Treasures of Otty's Hobby shed

Afternoon just thought I'd share some various pics of new treasures added to the display cabinets in Otty's hobby shed. I'm hoping I haven't shared them before but I'm sure you'll survive seeing them again. First up, Liam has been working on some Marvel Crisis Protocol villains. He and Ben got very excited very quickly about it. I saw the prices and started to think GW figures are a bargain. You may only need half a dozen models for MCP but they're almost the cost of a Combat Patrol. Still, Liam has done a fantastic job, curse him for his proliferation. He loves the chrome paint, which looks awesome.

But struggles to reconcile it alongside his own passion for NMM, which lets face it, is sickeningly good. I wouldn't mind so much but these 11 figures were a week or so's work! He's like a machine, it;s sickening! 😝

Gamora and Ronan, these have my high-contrast, over-saturated hind-brain tingling. Absolutely stunning.

I'm not even sure which ones these are but they are very cool.

And Nebula, who is equally as cool. He also designed, 3d printed and painted a town house for them, which is fantastic. It will all be brilliant to play with when Ben does his half of the armies.

On top of that he's done an entire SAS Rogue Heroes army for a potential WWII game he wants to play. Not sure what rules system but this convoy rocked up a week or so before the super heroes did.

Not sure what scale it is but there are multiple options for weapons on the vehicles.

It'll be a lot of fun to play with these guys. Otty will be taking care of their adversaries.

They tried to get me into it, as expected, but I didn't have the capacity. Then they threw all those Goblin Town Goblins at me instead! Lots to do in my Hobby Season, it's far from derailed but it's running at full steam right now.

Lastly, what's on the Adeptus Titanicus shelf? Oooh, have some Eldar/Aeldari just appeared from the webway?

Otty has been working hard on his 3D printed and 40k proxies. With the 'Warlord' equivalent Phantom Titan centre stage. A couple of Wraith Lords as Reavers and some old skool metal Wraith Guard as Cerastus Knights

More Cerastus proxies and a couple of 3D printed Revenants to be used as Warhounds.

Some great hobby from the guys. Extremely envious but it's a healthy competitive edge where we're each pushing our efforts. We're all creating some wonderful models and it's great to see them all come together in the shed.

#MESBG Middle Earth Goblin Town - Town and Moria terrain

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Middle Earth Goblin Town... err town. Liam had passed on these pieces for my birthday, I think there'd been some collusion with Otty on this. The two big platforms had been glued together but I could see from Garfy's showcase at Tale of Painters, having them separate was more versatile. So I split them, primed them Red Oxide and then then did a bit of black overspray to get some variety/darkness into the finish.

I probably made this ten times more difficult for myself in how I approached this. A heavy drybrush of VGC Leather Brown.

Then Charred Brown on some of the planks for variety.

I added a strong tone wash on this test piece and then Skeleton Bone drybrush for highlights and I could have almost left it here. But obviously I didn't.

With all the pieces shaded I tried adding some mouldy green planks in, which I thought looked cool.

Then the bone drybrush made them much too light. I think I ended up going back in with a Leather Brown drybrush in places to tone it down a bit.

Meanwhile, I sponged/stippled on some black art acrylic on my Moria pillars to add a bit of texture.

I did the same for Balin's sarcophagus, the stonework on the trapdoors and Leather Brown on the spare scribe and weapon piles.

Lots more was done on the other pieces and the last of the Fellowship.

I then went through the interminable process of highlight all the bones and skulls on the platforms. Mot forgetting all those bits attached to the poles. I added various stains on the wood too, but they don't really show up. Then I varnished the whole thing. I've run out of Army painter Anti-Shine [I don't even think they call it that anymore]. I've been using Miniature Paints Matt Varnish with mixed results. It's been more of a satin finish on figures and definitely was more 'glossy' than matt on the wood. On my Goblins it had even started to leave an almost frosty look on the bases in the recesses. This was something that has evolved over time, it was definitely not as bad when I painted it on or the next day or so. Anyway, with these slightly shiny wooden planks I tried fixing it with my big bottle of Winsor & Newton Matt Varnish. I tried it alongside a bottle of Craft Acrylic Matt Varnish. The consistencies were wildly different, with the W&N varnish being thin and transparent, while the craft acrylic was milky coloured and slightly thicker than normal paint. Testing it on the underside they both made the paint very matt, with the Craft Acrylic making the paintwork just a tad lighter looking [as far as I could tell]. So I went with W&N across the whole surface. To be fair these will have models moving over them so additional protection is worth it. Now I just need to get back to a varnish I am confident in and happy with.

