Old Stuff Day 2017

It's old stuff day 2017. A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

Last year I managed to cover all my bases by just pointing you to the previous years Old Stuff Day posts - treasure trove of lost gems. This year I'm going to point you all to my Showcase page. I'm constantly looking through my blog, searching for my To Done pictures I thought it made sense to try and collate them in one spot. Although technically it's new it does link to all my old stuff and once again reminds me I've painted a bucketload of stuff these past 6+ years, something my teen self could never have dreamed of. I'm not sure if I've got everything yet but so far it's pretty comprehensive:

www.40kaddict.uk/p/showcase-2.html

I also wanted to share this battle report from Throne of Skulls last year. Again it's a post I keep referring back to - playing the oh-so competitive nids against four Imperial Knights [with the extra benefits their formation brings] and destroying three out of the four knights was pretty special. The game was in the balance for a number of reasons but it definitely reminds me that you can still pull off a satisfying result against even the worst odds.

Game 2 Imperial Knights.

Lastly, forgive my indulgence but I thought it timely to explain why the Birthday Bash meant so much to me. It's been 4 years since my Dad was taken from is, I still miss him and I see him more in my own face in the mirror as I get older. It's just one of the hose things though.

 

So here are some of the old posts I've stumbled upon or recalled their outright genius from other bloggers since the last Old Stuff Day. I thought you all should be made aware of them and to scurry away and discover these perhaps forgotten gems.

First up are two connected posts regarding pointillism and stippling in your painting, sprocketssmallworld has a link to the massivevoodoo post so they're both here as they're awesome. Stippling is something I've adopted, both for my metallics and some armoured vehicles to approximate texture and therefore hide any poor highlighting thanks to the uneven stippling. Additionally using pointillism - mainly on my stealers and nids has added a next level of detail. It can be fiddly, it feels like a lot of effort to put very little paint on the model but it can just raise the quality far beyond the effort involved, check 'em out.
http://sproketsmallworld.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/spots-before-your-eyes-guide-to.html
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/tutorial-making-skin-with-dot-grain.html

How can you have an Old Stuff Day without referencing Ron From The Warp? The original grand-daddy of hobby blogging, the benchmark by which we all measured ourselves and aspired to be. Think back to when you might have been added to his blog roll, now that felt like an achievement. Ron returned recently with a Space Hulk blog that sadly seems to have disappeared back into the warp but the original blog remains and it's as valid and packed with treasures as it always was. If you're new to hobby blogging and don't know about From The Warp, you're forgiven as soon as you  investigate it's awesomeness, it's a reward more than a penance. However, this post is less entertainment and more a stark reminder as folk are still to this day suffering the effects of frosting and it's 7 years on. Just stop with the Purity Seal, learn from this!
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/varnishing-without-frosting.html

It was Mr Pink who first showed me how it was possible to sculpt sculpt Tyranid terrain pieces. Without his Tyranid Defence Line [even before Fortifications became a unit choice] I'd have not tried my own, which would have not led to my Tyranid Bastion, Capillary Towers/Skyshield Landing pad and my more recent ongoing Void Shield Generator. So I've included the link below in honour of the huge inspiration to my own efforts. Alongside that is a more recent post from last year where Mr Pink painted some Sector Imperialis bases in a style that is just gorgeous. There's a fully fledged tutorial for you to follow
http://www.modernsynthesist.com/2011/04/old-strains-tyranid-barricades.html 
http://www.modernsynthesist.com/2016/11/sector-imperialis-easy-urban-basing.html

Another recent post that snuck into my 'Old Stuff Day' gems is from Ross Graham. It's a cheap DIY dice tray. When we can we like to dice roll in boxes and this seems like a really cool tray. IKEA is a day out for me but I may consider doing something inspired by this, but maybe with bigger sides. Regardless, you can follow the guide or remix it to suit your own needs as I probably will.
http://rossgraham.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/cheap-diy-dice-tray-in-15-steps.html

Birthday Bash 2.0

I'm about to start writing my battle reports for the Birthday Bash but thought I'd just post an interim post event review to tide you over. First up I was given this pretty cool laser etched aluminium paque by one of the attendees. Unfortunately I was too surprised to think straight and ask his name but it's such a cool gift, I really appreciate it and if you follow the blog let me know in the comments so I can thank you by name.

There were 26 entrants in the end coming to Southport from as far afield as Germany, Scotland and Pete and I [on the right in the picture below] all the way from Ormskirk, about 10 minutes away ;) As far as I could tell everything went smoothly, no problems. I think the only mistake was not preparing a Favourite player certificate which again if the winner can let me know I can prepare one and send it on

Michael Corr was overall competition winner in the end with his Deathwatch.

Liam, Otty and Ben also had a great time.

Not least because Liam walked away with Best Painted Army [again!]

