Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Quite a long update this month so buckle up and stick with it.  I felt that I spent last month going up a blind alley, but now I'm back on track.  I've finished a few things off and had a clear out which you can read about under Ramblings below. Completed I spent the first days of November finishing up the following: Wargames Atlantic First World War Germans.   Great War Miniatures First World War Germans Warlord Games Second World War Winter Germans repurposed as First World War.  You can see more photos and read about my thoughts on the above  here . I then polished off some more Victrix figures: I completed five more of the Dark Age Archers that have been sitting around for awhile.  I made two as generic Dark Age warriors and one as a Gothic archer.  The other two I combined with parts from the late-Roman Archers sprue (see below) to make some staff slingers.  While working on the above I made up the Late Roman Archers and Slingers sp...

I spent much of my hobby time in October and early November working on three batches of 28mm Germans for The First World War/A War Transformed.  This was six each of Great War Miniatures metals, Wargames Atlantic plastics and modified Second World War Warlord Games plastics.  I worked on them simultaneously which proved to be an interesting comparison exercise. First up are the Wargames Atlantic (WA) plastics.  I'd made 18 of these a couple of years ago and bought another frame to pimp up for A War Transformed.  However, after being less than impressed with the rules I decided to build them as straight First World War.  I compared each against the existing figures I'd made and then fiddled about with the arms and heads to make each one different.   In the main they go together well.  However, as with all plastics some arms don't really work with some bodies and there's no instructions or suggestions.  The MG08/15 arms are truly awful and I co...

September has been busy all round including hobby wise.  I'm very pleased with what I've done and enthused with my ongoing projects.   Completed The end of the month saw the release of  A War Transformed, the Osprey rules for a "folk horror" First World War game.  I liked the look of this since it's announcement and it's encouraged me to revisit the Germans that I'd built in 2021 ( here  and  here ) and make some improvements which you can see here . I finally finished off the 15mm Landsknecht pikemen and halberdiers.  Lovely little fellas full of character there's lots more pics here . I completed two batches of Victrix Unarmoured Romans.  I enjoyed doing the first batch so much that I'd started on the second batch as the last coat of varnish was drying on the first.  More pics of them here and here .  To make the 6mm Seven Years War game that I played look a bit more interesting I knocked out some quick roads.  Details a...

Since it was first announced I've been very excited about A War Transformed (AWT), the Osprey rules for an alternative/magical First World War game.  I've always liked the idea of alternative games based on real history.   I've had Secrets of the Third Reich (SotR) and AE:WW2 since they were released and although liking parts of these rules (especially AE:WW2 Occult Expansion), I've only played AE and that for a conventional WW2 game.  I didn’t like either figure ranges too much apart from the odd great sculpt, and AE has long since disappeared.  Konflikt '47 did little to inspire me (the cost and being far too "super soldiery" for my liking) and I've been on the look out for a good "weird" war game for a long time.   From what I've seen so far AWT seems much more up my street.  I had started working on a WW2 game set in Belarus and the Ukraine which would contain a big dose of folk magic.  It'll be interesting to see what's in AW...

August has been a good hobby month.  After my return from holiday  last month  and finally grasping the nettle that was the 15mm Landsknechts I've made some steady progress.  Completed I've completed the six Victrix warriors from the Dark Age Archers and Slingers set that I'd started at the end of July.  I really enjoyed working on these, I can't praise Victrix figures enough.  You can see more of them here . 15mm Grumpy's Landsknecht officers.  These were lovely little characterful chaps.  I painted these while doing the first batch of pikemen/halberdiers, but as they are based individually I could finish them off. 28mm Wargames Atlantic Second World War German Sentries.  I knocked out a couple of sprues of these.  There's more pics and my thoughts on the kit here .   On the back of reading about the Seven Years War I had a look at my collection, specifically the terrain.  I've never been that happy with the tree sta...