Not Noggin the Nog

For many of you I expect you are unfamiliar with the works of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. Their work was a staple, along with Thunderbirds, of my youthful viewing schedule. Charming animations made by moving pieces of painted paper around.

Nogin the Nog was one of them. You can read a little about it here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noggin_the_Nog

Why am I bringing this up? Well a friend of mine, David Wood, had a Kickstarter a few years back to produce a set of figures based on the series. And rather nice they are too. They are on my to do list for this year. As a plug you can buy them and many more lovely things here…

Now Mr. Wood has a new Kickstarter for some totally not related at all fantasy football teams.

These do look rather lovely and if you are a fan of whimsical sculpts, especially of Martin Buck, I would recommend you have a peek.

Starting off 2023

As promised here are some photos of this years painting progress. One plan for this year is to have a dedicated space for photography. At the moment I am taking them in a variety of places with different light sources. No consistency in quality or standardisation. One I have everything set up I can work on fine tuning white balance and depth of field. Ideally I want to revamp my gallery, maybe trying to look a little more professional….. just an idea.

The first few were half-done figures that had been sat on my desk for over a year and just after Christmas I emptied my desk and finished them off.

A mad scientist. From Crooked Dice
3D printed dice cup for my Orc Bloodbowl team
A Grot tank, cobbled together from stuff from the bits box. My first attempt with the Dirty Down Rust.
From Crooked Dice Colony 87 range. I started this on New Year’s Eve and almost finished it that day.
This comes from EM4 Miniatures (I think) I really enjoyed painting this one.
Might be another EM4
Again from Crooked Dice Colony 87
Again from Crooked Dice Colony 87
Again from Crooked Dice Colony 87
The Duke, his Wife and his Daughters

I am building up a collection of scifi NPCs which I rather enjoy painting.

Display cases

Dagger and Brush wanted to know what my display setup was. Here is my response.

You will have to excuse the poor lighting, a project for this year. This is the current state of my hobby room. it tends to be used as an overspill while we organise the house.

This was my first display case, from Ikea about twenty five years ago. I thought that I would never fill it. Little did I know.

After moving over here i got these two from a second hand store.

I have recently just got these two. I should really have been a bit more patient because the shelves are only just bigger than A4. Holes have been drilled to add more shelves. The cabinet on the left has nine shelves from its original four and the cabinet on the right has (or will have) twelve shelves. As the bottom shelf was directly sat on the floor and I have built a plinth to raise them up. I have to admit to some pleasure in being able to go to my workshop, cut some wood on my circular saw and make it there and then. Trips to the local recycling are called for to get glass for the shelves. Again (thanks to my Post Grad in Glass) I have the tools and experience to cut the glass to size and linish the edges to make them safe. Illuminating the shelves will be another project for this year.

Hooray! The dragon is slain!

Some of my older readers may remember my prevarications over the last few years. Well no more! It is done.

This big old beastie was brought to you by Heresy Miniatures.

https://heresyminiatures.com/shop/

Updating

So that’s the Summer done and dusted. I have been a little slow on the progress reports. A combination of laziness and the Black Dog.

Look forwards to a flurry of updates, well maybe one or two. Let’s start with the painting done before Electric Love.

These two are from the Old School Miniatures range. “The Circus of Corruption” Jamie sent them to me and it seemed rude not to paint them up.

https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/circus-of-corruption-15-c.asp

More from Jamie. These are from the abolutely gorgeous Gnomes range. This is part of the Baggage Train. I swapped out the goat and replaced it with a snail which I thought was more appropriate.

https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/alpine-gnomes-3-c.asp

As you might have guessed I love this Gnomes range of Jamies. Some scenery is forthcoming from me and this is the first.

Next up is from Alternative Armies. This guy will be used in my Beastman unit in my “Not” Imperial Guard Army.

