SHED 2.0 (part 1)

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity ever since the covid lockdown lifted my gaming crew have convened almost exclusively at Otty's in his shed. A veritable treasure trove of his hobby and a welcome escape for the daily trials and tribulations. We've had an absolute blast in his man-cave but he felt we'd out grown it and he wanted an upgrade. The old shed would become his workshop and SHED 2.0 would become our 'Games Workshop' [seriously, what do I get that play on words]. Originally he looked at buying a shed but Otty is proper handy thanks to a previous job of fence and shed building so he's got real 'man skills'. A fair bit of clearance work heralded the beginning of the build, although he'd also downgraded SHED 1.0, removing the apex roof and loft space to provide additional materials to be re-used here.

With the floor beams in place it was time to start on the walls.

I think Otty and Ben had spent significant time building wall sections - prefabricating them ready to put round the outside.

With additional timber for the roof and some bits of insulation which would be added to in due course.

Each new visit would reward us with progress, only made less exciting by the pang of guilt I was getting by not having had chance to contribute to the shed raising.

Lifting these big beams were apparently something of a challenge, I think Otty was supported by his family in helping.

And managed to get all the main beams on. And start building up the apex roofline. I think this was the day we went down to Warhammer World for the MESBG tournament. 

We spent a lot of time discussing what needed to be done and I still hadn't been able to take time off to help out. When the apex is finished it needs boards and the rubber roof cover. But that would need dry weather and this was at the height of our wet summer, as you can see by  all the wet timber.

Well this was a surprise! The next time I visited it was all roofed over. Scott is admiring Otty's handiwork. The weather turned for the better and he got it roofed and rubbered. I still hadn't been able to help so was desperate to get some time in.

With Ben helping lay the flooring down there were OSB boards for the walls, which would have cupboards in front of, and MDF for the walls we will see. Insulation panels were incoming so we could start on the walls internally.

Thankfully I had a couple of weeks holiday booked and going nowhere I was finally able to help out in part 2.

Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt1.

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #BuildingWarhammer.Way back when they were just Forgeworld resin, after I got my Cerastus Lancer, I always hoped there would be a Cerastus Knight with a big gatling weapon, but instead they next brought out the Acheron with a silly flamer weapon that was rubbish. Then, when they did bring out the Castigator that silly flamer weapon became an insanely good weapon and my desire shifted. However, I wasn't in a position to add another Cerastus. But then they made them in plastic and with the Acheron now the lesser of the two options I couldn't decided which to go for, until the plot thickened. A dual box with both the Castigator and Acheron in it for what I would discover was less than 2 Questoris?!

Pre-order day came and I was busy painting my fence panels, so it was late in the evening when I finally checked. Most of the usual 3rd party sellers had already sold their allocation and only The Outpost seemed to be taking orders. So I couldn't resist, but half expected it not to come through - but it bloomin' well did, look at it!

Leg day. When I made my original Lancer, pinning those 'knee' joints really helped in setting my pose. Essentially it made the model behave like a marionette. Thankfully the plastic version has that option, so long as you remove the tabs to create the basic stance. Then when you get the position you want some liquid poly in all the joints will lock it all in place.

Weapons are all built but I'm going to attempt to magnetise them the same as my Lancer. This will allow me to swap out weapons and potentially get some alternatives so I could rune these both as Lancers too...

This is the attachment on the weapon. As you can see it has a 'mushroom' [anyone know the technical term for this] that sits inside the shoulder joint. But, the resin Lancer came with cylinder in the shoulder and a socket in the weapon attachment. So, I cut off the mushroom. 

Of course the shoulder mount is now flat and needs to hold a magnet. I got a pen and cut 4 tubes from it. It needed a bit of sanding on the circumference to reduce the thickness a bit but it would suffice. 

Then each 'plug' had a magnet installed and any gaps were filled with super glue and bicarb of soda. Don't forget to CHECK YOUR POLES!

Then I gouged out the receiving socket from the weapon  and made it suitable to fit the socket mount plug.

Once they were glued together, onto the weapon, it was pretty easy to drill out the hole to receive the magnet CHECK YOUR POLES!

And CHECK YOUR POLES AGAIN! You don't want to mess these up and it's always important to ensure the poles are consistent across all Knights, shoulder mounts and weapon mounts - that way you can swap them out across any chassis.

Both torsos are built and pilots too, although at this stage they're not glued into the torso, so it's easier to paint. 

I mean it's still going to be challenging to paint the pilot as I did glue him into the throne but I still haven't worked out how I'm going to have the hatch openable so this could all be redundant anyway.

You may note I added a gemstone on the top of the shoulder mount. I just felt it was missing a rivet. It might not actually be visible when the shoulder pads are on but I know it needed it.

Waist sections and heads. I really wish I had a couple of the Forgeworld ones but they're OOP, and silly prices on ebay. Taro Modelmaker has the coolest one but I really don't want to spend much more on these.

Oh man, if I could have this pose! There are supposed to be a couple of pistons in the arm pits that might prevent it though.

And now we understand the importance of Venom.  I'd looked at the one I had and was looking for urban rubble resin bases. They ranged from £18 to £35 for the best ones and that just felt like silly money. But I had Venom and base is perfect the perfect size for a Knight base and only £4.99. The only problem being Home Bargains had sold out of them...

But I still went to Southport, months after picking up the first one to check. The 'paint your own' models had all been moved and put on a top shelf. I saw Captain America, Spider-man and others but Venom was not visible. Then, on tip-toes I spotted a bigger box at the back and lo and behold the last Venom was there - winning! So, I am going to build a base, similar to my Reaver Titans for the Acheron. Then I am going to decide if the Castigator would look great on the Venom base or I'd rather build another one from scratch. As great value as the Venom base is I don't want to deface it if I don't need to. That said, I want a walking pose [similar to the Warhounds Liam created for me] and a resin base with one point of attachment will be more stable than one made of foam and tile adhesive. But it will also be heavier so there are risks either way. But progress has slowed after all this building. I'm not sure when I get a Big Build medal for this but when I do I'll know it.

VENOM

A while back I was wandering through Home Bargains and they had these amazing Marvel 'paint your own' resin figurines and I was extremely impressed by the Venom model they had. I realise now I haven't included anything for scale, but I think the base is about 17cm wide and the model perhaps 20cm tall.

Anyway, this was just £4.99 and it even included paints and a brush! 😲 Now my youngest [he's 18 😂] loves Venom and I thought it would be fun to paint it for him. I started with all good intentions, got the primer on and did the base really quick and then couldn't decide on if I was going to paint the black as I would normally do, or try something a little bit more 'comic book'.

That indecision killed my momentum dead, which is a shame. It's been sat on the shelf ever since.

But it deserved to be acknowledged for reasons that will become clear. When I'll finally overcome this creative impasse is anyone's guess...

I know the Season of Blood is over but officially this deserves a Bloody Great Big Bloody BASE Stamp of Bloody Approval