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I am very, very jealous.

Welcome back!

67 bulkheads, imagine the possibilities! I went off into a daydream about building them into a real life house, but you'd probably need even more.

I'd forgotten about that tiny cardboard watchtower from 4th edition Fantasy Battle, strange seeing it pop up in those eBay photos. I had an Amelie gnome moment wondering how on earth it got there. Once upon a time that was the only scenery I had, many a battle was fought for control of it, useless though it may appear.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:Short update- I'm working on getting back to Dakka. I've cleaned out my gaming space and I have been putting all of my "hobby" attention into organizing my workspace and focusing on improved terrain. I have no pics to share yet but they are coming.

I hadn't been to eBay in a quite a while but by chance I was surfing it for fun the other day and went with an impulse. I am very happy to share that I scored this massive haul: http://www.ebay.com/itm/270975698404?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

67 plastic bulkheads. Wow. All the other stuff is great, but the modeling possibilities I have coming with those bulkheads are staggering. I'm not going to do anything with them until I finish some projects I have open right now, but I expect they are going to go rather fast as it's essentially creating "area" terrain from the hundreds of little bitz I have already painted. It's part of my attempt to bring more things into play and provide more options for my gaming group. It doesn't matter how cool something is if it never gets used, and if it never gets used there's likely a good reason. No one is going to stack 15 barrels by hand, so I'm creating area pieces that have have the barrels (crates, etc) glued to it, thus making it more function for setup and more visually striking as part of the overall layout.

My Death Guard and Cult are on extended hold and will not see any additional attention until after 6th Edition has been released and I fully understand the rules. In editions past I have made the mistake of working on models that were suddenly obsolete once the new edition was released. And even then I am skeptical the DG will see any major upgrades or inclusions unless there is a clear 6th Ed benefit of my doing so because 10K+ points of DG catapulted me way past a playable army and landed me smack in the middle of unhealthy obsession.

Pictures of terrain coming in the next couple weeks. I would sincerely prefer to make that happen sooner opposed to later because I genuinely miss being here, but I'm going to hold off on nailing down a specific time frame as chaos is not only on my tabletop these days.

Hails to all my Dakka buds that read this, and welcome to anyone new just checking this out. I'll be back with content as soon as I can.

Welcome back my fellow new englander. I look forward to seeing your latest constructions.

welcome back skalk, old chum... that was a huge absence of yours... just yesterday i thought of you and your terrain thread...coincidence? hmm.... well that ebay haul is verging on the massive... totally looking forward to more of your stuff here!!!

cheers, vik

Huzzah! Terrain's a great change of pace I find; I anticipate good things!

Skalk! Good to see you again - I've really missed seeing your updates. Hope you managed to get everything sorted in your absence. And that is one hell of a haul, can't wait to see you put it to use!

Welcome back!

Welcome back bud!

I'm joining the league of men who envy your 67 bulkheads.

Wow, did you guys all still had me subbed? I hope to reward your faith in my return with truly epic creations that awe and inspire.

@ tipios- Yeah, me too. The test sets I've built have turned out quite well I think. Pictures coming soon.

@ Briancj- I am stunned that I walked away with that for less than $100 (including S&H). If the auction had been only the bulkheads and nothing else, it would have been only $1.48 per bulkhead. But wait, there's more! I get barrels and a barricade and lots of great templates I can trace onto plasticard! Dstein sent me the link to the Necromunda building template PDF and it was very awesome, but this... this will endure the ages if I take care of them properly (which I fully intend to do).

@ Bruticus- I am honored and humbled by your attention to my meager efforts and lacking results. Dstein sent me the link to your thread a while back and I was staggered. In my opinion you share a top seat with a very small and elite class of master terrain builders. Your table is truly an inspiration for me and is a standard to strive for. One request I have of you (and everyone that read this, btw) is to call me on my shortcomings and point out when I cut an obvious corner. Sometimes (especially once a project is reaching the 90%+ finished stage) I inexplicably say "good enough" and post pics of the "finished project". I've been busted for that a few times and the reworks has always resulted in a superior finished product. Appreciate you checking out my work and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work as well. (for anyone that hasn't seen his thread, click here )

@ Galorn- Hails from your Northern Neighbor! Man, the Sox are tanking this year, eh? New terrain stuff coming as soon as I get pics and a couple hours computer time at home.

@ Vik- Thanks for stopping by and posting! I really miss the camaraderie here. I had no intention of being gone so long and I'm not completely "back" yet, but it's going to happen. Really excited about those bulkheads. I am very much looking forward to getting to work on them as soon as I have completed the other projects I have on deck. Now if I could only do something about those rivets...

