbles in the casting, etc. For example, the very first box of GW product I bought, way back when I was eleven, was a box of Chaos Space Marines. They'd been mispacked so I only got half the marines i paid for. The manager of my local GW was quite happy to exchange them for a full box and let me keep the mispackaged box, as they couldn't sell them on for obvious reasons, but not before noting down the details he needed to warn head office of the problem.
The point i'm making is that there will ALWAYS be mistakes that slip through quality control. It's an inevitability. problem is, with the internet being a vital tool in spreading the word about Finecast, the most vocal group will always be the ones who are complaining. Always. It's human nature. People are more inclined to say 'this was terrible!' than 'actually, this model was brilliant, no problems with it at all', so we only end up hearing one side of the story.
As a little final point, I've had more problems with Forge World casts since the release of Finecast (a grand total of one problem, with some armour kits i got) than any GW product.
I suppose what this post is really saying is, don't believe the internet doomsayers and give Finecast a chance.
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Allas Hyron
In the flesh at last.
I've finally got round to building a model for my Dark Elf character who I've been using in games and writing stories about for the last two years.
Unfortunately he's also the same model who took a Asur longbow to the chest in my last Mordheim game and died outright
May his WFB career be longer than his Mordheim one.
I've finally got round to building a model for my Dark Elf character who I've been using in games and writing stories about for the last two years.
Unfortunately he's also the same model who took a Asur longbow to the chest in my last Mordheim game and died outright
May his WFB career be longer than his Mordheim one.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Too many distractions!
Well it's not called the Wandering Mind for nothing...
So I picked up my copy of the new Necron codex yesterday, along with a plastic Zombie Dragon kit and Trazyn the Infinite.
My hobby time over the next couple of weeks will probably be taken up with crafting a Necron test list based around Trazyn and a Shard of the Void Dragon (the Zombie Dragon).
I'm also in the process of painting up a few test models for my Space Wolves, using a recipe recommended to me by Odinsport and re-booting my Dark Elf Corsair army, so I should hopefully show those soon, however my painting and modelling time has been cut down drastically by uni deadlines and the fact that my cat decided to give birth to a litter of kittens under my hobby desk.
Gaming-wise I actually managed to get a game of Mordheim in the other day. It was good fun. I was up against a High Elf warband, 3 Empire ones and Witch Hunters, with me playing Dark Elves.
My secret mission was to put five of the High Elves out of action, which I failed at spectacularly. My Corsair henchmen got slaughtered as we poured out of a building, hoping to catch the Asur in a pincer movement, then before my heroes could pile in, the High Elf leader raised his longbow and took out my Highborn with a single shot! To add insult to injury, it was the same character my Highborn had been taking pot-shots at all game with his crossbow pistol and the Highborn died outright after the game. Curses!
All in all not the greatest of results, but at least i got a game in and after the post-battle looting I could afford to hire myself a new hero, a Beastmaster this time, with a whip to put the fear into those damnable hounds the Witch Hunter play insists on bringing. Come here little doggies, i want you to meet my Cold One Beast Hound...
So I picked up my copy of the new Necron codex yesterday, along with a plastic Zombie Dragon kit and Trazyn the Infinite.
My hobby time over the next couple of weeks will probably be taken up with crafting a Necron test list based around Trazyn and a Shard of the Void Dragon (the Zombie Dragon).
I'm also in the process of painting up a few test models for my Space Wolves, using a recipe recommended to me by Odinsport and re-booting my Dark Elf Corsair army, so I should hopefully show those soon, however my painting and modelling time has been cut down drastically by uni deadlines and the fact that my cat decided to give birth to a litter of kittens under my hobby desk.
Gaming-wise I actually managed to get a game of Mordheim in the other day. It was good fun. I was up against a High Elf warband, 3 Empire ones and Witch Hunters, with me playing Dark Elves.
My secret mission was to put five of the High Elves out of action, which I failed at spectacularly. My Corsair henchmen got slaughtered as we poured out of a building, hoping to catch the Asur in a pincer movement, then before my heroes could pile in, the High Elf leader raised his longbow and took out my Highborn with a single shot! To add insult to injury, it was the same character my Highborn had been taking pot-shots at all game with his crossbow pistol and the Highborn died outright after the game. Curses!
