2025 Community Challenge

First of all… happy new year…

 ...fingers crossed it will be a good one!

Anyway, over on the YouTube channel, I’ve decided to start the year off with a (month long) community challenge!

 

All of the details are outlined in the video above… but all it really boils down to is – here’s a bunch of random textures…

 

...lets see what we can make with them :)

The hope is that several people will take part (I’m looking at you, gentle reader ;) ) and then send me pictures of what they have built – so that I can make a follow up video at the beginning of February that showcases everyone’s projects :)

So that’s the plan!

I will, of course, be taking part myself… and while it’s not a competition (there’s no prizes or anything like that), it should be a fun project to get the year started!

Miniatures Painted This Year (December Update)

This will likely be my last blog post of this year, so what better way to end things than with an update on all the miniatures I managed to get painted this month (and to see if I actually managed to keep to my goal of painting more than I buy this year).

So, first up is this little fellow…

...now I actually told a bit of a white lie when I got him earlier in the year – as it was actually going to be a Xmas/thank-you gift for a friend that I game with (one who will often give me a lift home when I need one). As such I didn’t want to spoil the surprise (just in case he stumbled across the blog) so apologies for making up a story about it being stuck to a plinth and used as a trophy :)

Anyway, the next mini’s I splashed some paint on where these two reaper bones models…

...which I painted up with the intent of using them for a few solo games of ‘Age of Fantasy: Quest’ (perhaps setting the scenarios in my old Age of Shadow campaign world).

Next up where these guys…

...which are more undead from Mantic Games’ Dungeon Saga kickstarter. Now I was hoping to get all of the undead from this set done over Xmas – but I got sidetracked with other things… so I still have three zombie trolls to go.

And, speaking of getting sidetracked, my brother has recently bought a Bambu A1 mini 3D printer (as it was on sale)… and he’s printed a few things off for me (and I’ve also been having a bit of a play around with it myself when time allowed).

As such, pictured below are three skeleton mini’s from Fat Dragon Games… one fresh from the printer (though I did accidentally break the spear and had to repair it, then add some ‘wraps’ for strength)… one primed… and one painted:

And for FDM prints (using the 0.2 nozzle, and the settings provided by Fat Dragon Games), I have to admit, I’m pretty impressed. In fact, here’s a few more:

The HeroQuest style one he gave to me – as he didn’t want it because it’s printed a bit small, the oversized crawling claw was the first one I had a go at printing off myself (as it wouldn’t take very long), and the mummy was the first one where he downloaded two separate files (i.e. the mummy and the base), and merged them together (though some of the wraps did break off – but it was easily fixed with a bit of greenstuff).

Anyway, getting back to regular miniatures… this next one is going to be used in a co-op game of ‘Grimdark Future Star Quest’ (set in the 40K universe):

(kitbashed from a reaper bones model – with a stargrave ‘trooper’ head, and a GW ‘arbite’ shock baton).

The game itself is going to be played online with one of the guys from my Discord server… but we thought it would be cool to use mini’s we’ve actually painted (rather than generic tokens) – and it turns out that it’s not all that difficult to turn a front & back photo into a standee that works pretty well on Tabletop Simulator (as can be seen below).

But yeah, this is going to be used as an enforcer captain in the hive city where our games will be set (the idea is that it will be a homebrew planet of Mercia Magna – which I/we can use for RPGs, war/skirmish games, solo adventure games, and so on).

And seeing as how I might also play some solo games myself (perhaps more StarQuest, or 5 Parsecs Bug Hunt), and as I say, run some one-shot RPGs in the hive city of Magna Prime (working title), and maybe even the odd (narrative) game of ‘GrimDark Future: Firefight’ …that means I’ll need some more enforcers to back him up.

So, to allow me to do that, I’ve done a bit of kitbashing to make some ‘security gunners’ (using the GrimDark Future: Firefight army builder)…

 ...which were made from Wargames Atlantic ‘bulldog’ bodies, Stargrave Trooper heads, and the Wargames Atlantic extra weapons sprue.

