Decent Exposure

Image property of Atlantic Publishers

Image property of Atlantic Publishers

Sometimes good things happen.  One of todays good things is finding out that my corner of internet toy soldier-dom got a small but complimentary mention in an article in Miniature Wargames Magazine #381.

MW381_P39

I havent got my hard copy of the magazine yet (although I have my people working on that) but this is what the article said concerning sho3box:

————–

• sho3box.wordpress.com
As I get older, I have realised that I hate talented
people. Cheetor (by name, though not I hope by
nature) regularly turns out absolutely beautiful
figures and game boards, using a wide variety
of figures from different manufacturers and not
just old Citadel lead. It should also be noted
that while Cheetor uses the background from
Rogue Trader 40,000, most of his games seem
to use Pulp Alley rules, proving that one does
not necessarily hahave to be Oldhammer to play
Oldhammer.

————–

Isnt that nice?  Exactly the sort of thing that one is glad to hear on a cold January Monday.

Edit: I have put a link to the full article above.  With the article now included I heartily encourage anyone who enjoys any of the items on this blog to check out the others listed in the piece.  Every one is well worth your time.

 

2014 = 144 Painted Miniatures

I got 144 miniatures painted in 2014.  It is a pretty decent total.

Deffkopta6

#1 – #3: Ork Deffkoptas

"Give it up for... Mushroom Klowd!!!!!"

#4 – #6: Goffik Rokkerz, “Mushrööm Klowd”

Blood Axe Human Advisor

#7: Blood Axe Human Advisor

Pod7

#8 – #9: Deathworld Jungle Pods

L to R: Spiker Victim, Spiker, Imperial Assassin

#10: Deathworld Jungle Spiker

VenusManTrap

#11: Venus Man-Trap

More Man Traps

#12 – #13: Venus Man-Traps

A big ol' pod.

#14: Deathworld Jungle Pod

Pod3

#15: Deathworld Jungle Pod

#16 – #30: Deathworld Mutant Plants

Venusian Mantrap

#31: Venusian Mantrap

Sedition Wars techno-organic terrain pieces.

#32 – #41 – Deathworld stuff (Sedition Wars technorganic virus things)

PodClixGroup

#???: nine refurbished Horrorclix miniatures. These could arguably be counted as part of the tally, but I am not going to.

DeathworldJungle10

#???: Very, very many jungle terrain bases. Im not going to count these in the tally, but they took ages.

Judge MacO'Conihoonihan

#42: Emerald Isle Judge MacO’Conihoonihan

#43-44: Ork Drummer and Drum Kit

#45-51: Renegade Runtmaster Zodgrod Wortsnagga and Super Runtz/Ninja Goblins

#52: Gretchin Zero (left)

#53: Loor Scout

#54-55: Notorious G.I.T. (centre) and crony (far right).

#???: Carnivorous Sand Clams.  Again, I could arguably include these in the total I think, but Im not going to.

Helga - now with orange trim

#56: shuttle/lander/lighter “Helga”

#57-#68: Campsite

#68-#74: Spine Crystals/Perilium/Kryptonite/Warpstone

#75-#76: Portaloos

#77: Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Jodorowsky

#78: Tenebrainian Cerebalite

#79: Deadzone Chovar

#80: Yellow Gyrinx

#81: Sensei Ramirez

L'Oreal Wangst

#82: L’Oreal Wangst – Eldar Outcast

#83: Friskers the Gyrinx

#84: Milo the Space Eunuch

#85: Honoured Imperium Marble Aquila

#86: Ursa Miner Cyber-Slayer

#87: Honoured Imperium Marble Space Marine Statue

 

#88 – #91: Bouncers

#92 – #97: Skabsquigs Skallywags, Mr Killgore and Swabs

#98 – #100 – Deadzone Marauders

#101 – #106 – More Skabsquigs Skallywags

#107 – #108: Kaptin Fiddy Teef and Mr Scuttle

#109 – #114: Gretchin Skallywags

#115 – #121: Dead Body Objective Markers (Judge Death not included)

#122: Mushrööm Klöwd Tour Bus

#123: Big Billy & Crackers, Troll and Parrot Space Pirates

#124: Ash Wastes Nomad

#125 – #127: Rippy Fish

#128: Ambull

#??? – Battle Systems card terrain. Im not including this in the tally, but considering how much time it took to get it to it modular state, I felt the need to document it. It definitely ate into my painting schedule, although I think that it was worth it considering the gaming opportunities that it provides.

