Posted on by maenoferren22 · 1 Comment

Something from the Annals of Time

The other night my son suddenly decided he wanted to play Mordheim of all things. He had been watching some YouTube content and suddenly realised that with a couple of models purchased then he would have a couple of gangs (big thanks to Joe who donated a huge pile of stuff for him). Anyway because it is GW official miniatures then the two models cost £28.00. But give him his due he went on a mission to find the cheapest possible. So a parcel from Troll Trader should be arriving soon.

Anyway I promised him a game this weekend, so I needed to find my gangs I printed and painted.

So having had a bit of a sort out from various places then I needed to shove it somewhere… Bet you can’t guess where the gangs were…I’ll give you a clue it’s under the red thing on the right. So braving a psychotic cockerel (it’s that time of year) I eventually unearthed the box. I did have a moment of panic as initially I couldn’t see them anywhere.

However they were under a layer of foam.

So we can have a couple of options… Dwarves versus Vampires … These were in this box.

The vampire on the right is in his more human form and his bat version.

We could also go Vampire v Vampire…got a whole host of ghouls and skeletons…

And somewhere I have a Sisters of Sigmar force as well as some Witch hunters. So we can easily have a go this weekend.

He is making up Skaven and Chaos, so it’s going to get a bit deadly.

I haven’t really done much recently, I got my guns and crews based for the Italian Wars and because I need my head examining I order the new Florentine Militia, not a huge force but enough to mean a whole lot extra painting.

I haven’t done much in way of the oil pastel art, but this was the last piece I did…

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 5 Comments

Big Guns, Little Guns and Lots of Guns.

Well I eventually got my finger out and glued the guns and crews to their bases.

The Venetian ambassador decides to have a closer look at the Florentine Artillery. Perhaps foolishly considering I just watched a similar thing on Shogun.

I will get these sprayed tomorrow and get them started with.

I got a bit more done on the Militia the other day.

A few bits and pieces to do and then the bases.

Tuesday was a crap day, we lost our old girl Skylar. Sadly she broke her thigh and at fourteen there wasn’t really much the vet could do. As you can imagine we are all gutted.

Here is Skylar in the foreground a couple of months ago.

The vet took a nose and paw prints and she was with some of us eating chicken and cheese when she went for her last sleep.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 2 Comments

Risk Taking

When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?

Well I am getting to the age where I no longer bounce like I used to but as I often joke “I sometimes wonder how I am still alive!”

As a younger individual I did many daft things that could have finished me off.

But I suppose one of the biggest ‘risks’ was to move from Northumberland to the Shetland Islands. My wife and I and our 16 week old made the change. I started work on 17th April 2006. Basically 20 years ago.

Was it easy, no, did I struggle, yes. I moved from a school of 40 odd staff to me and a part time admin. From a class of 34 to a whole school of 12.

I basically lost my family and friends, my hobbies -reenactment and my social life again based around the reenactment world. The other huge miss was my in work support network.  That was a massive hit, I remember one day having a bit of a wobble and saying I wanted to go home.  Our house hadn’t sold yet, so my wife said we could easily return, by home I meant my old school.

So to answer the question…when was the last time I took a risk, April 17th 2006. I suppose that was the biggest risk we ever took. We made a vow that day that no matter what was thrown at us we would remain.

Was it hard? Yes! Was it worth it? Again Yes! Did we make the right choice in staying here? Most definitely.

This is the view from my front gate…

There are other benefits to being at 60 degrees North.
Posted on by maenoferren22 · 3 Comments

Big Thinks, Being Thunk!

Well I was browsing a certain Social Media Platform at 06:00… Thanks Dog!

And in one of the groups someone posted a picture about when they started D&D they were skint so made their terrain out of cardboard, glue and Sharpies.

Now this got me thinking. When did the shift from dry wipe mats and Chinagraph pencils to a table full of terrain for one session.

Now cards on the table here, I never got into D&D. I was more MERP. And to be honest pretty much have avoided it since.

