Physician Heal Thyself. Or. Third Time’s the Charm

Posted on January 25, 2024 by grumpyoldtin

I am trying to reverse engineer my way to happiness despite the best efforts of my lovely Wife. This is the philosophy I am attempting to use.

“Retrophrenology:
It works like this. Phrenology, as everyone knows, is a way of reading someone’s character, aptitude and abilities by examining the bumps and hollows on their head. Therefore – according to the kind of logical thinking that characterizes the Ankh-Morpork mind – it should be possible to mould someone’s character by giving them carefully graded bumps in all the right places. You can go into a shop and order an artistic temperament with a tendency to introspection and a side order of hysteria. What you actually get is hit on the head with a selection of different size mallets, but it creates employment and keeps the money in circulation, and that’s the main thing.”

― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Quote and image used without permission

I can gauge my mental state by my surroundings. The tidier and more ordered it is then the better mental state I am in. So I am attempting to reverse engineer a better mental state by organising my environment. Having a now fully functioning laser cutter has been a huge mind saver.

The third time is the charm. There are boxes of tools that I have inherited from my Father and Grandfather, and from my Wife’s Father and Grandfather. I have been sorting through everything, getting rid of any broken bits and setting up tool boxes for my Boys with any duplicates. What I have left has been slowly organised.

Some gouged out sections to allow for bits

Had I enough wood I would have attempted a third go to correct those mistakes.

Tool cabinet slowly getting organised. I inherited it from my late Father in Law. It originally was well equipped with tools, but when I got it there were a lot of mysterious gaps which I am now trying to fill.

The corner is gloomy no more.

I have started painting a bit but the joy has been stolen and I am finding it hard to get my mojo.

Some Night Goblin Netters that I got as a present

Wot i am workin on now

This guy is going to be part of an Empire Mercenary band. Based for Dragon Rampant.

I have been designing some bunker facades for my trench terrain

I must mention the competition being run by Old School Miniatures to design an Orc War Machine

https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/blog/design-a-war-machine-for-the-osm-mean-green-challenge

End of isolation?

Posted on May 22, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

Isolation, over here in Austria, has eased. There have been no new infections in Salzburg. For us it has been rather lovely. The only fly in the ointment has been trying to get the Boys to do school work.

I have been painting and crafting away. I did make for my Boys a hideaway.

You can just about see it, dead centre to the left of my shed. Two storeys, each level being about 2m long, 1m wide and 1m high. The Boys love it and have been sleeping in it even when it snowed!

I have been cracking on with the 2020 Painting Challenge and have managed to do this years quota. This means I can relax a little and try and tackle some bigger projects. Heresy Dragon? Here is the progress roughly in order.

This was the bust produced for Goblinaid to support Kevin Adams after his assualt

This was something I cobbled together. It is an old 40K Gobsmasha. I had 3D printed the wheels and gun barrel and then my printer went all spanner on me. So everything else, apart from the exhausts (from Ramshackle Games) was laser cut.

These last two are also for my Earth Elemental Army used in Dragon Rampant. They are from Thingiverse and designed by DutchMogul. 3D printed by me.

Here are some Saga Measuring sticks. Another game that looks interesting but I will never end up playing.

I have some more bits of crafting to post which I’ll do as soon as I photograph them.

Kickstarters and cake

Posted on February 4, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

I should have mentioned Kevin Adams’s Kickstarter a couple of days ago……. but

Anyway here it is. It is out of my range, price wise, which is a pity because it looks brilliant. I’ll leave you with the link so you can make up your own mind about this.

Next up are the 15mm Romans which I have no need for but to which I am strangely attracted to. This is live today.

Romani ite domum

This past weekend was the last day of temporary Red Shirt Klemens at Warhammer Salzburg. He’s been nice to the Boys whenever we visited the store and it’s a pity to see him go. so in honour of the occassion we baked him a cake.