And Ben also took the best painted Troop model with his Necron Warrior, something I;ve been insisting is fantastic since the very first time I played [and lost] against them!

My games were also good fun and I'll be sharing reports in due course.

I really hope everyone had a good time, it's our first proper event and I know we need to do better in certain aspects but I think we did alright in the end. Thanks everyone for coming and we'll hopefully be doing it again next year. Anyone wants to leave any feedback feel free so we can make it better next time. Thanks again.

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day

Just a heads up March 2nd is Old Stuff Day A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs and it's still going strong today. To choose one or more of your own blogposts that you're most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you are to share blogposts from other bloggers which you think deserves the same spotlight of attention before they're returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don't forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems. Feel free to use the Old Stuff Day poster by Firstkeeper from DeviantArt.

Birthday Bash 2.0 - Moar updates

A little over a week away until the Birthday Bash you can see I've been a busy boy preparing some objective cards. Here's the front of them with the Birthday Bash artwork. I've sliced and diced like a sushi chef over the last few weeks and got about 36 set done. If I need anymore it'll take but a minute to get them ready printed and cut. Everyone will get a set but should a last minute rush leave us short theres always the slightly clunky table to roll on ;)

And the reverse, with all the missions and 1VP per objective. As you can only score 2 maximum per turn the D3 objectives didn't make sense. That turns things like Supremacy and Ascendancy on their heads, as now that's a considerable task for just one measly, or potentially valuable point! But at least you won't get folk galloping away with the lead without opportunity to make a come back.

Now, when we did the original Birthday Bash [ Game1 Eldar | Game2 Grey Orks | Game3 Riptides ] Liam went home with this fabulous trophy.

PeteB thought this would make a much better prize for the winner [not the Heldrake mind, it's just there for scale]!

And I've also prepared the certificates

 Of course the spirit of the event is less about winning and more about taking part. It's the opportunity to spend time with people who share our interests and remember to have a good time. With over 30 people turning up it's already looking like we'll do it again [in case you couldn't make it]. We'll definitely be having a look at how it can improve hopefully we'll have a clearer plan once we've had the event.

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s], The final push

The final push and I couldn;t not do the company marking in each fin. That's the thing about 'freehand' even when it's not perfect you can still see the effort involved and it makes it al worthwhile.

Each circle was stamped on in black with the end of a plastic pencil tube. I then quartered it, filled it with black and then Bonewhite. Some green highlights outside and in, then Soft Tone shading the bone, final highlight and a Dark Reaper highlight on the black. All a little too much but happy with the results, imperfections and all.

It's almost cartoony, which I really quite like, the company '5' looks a little anaemic in comparisson though.

5s were finished off on pod 2 [the one on the right] and all the damage was applied - sponging Rhinox Hide, Gun Metal and then Strong Tone wash.

Essentially these are complete, just need to varnish and Tamiya Clear and I can do the To Done pics. Really chuffed to have got these completed, I've even put them both in my Birthday Bash list just for giggles.

Dark Angels - Ravenwing Dark Shroud part 2

Havingspotted the gaping holes in the jets I knew I couldn't live with them unless they were filled like the Jetfighter. I got some DAS air drying clay, balled it up, dampened it and plugged each nacelle

I used the cap off a Polycement tube to get the initial concave shape and then the end of a paintbrush , dipped in water to smoothe the interior.

I smoothed the inside out with a plastic plunegr from one of the kids Ibuprofen syringe tubes [whatever is to hand]. The fact is DAS is not an adhesive, like Milliput, but it doesn't need to be. I just needed to plug the hole and hopefully friction will keep it there.

With hindsight I could have used the spare Dark Talon jets inside, or got some Drop Pod Retro Boosters would have looked cool as it would have matched the four on the rear.

I also spent soem time stripping the bikes subsequently when separating one of the Ravenwing banners so I could reposition it standing upright it shot off into the man cave. Hopefully I'll discover it's hiding place at some point.

As you can see the stripping went really well, I was using a 59p Acetone FREE nail polish remover from Home & Bargain. it took just minutes to strip them, so no leaving them to bathe for months like Dettol.

In fact, I even did a video to show how quick and easy it is:

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s], Pod 2 playing catch up

Another quick one, you see, I can paint those holes neatly [or at least neater]. I've pretty, much brought the pod up to the weathering stage now.

Having done all the holes and door edges I also stamped the mumbers on the fins and found a pencil tube to stamp a circle for the company symbol. I've also updated all the markings on the door ready for the final white highlights.

Holes were roughed up, just need two more orange edge highlights, a Soft Tone wash and then all the gun metal bits for scratches.

Progress is swift [unfortunately I appreciate the pics don't really show just how much I've done - caught up in the moment, sorry] with just one more update and then I can get them varnished alongside my completed Genestealer Cult.