All in all not the greatest of results, but at least i got a game in and after the post-battle looting I could afford to hire myself a new hero, a Beastmaster this time, with a whip to put the fear into those damnable hounds the Witch Hunter play insists on bringing. Come here little doggies, i want you to meet my Cold One Beast Hound...
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Everything must go! (again)
That's right, Khorneguy's having another sale.
As a student, I'm far too skint for hobby stuff and looking over my finances, i've found that my little splurge at Games Day cleared out my hobby fund completely, severely hampering my progress on my Space Wolves.
I've figured my best way forward is to sort through and sell the mountain of old and half finished projects I have in a bid to raise money for my newer projects.
So here we go...
Obviously I'm looking for cash for these, but I would be open to trades for Space Wolf items too.
Email me at: rickyjoy9@yahoo.co.uk, if you're interested in anything.
The painted stuff can be easily stripped before sending if you're after unpainted.
Here's a list of what I have so far. I'll add (a lot) more as I sort through what I've got over the next few days.
10 Zombies, built but unpainted £7
4 Assault Marines, painted £5
30 Ork Slugga Boyz, painted £20
1 classic Iron Hand Straken, painted - £4
1 Ork Weirdboy - painted and converted (head swap) - £5
1 Ork Stompa - built, converted and painted - £45
3 Space Hulk Genestealers - unpainted
Current Edition Codices/Army Books - £10 each
CSM Codex
Ork Codex
Tyranid Codex
Eldar Codex
Space Marine Codex
Planetstrike
Skaven Army Book
Empire Army Book
Out of print Army Books £5 each
7th ed Orcs & Goblins book
6th ed Dark Elf Army Book
6th Ed Hordes of Chaos Army Book
6th Ed Lizardmen Army Book
Warhammer 7th Ed Rulebook - near Mint condition - £20
Warhammer 8th Edition Rulebook £30
40k Mini Rulebook - £7
Chapter Approved 2003 - £10
The Killing Ground by Graham McNeill - £4
Heroes of the Space Marines - £4
Eisenhorn Omnibus by Dan Abnett- £6
Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium omnibus by Sandy Mitchell- £6
Signed hardback copy of Blood Pact by Dan Abnett - £15
Various back issues of WD dating back to 2003 - pm me for issue numbers - 75p an issue or 3 for £2
Postage will be worked out per item
There you go guys, go nuts, it's going to be helping me out a lot
As a student, I'm far too skint for hobby stuff and looking over my finances, i've found that my little splurge at Games Day cleared out my hobby fund completely, severely hampering my progress on my Space Wolves.
I've figured my best way forward is to sort through and sell the mountain of old and half finished projects I have in a bid to raise money for my newer projects.
So here we go...
Obviously I'm looking for cash for these, but I would be open to trades for Space Wolf items too.
Email me at: rickyjoy9@yahoo.co.uk, if you're interested in anything.
The painted stuff can be easily stripped before sending if you're after unpainted.
Here's a list of what I have so far. I'll add (a lot) more as I sort through what I've got over the next few days.
10 Zombies, built but unpainted £7
4 Assault Marines, painted £5
30 Ork Slugga Boyz, painted £20
1 classic Iron Hand Straken, painted - £4
1 Ork Weirdboy - painted and converted (head swap) - £5
1 Ork Stompa - built, converted and painted - £45
3 Space Hulk Genestealers - unpainted
Current Edition Codices/Army Books - £10 each
CSM Codex
Ork Codex
Tyranid Codex
Eldar Codex
Space Marine Codex
Planetstrike
Skaven Army Book
Empire Army Book
Out of print Army Books £5 each
7th ed Orcs & Goblins book
6th ed Dark Elf Army Book
6th Ed Hordes of Chaos Army Book
6th Ed Lizardmen Army Book
Warhammer 7th Ed Rulebook - near Mint condition - £20
Warhammer 8th Edition Rulebook £30
40k Mini Rulebook - £7
Chapter Approved 2003 - £10
The Killing Ground by Graham McNeill - £4
Heroes of the Space Marines - £4
Eisenhorn Omnibus by Dan Abnett- £6
Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium omnibus by Sandy Mitchell- £6
Signed hardback copy of Blood Pact by Dan Abnett - £15
Various back issues of WD dating back to 2003 - pm me for issue numbers - 75p an issue or 3 for £2
Postage will be worked out per item
There you go guys, go nuts, it's going to be helping me out a lot
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Bjorn the Contemptor WIP
Here's a little preview WIP of my Bjorn the Fell-handed based on the Contemptor chassis.