KEVIN “GOBLINMASTER” ADAMS! and some finished figures

Posted on January 28, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

One of my two favourite figure scultors (Bob Olley being the other) has finally decided to set up his own dedicated webspace come shop. The one and only Kevin “Goblinmaster” Adams. I have been a fan of his work since the mid eighties and it was his figures and the accompanying fluff in White Dwarf that made me (until recently) Orc and Goblin to the core. If it ain’t a KA Goblin then it ain’t a Goblin. Although to be fair Brian Nelson gave it a fair old stab. Over the years I have tried on a limited buget to try and back various projects of his; 4A Miniatures, some rather nice Sea Goblins; Crooked Claw, a rock thrower; Greenskin Wars, armoured Orcs and Goblins; Ral Partha and Warmonger Miniatures.

Then there was the vicious attack upon him where he was seriously injured. This prompted various sculpters to produce figures for “Goblinaid”.

This brought Kevin back into the limelight and he has been busy, for other people. This looks set to change as he has just announced a new website.

http://www.goblinmaster.online

There are tentative plans to launch a Kickstarter on the First of February and from the photographs on the site there appears to be a new Pump Waggon. YAY!

The Facebook 2020 Painting Challenge group has spurred me on the get the unit of Skiing Dwarves finished. They had been sat for far too long on my desk and I think my sticking point was the unit standard. I am still not happy with it but once it was done the rest of the figures seemd to come on much easier.

These are available from

https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/

Things that I like

Posted on September 5, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

There are things that I like. Sculpts by Bob Olley and Kevin Adams. Gnomes from Ols School Miniatures. And parts from Ramshackle Games.

http://www.ramshacklegames.co.uk

I don’t know what it is, but when I get a box of bits from Curtis my imagination gets fired up. This part might fit well with this, ooh and then if I add this etc. etc.

I’ve known about Ramshackle Games for about ten years, maybe a touch more. I started off getting some fantasy models.

In my Lead Mountain I have a mahosive squiggoth-like creature which is destined to be for my Orc Overlord.

Then a few years back Ramshackle Games had a Kickstarter for sci fi troopers. This was my starting point for my necromantic “Not Imperial Guard”.

You can see more images waaay back in my blog

Ramshackle also make vehicles. Here is my command APC.

Later Ramshackle ran a Kickstarter for the parts to assemble Jet Bikes. Obviously I sucumbed. I have only constructed one so far. Painting it would be nice.

Then I have recently been in the mood to bash up some tankettes for my Orks. Curtis, the ever obliging, helped.

Very recently I ordered some parts to make up a robot walker type machine. In the box was included a few other bits and bobs. This one was a personal project of Curtis’s for his Realm of Chaos warband. I saw it and it called out for a little floating platform. A sort of mini Slann.

Here is the walker.

And it is accompanied by a floating sensor/gun platform. Based on a Kinder Egg with extras from Ramshackle.

If you haven’t as yet come across Ramshackle Games do have a peek at the website. There is bound to be something there for you. Would free world-wide shipping be an incentive?

Just say I sent you

Some bits and bobs from 2018

Posted on January 17, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

Here are a couple of bits that I painted last year that I think I didn’t post up.

One of Citadel’s Giants

Quite tiny compared to todays giants

Battle Standard Bearer for my Albion army

This is from Hasslefree’s Kickstarter

Some quick and dirty Genestealers from Lost Patrol

Lost Patrol (not my image)

Got it for a bargain price, but sadly missing a few figures

Plague Demon sculpted by Kevin “Goblinmaster” Adams

Snotlings

Posted on May 8, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Well hello new followers! This post is going to totally phaze you, are you sure you’re following the right person?

This is something I wrote about thirty years ago and I was prompted to dig it out following a post on the Facebook Middlehammer group. Sometimes being a hoarder can be useful. This is written for WHFB 3rd edition so if anyone knows the formulae to convert this to 6th let me know.

Snotlings

Are you tired of limp-wristed elves, solid dependable dwarves, highly spiked chaos thingys or noisy dirty orcs? Then what you need my friend is SNOTLINGS! Yes! Those gibbering green creatures lurking in the corners. A bit of light relief to bring a smile to your battle weary face. “But theyse always runs away!” comes a voice from the back of the room. Well with a bit of beefing up they won’t, or not very often anyways.

Most of these charactors are based on figures produced by Citadel Miniatures.

