Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Introduction I finally got the time I needed to set up and play my first game of the year.  As I'd been working on them for what seemed like forever I took the recently finished Victrix late-Romans and Germanics to the field.  I didn't have a rules set in mind when I started this collection, but I decided to use Warlords of Erehwon as I'm familiar with it. Set up I played the basic Upon the Field of Battle scenario from the WoE rulebook.  Each side was around 450 points.  I based the forces on the WoE Roman and Barbarian lists available from Rick Priestley's website  and took guidance from the Warhammer Ancient Battles Fall of the West supplement to give a flavour of this later period.  I calculated the points using the Points Values file also from the site.  The force lists are  here .  I used my usual trick to help randomise the game by numbering each unit and each order dice.  I use this to randomly deploy the units, as an ...

We’re a third of the way through 2024 and it’s time to see where I am. The original plan is here .  This is the Ovelist showing progress or not as the case may be on each project, indicated by the size of the ticks (ooh err missus)! Imperial Romans, 1st Century. A.D.  This was the only new project on the list and I hadn't set any specific objectives.  I did a test paint on a couple of figures and have been prepping some of the Ancient German warriors during April.  This will be one of my main projects for the rest of 2024 and probably into 2025.  Late-Romans.  Since I started this mid-way though 2023 it's been my main focus. I set a few specific tasks: Complete late-Roman spearmen - Completed 13 late-Roman infantry with another 2 in progress.  I've also completed  another 2 Gothic/Germanic warriors.  Complete Armoured/Command figures (18 to do) - C ompleted the 12 command figures and started on the 6 armoured warriors. Add more missile t...

I've had more time for hobbying this month.  I finished off quite a lot and also spent a great day at Salute.  Salute used to be a shopping trip for me but since writing the blog it's become more of a social event which has been really rewarding.  This year I got to speak with a few more people that I correspond with online and we had the regular bloggers meet up.  Thanks to Ray from onelover-ray.blogspot.com for the photo. Completed I've been whittling away at the Victrix Unarmoured Late-Romans set since last August and I finally got round to completing all the figures this month. First up were the 12 spear/sword/dart armed Romans.  These had been painted a while back but I’d been procrastinating about shields.  At the end of March I got my finger out and ordered all the Little Big Man shield transfers from Victrix and I’ve been adding those.  The oval shield transfers are a bit fiddly to place correctly but a bit of paint has sorted the ones th...

I’ve got out of the habit of posting completed work this year, so what better way to get back to it than with some B&B figures from Oathsworn Miniatures.  I started collecting these wonderful miniatures back in 2016 when I met Jo and Michael at Salute, but these are the first I’ve painted since 2019.   I picked this quartet up at Salute last year and I just managed to finish them before their first birthdays!  If I’ve not started a miniature within 12/18 months I tend to question why I bought it and it’s then likely to be moved on.  This helps me to keep a perspective and keep the backlog manageable.  Not so with Oathsworn they’d never be moved on.  First up is this lovely Fox Mage.  I have quite a few of the foxes.  The Red Fox is my favourite native mammal so it’s natural I’d collect a few of them. Next in order of size we have the Black Rat Pi-rat.  This is the first rat in the collection.  I really like this mini he’s so full of...

It's been very busy this month in the real world and I was also away for the last week of March.  This meant that I only managed to get a few decent length hobbying sessions in with the majority of my hobbying done in odd minutes here and there.   This is the only blog post I've managed this month as I've still not had time to take some decent pictures of the figures that I completed last month.  I'm hoping work will calm down in April and with the increased daylight I'm aiming to catch up, get some stuff finished and post more frequenly. Completed The only figures I completed were six Victrix Viking figures from the command sprue.  The sprue contained two Beserkers and as this month's entry for The Plastic Crack Podcast Online Painting Challenge (OPC) was to complete a champion this pair of bruisers fitted the bill.  Taking part in the OPC is working for me as it has helped me to focus. In progress Just before I went away I did make some good progress with...

Once again it's been a very busy month.  At one stage in the month I really thought I wasn't getting anything done hobby wise and then looking back as I write this I've not done that badly. Completed I spent the first part of the month prepping for a game that I haven't yet had the chance to play.  This involved: Weathering four Red Army Su-76Ms and two ISU-122/152s.  These are all 1/76th SHQ metal models that I made something like 20 years ago.  The ISUs are hefty pieces which you could brain someone with.  Lovely models.  Working on city terrain.  I made a load more rubble/ruin scatter terrain, which you can see all about  here .  I also added more weathering to the buildings and generally dirtied them up and cut out and painted a load of cobblestone sheets.  28mm Second World War German infantry.  I completed a squad of using a mix of Warlord Games Afrika Korps and German Grenadiers that I got free at Salute 2023.  I kept th...