These are accompanied by some ‘security fighters’…

 ...which are also made from Wargames Atlantic ‘bulldog’ bodies and ‘cannon fodder’ arms, Stargrave Trooper heads, and Games Workshop ‘arbite’ shock batons.

And to round them out I’ve also put together this ‘veteran gunner’…

 ...which uses similar parts with regard to the head and body – but this one has a shotgun from GW’s ‘hive scum’ kit.

I also found this model buggy/truck on Thingiverse – which I think has the perfect look to go along with my enforcers.

However, to print this with the highest detail and the smallest nozzle would have taken around 9.5 hours… which I would probably have done if I had my own 3D printer… but since this would be done on my brother’s machine (and I didn’t want to tie it up for an entire day) he instead installed the larger (0.4) nozzle and used a thicker layer height to get it down to 2.5 hours.

As such, the resulting model does have some pretty obvious layer lines if you look closely – but on the whole I still think it’s great.

And finally… the last models of the year are these guys:

Again, these were (free) 3D prints (I think they might have been on the Cults 3D website)… and they’re actually intended for use as ‘basing’ decorations. However, I’ve blown them up 200% when printing them – so that they fit nicely on a 20mm base in their own right (and can be used for little gribbly creatures of the underhive… or even as dungeon vermin in a fantasy setting).

So, that’s everything that I got painted in December… which brings the grand total up to:

148 painted models in 2024.

Which isn’t bad at all!

However, the whole 3D printing thing has thrown things a bit out of whack with regard to the number of miniatures I bought… as ‘technically’ I only paid for the 3 Fat Dragon skeletons (which I picked up as a thank you to FDG – seeing as how we were using the printing ‘profile’ he provides for free).

So technically (there’s that word again ;) ) I only bought 3 mini’s this month - as the rest were free downloads ;)

And that brings the total number of models that I paid for this year to:

115 models bought in 2024.

Which makes this whole endeavour a success right?

Well… not quite. You see, I also got the DarkTide boardgame back in July for my birthday (which contains 20 mini’s)… plus I had a bumper gaming Xmas:

...amongst which are 8 Dark Souls miniatures, 7 animal adventurers, 5 (dire/giant) wolves, and 20 orcs & goblins on sprues (so that’s another 40 miniatures there).

And if you include the other 8 free models that have been printed… it actually comes out to:

183 models acquired in 2024.

But yeah, I think I’m still going to count this as a win, as I DID paint more models than I bought (which was my original aim… I did specifically use the word ‘buy’ in my first post back in January :P) – though I’ll admit that it’s a bit of a stretch to claim that :D

In any case, it’s been good fun all the same… and it’s great to look back at the folder where I’ve been keeping all these pictures, and see everything I’ve done this year all in one place (even if you don’t share your pictures with anyone, I really do think this is a great thing to do).

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for this year’s hobby projects… but if you’re interested, I’ll be starting the new year with another terrain project – one that everyone can take part in – so I’ll see you then!

Miniatures Painted This Year (November Update)

I'm actually on time with this post for a change... so let's see what I painted and purchased in November :)

So... painting-wise... the first things I splashed some paint on were these casualty markers:

Now, looking back at my blog posts, it seems that I actually purchased these back in February - so it's only took me nine months to get started on them.

And as far as the painting goes, it was a pretty quick job on these... just base-coats, a light wash on the 'dirty whites', a flesh wash on the skin, and Sonic Sledgehammer 'marine juice' over everything else. I also tidied/highlighted most of the areas with the same base coat colours (as the washes tend to darken everything down a bit).

Next up were these plastic Victrix gauls/celts... which I'll be using as Rhudaur Hillmen for a possible 'Angmar' themed game of 'Age of Fantasy: Quest'

And these were painted up in pretty much the same way... so just a flesh wash over the skin... 'marine juice/sonic tonic' over the rest... and then tidied back up in a few places with the original colours. There's also a bit of kit-bashing going on here and there - but nothing major.