Spit the Chicken Slayer

Snotling Major (Level 5 only) Hero

snot1 Bravest of the brave. His tales of derring-do are sung (well sort of hummed a bit) after the Midwinter feast of roast ferret and acorn beer. His mighty thews armoured with the spoils of a thousand (well, more than five) dwarven rubbish tips. On his side he wears the mighty sword of champions “Stoatbanger”. Purloined from a visit to Ye Olde Reject Shoppe. Forged in the fires of chaos and twinned to its bearer in an unholy alliance of flesh and soul. Allegedly.

spit Special Rules

Spit commands a minimum of 3 Snotling bases and a maximum of 6 bases. When commanded by Spit the Snotlings will charge or receive a charge if they outnumber their foe by two-to-one. If they are charged by a unit they don’t outnumber they will run away.

Snotling Fanatic

snot2 Worshippers of the dour god ‘Arikross these devotees are fed on a diet of muesli. They hide amongst ordinary Snotlings until 6 inches away from an enemy unit. Then irrespective of the normal turn sequence the Fanatic is loosed towards the enemy with squeaky cries of, “Brookie! Brookie!”

The Fanatic is pointed in the direction the Snotling Player wishes him to travel and moves 2D4 inches. If a double is rolled the Fanatic has suffered from a heart attack or the inability to control his whirling iron ball.

The Fanatic uses a 3/4 inch template for damage purposes. Any unit moved over by the Fanatic receives automatic D4 strength 3 hits with no saving throw for armour.

For more specific information please read the section on page 98 WHFB about Goblin Fanatics.

Grip’s Sheep Warriors

Far away in the mountains of Norsca live and thrive a tough breed of mountain sheep. Quite how they found their way to Grip’s tribe at the World’s Edge Mountains is unknown; although it has been suggested that a dwarf with a penchant for things four legged was to blame. This is usually suggested in a lowered voice many leagues away from the nearest dwarf.

Grip’s tribe is nomadic, wandering from pasture to pasture only heading back to the tribal caves in the depths of winter.

The toughest, hardiest rams are used for battle (the weaker ones for the cooking pot), whilst the ewes are used as draught animals.

The Snotling rider and beast seem to have a special bond between them, probably because neither can realise how stupid the other is. In the summer in the high pastures Snotlings and their mounts can be seen fondly head-butting each other. it is considered a sign of weakness if a rider is knocked out by his mount. In winter, flocks can be found wandering around with little hammocks slung underneath protecting the Snotlings from the wrath of winter’s might by the sheeps thick coat.

There is a Snotling tale about Fid the Wise who tried to light a fire in his hammock. much talk is made of the impressive turn of speed from the irate ram. Not much is known of Fid’s whereabouts after this.

grip Special Rules

The riders cannot wear armour as the noise distracts the rams.

The rams have a butt attack S2 with no armour saving throw.

Barp

Level 5 Magician

snot3

A chance encounter with a sorcerer, a chaos deamonette and a bag of “Magick Dust” left Barp in possession of one spell. Unfortunately that is all, Barp is now a drooling idiot capable of blurting out that one spell if left unattended. The Snotling tribe is incredibily proud of him and will wheel him out at every battle hoping he will use the spell contained within his noggin. Nobody quite knows what the spell is, “BUT A SPELS A SPEL INNIT!”

Special Rules

Barp has no stats, he has to stay in base to base contact with other Snotlings. These are to stop him from saying the spell inadvertantly (it’s the only thing he knows).

The Snotling player has to say in advance to the GM in how many turns Barp will say the spell, that is if Barp is going to be used. When the time comes the GM will pick at random ONE Level 1 Battle Magic spell, without telling the Snotling player what it is. The spell is then cast on the nearest enemy unit within 12 inches. If there is no enemy unit within 12 inches the spell is cast on the nearest Snotling unit.

Once the spell is cast Barp reverts back to a normal Snotling, never to cast a spell again.

2016 Been there, done it

Posted on January 14, 2017 by grumpyoldtin

This was started on New Year’s Day and then it got put down and buried under stuff.

