Roundears, roundears everywhere...

..but that can be taken care of.

First blogpost in five months and a day. The intention after my previous post was to increase the number of updates, not take a hiatus for this long a time. Ah well, life happened. And when I say life I really mean school. Thankfully graduation day is coming up, the amount of time spent on schoolwork this semester have been a bit much.

A trip to the games store with a goal to buy one bottle of paint and some sleeves for my High Command cards later netted me some decent reinforcements for my Retribution of Scyrah. Curse that timely restock of Privateer Press miniatures.

Issyria, Sybil of Dawn
Lord Arcanist Ossyan
Houseguard Thane
2 packages of sleeves
and last and perhaps the least... Not the bottle of paint I was planning to buy, but a completely different one.

I guess it's time to pick up the tools of the trade again and put some paint on metal. Hopefully an update sooner rather than later will be posted.

//Nevindar

"Summer" Bo(a)redom 3: The Reckoning - Part 2 - The End

Here we are at last, the epic conclusion to the tale of creation. I do suppose the title should read "Winter" by this point. Sadly we are lacking said winter this year, it being more akin to a damp October outside than a proper, chilly January.

New year, new blogpost.
This one has been long in the making. After I went through that short, one month or so of illness late summer/early autumn last year (feels odd to write last year at this early in 2014), I had scarcely any time to spare for hobby projects. Missing about a month of classes and assignments in several courses, then later having to work at least at double speed when getting better was a lot of effort. Who knew? Well, enough about that and on to the main event of the evening. The grand finale of the ground work: "Summer" Bo(a)redom 3: The Reckoning - Part 2 - The End! (This might be a long one).

Ending a project requires delicate touches in combination with hard work. Handcrafting and long hours are required. Thankfully the photographs will be somewhat better. Better camera and, as one probably can figure out by this picture, NOT me taking said photographs.

Yes, I do kind of look like a Trollkin with a beaver on my head in this picture.

Next up is another shot from above, more or less. The square, the river and bridge and parts of the road and soggy ground.

Here is a close up of the square. All painted up and with a symbol not even moss wants to touch. Is this place really that far gone?

There are plans for this square, but that is for another time.

River goes in....

River comes out. The reeds are brush hairs from cheap brushes used for wall painting (or in this case, cut off to make slightly larger drybrushes). The bridge is an old belt buckle, think I mentioned that in an earlier post.

Detailed picture of the well for the stream going to the swampy bit on the board. Looks muddy enough for me, at least.

Finally, at the swampy bit in question. Watery areas will not come into effect as Shallow Water (Unless it benefits me, of course (note: joke, probably)).

And now, just to give some perspective to the board, some Action Shots*.

Papers, Please

Stuff it Rez, Me and Rahn is chilling over here with some coffee

So, that concludes this "Summer's" work. Hopefully I will be able to finish other projects sooner rather than later (Even though I probably just jinxed that). Spoliling a New Year's resolution here as well: I aim to play more games, and utilise this table!

*Action Shots not of actual Gameplay, only staged for artistic purposes. For now

Interbloggum

Oh, it's that time again. A blogpost. Sadly it's been far too long since the last one, but that bout of vertigo lasted for about a month, not counting "residual bouts". Since then I've mainly tried to catch up on schoolwork, working on improving grades to increase my shot at getting into University... well not a bad reason really. Sadly this has led to a neglected hobby side of my life (That and Saints Row 4, Total War: Rome 2 and several Humble Bundles..). Now, this is not a bad thing, the table will be finished as soon as I am able to. It does somewhat haunt me not to have it complete by now, and I really want to get some playtime on top of it.

So, it wouldn't be a blogpost without some pictures in it, would it? Not having much time for hobby related stuff, all I really got painted was my Hyperion that I've mentioned previously (don't worry, a spoiler picture will be in this blogpost though, might get a more detailed one later if I ever run out of ideas).

Main thing for this one..well, always introduce the main thing in the third "act" right? I found my desk to be in quite a state of disrepair after such inactivity. It had to be upgraded. Dull, I know, but here are some pictures.


This...well.. This is basically just a pile of stuff. I admit that it was my fault it looked like that.

