Otty Shed 2.0 Wins Tiger Shed of the Year 2026

Afternoon #Warhammer Community and I can't quite believe it but Otty Shed 2.0 has won Tiger Shed of the Year 2026! 🥳 The annual event organised by Andrew Wilcox at Readers' Sheds celebrated its 20th anniversary and Otty's hobby shed managed to take home the overall prize! To do so meant we had to win the Pub/Entertainment category through public vote. So we are incredibly grateful to all those who voted in the run up to the grand final.

Rich, Phil, Me, Otty and Ben

Once the category winners were known the judging panel from Tiger Sheds looked at each to decide on an overall winner and it was Otty's hobby shed. They particularly liked the build photos and how the shed had a 'community' spirit that was built on friendship.

Otty and Andrew from Readers' Sheds

I remember seeing the Shed of the Year 2025 competition and thinking Otty's shed needed to be in it in 2026. I was waiting there for 2026 entries and so excited to nominate it. It felt weird though, it's not my shed, but I was reminded that most things require a nomination to compete anyway. It's actually normal to have someone see the value in something and say that it is worthy of praise!

The prize included beer from Horsforth Brewery, Leeds

I always thought the category was a tough one with pub and home cinema sheds becoming massively popular. But knowing the rule that if you don't win you can keep entering every year I imagined continuously applying year on year to keep the shed awareness going. It was only when it was nominated as a category finalist that I thought there may be a chance.

And also fence and shed stain from Protek [my weapon of choice 😉]

But, everyone else saw the value in it that we do, and we're so grateful, Thanks Andrew, Tiger Sheds, Horsforth Brewery, Protek and any other sponsors.

11th Anniversary of the birth of the Man Cave

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've had my man cave for 11 years now, it was originally installed on 27th July 2015. 

I had hoped to have repainted it this year, it's been 6 years since it's last coat of Protek Cornish Cream -  Royal Exterior Paint. It is just about to start showing its age with expansion/contraction of a natural wood building, where moisture is being absorbed and evaporated eventually the paint is going to crack in places and wood sap leak through. But otherwise it's an amazing product because it is water repellent, while still being breathable. And that's repellent, not 'waterproof' - the water just beads of it. At £80 for a 5 litre tin it is not cheap [I think it was about £56 when I bought it last time] but that will work out at £16 per year [£1.33 a month] for protection on a 5 year cycle.

Anyway, I have a new tin. I've got a new sander to prepare the shed beforehand and a weeks holiday to do it in. Hopefully the next heatwave won't coincide with that window of opportunity. And I can get two or three coats of paint on it for another 5 year's of protection. Bearing in mind Solid Sheds estimate a 15 year lifespan I need to do everything I can to try and extend this. I've obviously done upgrades:

• Magnetic fly screen
• Insulated floor and carpet [which has definitely made a difference] 
• Anti-mould paint
• Cromapol [resign/fibreglass] roof paint
• Door lock

But I just want it to have a much fuller life, maybe a tidy up would help... Anyway, I'll have some painting updates in a few weeks or so. But for now - happy birthday 40kaddict towers.

Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt7. Shading and Gamboge

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the Cerastus Knights. And onto some colour. First up the Gamboge art acrylic. This is stippled directly over the sponged Vermillion [sic]. The two shoulder pads are freshly applied, or have had two coats, which is why they're a bit brighter. But you can see how it darkens down a bit. These were panels that I was certain would need yellow...

Here you can see the shoulder pad is much darker, which is either just the first coat or how much it changes as it dries!

All of the amour has had a shade wash which was quite a few nights of work really. It was a hard slog and should not be overlooked for the impact it has on the model, and yet it is easy to overlook because it's not quite as impactful as adding the brighter colours. I also drybrush some more Warplock Bronze in places to tone down the gold. The top of the hip and thigh in particular. 

I'm much happier about this now, and the gold being less dominant. I also highlighted some areas with Runelord Brass, both drybrush and sponging. It's definitely created a more ancient and aged patina across the bronze. You can also see I picked out some silver areas too on the pistons.