And, while these models don't look great individually, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out as a group - especially when you consider that they're just quick paint jobs :) 

Anyway, now for my purchases... and it seems that it's been a bit of a Victrix month - as I've also bought some late (armoured) Romans...

...as well as a sprue of their fantasy heads, cloaks, and shields...

...with the aim of maybe kitbashing these (along with some other Victrix/historical sprues that I already have) to make some Arnorian soldier types (specifically those of Arthedain)... again, for a possible Angmar themed game.

And while that does amount to three new sprues - technically, it's only six new models... and so I'm counting it as such :P

Which brings me to this year's totals. So that's 15 painted this month, and only six bought... which amounts to:

112 bought

125 painted

 ...and I've not even been tempted with any of the 'black friday weekend' sales so far - so I might be able to pull this whole 'paint more than I buy' challenge off after all.

Though I probably shouldn't tempt fate by saying that... as there's still one more month to go :)

Orc/Goblin Huts

As is usual with most of my projects, I’ve been posting WIP pictures of these on the various social media sites… and I even ‘streamed’ on discord for a couple of hours while I was drawing some of the textures (I say streamed – but it was just me and a couple of guys in the chat :) ).

 

Anyway, they’re finally finished…

 

...and while I’ve labelled the video as ‘orc/goblin huts’ they could be used for a wide variety of humanoid creatures (including humans).

So here’s hoping you can find a use for them in some of your own games!

Miniatures Painted This Year (October update)

OK then, I'm back with another monthly catch-up on all the miniatures I've painted this year (with the ongoing goal of painting more than I buy).

So to start things off, I'll cover October's  purchases - which consists of these guys:

So just a couple of models this month - which means that I haven't added too much to my pile of shame - though I have added to it (because, as you can see - I've just got them based on some mdf ovals... that's as far as I've got with them).

But the reason I picked these up (they're 'rad hounds' from Ral Partha Europe BTW) is because I thought they looked like the kind of creature that you might find in the bowels of some kind of hive city :)

* * *

However, I have managed to splash some paint around on a few models these past couple of weeks... and I started things off with this pretty fellow:

And, while this is a 40k model (it's from their Gellerpox killteam I think - though I bought it separately from a bits seller), there's nothing on it that screams 'sci-fi' - so it could just as easily be used to represent some kind of huge ghoulish creature in D&D or similar.

And, even though I usually shy away from painting larger models (I prefer human-sized models for the most part), this guy was fun to paint, and I'm pretty pleased with how he turned out.

Next up are a bunch more poxwalkers (as you can never have enough zombie guys - even in sci-fi games)...

...though these only got a quick paint job (just base-coats and washes) to match the 24 others that I already have.

And to finish things off, here's the last model I got done...

...which, again, is from that Gellerpox box - but I've arranged them as a 'swarm' for the One Page Rules 'firefight' game.

Speaking of which - here's a quick pic of my nurgle themed 300 point warband for Firefight:

* * *

Anyway, if I total things up - so far that's...

106 mini's bought

110 mini's painted

...this year.

Which means that I'm back on track for reaching this year's goal (which is, as I mentioned at the start, to paint more than I buy). So let's see if I can keep it that way until the end of the year!

More Sci-fi Terrain

October has been a bit of a sci-fi month for me - both in regard to the miniatures I've been painting, and the terrain that I've been making... and in this post I'm going to focus on the terrain (I'll talk more about the mini's tomorrow).

Anyway, I've been meaning to make some 'pipes' for a while now - you know, big industrial looking pipelines that can be scattered around the table to create some line-of-sight blocking terrain - and also to make things look a bit more... well... industrial :)

 

- an early prototype -

So, as you can see in the above picture, I set to work on making these with empty toilet roll tubes (as I do try to keep my crafting materials as simple as possible)... and I had to watch a couple of 'plumbing' style videos to figure out how to get the T junctions to work :)

I'd also realised that the table tennis balls that I got for the 'dungeon box' build were the perfect size to fit into the end of those toilet roll tubes...

