News, Updates & ramblings

This Blog is acting as the news and updates page for my new website, HobbyBrush.com.

The website itself is the archive of my painting through the last decade or more, with easy navigation around what now amounts to over 3000 images of wargames figures & display miniatures.

It is also the repository for my musings, workbench notes and reports on all things gaming and miniature painting that I get up to.

I've been collecting miniatures for 24 years and have covered most scales, periods and styles in that time. Don't expect consistency on one project here - there will be variety in project, but hopefully consistently high standards!

Thanks for reading!

Saturday 28 January 2012

What's happening??

Its been quiet again, for which I can only apologise!

THe powers that be have been conspiring against me for the last few weeks it seems, or at least against my online presence!

I was away for a week, and had a great time, but returned with a fair does of Man flu which took me out of free-time for a week. When I wasn't throwing up I was blowing my nose and neither of these are great for either painting or computer screens it seems!

That's all sorted I'm pleased to say, but now my computer has died and I can no longer get online at home. D'oh! SO I'm afraid updates will have to wait a while, but I haven't disappeared completely..... please bear with me & In the mean time, Thanks for reading as always!

Thursday 5 January 2012

Just to keep you on your toes...

A Regular style update post!

Of Gaming, or rather of owning-up to idiotitus:
There's been none in ages I'm afraid. I was meant to be running a Pit Fighter Night at the Guildford club before christmas, but I managed to turn up without the stat sheets. D'oH! Between the shame of this foolish act and all the recent bank holidays, I've not been to the Club in a while, so no dice rolled :(

As an aside, is this drednaught using cover wisely, or grinding against a pillar in an attempt to distract some enemy daemonettes with a saucy Drednaught pole-dance?? Answers on a postcard...

Of painting:
Now this I have been doing! I've finished off the initial Roman challenge. There's 24more auxilleries which I won on ebay (by mistake....honest... ) and 3 mounted Aux's too to add at some stage, but all the infantry I got from HobbyBox's closing are complete and in the cabinet.

I've made a start on the Kraytonian Reinforcements, with the first 36 stands (thats 180 troops) of infantry complete.

I've also done a fair bit of damage to my World of Twilight lead pile, having completed 12 militia and 4 knights in recent weeks. Blow by blow progress of this can be found on the World of Twilight Forums. These have taken a lot longer than I was planning, and combined with a lot more festive fun than I had bargained on, I didn't hit all my goals, but have had a great time none the less!

These updates will be spread out a little, as I simply have too much to post!

Of Updates & Pledges:
A Guest Galleries First, as my Good Friends have been waiting too long to see them! James Jackson is a man after my own heart, and when he does a project, he does it BIG. Check out his immense 40K Marine Army NOW! (21 pictures)

Following this, I feel I need something of equal size, so I delve into my back catalogue to bring you yet more Marines, but this time in the proper scale of 6mm - an Epic Commission covering 4 different chapters. (53 pictures)

That's all for now. I'm not around next week - heading off to the mountains to strap wood to my feet and try to pass it off as skiing (I'm 8 years rusty...) so I'll be back in a fortnight with plenty more pics, and another great round of guest galleries!



Totals:

New Galleries: 2
New Pictures: 74

The Pledge:
Models Bought: 37 (+0 -nothing model related at all for Christmas!)
Models Painted: 221 (+ 40 legionaires+24 Auxilleries+36 stands of Krayt+ 12 Fubarnii foot + 8 for Fubarnii knights)
Months into the Pledge: 8

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Tour of the Cabinets - 2011 end.

Note - see previous post for yesterday's workbench tour...
Well, its and annual tradition of mine, but I cant for the life of me find last years post. Honest, I do this every year, but it seems I didn't post it on my blog (as I work through adding the photos slowly, I see my wisdom from last year...) so you'll have to search any number of forums to check up on me!

The purpose is threefold:

1. First and foremost, Some of the pictures may look cool.
2. It reminds me what I've done in the past year & what's changed in my own cabinets, which I often loose track of.
3. It reminds me what hasn't changed in the past year & thus what I probably should try to practise in the year ahead.

Thus, I launch the tour of the cabinets. Camera snapping away!


Cabinet 1.

C1 Shelf 1. Random 6mm sci fi pieces. No changes here since last year. I took them out to photograph them for the HobbBrush and that's their only movements!

C1 Shelf 2 40K & Sci-Fi display pieces. Not much new here. Just the Infinity model I popped int he cabinet for the holiday season. Q1 of 2012 should see more Infinity added however, fingers crossed!

C1 Shelf 3 There will always be a Kraytonian Shelf somewhere. Nothing new here just yet, but it will be replaced with Fresh models soon as reinforcements are imminent - see workbench tour below!

C1 Shelf 4 WHFB Savage Orcs. Nothing changed here in the past year I dont think. I've done a few random details on my greenskins as the sporadic mood takes me, but 8th Ed killed the momentum of the project just as I was getting going.