@ inmygravenimage- Terrain is the only thing that will be on my table every single game, and is the only thing that is almost completely guaranteed to still be on the table at the end of every game. I'm hoping to produce some quality pieces that take my project to the next level (whatever that is...) and I'm looking forward to sharing it here. Thanks for stopping by.

@ Scarper- Thanks! I'll have some new stuff soon, and I think you'll see the difference from the older stuff. Not so much in skill but in concept and application. I'm really hoping that my time away has given me a fresh perspective on what I want to do. We'll know soon.

@ dsteingass- Hey, wow! I need to catch up on your project, it's been too long. In fact I have a LOT of things to catch up on. I think the next rainy weekend I have I'm grabbing a rack of beer and doing a lot of reading / commenting. I'm going to take an extra day just for your thread. What's it up to now, 800 pages or something? Ha. Looking forward to catching up w/ you soon. And oh yeah... jealous much? http://www.ebay.com/itm/270975698404?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

@ Moltar- It's like a class reunion! I will have to count up the total number of bulkheads I have now. It's going to be a ridiculous amount, which means I'm getting close to having just enough where I don't feel like I need anymore until 1/4 of these are used for something. Ha.



Ok, that was just lame. It's been so long since I posted that I had forgotten what I was using for a divider (but at least I remembered the coding this time...). I really want to get back to working on projects and start posting here again, and all of you are the reason why. I could do this stuff in my back room all by myself, but this is way more validating and rewarding. I post on Dakka because I enjoy the community, and you guys ARE the community. I am doing everything I can to get back on track and make good things happen again. Thanks for sticking around, thanks for reading, thanks for being so cool, and I'll be back as soon as I can.

Welcome back man!
Can't wait to see what You come up with all that goodness...

Yes..you suck!

So, you're back?... For real?

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Oh, and 67 bulkheads?

Now get back to work!

@ SelvaggioSaky- Thanks for checking this out and taking the time to comment. It's a huge motivator for me and it's appreciated.

@ dsteingass- I finally feel a little balance now. That monstrous haul of plasticard and rods and tubes etc you scored many months back had me twitching with jealously. Not that I'd have actually DONE anything significant with it in the same timeframe that you did, I just wanted it.

@ Hyenajoe- It looks like it. Making a genuine effort at least. I'll have some of my recent work to share soon, just need to take the time necessary for pics and upload.



Not an "update" per se, more of a reminder for myself so I don't forget the ideas I just came up with. I just re-read this thread and looked at what I have done so far. What kept coming up time and again was the techniques I was using and the results they provided. My #1 challenge was cutting the plasticard and I'm not looking to repeat the things that stagnated my progress. Cutting by hand w/ a hobby knife was a slow process and frequently resulted in uneven cuts. I addressed the uneven cuts by filing them down, but again the results were less than I had hoped for. This process was annoying and was instrumental in my waning interest to continue.

Recently I've been getting back into woodworking (mostly for home repair) but part of that was using my jig saw and table saw to create the area bases that the fiddley bitz (barrels, crates, etc) are being glued to. After some consideration I had an idea- if I can use my power tools to create bases w/ hardboard, maybe I can try those same tools to cut the shapes I want for my platforms, support struts etc? Why not use my drill to cut hatch holes? Why not use my sander to create a rough textures surface?

If I have any time tonight I'm going to take a test piece of plasticard ("test" meaning I won't miss it if I ruin it) and try a few of these ideas. If it works out I'll post pics. If it doesn't I'll just say it didn't work. And yes, I know... power tools ignore armor saves, so I'll be careful. I imagine my motivation to model would suffer a significantly negative impact if I were suddenly missing a finger or two.

More coming as soon as I have something to share.

Two tools kitbashers/scratchbuilders NEED:

1) A chopper, be it from Micro Mark or from NWSL. Make repetitive cuts a breeze.
2) A good bone/hacksaw and a cutting jig. Cheap, easy, guaranteed straight lines.

I have been using a guillotine paper cutter (the one with a base, and the long bladed arm) to make very straight, very long cuts in plasticard. It can handle .040" easily, and the base has a measuring grid.

None of these tools are overly expensive, for those of us (like me) on a budget.

--B.