I am sat here feeling slightly obfuscated, mostly due to schnapps, brandy and presecco seeing out the old year.
2016 was a year that a lot of interesting and clever people shuffled of this mortal coil. The way East/West politics are moving 2017 could be the year that everyone dies.
I didn’t paint much, far less than I wanted to. The Dragon was prevaricated on. It seemed that every time I picked it up I was asked for help with something else so there was no “Zone” achieved.
But there shouldn’t be too much beating myself up. My workshop is set up and I can airbrush to my hearts content. One project for this year is to make a spray booth with PC cooling fans (from the recycling center) to extract spray. The hobby room is done, bar one small speaker shelf. So I have my space for painting and gaming. And I have been working on the garden making a path and building a wall. This involves going to the farm with a wheelbarrow and taking a rock and wheeling it back, so quite time consuming.

Financially the laser cutting has not been a success this year. Etsy resulted in zero sales. Handing out my business card at Salute resulted in a huge spike in blog views the following day, but zero sales.
What I find frustrating in my target audience is that they will happily fork out thirty or forty quid for one figure they owned as a teenager but will balk at paying twenty for scenery to grace their collection. There was a thread I was following where collectors were boasting about the prices they had paid for a metal Thunderhawk Gunship. It was jaw dropping.

I am going to continue with making laser cut scenery, if only for myself. But getting some money for it would be nice. The last year has seen a readjustment in family finances. I have gone from having a huge disposable income a couple of years ago to having none. My Wife stopped working at the beginning of last year and despite having no income we’ve lived comfortably. Having no rent or mortgage helps tremendously and visiting fleamarkets for clothes and entertainment makes what we do have go along way.
I have backed a few Kickstarters this year, not as many as I would have liked. Ten Minute Heist and Dwarves in Trouble are two board games that look like fun to play with the Boys. Then came the addiction, miniatures. Space Raiders, scifi orcs sculpted by Kevin Adams. Greenskin Wars, goblins sculpted by Kevin Adams. Goblins and Sea Demons, sea goblins sculpted by Kevin Adams. Return to Colony 87, scifi civilians. Kev White does Matt Dixon, female fantasy miniatures. And finally Ramshackle Games’s Jetbikes.

The product of the year for me has been Foundrys Sable Mix General Detail Brush. I was going to replace it at the beginning of the year but it kept on going for “one more paint job”. In fact it is still going strong, so I might not replace it just yet.

Although I’m not very good with my predictions I’m going to say that 2017 will be the year of NMMs. Non Metallic Metallics, where you paint something to look shiny and metallic without using any metallic paint. For those of you who don’t quite get what I’m on about, think about a photograph of a shiny teapot. You don’t have metallic inks when you print a photograph. What you see are whites, greys and whatever background colours are being reflected. So the object is to try and replicate this without metallic paint. G’Dub is already putting painting guides out with this technique with some of their new products.

Talking about G’Dub, I have liked watching their Warhammer TV on Youtube. It has been very instructive and has kept my Boys entertained. Just remember kids, always thin your paints.

Something I got as a Christmas present was a copy of Osprey’s Rogue Stars ruleset. It is a bit dry, mostly tables of equipment, physical traits and very little fluff. From reading of reviews apparently one gets the hang of it very easily. The advantage, as I see it, of having very little fluff is that you can create your own universe in the flavour you want. Magrathea anyone?
I’d like to make a go of this and try and run a demo game at the Austrian Salute this year.
The game is figure light, four to six figures a side and the playspace is three foot by three foot.
So I have approximately ten weeks to learn the rules. I’ve taken the step of joining the Austrian gaming forum, diefestung, to find opponents. Then painting the figures and making a terrain board which will showcase my laser cut work.
Oh, and make sure I have enough stock to sell.
Speaking of stock I must really extract my digit and design more big objects. The ideal solution would be one big thing a month.

This year I must be more focused on my painting. First jobs are to finish off any jobs that haven’t been completed. Then I need to decide which army to concentrate on and finish it. A prime candidate would be my Roman army, just a fortified camp and two commanders.

Salute 2016

Posted on May 15, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Apologies for the delay, but as you’ll read on I’m sure you’ll forgive me.
This was something I’d been planning for for ages. I have been going to Salute annually for about ten years before moving to Austria. Then I had a two year gap. I was hesitant but it was my Wife who encouraged me to go as I hadn’t been back to England since the move.
Salute, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the largest wargaming shows in Europe. Here you get a chance to see a whole load of traders and get to see their merchandise in the flesh. It is also a chance to look at a huge range of games that had been lovingly prepared over the last year. There is also the painting contest. This is drawing in some of the best painters from around Europe, so I didn’t stand much of a chance, but nothing ventured etc. I wanted to enter the Salute figure contest. Every year in your goodie bag is a free figure which can be entered into next year’s contest. Now as I hadn’t been for a couple of years I didn’t have the figure. A quick request on the Oldhammer Facebook group soon dealt with this problem. Many thanks to Mr. David Wood, more of which later.