Cabinets 2 & 3 - to the right of the TV :)

C2: Shelf 1 6mm sci fi display pieces. This shelf will never change much, but contains many of my favourite models. That said, I'm not sure when I painted the Exodus wars tank, or the single EW miniature currently in there. I need to paint his female counterpart soon & base them both together, its been waiting ages!

C2: Shelf 2 28mm Roman army - All New!! This is the completed core project I've been posting about for the past few months. I'll update the galleries soon. I'm really pleased with the way they tunred out and whilst I dont like using transfers, I enjoyed painting a proper army again.

Note that I say "core" since I inadvertantly won an ebay auction, so there's 24 more Auxillaries and 3 cavalry I need to fit in one day.... Ooops!

C2: shelf 315mm Medieval and Fantasy. Nothing new added, but a hell of a lot sold. 2011 was a year of selling 15mm armies and the Dwarves, one Human army, half another and various un-aligned formations have flown all across the world - these will hopefully soon follow!

C2 Shelf 4:More WHFB Greenskins. This time goblins. Many of their number, over 100 in fact, were sold this year. As I said, 8th ed killed my momentum & the night goblins I sold will be easy enough to replace should I want to return. Then again, I have about 800 more Greenskin models awaiting paint, so I'll be in no rush to purchase!

C3 Shelf 1: Fantasy display & Misc. pieces. Nothing much has changed here. The Giants section grew in May, then shrunk when I sold 3 in September, but otherwise, like all my display areas, I haven't done any display work and the giants hardly count themselves! I've definitely returned to army painting this year. Part of me thinks I should push myself again, but I'm enjoying what I'm doing so sod it!

C3 shelf 2:And Part of what I'm doing is "World of Twilight"! These Furbarnii are all new this year, as is the (still incomplete) Diorama. In fact, this represents a stage beyond the progress previously reported, but they still need details adding & basing finished to them. Once that's done, I've got more characterful elements to add to the force, followed by some opponents for them - expect a lot of WoT in 2012! :)

C3 Shelf 3: This is what you call a shelf of intent. Its mostly empty, and by the end of 2012 I want to fill it with Epic Figures. They might be titans, they might not, but this shelf is for my first love, and I will fill it... I hope!

C3 shelf 4: Miscellany. More WHFB ORcs, they've been covered. The WHFB Empire handgunners are newly completed, but were started many years ago. Similar goes for the 15mm FoW Soviets and the 28mm DAK - both were painted years back but I've re-touched them ready for sale so they're here on the temporary visitors shelf. (I cant put them any higher in case I get attached to them..... )

What's not shown at all is my 6mm soviet forces, which have swelled to hundreds of vehicles and thousands of infantry during the year, and then equally been sold off back down to a measly few. They're waiting for reinforcements again before they're worth photographing.


PHEW! So, that's it. The Cabinet tour completed. What I havent done is display work in any scale. What I have done is paint huge amounts of figures and sold lots too. I'm enjoying my painting. I'm not pushing myself, granted, but I am seeing forces grow from the lead mountain and I do love a good regiment!

I've stated some aims, but I really only have one. Enjoy 2012. And that goes for my painting too. This means I might not stick to the proposed projects, but I wont worry about it next year. As long as paint has been slung, dice have been rolled, and laughs have been had, it will certainly have been a successful year for me, and I hope the same will be said of yourselves - thanks for reading! Happy New year!

Happy New Year! And a tour of the workbench....

Well, Holidays are done, presents have been given and gratefully received, and the brushes have been flying!

I will do a proper website update and Pledge update in the next few days, but for now, I shall return to a New years tradition of my own. Every year, I do a tour of the Workshop & Cabinets. This is as much for me to remind myself what's been sitting around for far too long, what's new, and what needs selling, as anything else, so please bear with me!

Currently Being worked on...


First up, we have some more from the World of Twilight range. This represents the majority of my Military Furbarnii Empire miniatures collected to date, but I have plenty of civilian elements still to add ASAP!


Then there's the ever-present Kraytonian reinforcements. I was almost sad to finish what ARE ('Onest Guvnor..) my last ever Kraytonian light, medium and heavy infantry formations as you see here (proper pics in an update soon!) until I remembered this little lot....

Yep, they'll keep me going! That's two formations of kameli, two formations of veterans, a couple of converted Basilei, twoi formations of Rakkats, two formations of Torrak Riders (Mounted Bounty Hunters from Exodus Wars ) and a formation of oversized Krayt Bodyguards / Ferral Krayt (also from EW). Then there's the 42 coins, which are in the process of being made into bases for the 42 Kraytonian Vehicles I have waiting int he wings.... not to mention the 11 Super Heavy Flyers still in their boxes.... GULP!



And then there's this dude. He just crept back onto my workbench using his obvious powers of stealth... I was never planning to work on him but he suddenly looked cool somewhere around 3pm on Boxing Day....

Annual tour of the cabinets and a proper web update soon, but thats all for now - back to work!