GRN53 Zarglain High Prefect

I couldn’t get (rather couldn’t afford) the Beastman Squad Leader, so I settled for this guy from Forgeworld.

More updates on the painting coming soon. KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES!

 

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Part Deux London

SELWG itself.
The memories are now hazy, blurred by a trip to Legoland and a week in Vienna setting up an eSports event.
Laughingly called a sport, in my opinion, as most of the contestants would have problems touching their toes let alone running for the bus. I did leave the event feeling slim and socially capable. So that was a nice plus.
Anyway I digress.
Again it was a beautiful autumnal morning and I arrived in time to hand out some of my business cards to the queue. It did result in a spike of viewings but not a lot else. After that I got a little overwhelmed by everything.
I looked at all my indicated places of interest and said, “Hello” to a friend from my reenacting days. He now runs Early War Miniatures, specialising in 20mm World War One.
https://earlywarminiatures.com/
Luckily I was rescued from my bewilderment by two Oldhammerers. There was a loose plan to meet at the Foundry stand at midday. Mark Stevenson of Asgard Collectors.
http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/2017/03/asgard-miniatures-1979-catalogue.html
And Ian Smedley. They took me to a nearby hostelry and regaled me with tales from the early history of miniature gaming over a nice pint.
I wandered back, slightly more relaxed, and made a few purchases. Not as many as planned though. Some of the figures were a little disappointing to view in the flesh and some bits I should have preordered as traders don’t always bring their full stock. Then I got into a fluster about what I should or shouldn’t buy. Probably the best plan is to make a plan and buy as I go.
I did manage to get in a game of Gaslands. Another interesting set of rules from Osprey. This one is car combat set in an apocalyptic background.

This game was a Zombie Bash presented by Essex Warriors
http://www.essexwarriors.org/
As I was overwhelmed by everything I didn’t manage to take photos of the event. However this blog did.
https://wargaminggirl.blogspot.com/2018/10/selwg-show-2018-games.html
Afterwrds back to my gaming buddy’s place and up at sparrow’s fart to get the early plane back home.
https://mugodice.wordpress.com/

SELWG 2018

I really do have stacks to talk about, but the prevarication beats me. And of course the longer you leave it the worse it gets.
Anyway, I’m flying off to jolly ‘Ol Blighty tomorrow to attend this show.

I’m hoping this will be a better trip than when I last visited the UK. Sadly my gaming buddy Seb, https://mugodice.wordpress.com/ can’t visit with me due to work commitments.
Lots of photos and news when I return on monday.

Not Imperial Guard Beastmen

I think I have found some ideal figures to represent Abhuman Beastmen in my Not Imperial Guard army.
Moonraker Miniatures Phagons were in the running, but these popped up in my news feed this morning.

This comes from Albedo Combat Patrol Miniatures Game
http://acp164.com/
There will be a Kickstarter later this month so I will keep updating with more information.
So now the search is on for this miniature to be the squad Leader.

The OS Miniatures Company

Recently I got a parcel containing some miniatures from The OS Miniatures Company.
https://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolMinis1985/
This is a company aiming to fill the gaps in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle army books. Obviously with an old school feel.
So here are some images of what I have managed to paint so far.

A cheeky little chappie blowing his own trumpet


A Chaos Barbarian. This is part of a challenge to be completed before Christmas.



A Chaos Dwarf Arse Cannon.

Test paint


A Work-in-Progress shot of the whole group of Alpine Dwarfs

Hobby Cheating

I have just stumbled across this YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/PhatWOP001/featured
By a guy called Vince Venturella.
Full of interesting little nuggets of information. I’ve just watched one on oil washes which makes me want to ditch my Army Painter Quickshade which has been my goto solution for just about everything.
Now to find time to watch the other hundred or so videos.