Once the list of traders was announced on the Salute website I spent a fair amount of time visiting every single traders website and working out a wish-list. Then came the job of prioritising what I wanted to buy. In theory I had an unlimited budget but I was also aware that my lead mountain was vast (about 15 years worth of painting) so I tried to narrow the list down to what I actually needed and within a reasonable budget. I allowed a bit of wiggle-room as there was Kevin Adams, The Goblin Master, and no real prices or stock on the website.
Once I had drawn up my shopping list I printed out the Salute site map. Armed with my shopping list and site map I worked out a hit list in my notebook going up and down the traders in the most time efficient manner.

As I said this was my first visit for a couple of years and my first from abroad, so no home base as I was previously used to. The cheapest ticket option was to stay for five days. So a bit of Facebook posting got me some sofas to surf on. The first two nights was to be spent at my old gaming buddy Seb’s house.
Two days before flying I was struck with severe abdominal pains which lasted almost twenty four hours. I was worried that I would have to go to hospital and miss Salute. A further worry was that if it returned whilst in England I would have to visit and English hospital. After Austrian hospitals any trip to an English hospital would be like a trip to the third world.
Thankfully the pains vanished the day before flying, much to my relief.
I managed to squeeze everything into my little holdall, just grams under my ten kilo allowance. For the return journey I had booked a suitcase which was to be donated by a friend. I had also bought a lot of bits and pieces on Fleabay and had them sent to my Daughter’s place. Also in preparation I had some business cards printed up along with a promotional t-shirt.

These I had sent to Seb’s. The first delivery was left in the rain by the courier company so the printing company promptly sent another batch. Seb opened the first package and the contents were fine. I now had a couple of hundred cards to distribute in the queue to enter Salute.
The flight was uneventful but getting a connecting bus to Stratford was chaotic. The bus was grimy and I was reluctant to sit on the seats.

Such a contrast to Austria.
It chucked it down when I arrived in Stratford, everything was grey and miserable and the pavements seemed clogged with fag butts. A mad dash to get some shopping done, Tea and hitting the Poundshops (I do miss them) for epoxy glue, superglue and plug adapters. Then back to Seb’s. We had a pleasant evening and I played Lords of War (http://lords-of-war.com/) for the first time. This was a Kickstarter I had backed with the bonus that the cards were illustrated by Steve Cox (http://stevecox.prosite.com/) who was two years above me when I went to college.
Saturday, Salute day! It was up early to get a good place in the queue.
I had a minor problem with my ticket, which was swiftly resolved when I showed the email correspondence I’d had with one of the event organisers.

This gave me a chance to hand out my business cards. At the time of writing there has been zero interest in my tawdry offerings. I met Mr. David Wood, my Oldhammer Facebook friend who I’d never met in real life before and we spent the hour before the doors opened chatting away.
Then at ten o’clock the doors opened and in we went.
The day was a blur, not helped by my abdominal pains returning, and my carefully planned route didn’t happen.
Here are some of the highlights, that I can remember.
Meeting Annie from Bad Squiddo Games (https://thedicebaglady.net/) and showing her one of her figures I had painted.

This photo has been shamelessly lifted from https://mugodice.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/my-salute-2016/

The Oldhammer meet-up at the Foundry stand. This was sparsely attended but it was nice to meet some of the people I know from Facebook and blogs.
I dropped off my “Souvenir” to Mantic, see previous posting.
A rather cool Mad Max game, apologies as I can’t remember who did it.