That corkboard will make a display board for or Midweek MESBG tournament. So, that's another thing to do alongside the remaining bits of terrain. And another Great Big Wooden 'BIG BUILD' Stamps of Approval.

Battle record - Star Wars Legion Droids Vs Wookies - 22/05/25

Afternoon another game of Star Wars Legion, this time with a special guest joining us. Ben's cousin, game designer Warwick Kinrade [who has his own 14 year old gaming blog]. He's mainly doing historical wargaming - WWII, Napoleonic, Civil War etc. but he was willing to give Star Wars a go. I'm not sure if I can remember what happened [as usual], hence why it's now a 'battle record'. But I can tell you we finished the game in a night!

Father and son come face to mask.

I think Luke could not sway his father to the light side this time round.

Not a battle report - Star Wars Legion Droids Vs Wookies

Afternoon, here we are again with Star Wars Legions. This was a game from a month or so back. It's worth noting that Ben had decided to get a vinyl forest gaming mat to create Endor. This was a controversial decision as Otty is very much against such 'artificial' backgrounds. He's much happier with his own flocked boards, particularly the new ones he'd just completed that were overlooked for this! Much gentle ribbing of this mat followed. For me, I like neoprene mats. I like the sound of dice on them and if it's a cool pattern I'm all for it. This one is OK, but as it's vinyl you can see the reflective sheen, which doesn't help with immersive play. I would recommend it if you're on a budget, but if you can stretch to something more substantial, or build your own then it's worth the effort for a better experience.

Anyway, this game was Droids, with General Grievous.

Including Liam's 3D printed Droid tank.

Versus Wookies, including Yoda, Chewbacca, 

And some Clone Troopers on their BARC Speeder and another unit out of shot on the far right of this view.

As I recall we won the order bidding and managed to get relatively far up the board. Wookies are great climbers, so can ignore climbing checks. Yoda jumped on Chewie's back, which gave us some bonuses and benefits we planned to make use of next turn. However, they also made a prime target and took 4 wounds. Not sure if that's to Yoda or Chewie but those Super Battle Droids and Grievous put the hurt on them. The Fluttercraft had done a great bombing run but had overextended and got wiped out. The second Fluttercraft with the rear gunner did OK, but it was clearly a challenge to get a firing position to use the gun effectively.

Our Clone Troopers on the far left focused on the rolling Droidekas. I knew they'd be nigh impossible to shift off the objective when they stopped and got their shields up. They took one down and wounded the second.

While another squad of Wookies halved the unit of Super Battle Droids facing them in the trees.

Yoda eventually got to General Greivous, for a suitably impressive looking battle with wholly unimpressive results as the Jedi Master was cut down by Grievous - underwhelming.

And that's about all we could fit in in one evening. Once again, entertaining but so slow going. With Yoda gone [maybe Chewie too at this point, I forget] and many order benefits lost with his death the idea of continuing this game next time around was less appealing.

But we persevered and the Wookies got into the Super Battle Droids.

While the BARC Speeder went for Bossk, who'd been a thorn in our sides taking out the second Fluttercraft. It's such and ugly design, but in game it was proving extremely effective.

Three Wookies became the command squad and were out for revenge for the loss of Yoda and Chewie.

They charged down Grievous.

And pulled his arms from his sockets to soothe their loss!

On the right far side a lone Wookie took on a spider droid.

While another squad faced the last of the Super Battle Droids. I have no idea if we won. I think perhaps we did because we prioritised getting on objectives. I'm not sure if we even scored points per round or if it was points at the end of a specific game turn [not that we ever get though many of them]. I think despite our losses we may have swung it our way due to objective control.

But ultimately, it's not about the result. It's two nights of hanging out with these guys and having a laugh!