Holy crap we’re into October already. When did that happen?
House stuff is still rambling on, not helped by the current joyride the UK Economy is currently having. For this reason, I still have all my hobby gear up and running, the 3D printer still slamming away and I’ve been trying to find time for painting. I’m actually going to be expanding my printer collection – a friend is clearing out a repalced Ender 5 Pro and so I lept on it, the first roll of filament and a dry storage box paid for via a reward program through work. Look forward to plenty more things being printed as well as a my post documenting the whole process.
Patreon Update
Okay so usually this bit is where I talk about what’s going on with Patreon and the stuff I’m backing that’s caught my eye (it’s usually also the Spectre talk). However, as it continues to grow, I’ve decided to silo it into its own post that’s coming in a couple of days – one of the Patreons I’m on (Vae Victis) doesn’t like to release handy preview until the actual models come out. For this reason, I’m going to start waiting until the 5th of each month to cover the Patreon as this allows everyone involved to show off some stuff whats coming next.
BPRE 28mm
So last month I managed to run a full night raid against my Former Housemate. With both of us fully clued up on the rules (including my opponent now clocking how best to unleash the scoria drones), it was a blast to play. Three missions long, Scorch took the first two but the last one was an absolute nail bitier. That game continues to be such a good thing to jump in and play.
Next up, I’m about to start properly working on the next “Contract in Awarbari” video. This one is going to roughly cover the gameplay, going into detials on our previous games as well as covering some specifics. I want to release it this month, and try to increase the pace of releases.
Bazi Counter-Espionage
Remember the CO guys I made last month? Yeah still haven’t got round to painting them. Instead, I added more, bringing the masked goon squad up to a larger number and with more assault rifles and UGLs to group. I’ve also been preparing an article covering them, mostly to show off the modular aspect of the CO releases and cover some of the little tweaks I did to get stuff to fit.
Speak of Bazistan, I actually wrote up the first part of my nation infomation for the ChargeReal, covering the two main nations in Bazistan iteself. Feedback on the post has been great, and so I’ll be quick to post some more writing on the topic, bringing together some thoughts I already had.
Getting Out Of The Rut
After a month of not painting much, I finally sat down and hammered out this guy over a lunchbreak. This is a model commisioned by one of the Directors on the Spectre Patreon and then given to the Patrons as an additional model. He’s definitely inspired by a certain character from MW2019 and was a good figure to get the mojo back for painting. Even if my painting of stripey tops was perhaps not the neatest. As for his use, I think he might be a handy mercenary from Dazhbog to add to some of the militias in Bazistan as a mentor.
Trying Something New
Ever since I restarted painting back in 2014, I’ve worked from a black basecoat, much as the traditions have demanded since the dawn of mankind. I’ve also been pretty resistant to changing this due to having a style I like and the fear that a new style might make it easier to paint. However, with the rise of Zenithal Highlighting and SlapChop as ways of getting figures painted quickly, I’ve start to wonder if maybe I should give this “non-Black Undercoat” a go. I decided to keep things simple, seeing as I have a whole colleciton of models undercoated in black – I hit them with a layer of white spray from above, effectively a two step Zenithal process. I have tried this on a mix of figures that I’ve 3D printed before I hit anything else purchased, mostly so if it doesn’t work I’ve not ruined anything expensive.
The first model to be fully painted up is this Orc lady crushing a Watermelon 3d print I got from Vae Victis (as part of their Bae Victis set). Obviously I don’t have a 1:1 to compare and I wasn’t using any contrasts or similar styles but I can definitely see the advantage of the differing tones – it was much easier to pick up different elements on the model thanks to the white and black. I’m going to finish off the other models I’ve basecoated this way, but I think this might be the style of undercoating I switch to going forward.
Thinking about Fantasy
Earlier in September I played some Famous By Our Swords with the Dastardly Regular Opponent. Having since had more time to think about it (and been playing more Battle Brothers on my Switch), I’ve realised that I’m incredibly excited about playing more of that game. I want to do a little bit of work to it, adding some systems specific to my own setting and confiming some things but the ruleset is agressivley my kind of jam. I’m really excited to get my sister into the game, and then we can return to our Wednesday dice rolling times.
However before that, I’m going to need some more human mercenaries to fight. I could go mad printing more off, but what I decided to do first is getting my collection of North Star Frostgrave figures painted up. Before this however, i would need to rebase them onto 25mm GW style bases (from their original flat style). I have already done this on the metal figures, but plastic glue makes rebasing a pain in the ass. However, fortune smiled on me, as merely triming the bases down meant that the Frostgrave figures would now stand close in height to the GW style figures I also have. Now I just have to paint them.
I also started continuing on my painting of the Dogs of War models I printed AGES ago (back on the Mars Pro). However, after starting to paint them (and getting quite far), I suddenly spotted a whole bunch of printing errors on them. For this reason, and after looking in more detail at the faults, I decided to bin them and reprint.
However, one of them did manage to pass QC test and so another member of the warband I painted in May. I really like these models – lots of little details that really make them look like Renassiance mercenries, including such simple things as having a rucksack to carry off their gear/loot and spoils (you can tell I’ve been reading a lot of A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry can’t you?). The Bairdiche is also an interesting weapon, something different from the regular Warhammer militias you see a lot of people being inspired by.
Speaking of painting up things I printed ages ago, I also spray painted up the Vae Victis walls I painted in December as a print test for the feasibilty of using the Saturn for terrain printing. Turns out, although these pies are wonderful chunks of resin, a lot of the terrain I’ve wanted to print since are just too large. That said, not getting these things printed is my own fault and so, on a crisp morning before the Dastardly Regular Opponent was due to turn up to play fantasy, I took these outside and hit them with three spray cans at different angles. I still have some work to do on them (such as picking out the wooden doors and MORE GREY DRYBRUSHING) but I think these are going to be some really handy pieces to have in the collection.
Finally, this boy. The Avatar of Khaine from the Daughters of Khaine box I have… is not that great. Perfectly fine for a statue on a big cart, less good for a burning statue stomping towards you fueled by the blood of sacrifice. Needing a break from other stuff, I decided it was time to assemble this and prepare some tweaks to make him a little more “Walking Embodiment Of The God Of Murder”. This was my first attempt, cutting and drilling (turns out 3d printing supports are great and plentiful for pinning). He’s definitely more dynamic, but is dangerously “Come and have a go”. I’m going to tweak it, bringing the sword arm forward, making it into a more challenging pose like he’s calling out a true rival.
Other Things
- I’m having a pretty crap time at the moment with the mental health generally killing off my enthusasim for the hobby (hence why last month is lots of little things rather than getting stuff finished off or setup). I’m trying to manage it at the moment but the onset of winter (including all those dark evenings) might cause some problems. It just sucks!
- This weekend I’m picking up my FDM but more importantly… we’re going to be playing some large scale napoleonics. I’m kind of excited but also kind of terrified.
That’s all for this month – I’ll be posting my plans for the month over on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ChargeBlog. As I’ve always said, the Patreon is a tip jar, letting me help to cover some of the costs associated with the blog and help me get my hands on the 3d printing STLs I use. I want to start providing more stuff for the Patrons (more than just a name at the end of a YouTube video) and the campaign above will end up being something that the patrons see first.