I just wanted it.

perfect justification for any buy really^^

@ Briancj- Dstein told me to buy .04 but of course I bought the .06 because I was concerned w/ stability. Then I learned it didn't fit my bulkheads (had to chop the slots to make it fit) and when I tried my guillotine paper cutter it made a nice curved cut because it cannot manage the thickness. It wore out at least half a dozen Xacto blades during the limited progress I achieved, didn't work well with the "score / snap" method at all (was more like "score / bend card / score / bend card more... repeat until *snap*) and really dragged the entire process down.

*sigh*

But all is not lost. I have ideas for the plasticard I have and learned a valuable lesson- listen to people who get results.


@ Vik- Really, isn't that the justification for almost all things we do? Ha.

exactly^^

Equipping your workshop is NEVER a want/need issue. It is an investment that the bank cannot take away


Automatically Appended Next Post:
..unless you finance a giant CNC machine in your garage or something silly like that

silly?...what wonders one could build wit one of these... but on a handmade craftsman level of course...silly^^

Welcome back Skalk, looking forward to seeing what you do with all those bulk heads!

@ dstein- I think nowadays if the bank can't get the $$$ out of you they just kill you. I remember hearing something about that during the Wall St protests. It'll be an election topic later this year I suppose.

@ GiraffeX- Good to be back. Hoping I can keep up.



Ok, first true update in months. Here we go.

Around Dec / Jan I started having an incredibly difficult time with this entire hobby. I've joked about my ridiculously unmanageable miniatures collection, the incredible amount of "scenery" parts and bitz that filled numerous boxes, and the constant revolving mess that moved from one part of the room to another. The entire situation had become overwhelming and I had to accept that in order for it to change I was going to have to let some things go. I asked myself what was going to go, and to my surprise the answer was "almost everything".

Once I realized what had to be done, I made it happen. I've spent the last few months sorting through every single thing I had, from small boxes full of little tiny broken bitz to monstrous plastic totes and 4X8 sheets of polystyrene. All total I removed 5 contractor bags of "scenery materials", probably a dozen or so moving boxes, and well over 1,000 models / miniatures. As of last weekend (my final cleanup) decades of hoarding things in the name of Wargaming ended.

I can see the concern on your face. Don't worry, I've kept the really cool stuff. I'm keeping my CSM, WoC, Genestealer / Chaos Cult, Tyranids, IG, and VC Undead. Admittedly it is still a considerable collection, but it's manageable and easily stored.

I have no regrets and with the reclaimed space I have created the most organized and functional game / hobby space I've ever had in all my years of doing this. Here are some before / after shots. I wish I had taken some actual "before" shots before I started this massive haul out, but the pictures from over the ages will provide enough representation of what was compared to what is.

The old days:

Notice the boxes of junk under the table. Also notice the incredibly plain terrain and my painting table covered in junk:
052212_10

Random boxes of junk under my painting table and random tool / miniatures / misc junk hanging on the wall by nails:


This is what my bench looked like on a good day. I would clean it up again and again, but in a few days it was like this again, usually much worse:


Going forward:



Organized and efficient with purpose and order. Most significant above all else is that my table is now collapsible and allows me to take the 4X6 down between games. It has re-opened the room for all sorts of other things from jamming music with friends (table down completely) to M:TG and regular boardgames. My daughter has even started doing her homework on the folding table.

From L to R my "current projects" shelf, and also a can of my smaller rods / pipes / etc that are too long to fit into a drawer. Items on this shelf are officially "on deck" and my efforts will be to complete these projects before starting anything new. Top of desk is similar to what it used to be, except I removed an unnecessary lamp and replaced it with more storage that allows me to sort my bits more efficiently. Bottom of desk where I store every remaining peice of terrain building material I kept. For the very first time it is sorted and I know where everything is. I have unfinished buildings that are not "on deck", my unfinished Pegasus Hobbies Gothic Ruins (which takes up the entire drawer, I have a lot of that stuff), my "wood" collection of balsa, poplar, coffee stirrers and similar wooden things. I also have all of my unpainted scenery that is built and based black but not on deck, a collection of formed plastics like GW bulkheads, cake pillars, styrene card, and a drawer full of random plastics like old military model parts, O-Scale terrain, and selected broken toys that will find new life in the Grimdark. I also keep all my gallon paints and scenery flocking materials here. In the corner I keep my yard stick, foamcore board, and a poster mailing tube full of long rods and trim for new buildings later on. Disregard the amp, it belongs to my friend and it's only there because it didn't go home last time we jammed.



Closeup of the "on deck" projects. Details coming later in this post on what I'm actively working on.



A closeup of the desk. I didn't know how annoying that flash reflection was until I saw the pic on my monitor. Sorry.