#129: Char’lee Krown, alien plant person

#130 – #133 – Dryanids (space tree people)

#134 – Space Santa

GINGER1

#135 – G.I.N.G.E.R., cyber-gyrinx

SpaceSkeleton8

#136 – Space Skeleton

#137-139: Steev Tylork, Klem Fandangorkk and the NoyzKraft Kustom 200 sound desk

#137 – #139: Steev Tylork, Klem Fandangorkk and the NoyzKraft Kustom 200 sound desk

#140 - #141: Brainboyz

#140 – #141: Brainboyz

L to R: Avaran Treebeast, Yndij Reaver, Convict Grogan Thug

#142 – 144: Avaran Treebeast, Yndij Reaver, Convict Grogan Thug for DreadBall Xtreme

Some of the items in the tally are small, quickly painted affairs while others are far more significant in terms of their size and the corresponding resources that they demanded.  I figure that those differing subjects balance out in general, so each counts as “one thing” in my total, whether its a tiny cat miniature or a big shuttlecraft.

Although the work that went into preparing the Deathworld jungle was very significant and a number of items from that project feature, I didnt count anything that essentially amounts to an unpainted/prepainted item that was glued to a base and subsequently textured.  The jungle was a lot of work and required all my free time for a couple of weeks, but most of the elements do not really constitute painted miniatures.  It is a fine line though.

Similarly, the Battle Systems card terrain took ages to punch out and assemble into a modular state.  That time was all hobby time that I could have spent painting (and frankly I would have preferred to spend painting) but it doesnt show up here.  Work on terrain is definitely worth it of course, but getting the balance right is tricky.

The total output is down ~25% a bit on last year, but I knew that 2013 was exceptional in terms of turnover.  I had a slow down, not quite a total slump in output from around August until late November due to a variety of mainly good real life things taking up my time.

Paradoxically some of the extra time that I spent gaming with these and other models ate into time that I could have spent painting, which is a weird conflict of interests.  The gaming side of things was busier for me than usual this year, which is great.  A few different factors contributed to that (Pulp Alley, getting together with the O’Hammerers, extra enthusiasm from my oldest gaming buddy PB, the trip to BOYL and the games that I played with the guys at that, the Sector Six Crossover project, a few other things).  Best of all is that many of those games played had literally been on my to-do list since 1988, so the year was one of the very best in terms of gaming really.

Finally, posts containing my painting tallies for previous years can be seen via the links below.  They show changes in painting style and subjects and a slight improvement in photography (I think) in addition to experimentation that didnt always work out, but its all there if any of you fancy taking a look.

2013 total: 192

2012 total: 159

2011 total: 145

Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to comment on my toy soldier-y corner of of the internet over 2014.  I have a whole load of other projects in various stages of production that should start to materialise very soon, so hopefully I will get to chat with some of you again in 2015.

Happy New Year!

Fan Service

Mosha, Smash, Basha and Ziggy explore D minor while waiting for Steev Tylork and the sound engineer to get back from rehab.

Mosha, Smash, Basha and Ziggy explore D minor while waiting for Steev Tylork and the sound engineer to get back from rehab.

Yesterday Asslessman over on Leadplague posted up an image of a Rogue Trader themed civilian model that he has been working on.  Its a fun conversion of an old Citadel fantasy drunk model with the addition of a Walkman and some 80s rocker stylings.

Of particular interest to me is that the retro futuristic rocker turns out to be the sectors number one fan of the galaxies least punctual glam/death/prog/speed metal band, Mushrööm Klöwd.

Space Metalhead by Asslessman at Leadplague.  Click on the image to check out his post.

Space Metalhead converted and painted by Asslessman at Leadplague. Click on the image to check out his post.

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Sector Six Crossover Finale

SectorSixCrossover1

If you don’t like intergalactic secret agents leaping out of explosions to punch space nazis with glowing, powered gauntlets of righteous, high-tech fury, then do not click this image.

Regular readers may be aware that a hand picked selection of my toy soldiers – consisting of Inquisitor Verhoeven, Astropath Patrick O’Blivion and Gunslinger Rosa “Digger” Stone – has been sent across the Atlantic/through warpspace to Sector Six to help out with grave local issues.  A few details of how the narrative driven Flat Stanley-esque project is intended to work, plus links to each of the games in the series can be found here.