Dark Imperium


This, I expect most of you know this already, is the eighth iteration of the Warhammer 40K rule-set. I hadn’t played since Rogue Trader, the first iteration, back in the eighties.
I was lured to this by a new streamlined ruleset and the promise of not having to lug around armfuls of codices like the previous editions.
Something simple for me and the Boys.
I used the money earned from gardening towards this coupled with a discount from my “Local” (ha ha) gaming store.
The box is rather beautifully presented and it feels value for money. Fifty odd figures, thick rulebook and dice etc.
No complaints there.

A unit of Pox Walkers from the box


Top left, an old Chaos Marine from the eighties. Centre three figures from the Death Guard “push-fit” box. Rear right, a plastic Chaos Marine from the nineties?


Also purchased were three Index books with the stats for the new rules. Had I have known that G’Dub were going to publish new codices immediately I wouldn’t have bothered and saved myself some money.
I visited my local WARHAMMER store to introduce myself to the new Red-Shirt and in chatting mentioned that I was a bit peeved about the time gap between Indices and Codices. “Well I knew that!” I was helpfully informed. “But I didn’t. Me customer, me spend money. Peeved customer not spend money.”
That didn’t go down too well.

Some little bits done before Electric Love

I did manage to do a few bits and bobs before and during my time at Electric Love, but I don’t seem to have photographed everything. I plan to remedy this before too long.

This was inspired by the Blanchitsu articles in White Dwarf and I rather liked the floaty bits that people had made. This is part of my ongoing Imperial Court which is slowly building up.

This is a little speeder I’d lasercut and will be putting up for sale.


My old gaming buddy Seb had sent me some figures. With them was this halfling which I liked but just didn’t quite know what to do with. So rather than having it sit on the leadpile I thought I’d paint him up and return him. I had a blast painting him and I made the most impractical gaming base ever.

This was the Mayor of Helsreach, a freebie figure from Curtis of Ramshackle Games.
http://ramshacklegames.co.uk/
He was given out at the annual BOYL event at Wargames Foundry

Home


I really want to go to this one day.

Yet more prevaricating

Earlier this week we took a trip across the border (luckily nobody mentioned the war) to visit the Hans-Peter Porsche Traumwerk. A new toy museum in Bavaria.
Link here http://www.hanspeterporsche.com/
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This was a really well laid out and beautifully curated museum, and as is typical of Porsche no expense was spared.
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An unusual camouflage scheme which I imagine would be hard to do in real life


The lighting was a bit too subdued to take proper photographs which was a pity, but you have to also understand that they are also conserving the exhibits. Upstairs was a large collection of tin toys. This description does the displays somewhat of a disservice as the exhibits covered circuses, zoos, ships, a small amount of military, fire engines and of course trains. Lots of them.
There was a gallery looking down to the main attraction, a vast train layout.
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Again this is an understatement. There were wall projections of clouds and a lighting sequence that cycled between day and night. Clouds passed over the mountains and an immersive ambient soundscape.
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I’m not really a train person, but I wouldn’t mind tapping into that market, so the trains weren’t all that exciting. But the scenery was to die for.
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Really well done, again it was attention to detail. You would look into the windows of a house and see that it was fully furnished.
Well worth a visit, but bring sandwiches as the restaurant was expensive (I’ve never had a meal that has been up to scratch in Germany) and the kids adventure playground was very well designed.
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So how is the Dragon going I hear you ask.
Well…..
I am going to stick with the colour scheme, but I have been prevaricating. Again.
Continuing the Undead theme and the Bob Olley addiction.
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So now I have a command group.
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And this chap, sculpted by Justin Coutange from the Oldhammer community.
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This was another entry to the Warhammer Salzburg “Spooky” painting contest. I finished him with a couple of days to spare, but I didn’t get into town to submit him.
Late news.
The figure that I did enter came second, so not too bad.
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And finally this figure from Grimskull Miniatures. A bit T&A but I thought she would go nicely with my Raging Heroes Not DKK army.
So there you have it. Time to tidy the desk and knuckle down with the dragon.
Honest!

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