I have some old starter boxes, the one I could find straight off was Dragon Mountain. An AD&D Dungeon, comprising maps, Cardboard miniatures etc. This was published by TSR in 1993. I picked mine up cheap of Facebook a few years ago. I actually bought it for the maps.

Yes I am a bit of a sucker for a good map.

So 1993 we seem to be moving away from draw your own to printed maps for the adventures. So when was the shift to full terrain boards or 2.5 instead of 3D.

The problem is I went into wargaming so therefore terrain became an integral part.

Some people still go for theatre of the mind, so no terrain needed at all. Maybe a picture to help people get into the zone.

I would hazard a guess that YouTube has a part to play in tables full of buildings etc, but maybe I am wrong.

So does anyone know? I am sure I don’t as in reality people differ.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Militia, Pastels and Cannons

Well this evening I worked on the militia a bit more. Nearly all of the white has gone. I have been tending to rush these as I want them out of the way. By rushing I mean when I can actually get round to painting them.  Having them sitting there glued to pennies and undercoated is not exactly speedy work…

My cannons and crew got the Italian Wars arrived yesterday, just forgot to mention it 

The Alternative Armies free gift this month is a war droid, which I will probably have a use for. I also purchased the Venetian ambassador, not because I believe that Venice will be the next release, but because he was the only character set I didn’t have. I have one heavy, a light and an organ gun for the Florentine forces.

And Finally I rattled out another Pastel piece this morning while drinking my coffee.

Tried something the same, but different in the execution. These are super fast, probably 10 minutes or less from start to finish. Well if nothing else it keeps me quiet for a little while.

There is one colour oil pastel that I will have to replace soon. Can you guess which colour?

So up to Episode five of Shogun and really enjoying it.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 2 Comments

Pastels, Painting and Shogun

Well this evening I did a bit more painting on the militia…

I didn’t get too much done, but they pretty much started off white so at least progress has been made.

I also managed to get a couple more pastel pieces done…

Tonight’s
Yesterday’s

Whilst painting I started watching Shotgun. I am actually enjoying it. I can vaguely remember the original from the late 70’s. I thought it would be naff and it isn’t. So yey to Shogun!

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 5 Comments

Oil Pastels in Aberdeen

So I had to go to Aberdeen for 5 nights for train the trainer training. My first thought was taking some minis and paints down, but after watching my case being loaded I am glad I didn’t. Instead I took my oil pastels and tried to do something every night… Since Monday night I have achieved my goal…

I decided to keep going on the same idea rather than trying something new each evening. The first was on off white/grey paper, After which I changed to black. I will keep practicing on this style as I like doing it. My blending is definitely improving, not there yet, but getting there.

The last one was this evening. I decided to try a different approach to the swirling ripple effect.

I will work on it more tomorrow..

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 5 Comments

Painting with Cramp

Well actually I was painting with em…paints. the cramp was a side effect!

It kept happening!

But at least I got more done on the militia…

I would have liked to have got them finished but wasn’t to be.

The other 14 got slapped with Speedpaints too.

Posted on by maenoferren22 · 2 Comments

Saturday Art

Well I have been a bit knackered the last few days. I have been training people for four days last week. Friday night I was just buggered. Two days of 7 hours with the people plus getting in early and getting out later meant I really couldn’t be arsed to do anything.

This morning I felt the itch to be artistic but didn’t fancy any miniatures. So instead I hauled out the soft pastels and had a play around.

On the first one I drew around a penny on masking tape to give me the circle, the second one was more free from 😜. AKA scribbled.

The one thing I must do is check the lighter colours are clean before scribbling. I messed up the water a bit whilst trying to clean up the more orange one. It may get hit with white, I am yet to decide. It will definitely have some birds.

I am not worrying too much,  I am just chilling and making a bloody mess of the kitchen table! 😂

I evidently got carried away and did another one

Still need to work on the blending at the base of the hills. But at least you can see what it is meant to be.