Old School Gaming is Moving!

Hi folks,

Well. That escalated quickly!

For the past year or so I have had the nagging suspicion that my family was going to grow out of the space that we live in. We live in a townhouse in western Sydney which we have worked on pretty hard, including the building of a new 3 m x 7 m living space and a leafy green rainforest garden. I am a slow decision maker in the family, so when our "dreamhouse" came up for sale about a week ago, it helps that I had been thinking about it for 12 months already. Wifey is far better at snap decisions, so for once our wills aligned perfectly on time. The end result is that we will be selling our little "Lighthouse" and moving into a larger home down the river:

Enough room to swing a cat.

Between then and now, we will be slaving away getting our current home ready for sale. To give you some idea of what I mean by that, I have spent the past two days stripping stickers off the front glass frontage and frosting the glass manually; all of those hobby skills being put to good use!

Before :-(

After :-)

One of the first casualties has been my man-cave. The garage space is in desperate demand as we shift furniture around and get packing. I didn't realise how special that space had become to me until I packed up my lightbox equipment and started emptying out the table draws (soooo many cool resin bases and long lost decals!). Transporting all of my miniatures and half-finished projects is going to be hell, but I'm sure I will figure it out.

All of my current projects are on hold until I can set up a space at the new house; we have already planned a dedicated gaming room and storage space. That means that for the second year in a row I will be unable to reach my Squaduary goals. I am planning on doing a few posts as I set myself up again, which will probably include me building another light box. The blog will be a little quiet in terms of other hobby posts though. I'll try and catch up with you all on your own blogs and live a little vicariously for a while!

Wish me luck!

Marc

Doggo is going to get a proper backyard!

Squaduary: Construction Progress Part 2

Hi folks,

February is rolling on and I am still falling behind in my Squaduary pledge. I'm no too worried though, I always knew that the construction of these guys was going to take the lion's share of the time. I have managed to completely assemble two new Centurions and drill all of the barrels. With a hurricane bolter and assault cannon each, that equals 12 barrels per new Centurion. I have never been great at drilling barrels out, but after the first 24 I was getting pretty good. I still managed to stuff up quite a few of them, but I still figure that a crooked hole is better than none at all. Let's just say my painting may be above tabletop level, but my drilling isn't :-)

Sooo many barrels...

Not too bad. Still needs improvement though.

I have decided to mix and match the rest of the arms, which can be a problem with this kit if you don't keep all of the bits together. Poseability is a real issue with this kit and I am trying my best to make each Centurion look like an individual. The first new Centurion also has a Primaris head for good luck.

I like the way the second guy looks for some reason. I'm looking forward to painting his ugly mug.

It takes me about 1 hour to build the arms for each Centurion, with one pair to go. That means I should be free to start painting them on the weekend. That gives me about two weeks to paint them, so I am going to have to find some extra time. The new doggo may have to miss out on a few walks*.

See you across the table,

Marc

*[sigh] Yeah, OK. Let's go for a walk.

Squaduary: Construction Progress

Hi folks,

One week in and I don't have too much to show for it yet. Centurions are a beautiful kit to work on but contain a lot of parts that only fit one way. This is problematic when you are converting them, so I am doing a lot of ugly ground work before the final build. So far I have the bodies of two extra models completed. I am confident that I can get the last one done tomorrow but the shield arm and other weapon will be a weekend job. As my week 1 and week 2 jobs are starting to overlap, I will need to try and get the base colours in as well, hopefully by Sunday night.

That's quite a bit of flash for one (1/2?) model!

The three new Centurions will have the shield and heavy bolter combo on one arm, and an assault cannon on the other, for 13 barrels of fun. Again, these guys are never going to be used for anything remotely competitive, so the rule of cool reigns supreme.

I will need to find a third head somewhere in my bits box, as I don't want to have doubles of any bare head and I don't want to have a helmet unless it is plumed. If I dig around hard enough I should be able to find a left over bare Primaris Captain head...

See you across the table,

Marc

P.S. I am totally jealous of all you guys that have finished a squad already. My work has me flat out, like a lizard drinking.

Iron Snakes: Chapter Master Seydon Progress

Hi folks,

Work has started again and it is biting hard at the moment. Hobby time has been hard to grasp, but I did manage to work on a few components on Seydon. The armour is still looking a bit patchy, so I will probably do another coat of Leadbelchers on some parts.

I have avoided using red on my Iron Snakes, apart from the wax on purity seals, primarily to differentiate them from the Minotaurs Chapter. You can't avoid it in the description of the Irno Snakes though, so I have changed my mind and worked it into the shoulder pads. I have painted it dark enough, I think, for it not to be distracting. After getting the nod from the wifey, I spent and hour adding an extra touch of red to each of my Iron Snakes figures. I'll post some family pics of them when Seydon is finished.

I had a hard time picking a colour for the cloak, again because I didn't want it to be red, even though that was the obvious choice. I settled for a 1:1 mix between Lothern Blue and Kabalite Green on the inside and grey on the outside. I played around with the idea of adding a snake symbol to the back of the robes but I think it would be too distracting, as it repeats the shoulder pad.

So, a bit of work left to do, not least the weapons. My projects are starting to overlap now, due to overall busyness, so it would be great to get this guy finished before I go back to work on Monday.

See you across the table,

Marc

Squaduary: Planning & Buying

Hi folks,

Last year my Squaduary run was profoundly interrupted by real life, so I didn't get my Iron Snakes Centurions finished. To make up for the head-start, I have purchased another box of Centurions, to pad out the squad a bit with grunts (no offense...). In case you haven't seen them, here are the Centurions I put together last year. I have modified them a bit to fix some issues that kept bugging me, giving Kryto his own plasma cannon (instead of a sword) and the Sergeant a different heat sink on his base. I will be drilling the barrels when all 6 models are constructed.

Kryto of Squad Aegis.

Squad Sergeant with portable heat sink.

Squad Standard Bearer. I'll be painting the standard separately and attaching later.

The plan is to construct the other three Centurions over the weekend and hopefully get the spray undercoat done. The sooner I get the free-hand Iron Snakes symbol on the shoulder pads done, the more confident I will feel at being able to finish these guys. Wish me luck ;-)

See you across the table,

Marc