The way I see it, Bjorn really should be in one of these anyway, seeing as he dates from the time of the Heresy, plus it looks really powerful and imposing - just the way Bjorn should be.
I need to sculpt some details to make him more 'wolfy' (the string of Green Stuff round his neck is going to be his Wolf Tooth Necklace), but on the whole I'm pleased with how he's shaping up so far. By the way, in case you're wondering his claws were made from DE Corsair blades and smoothed out with liquid Green Stuff (an awesome product).
Let me know what you guys think
Sunday, 16 October 2011
A new saga begins...
So begins the tale of Wolf Lord Rylak Foestrider and the Great Company of Tra...
After months of proxying lists and fine-tuning my army composition, i have finally started building my Space Wolves force properly, seeing as it's been in the works ever since the latest codex came out.
Each and every model will have its own name and backstory, which I'll present to you when I post them up, along with their ongoing sagas (to be added to after particularly spectacular feats in-game)
I'm really excited about this project and I aim to have it finished by about June-July time next year, just in time to enter them into next years Armies on Parade at GD UK 2012.
So here's what I've been building so far...
Olyek Dragonfoe, my Rune Priest, based off the Forge World Boarding Marine and various SW bits, with the spear shaft coming from a chaos knight
Baldric Greymane, slayer of the Bloodtithe and member of the Grey Hunter pack 'The White Wolves'.
I painted guy this a while back as a tester model, but I'm not really happy with the way his armour turned out. I've still yet to find a nice grey recipe that works for my wolves. If anyone's got a good one, let me know.
And finally, we have Alrik Thunderslayer, a member of another of my Grey Hunter packs.
I love the old mk's of power armour and will be using them in combination with the SW bitz pack throughout my force, not quite making them pre-heresy, but having that sort of vibe.
So what do you guys think so far?
Next time I should have some pics of my Bjorn and Thunderwolves ready to show you
After months of proxying lists and fine-tuning my army composition, i have finally started building my Space Wolves force properly, seeing as it's been in the works ever since the latest codex came out.
Each and every model will have its own name and backstory, which I'll present to you when I post them up, along with their ongoing sagas (to be added to after particularly spectacular feats in-game)
I'm really excited about this project and I aim to have it finished by about June-July time next year, just in time to enter them into next years Armies on Parade at GD UK 2012.
So here's what I've been building so far...
Olyek Dragonfoe, my Rune Priest, based off the Forge World Boarding Marine and various SW bits, with the spear shaft coming from a chaos knight
Baldric Greymane, slayer of the Bloodtithe and member of the Grey Hunter pack 'The White Wolves'.
I painted guy this a while back as a tester model, but I'm not really happy with the way his armour turned out. I've still yet to find a nice grey recipe that works for my wolves. If anyone's got a good one, let me know.
And finally, we have Alrik Thunderslayer, a member of another of my Grey Hunter packs.
I love the old mk's of power armour and will be using them in combination with the SW bitz pack throughout my force, not quite making them pre-heresy, but having that sort of vibe.
So what do you guys think so far?
Next time I should have some pics of my Bjorn and Thunderwolves ready to show you
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Broadening the Mind
I'm currently in the process of launching the Khorneguy's Commissions page and generally overhauling the blog in generally, so there may be a few issues in layout or even accessing The Wandering Mind next couple days.
Just bear with me and I should have all of it sorted by the end of the week at the very latest
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