House Moves, New Starts, New Cave

Finally, after quite some time, the house move is complete AND the garage has been converted into a room. To be more precise, my room, albeit shared with a tumble dryer and a fridge freezer.

Why is it my room? I have a wonderful other half who has decided that my stuff clutters up the rest of the house, especially taking up the dining table when painting and modelling.

I've only ever been into an Ikea store three times and one of those was in Oman. True.

I do like their stuff and having bought a four compartment Kallax previously, I used their 'design a room' feature to see what I could fit in. Well, that turned out to be a 25-comparrtment Kallax, three different size Billy bookcases and a decent size desk.

It's still a work in progress as I'm only home at weekends but that Kallax will allow me to display stuff that tickles me from 40K through Star Wars and Action Force. 

Best of all, thanks to a UK firm called Funserts, I can add different printed backgrounds to the Kallax. Some are already in there like the space themed one that the Roboskull is sitting in.

Unlike Ron Burgundy, I do not possess many leather-bound books but many, many Annuals. Hence my manly display of Warlord, Victor, 2000AD and Judge Dredd volumes. Better than living in a box in the loft anyway.

Finally, the work desk with different projects on the go. The 40K projects afre a weekday work in progress whilst at home will be catching up on the Airfix plastic soldiers.

 Life is good and, hopefully, all is set for retirement within the next six years or so.

Who'd have thought that I'd be looking forward to the phrase "Go to your room" at my age?

New Grim Dark Arrivals

Arriving fresh from the Kirton Games 3d printing service are a selection of characters and a Rifle squad printed up from the stls I purchased. Now in addition to what is shown here, I've also ordered a couple of the squad options from Redbeard's Forge shop on etsy.

RedbeardsForgeShop - Etsy UK

They purchased the retail stl option and have a fair selection that can be ordered as physical prints. Delivery is potentially slow with an estimated date of 30 Oct - 11 Dec  but for £17 for a squad, I can wait.

It wouldn't be a Victorian Grimdark campaign from Victoria Miniatures without a Captain Caine. New, improved and I've gone for the pith helmet option.

Note that this model and the next two haven't had glue applied yet. The plug and socket system allows some good dry fitting first.

An addition mid-campaign was some not-Sharpe's Rifles. Below we have Lt Sean Blackthorn and, again, I've gone for the headgear version.

At the bottom is a not-Harper with a six barrelled autogun or lasrifle, whichever one prefers.

Bits and bobs for the Rifles squad including Sergeant parts and the vox torso. I think I've ended up with more than I thought I ordered but I'm covered for some breakages.

Time is tight and I'm living in two places again (work and home) so I have no idea when gluing, undercoating and painting will take place but hopefully soon.



 

Col Kilmore

In advance of my first Grimdark print order arriving from Kirton Games, I painted the Adepticon print I ordered along with the physical Tannenburg models.

I've tried Talassar Blue for the trousers and that Mordian/ US Cavalry look.

I also have the stls for the non-Adepticon version but that's a future job.

Trial Bearskin Victorian Guard Squad Progress

Finally, now that I'm back at my weekday work-enforced home from home, I've been able to progress the first of the revamped Victoria Miniatures Victorian/ Tannenburg models from the Kickstarter.

The background is courtesy of my new A3 Jon Hodgson's SciFi Cityscapes book, also from a Kickstarter. 

Fantastic models. I just need to finish off the fine detail on some of the grand facial hair and chinstraps. Looking forward to receiving the stls.

Grimdark Empire - Paint Test

Doh!

My Contrast paints are 170 miles away. Oh the joys of living and working in two separate places.

One shopping trip and five colours later and the bedrock for these Guardsmen is laid out.

Ball Red, Black Templar, Ironjawz Yellow, Admistratum Grey and Guilliman Flesh.

I'll use white for the the webbing and some shade if green for the cuffs. Possibly black. I'm not sure yet. More to follow.
 

Grimdark Empire - Squad Complete

That's the squad glued and complete. Nice, crisp prints and fully modular. No single build like the current GW plastics.

The squad has a full set of options including comms and a variety of special weapons.

What's left over?

A fair few sets of arms and rifles. The plasma, melta and grenade launcher equivalent special weapons. Two standard torsoes as I've used the Sergeant and Vox operatorv torsoes. A swagger cane, various pistols and a power fist arm.

What does this mean going forward? I assume that once the stl files come out, gamers can choose to print individual parts rather than a snap tray. This could mean that printing the snap tray plus two sets of legs will give you twelve models going forward.

Because I used the separate Bearskin heads, I now have spare pith helmet and caps heads along with some bare and the very US military inspired 'Smokey Bear' cap.

Bits for the Bits God. 

 

Grimdark Empire - First Dry Fits

Once I was able to get the pieces off the frame, I was able to do the first dry fits of the models.

Of note, and it is one the points referred to in the Kickstarter, these models have not yet had glue applied. The socket arrangement of the parts allows for dry fitting before applying glue.

One of my favourite parts is the 'power indicating' hand. No pointing, this is full on 'pay attention that way' power of command. Nice for a Sergeant.