Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

I started in this hobby more than 40 years ago with 1/300th Heroics & Ros and then Skytrex micro armour.  Happy days fielding  historically inaccurate battalions of  King Tigers.  Although in more recent times I've collected a thousand or more Baccus 6mm Seven Years War and 19th Century figures, I've not looked at micro armour since those early days. What's left of the old Skytrex army All of the 20th Century games I play are squad or platoon sized and infantry focused.  Much as I enjoy these, for the last few years I've had an itch to look at doing more armour games and something at a larger scope.  My main constraints have been ones of space (small table size with no dedicated gaming area and ever decreasing storage) and cost.  15mm and 20mm AFVs aren't cheap anymore.  These constraints have led me back to micro armour.   When I first looked at this a couple of years ago I ordered some samples from Heroics & Ros (H&R) and s...

I finally got the time to take a few photos of my Chaos Dwarf Army for Warmaster Revolution that I finished last month.   They're quite a colourful bunch and I'm happy with how they look en masse.  There's about 1000 points worth here, or it was to the previous edition of Warmaster Revolution.  There's recently been a new version which I've yet to really look at, but I hope they haven't fiddled about with the points too much. I now need to study the rules and get on with sorting out a game against the Ogres that I was working on at the same time.

It's been a little while since I finished the last of these so I thought I'd take some shots of the whole flabby ensemble. As with the Chaos Dwarf army there's 1,000 points or so here.  With the Ogres that's not too many figures to paint up so if someone wanted a quickish army to paint up then they'd be a good choice.  I was alternating painting these and the Chaos Dwarfs, but I think I could have got these done quite quickly if I'd have focused on these alone. As I've mentioned in the posts where I completed each unit, these were great fun and really enjoyable to paint, breakages aside of course.   I recently had the misfortune to be on a train when a certain football clubs fans were also travelling and I couldn't help but think of these!

After reading Death Zones by Simon Pasternak I started working on an Ambush Alley scenario set in Belarus during 1943.  It soon became apparent that I needed terrain to better represent the swampy regions of the forests that cover the area. I did some YouTube browsing and saw some impressive builds.  However, I wanted something simple, that I could make from existing material.  Automatically that ruled out using resin to represent water.  As an alternative I did think of using a clear plastic to add some gloss but wasn't that convinced with how it would look.   The solution came when searching through my archived stash and  I found some old gloss Humbrol acrylics.  I bought these in the late 1980s to paint a leather jacket and incredibly they're still viable.  I opened them all up and mixed a gloopy dark green colour in situ on the plastic card I was going to use.  After leaving to dry I was pleased with how glossy it was and how well it...

Well we're already a third of the way through 2023.  Salute has come and gone and it's time for me to assess where I'm at hobby wise against the plan I made at the end of 2022.   New projects Late-Romans/Pre-Arthurian (28mm) - 👎 Abject failure here I'm afraid, I've not touched this at all. Research, research, research Make a start on assembling and painting figures Existing projects Ragnarok (28mm)  Assemble and paint another Norse force using Victrix figures - 👍  I added another 6 figures and I have around the same number to do.  That should give enough variety when creating each force. Collect appropriate character and monster figures - I haven't bought anything else for this. 16th Century Western European Wars (15mm) - 👎  Another failure, I haven't looked at this either. Research, research, research Start painting Grumpy's Miniatures Landsknechts Purchase/make specific terrain Warmaster Revolution (10mm) -  I've completed enough figures for ...

April's been a bit of an odd month hobby wise.  I started off very focused and finished off the last few 10mm Warmaster Revolution units early in the month.  I then lost all motivation for about a week with nothing in my hobby stash interesting me enough to work on.  Reading The Centurions started getting me back on track.  Then after prevaricating until 1030 on the day, I made up my mind and went to Salute 50 and had a cracking time which has filled me with enthusiasm as well as filling my hobby stash. Completed This month all of my figure painting has been finishing off the last elements for my 10mm Warmaster Revolution armies.  I've completed the following:   The Chaos Dwarf General. And then for the Ogre Kingdoms: A unit of 6 Ogre Rhinox Riders.    A slave giant. The Ogre Tyrant to lead my Ogre Kingdoms army. In progress The following are in progress: 1/72nd H-21 and H-34 helicopters for the Algerian War project.  These are Pia...

I finished off the 10mm Warmaster Revolution project by painting the Chaos Dwarf General and Ogre Kingdoms Tyrant.  The Chaos Dwarf General came moulded on quite a nice scenic base, which set the miniature off well.   The figure itself was easy to paint being very simple with not too much on him really. All axe and hat! The Ogre Kingdoms Tyrant is a hulking great brute as would be expected.  Really lovely figure to paint full of detail. The original that MGS Miniatures provided in the order last year had the haft of the axe missing, I suppose it's what they called a failed print.  I contacted MGS and then had to chase them, but they did get round to sending me the replacement so I was able to finish the army.  That's the 10mm Warmaster Revolution project finished for the time being.  I'll do some photos of each army next and post them.