Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

As I was working on the 10mm Ogre Ironguts I was also painting up six Victrix figures to use as Norse warriors for my Ragnarok project.   The majority of the parts came from the Victrix Dark Age Archers set, but I added in some spares from a Viking sprue to make the spearman and axeman.  I did some cutting and replacing of hands to make these work and that's one of the great advantages of plastic figures. I also used a head from a Viking sprue and another one from a Viking Command sprue for two of the figures.  When I assembled these I very methodically took notes of what parts I used for each figure.  The aim is to stick this all on a spreadsheet and it'll help organise me as I build more.  I don't mind if you call me OCD.  The Victrix sets give such a fantastic number of parts that they're very good value.  The quality of course is second to none. A few of them can also do double duty as Germanics for the Late-Roman project that I'll be st...

My first completed unit for 2023 is a regiment of Ogre Ironguts for my 10mm Warmaster Revolution Ogre Kingdoms army.  These chubby brutes were the first 10mm 3D printed figures that I bought.  The sculpts are by Teremki Studios and I bought them from MGS Miniatures .  I was so pleased with them I promptly ordered two full armies - these and a Chaos Dwarf one.   I'd learnt a lot when doing the Ogre Bull regiments so managed to turn the Ironguts around much more quickly and less painfully.  As with all the Ogres, they'd been printed three to a base, but this time I clipped them into singles BEFORE painting them which helped save a lot of swearing and grief!    The printed bases are too thin for handling during gaming so I stick them on Warbases 2mm 20x40mm MDF bases anyway.   I added a layer of Milliput to build up the levels, then a layer of Vallejo texture, paint with Dulux emulsion that I had made to match Citadel Dheneb Stone, added s...

It's been a productive week hobby wise with a positive start to the year.  I'm keeping to the plan ! I assembled, based and blocked in the main colours for six 28mm Norse warriors for my Ragnarok project.  A few of them can also do double duty as Germanics for the Late-Roman project that I'm just starting on.  The majority of the parts came from the Victrix Dark Age Archers set, but I added in some spares from a Viking sprue and did some cutting and replacing of hands to make some bondi with hand weapons rather than all bowmen.  Norse warriors in progress I prepared and started painting a regiment of 10mm Ogre Ironguts for my Ogre Kingdoms Warmaster Revolution army.  Now I've got the method down it didn't take long to chip and cut each one off their group 3D printed base and mount on individual temporary bases for painting.  They're so close together on the printed bases that it's very tricky to get a brush between the figures without splodging paint on th...

Happy New Year to everyone.  It really seems only 5 minutes ago that we were starting 2022.  Where did 2023 go?   As is my wont for hobby purposes I shall be splitting the year into three sections of four months with Salute at the end of April being the first key milestone to work towards.  I'm starting the year with the largest amount of plastic/resin/metal that I can remember.  I started 2022 with only 24 20mm figures to paint.  I'm starting 2023 with 321 unpainted figures in 10, 15 and 28mm scales.  New projects I'm starting the year with a brand new project.  You can read about it here Late-Romans/Pre-Arthurian (28mm) Research, research, research Make a start on assembling and painting figures Existing projects Ragnarok (28mm) - this is a project I started a couple of years ago but I’ve become very enthused by it again Assemble and paint another Norse force using Victrix figures Collect appropriate character and monster figures 16th Centu...

As I've hinted at in a few recent weekly updates, I've been gearing up for a brand new project.  I've delved through my books,  scoured the Internet and made some  purchases.  As we end the year it's time to reveal that the new project is Late Romans from the mid 4th Century to the early 5th Century.   Now this isn't a new interest, I have been looking at this since the 90's.  As is the norm for me something else always came along.  There was a hint in a post earlier in the year as my interest was rekindled, then a trio of things aligned to give me the push.  The first was the release of the superb Victrix and to a lesser extent Wargames Atlantic plastic figures.  The second was finding the Pendragon series of novels by James Wilde at the library.  The third was a 20% off sale at Victrix. The core of the forces bought and ready to start I'd often thought about an Arthurian collection, (with Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles...

And that's the end of 2022.  Was it a good year?  I found it hard going in many, many ways.  Thank goodness I had my family and the hobby to fall back on during the difficult times.  Here's how I did against the plan I published at the beginning of September. Existing projects Anglo-Sikh Wars Complete movement trays and add flags for each unit -  Completed.  👍👍  All the movement trays are painted and textured and all the infantry standard bearers are now fully employed with a flag to wave.  I suppose I should have done the cavalry guidons but I couldn't find any info so I put that off.   16th Century Western European Wars (15mm) -  No progress.  👎 Make scenery to go with English church model Purchase/make specific terrain Look at buying more figures to extend the collection back to the 1540s and also for the Irish Wars - I didn't buy the figures to do this but in buying the Grumpy's Landsknechts I have now got more flex...

Not too much hobby activity this week, family, food and films have all been on the agenda.   I've started working on some figures for the new Ragnarok force I'm building.  The basis of these are from the Victrix Dark Age Archers set but I've got spares from the Viking set to use as well. Incoming! Santa left a couple of nice books in my Christmas stocking. This will be the last post of 2022.  The round up of the last part of 2022 post is up on the blog and news of a new project and my 2023 plans will follow in the next couple of days.   Thanks to all the people who've viewed the blog and those who left comments.  I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and all the very best for 2023. Dr B