Also, the lighting was horrendous.

Unspecified time spent cleaning later.

So this is actually what my desk looks like?

Since I've done a somewhat proper thing, for once, I bought some decent lamps and proper lightbulbs. Sadly I also put the stuff back.....

My eyes, my beautiful eyes...the light.

If you've come this far, there will be a reward. No, not cookies. No, not money either, sorry. It's just an image of my Hyperion, Mr Sparkle. Close to finished and not photographed properly but... Why not really?

"Hurr, me stop puny bridge, me stomp puny stream"

And now, disregarding Professor Song's advice, I am actually going to give out a spoiler. The Doctor is actually call................. Ehm. A picture of my next project. A smaller table for RPGs, at a start for the end of a planned Iron Kingdoms Role Playing Game campaing. It will also be adaptable for most other systems if needed.

This will also be a semi-recycling project. More of this in a future post or two.

Without further ado, I give you all. The Legend of the Sixth Horse!

Stay tuned (figuratively, since it might take a week or two) for the epic conclusion of:

Summer Bo(a)redom 3: The Reckoning

Summer Bo(a)redom 3: The Reckoning - Part 1

Due to a recent bout of vertigo accompanied by nausea and migraines, this update will be short on text but still include some nice images as an update to where the table's "at". Part 1 will cover the main painting of the board while Part 2 will cover detailing and the final touches.

If you remember the last table update, we stopped when the table was entirely covered in a black basecoat so, on we go.

First we start off with making the board look either like a current-gen FPS (sans the chest high walls for now..) or a WH40k table. Not really what I had in mind so... Bring on some colour.

This one really screams SPACE MARINES, ATTACK

A couple of colours got blocked out and laying the base for the colourscheme, and the greens some highlights.

After a couple of additional layers and a wash or two (depending on what was needed) by a "secret wash", also known as a mix of PVA-glue, water, black acrylic paint and a drop of two of washing-up liquid, the table got brought indoors.

Time to show that the square isn't just a plain greyish blob as it looks like on the above picture, I took a separate one on it alone (after washing and some highlights though).

More details might get added when finalizing the table

Below, the table before water effects and further detailing. The mud, grass and the path is more or less done by this stage, save for some additional details that's needed on the path itself.

Following two images are basically the same from a different angle. Colours are a bit off due to lighting when they were taken, but hopefully the swamp-bit and the stream looks a better. The time it takes for water effects to dry is really lovely.

Next time, a bridge will have been added, some details sorted and water effects hopefully all dried.

And hopefully it won't take seven or so hours to do a blogpost due to vertigo!

And now for something completely different..

..Despite the title of this blogpost I must admit that you, dear reader, suffer no higher than average risk of in this very moment of being slapped with a fish. This blogpost will deal with the beginning of another project, still connected to the terrain side of the hobby. It will be a waystation/repair/construction post for my Protectorate of Menoth army for Warmachine. Not sure if it will ever see tabletime since it will turn out fairly on the large side, but as a custom scenario objective or just to look good are also aspects to take into considerations. Sadly I got working before I decided to take any pictures for a blog, I did start a while back before my first post even got posted. But as they say, there's no time like the present and show people you've started something might even get me to finish it in decent enough time.

Inspiration for a larger house of this kind came from me once obtaining a plastic stand for pliers and with no real space, nor any larger amount of pliers these days I thought..Hey, nifty base for a house. A scavenging hunt around the apartment netted me a wooden board 25x25 cm shaped like a square to act as a base. It might be a bit on the thick side if you look at the images, but there's a reason it will work out in the end, but that'll be in a future post.

I had to cut away part of the rods to make the house fit on the board, approximately 6cm got removed. After that they were stuck together with tape just to see if everything matched up before work continued.

Phone grade picture quality, yum!

 Now, since I forgot to take a great deal of pictures at the beginning of this project...I now present you, a jump in time until one of the walls has been (with the help of cocktail/toothpicks) dryfitted to the building. Ah the versatility of foamboard.

 A birds-eye view of the board at an early stage. Layout of work is drawn and written in Swedish since... I never thought to make this project a blogpost.