Picking up my copy of Open Combat, another Kickstarter I’d backed.

https://www.secondthunder.com/
A bonus was that I met Gav Thorpe there, he writes for GeeDubs Black Library and I regretted I didn’t bring along one of his books that I had brought for the trip.
I met Alan and Michael Perry, Paul Thompson and Chris Cound all old White Company compatriots.
At Heresy (http://www.heresyminiatures.com/shop/) I was humbled to meet Andy Foster and showed him that the Dragon is on this years painting list. Apparently most are still in their boxes. Mine will not be, July to be precise, when my airbrush corner is set up in the workshop.
I entered a Heavier Metal speed painting contest and won that round, and a Salute goody bag, and got to keep the figure which was cool because it was on my shopping list.
In the prize goody bag was another Salute freebie figure which I gave to Mr. David Wood who then promptly gave me some of his own figures.
http://deartonyblair.blogspot.co.at/2014/03/dtb-minis-now-available.html
He made me promise that I would paint them. So I had better do that.
I left the show in a haze of discomfort and can’t really remember much else about the show. Luckily I’d scribbled some notes down otherwise it would have been quite a slim posting.

The next day I went to hospital. They would have sent me away with a packet of paracetamol had I not mentioned that I would not be able to see a GP for a few days as I was visiting and I was concerned that my urine was a rich teak colour.
I got admitted immediately and was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. I ended up staying four days in hospital and missed my flight.
Don’t talk to me about the food, I refused to touch it. Not even the head of catering could provide a full ingredients listing.
Anyway I’m back in Austria. I had my gallbladder removed as it was full of large gallstones. You can talk to me about the food here, beef-steak with fresh asparagus, stuffed chicken breast with pesto mini dumplings.

So what have I been up to during radio silence?

Posted on March 10, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Well I haven’t been painting prolifically as I have been mostly working on the house.
I joined a Facebook group called 1houranight which sets monthly targets and this has been keeping me motivated.
Anyway here is a selection of work. Apologies for the variable quality of photos, one of this year’s targets is to set up a little photo set-up so I can take decent photos.

The Adventurer, his Concubine, his Accountant and his Bodyguard.
These are from Moonraker Miniatures and are part of my Rouge Trader collection.

This was a Christmas present.
It’s from Mirleton. I was disappointed to find out that there is only one pose of this as I wanted a small unit of Skaven cavalry.

Another Christmas present a Female Orc from The Dice Bag Lady aka Bad Squiddo Games.

This is from Scibor and I bought it because a friend of mine is really into Dwarves. Seriously into them. And the thought of one of his little men consorting with one of the hated enemies will drive him to dispair.

This one is from Spellcrow I think.

This is Ozzy. He was a giveaway from Casting Room Miniatures. An offshoot of Foundry. Sculpted by none other than Kevin Adams. This plus a sale and free postage was too good an offer to pass up.

This is a test paint for my Imperial Guard Ogryn unit.

Some armour for my Imperial Guard. I think I may have gone over the top with dust and mud.

This is from Kromlech. They are doing some very characterful Orks and Goblins. I have my eye on some more Goblin Pirates.
Anyway that is a round up of most of what I’ve painted. That I can remember. Sometimes I am getting a bit “Senior”.

A bit more detail about the “Fun”

Posted on May 7, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

April saw me not terribly motivated and to try and get out of the rut I decided to paint some single figures that were started or primed but not finished. Just for fun.

First off was this figure: General Sir Eddard Sharp. He was a promo model for the Arcworlde Kickstarter Sculpted by Alex Huntley, basically Mister Arcworlde. Alex’s sculpting is not polished, he is very talented and his style is very characterful and great to paint. Very like the Battleforge Halflings that I painted a while ago. He deserves our support, he’s only twenty and if he is putting stuff out there like this now imagine what amazing stuff he’s going to be producing in ten years time when he’s hit his stride.

Second off was this fellow. Again sculpted by Alex, this is The Big Chief of the Jungle Gremlins of Chaq-Itza.

Then it was my beloved Snotlings.

This guy was a cheap plastic robot that I picked up from a charity shop. He’ll be joining a few others in my “Not” Imperial Guard Army.

Finishing off with this from Puppets War. A proxy Deth Kopter in my 40K Ork Army.
They all need a coat of matt varnish just to seal them.

Splashing paint for fun. The results

Posted on May 2, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

This is what I achieved this month, some new and some finished off. They now need a coat of matt varnish then I’ll post better pictures and some descriptions of what they are.