...so I thought that needed to be taken advantage of as well :)

And, after a lot of trial and error, here's what I came up with:

 (you can find the accompanying pdf file over on DriveThruRPG)

Anyway, despite being a 15 minute long video (I don't like making overly long tutorial videos - as I think too much information can quickly get a bit overwhelming), I still had more ideas that I wanted to try out - like these bases to rest larger pipes on top of... and the steps that go over the top:

And, as you might have guessed, that led to a second video...

 ...plus another pdf file (as usual, they are both pay-what-you-want downloads ;) ).

And, as I say in the video, if you combine both of these with some of the other sci-fi stuff that I have available, you/we should be able to make some pretty interesting layouts... something like this perhaps...

...which should work well enough for several different games and settings :)

So yeah, that's what I've been up to terrain-wise this month... and it also marks 99 video tutorials over on the channel (there's actually closer to 200 videos when you include the tips, build along projects, and so on - but only 99 'proper' episodes). And that makes me think I should maybe do something special for the 100th episode (or a follow up video after it)... so I need to get my thinking cap on I suppose :D

Dungeon in a Box Extravaganza!

As some of you might have noticed, it's been a while since I last mentioned any of my terrain projects here on the blog... and that's because the latest batch of videos kinda follow on from one another in a similar way to the 'build along' series. And, as such, I wanted to wait until I'd got everything finished before talking about them here.

Anyway, the idea was to build a basic self contained dungeon adventure (and everything you'd need to run it) that packs away into a small box (making it ideal for the traveling GM - or for someone that might want to run a one-shot at a game store or a con for example).

So the obvious place to start was with the dungeon itself... and  here's what I came up with:

And, as you can hopefully see, despite having to overcome a few issues along the way, it turned out rather nice (at least in my opinion).

So, if you'd like to have a go at making something like that yourself, then the YouTube tutorial can be found HERE (there's a link to the 'pay-what-you-want' pdf file in the video's description).

In addition to the dungeon - the adventure also requires a few player handouts in the form of some old copper rings and a rusty amulet...

...well, I say 'requires' - you don't really need any of this stuff - so they're not essential, but they are fun to have. Therefore, there is a second video HERE that shows you how to put them together (with another pdf file to go along with it).

But a dungeon adventure wouldn't be much of a dungeon adventure without some monsters to battle (at least in my opinion) - so  I had a go at making those too... starting off with some ghostly creatures...

...and then with some slimy oozes:

So, as you might have guessed, there are video tutorials for these as well. One for the GHOSTS and another for the OOZES.

And that's pretty much two months of video updates condensed into one blog post :) 

However, in the first video, I did say that I would try and tidy up my adventure notes for this dungeon (once I'd run it a couple of times - once for my online group, and once for my in-person group), and share them online... and so that's what I've done.

But like I said at the beginning of this post, it's not meant to be anything special (in fact that was the complete opposite of what I was trying to achieve - as the aim was to have it be a simple one-shot that could be run with minimal fuss), so please keep that in mind. 

Anyway, HERE is the link to those notes (it's just a google doc at the moment).

So yeah - that's my little 'dungeon in a box' adventure that I've put together. I'm not gonna lie, it is quite a bit of work to make - considering it might only get used once or twice - but I enjoy the whole creative process of putting this kind of thing together, so it has been a fun project to work on nevertheless (plus I now have a little boxed adventure to run if I ever get the chance to do something like that at a con, or a store, or similar).

And now that I've got it finished... I'm in the mood for some sci-fi - so I think that's gonna be my focus for the next couple of videos - so stay tuned for those :)

 

- here's a quick example of the kind of thing I've been experimenting on this past week -