Glue gun, you lovely thing. The opposite side of the one we've already covered got sorted, a larger, industrial-sized door got installed and..glue applied. Disregard the dirty dishes in the background, building a house takes precedent over chores!

 Question: What do one use empty plastic salt containers for? Throw them away? NO! Tank for storing Menoth's Fury of course! Minor work has been done to the sides of the building itself, surface roughed up before masking tape and glue got applied to make a surface better suited for wood paneling (more on this in a future post!).

More groundwork complete (hehe funny since...no not even a funny pun). Blisterfoam and cardboard as the base for the platform for the tank. The cobbles on the ground are double sided adhesive foam I..appropriated.

I did say I lacked quite a bit when it came to taking photographs, did I not? Well here's a jump for you all. Detailing for the sides of the house. A door and a window! The window is the result of a saw-skill assignment for when I studied to become a silversmith once (school didn't take but it gave me some nifty stuff and skills). The glass for the window is made up of regular blister plastic. Door is McDonald's coffee stirrers mounted on a cardboard backing and with a cardboard frame. Obviously all cups of coffee comes with 30 coffee stirrers.

Will most probably get time to paint Ruins of Eversael, my Retribution of Scyrah gameboard this weekend, so.. Stay tuned.

Summer Bo(a)redom 2: The Inconclusive Sequel - Director's Cut

So, this post is more or less just to flesh out the previous one, and give a new ending to it keeping with the movie-theme. Having a "Director's Cut" is basically my way of cheating the self imposed 3 post limit on the gaming board and the last post left a lot to be shown. 

 First up is a picture I posted on a forum as a teaser. It is just showing off some detailing on the board, the bridge across the stream and the start of the pathway/road.

And yes, that IS a broken belt-buckle that forms the bridge.

Following will be two images of the textured board, quite similar from different angles. The area in the upper left quadrant where the green foam is showing through is recieving a marshy look and the chaulky white look upon the sand is a layer of sealant* to keep the sand on the board.

*sealant is just a glorified way of saying PVA glue and water...

On to the next. A covering layer of black basecoat has been applied. Watered down paint to increase flow requiring more than one layer, but it is an even coat now, ready to recieve paint in the near future.

The square has had some detailing done to it as well. Some cobbles has started to sink into the ground and the wild will slowly, ever so slowly, reclaim civilisation.

Stay tuned, tickets for the Exhilarating Conclusion will go on sale in the near future!

Summer Bo(a)redom 2: The Inconclusive Sequel

Hi and welcome to another installment of the blog. Wait, what is that you say? A blogpost this soon after the other one? Well every hit summer blockbuster needs a sequel, and as the second installment of a trilogy, it will be interesting but inconclusive. Given recent success of concepts including weather anomalies, sharks and plain old Bad Lizard versus Giant robot-movies I am sad to say that this blog will not be like that. Robots will probably be included at some point in the future.

Some work has been made on the table by this point, stick with me and read on!

The topography of the table is starting to take shape. The stream is there and... Just disregard the mess in the upper right corner, that will be sorted later.

Also included in this photo is a sneak peek of my Battle Mages.

 After the table got painted with thinned down layers of PVA glue to sort the surface of the foam, it was time for some wall filler to sort the gradient on the sloping parts. It's the really lightweight kind, thankfully. I don't want to end up with a table weighing the equivalent of a small car.

A second layer of filler was laid down after this photo was taken to make the gradient better.

So, the filler had to dry, and what was a man to do with the boredom that instigated? Well, I did mention a square, did I not? Well, let's bring out some tools, foamboard and... hours to spare.

Symbol laid down using a stencil, cobblestones laid down using custom tool and.... Hours of work

Alot more flagstones completed and.. Placings for eventual statues laid down

And here we go. Flagstones for this part completed. 3 kinds... Sure was fun.

 So, filler is all dry and nice, time to get back to work on the board and not just parts of it. The square was glued down prior to the photo got taken. I decided to cover most of the board with fine grit sand to give it some tooth when painting. Just need get to it and finish covering the board.

Note: There will be more work done to the square as well. No filler work yet and it needs more cobblestones.

TO
BE
CONTINUED