Hobby Dungeon

My hobby project for the last week or so has been something that I have been meaning to do for a few years now: Scatter terrain. Even though I say that, what I made may not qualify perfectly as scatter. I still need to make or acquire some crates, barrels, wagons, and other debris, but I did my best to stick to the same principle. This is stuff that I want to throw down on my Mordheim or Frostgrave board to create clutter, cover, and character. A real hobby blog would have covered all the steps involved, documenting the process thoroughly, but I forgot to take pictures after the first step. Each of these pieces is done the same way (except for the fence and the pillars). I start with sticky craft foam, and attach it to a cardboard base. This provides stability, and also absorbs glue and paint better than cardboard. I glue down all of the rubble that I want, and then I apply a mix of glue and water to the base, pouring sand on top. Once this dries, I go over the sand with more glue and ...

I have been a fan of Gotrek Gurnisson since I was 12 years old. I always wanted the old Gotrek and Felix models, even if the sculpts were squishy and plain. When I saw that Gotrek was back, I was a little perturbed that he didn't have his trademark star-metal axe. I then read the final book in the Slayer series and all my concerns have since evaporated. I wanted to try a bunch of new techniques on this model, some worked well and others were a learning experience. I tried glazing for the first time and am totally satisfied with the results, but my first OSL (object source lighting) attempt wasn't at the same level. These first 3 photos show the model finished and fully based, but the lighting wasn't quite right. Further down there are some pictures without the snow, but with better lighting, so the details (and flaws) are a bit more visible. On this properly lit Gotrek, you can see a bit of the OSL work, as the dim red light glows on his right boot and a bit of debris. The ...

This last week I got to play one of my first ever games of Age of Sigmar, where every model on the table was actually painted! I played my newly finished Greywater Fastness - Cities of Sigmar army, and my friend Taylor played a Seraphon list. Both of us were new to these armies, so we were experimenting and learning as we went. We played a scenario that was new to me, with a roving objective that moved around the table at random times and directions. Both armies were at around 1150 points, which is somewhat arbitrary, but we both liked the lists we put together. The Slann oversees the horde of lizardfolk as they pour forth The Oldblood on Carnosaur rallies the troops and prepares for an aggressive charge The Dwarf lines hold and prepare for the defense of their artillery The Freeguild Guard are prepared to pounce on the objective with the support of a trusty cannon Just look at them go... The initial objective was a green warp-stone monolith at the center of the field, high atop a Sera...

I recently speedpainted 20 Freeguild Guard so I could add them to my Cities of Sigmar/Dwarf army. I assembled, based, primed, painted, and detailed them in about 3 days. There are some glaring imperfections, but I like to think that they are table-ready for a game I am playing tomorrow. The blue and orange scheme comes from my dwarves, which are mostly done in the blue, but I bought a regiment of Thunderers on eBay that were already painted orange and I liked the paint job. The snow and the blue-grey base ring are also to match my dwarves and present a consistent army. I have done a lot of large regiment speedpainting jobs lately, and after this one, I have decided to avoid horde armies from now on. I think I am going to start focusing on individual models for a little while, and start planning a smaller army with a complicated basing/colour scheme. I also attempted my first ever free-hand banner! The banner is covered in gross streaks from a bad application of wash, but I did go over ...

This project was short and sweet (minus a few steps) and is one that I think will be very easy to replicate. This build is based off of an already constructed product, and mostly requires paint, texture, and a few interesting details. Ive done something similar to this before, but I wanted to give it another try, and I will probably do it again in the future, as it is so easy to do. I started by going to my local craft store and picking up a super cheap wooden bird house. They usually have a huge selection of these, like maybe 30 or 40 options. Most of them don't look great, or are at the wrong scale, but there are always one or two that are perfect. They seem to rotate through stock pretty often as well, so I don't normally see the same constructions more than once or twice. I'm a fool and I forgot to take any pictures of the house before I started modding it. I added a pieces of wood over doors and windows, as well as a few small plastic bits to give it some personality, ...

This is the culmination of a few weeks working on a number of smaller builds. I am trying to develop a set of terrain that will allow me to play a game of Mordheim with the density that I see others using. Turns out, you need a lot of terrain compared to an Age of Sigmar game. Sitting on the top is the ruined archway that I covered in a previous post, but it is the project that really kicked off this idea. All of these builds were made from some combination of hard insulation foam, cardboard, stir-sticks, and craft foam. I think the craft foam that I use is a great tool that I don't see very often in hobby builds. It comes in sheets, about the size of a piece of paper, its flat, coloured, and sticky on one side. All of the red bits you see below are craft foam, as are the shingles on the tall house. I also put this foam as the floor for all of my bases. I take a piece of cereal box cardboard, stick a sheet of foam on top, and then I cut it out to the shape I want. This makes a stur...