That project comes to a close on the Governor General of Sector Six blog today, in a great looking game featuring exploding aircraft, leaping decapitations, spaceship strafing runs, space nazis, genetic infantrymen and of course, three of my toy soldiers mixed in.  I strongly suggest that you take a look, its a pretty unique and inspiring looking game.

Seriously, take a look at this…

Check out Inquisitor Verhoeven in the middle of that.   Bad. Ass.

Check out Inquisitor Verhoeven in the middle of that.
Bad. Ass. 
By the Holy Throne, click the image!

My genuine thanks to Maj. Guiscard, the Governor General of Sector Six himself for making the entire process fun, pleasant and memorable.

 

Eldar Exodite Plans

exoditeBlanche
I am working on Exodites at the moment.  None of the project elements are fully finished yet, but progress has been made.  This post is an exercise in getting a number of my thoughts down in one place, so it might meander a bit.  Here goes…

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Ash Waste Nomads and Battle Systems Terrain

AshWastesNomadsIllustration1

Hobby progress has been slow since the return from BOYL, with a combination of the usual disruptive effects of late summer/early autumn slowing down output.  Slowing down output, but not halting progress.  Behind the scenes I have been working on two projects.

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2014 So Far = 100 Painted Miniatures

100 people, not entirely dissimilar to the 100 miniature people (and not-people) that I have painted so far this year

100 small/far away people.  Not entirely dissimilar to the 100 miniature people (and miniature not-people) that I have painted so far this year

As in previous years, I wrote a post on my hobby plans for 2014 back in December or January.  This year I never got around to posting it for some reason.  Anyway, the essence of the painting plan was to paint more 28mm sci-fi of various varieties and so far this year, the plan has been adhered to.  Below is a visual record of everything that I have made game table ready since January: a very satisfactory and very surprisingly rounded figure of one hundred miniatures.

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Sector Six Crossover

This weeks special guest stars...

This weeks special guest stars…

Sho3box Towers received a sub-space transmission from the Governor General of Sector Six a while back.  The Governor documents a narrative driven, regular series of games on his blog that that I enjoy reading.

Purely for the sake of fun the Governor proposed that we each play a handful of games that key off each other and document them in each of our blogs.  An added element would be a Flat Stanley sort of arrangement that would feature some of my miniatures guest starring in the games featured on the Governors blog and vice versa.  As the Governor is based in the USA and I am based in Ireland it added an extra play-by-mail element that made it sound like an entertainingly different project to get involved in, so I happily agreed.

The Ambassador Blanche-Andres of Sector Six, incognito.

The Governor set the scene with a little foreshadowing in his Secret War II: The Trap post and set things in full interstellar motion in Secret War III: Missed Rendezvous.  Those developments led to regular Sector Six protagonist Ambassador Sophie Blanche-Andres shedding her formal diplomatic attire for her less familiar black ops wardrobe.  The Ambassador then made the long interstellar journey from Sector Six to the last known location of Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Vladimir Verhoeven, the jungles of Krellborn IX

Batrep to follow.

EDIT: The three games played as my part of this project are:

The final game, taking place over at the Governor General of Sector Six blog is:

Five Years Old Today

Space_Channel_5_logo2

 

I try to avoid writing posts without new miniature content, but I figure that five years is a genuine milestone.

WordPress just informed me that today is the fifth anniversary of the day that I started this stupidly named blog.  I originally intended to use it as a dummy blog to feel my way around and then start a “proper” one with a “proper” name later (I really wish that I had called it “Scale Creep”, then I could be “Mr. Scale Creep” or “The Creep”) but you can see how well that worked.  Suffice it to say that I got a bit better at blogging eventually regardless.

Ballpark I have documented about 600-800 miniatures here since I started.  I must check the total sometime, but as the mission statement was to document my hobby output, then it has been a success.  In fact, blogging about the hobby has caused both the quality and quantity of my miniature output to increase in addition to all sorts of other unexpected benefits (reduced ageing, ESP, that sort of thing).  Go Scale Creep!

Genuine thanks to anyone who has ever taken the time to comment on my tiny corner of the miniature world.

2013 = 192 Painted Miniatures

A gallery of the 192 miniatures that I painted this year. 192 is a record annual total for me.

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