It could probably do with a bit more differentiation in all the metallics to help define areas but I can add more shading in places and we will have the Blessed Verdigris 🗽which will change things immensely. I'm also going to pick out some of the pipework too so it won't be wholly bronze.

As I write this, further down the line than the pictures I know I debated this scheme constantly. Something about it wasn't right, but I was judging it on elements I hadn't even painted yet. The toes and left knee-pad were going to be yellow and the left half of the carapace. This meant the yellow right shin should have been red. 

The cruel irony being that as I look at the pictures now I see that I could have got away with this pattern, if I had have accepted the red toes, knee pad and carapace. Maybe it's something to bank for further down the line? But I had also thought to have the chain fist yellow/black on this [its right] side and black on the inside. I'd already decided to split the right shin, half black on the inner and this would be reflected in the chain fist blade with the red cowl on the heavy bolters.

But I absolutely couldn't get away from the idea that I had chosen to halve the whole scheme - split down the middle. So all of these yellow elements on the right hand side seemed contrary to this idea. But were sentimental hangovers from the original idea of how I was going to paint this.

Ultimately, I did some quick and dirty diagrams on post-it notes of  what both Cerastus schemes should be. Finally a plan to follow. But as happy as this made me - with something to work toward it had two downsides...

Number one, some of these panels had to be changed back to red. And number two, I won't get to realise the original vision I had for these knights. Now that's not the end of the world. Because throughout that vision didn't sit right with me. Certainly with something like a knight, where it's heraldry speaks volumes about it's history and how it fits into the rest of the force. There's a huge commitment as it represents so much. But ultimately, maybe these aren't 'decisions' in the normal sense. The Knight is communicating how it wants to be decorated. It's personality is manifesting itself just as its machine spirit might communicate...

But there are still a couple of knights missing from my pantheon. I don't have any Dominus or Destriers, so there could be scope to try to recapture this. Although I'd always imagined the Dominus was going to have a full chevron carapace - the entire top being yellow/black stripes.

Cerastus Knight Twins in Manufactorum
Parts: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Hobby Record 23/07/26

Afternoon #Warhammer Community this is a bit of an odd one because it's not a battle report, not even a battle record - it's a 'hobby record'. What's a hobby record? I hear you ask... well it;s the best description I could come up with for what happened on this Thursday at the 'Shed of the Year 2026'.

Except, technically on this day we were not, as we'd not received the prize. This was us prepping the shed for Andrew and the photographer from Tiger Sheds.

We decided to display Helm's Deep with as many of Otty's figures as possible. From his favourite riders' of Rohan.

To the massed ranks of Isengard!

With the attack beginning on the Deeping Wall.

There were a bunch of other 'evil' factions thrown in. 

Including wildmen, and some of Otty's recently converted Moria Goblins.

We had Theoden riding out.

We could have fit more on but this was still quite the endeavour.

Otty was actually taken aback by how much he'd painted and seeing it all displayed like this.

But the display shelves were still filled with miniatures.

It was only a few that had been completely emptied.

And we filled those with various bit of terrain for the pictures.

But it wasn;t just for the pics. We have plans of doing some of the narrative missions using Helm's Deep.

Inevitably blowing up the wall.

And the further missions after that.

On the other end of the board we set up Bolt Action.

With the Battle of Foy.

I casually mentioned putting the church on the nearside and Ben said 'well you could, but it wasn't on that side in real life'!

There was me thinking they were just putting terrain on a board, not properly representing the actual battlefield.

Once again getting carried away with the artillery bombardment.

I'm not sure if tilt-shift makes any sense on things that are already miniatures.

I'll keep saying it, it always looks so cinematic!

Oh, and Ben has got some new Star Wars Legion terrain, with that tower being utterly ludicrous as it's out of range of probably every weapon from the top.

All ready for the prize giving ceremony.