Correspondence From Limbo

Oh gosh! Hello! I didn’t see you there. Welcome to this new, recurring feature of my blog. I’ve been hoping to find some more time to write for myself, so I thought I would do something I never dreamed I would do and start a little hobby round-up of all the different wargaming things I do each month. A little snapshot into what I’m doing when I’m not hammering out words for either my actual job, or this pretend job that I keep forgetting I need to do.

Anyway, August has been a busy old time in both my professional and personal life. I’ve got a trip coming up in a couple of weeks, so I’ve been busy trying to fit in as much hobby time as possible while I’m still in the UK.

Here’s what I’ve been working on this month.

Historicals!

I’ve been continuing my foray into the world of historicals by putting together some knights. I picked up the Barons’ War Second Edition starter box (the deluxe edition that comes with mounted knights and serjeants) from Wargames Atlantic earlier this year, and I’ve slowly been churning out a myriad of feudal weirdos. These heavily armed and armoured jobbers represent a warlord on foot for use in either Barons’ War or SAGA: Age of Chivalry, as well as a unit of knights with great weapons to complement the group with swords and shields that I finished a couple of months ago. One of the things I love about SAGA is the fact that warlords are mounted on a bigger base, allowing you to go all out with creating small dioramas, especially for characters on foot (this is less easy for mounted characters, as the horse usually takes up most of the base). I had a lot of fun with the baron; I added a serjeant to his base to represent a banner bearer/attendant, and gave him a pointing arm to represent the poor chap either giving directions to the clueless noble or alerting him to a charging battleline. I also decided to paint him with a darker skin tone, for no other reason than I wanted to. I’ve been trying to learn how to paint more varied skin tones to represent the world around me better, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice those skills. Meanwhile, the transfer on his shield came from the Sisters of Battle transfer sheet. Despite the kits not having a lot in common, I’ve found that a few of the Battle Sister transfers look pretty in keeping with medieval heraldry (to my mind at least), so it was nice to repurpose them before I inevitably cave and pick up some specialist transfers.

I have less to say with the footknights, other than I made a few mistakes putting them together, so some of the poses look a little bit awkward. Looking at you, knight in the red and yellow.

I’ve also been working on some foot archers, which I built using parts from the Wargames Atlantic foot serjeants and peasant levy kits. I haven’t got any photos of them yet, but they are nearing completion; once I finish the bases, I’ll be another point closer to a full SAGA warband.

Into the Underhive…

One of the things I’ve also been looking into this month is getting into Necromunda. I live near Winchester, home of the Hampshire Hammerers club, and it has a rather thriving Necro-scene that I would love to get involved in. To that end, I’ve been perusing Goonhammer’s rather extensive article collection on the game, reading and re-reading hundreds of words on the different varieties of scummer and considering my options on which gang to pledge my allegiance to. In the end, I’ve picked up a House Orlock gang and have been slowly building and painting up a small starter force. I’m yet to get any games in – hell, I still need to finish painting them – but I’m looking forward to getting them on the table and learning a new system.

The dark grimness…

One of the reasons I haven’t been painting my Orlocks is because I’ve been busy painting up a special character model for Warhammer 40,000: a Black Templar’s Execrator. I picked this guy up on a whim while in my local GW one day, and he’s been a real joy to paint. I’m nowhere near finished with him, but I’ve really enjoyed painting this angry weirdo with a really unfortunate name. Black and white are notoriously difficult colours to paint well, but I’ve been following some online tutorials from Goonhammer and elsewhere to get this guy looking good. I’ve also been trying some new techniques (sub-assemblies: what a concept), and it’s been great trying to up my edge highlighting game as well, especially since it’s something I still struggle with despite more than 15 years in the hobby. I don’t know if this marks the start of a new army. I’m tempted to say yes, but I do have to figure out where to put all these models before they breach containment and take over the house. Maybe some more spring cleaning is in order…

Thanks for reading. Hopefully, I will have further updates on my adventures in hobby land next month.