I took some pics of where I am storing my completed terrain now but they came out pretty bad so I'll re-take them later for another post. That said, on to the new projects!

(by the way, say "hello" to Dark Lord Caen. He was my favorite and most frequently played Chaos Lord from 2nd Ed. He's graciously agreed to provide scale for the following photos. And yes, he wants to rip the soul out of your body and offer it to the glory of Chaos United)



I have dozen and dozens of loose bitz like this. Crates and barrels make up the vast majority of that collection and while they had a specific purpose in Necromunda (a single barrel provided Hard Cover) they haven't seen much time on the 40K table. I want to change that. Here's a few examples of where I've taken loose bitz and put together small area terrain that is easily accessible, quick to set up, and has both functional and aesthetic value.









With the exception of the black crates and barrels above, none of the pieces are actually glued together because I need to finish detail painting. They are put together to show where they will end up once finished. I expect a lot more detail, and I'll be using a lot of random bitz from the various IG plastics, Necromunda, etc. Stay tuned because these will start cranking out soon.

I've also decided to re-purpose all of my old Epic rooftops into playable 40K terrain. Here's an example of what I'm trying to do:



I'm not sure how it is going to work out completely, but the layouts I've done have had some interesting combinations and I expect things will work out well.

Remember the bland rock scenery (and bland tabletop) from the first picture? Here's what's happening to change all of that:



The tabletop is my 4X4 sheet of plywood that I did a test on. It came out really well I think and I'll be taking my 4X6 outside to give it the same treatment in a week or so when I buy some more paint. It's a simple mix of flat black latex paint and a bag of those tiny crushed rocks you can get at a craft store for a few $$$. Let it dry and then hit it lightly w/ a can of flat gray spray primer. It would be optimal to have an airbrush to do this with, but I'm going to hold off on that and keep going as best I can with this method for now.

The ledges have the same treatment. Ledge on the left is one I already had made and it just got resurfaced. I need to repaint the "ledge" effect to clean it up, but overall I really like the look of it and feel it is going to come out very well for the table overall. The ledge on the right is brand new from a chunk of foamboard that I cut into terrain a couple days ago. I didn't have a place to store it as a chunk of foamboard, and when I cleaned up the room I got rid of a lot of my old ledge terrain. The pieces I kept are going to be resurfaced and repainted. The space I created by getting rid of the stuff I didn't really use (poor design, etc) is where I'll be storing my new ledge terrain pieces.

Here's an example of old meeting new. These are both hatches I made for Necromunda (or an objective marker, or whatever). The hatch on the left was built just the other day and is almost finished, just needs some weathering and washing. The hatch on the right was built back in '96-'97 timeframe for Necromunda. It was repaired as I found the broken pieces during my cleanup and sorting. Glad to have it back. It needs some work but it still has a place on my tabletop.



Another thing I've been wanting to do for a very long time is make craters to represent destroyed vehicles. As they are right now they will at very least satisfy the game requirements of indicating difficult / dangerous terrain. Once I am done with these they will look very different. I have drawers full of bitz for Rhinos and Land Raiders. If this works out well I'll be doing a few for IG tanks as well.



Lastly, my first official completed scenery piece since October 2011:



It took me a few minutes to do that. The pieces are from an O-Scale model set and came pre-inked. Lame? Maybe. Looks great? Absolutely.

That's it for this one I think. Hope there's enough content there to have kept you busy for a few minutes. I can't make a genuine prediction of how long I'll keep this up, but it feels a lot different this time. I've already noticed a positive change in how I model- I stop projects early so I can clean up before doing something else so every time I return to the table it is clear and ready to be worked on. The cleanup is a quick process because for the first time everything has a specific and intentional place. And because I know where absolutely everything is (and within easy reach) I get more work done in less time on any project I am doing because I'm not spending time looking for something.

Huge thanks to my wife and my friend ktbb22 for all the help and support during this process. And a huge thanks to all of you that stuck around during my absence. The feedback I get here is always welcome and is a great motivator. But more importantly to me is the camaraderie I've found here. There's quite a collection of personalities on Dakka, and you are some of the coolest ones I've met. Thanks for helping make me want to do this.

More coming soon!

Yeah, sometimes you just have to purge the crap, to uncover the treasure. The hard part, of course, is NOT GOING BACK.

Wow! I (know his good that feels! Congrats!

Loving your work. Subbed!

that´s got to be the most epic cleaning up and reorganising job i have seen... my hat is off to you sir!... i am still in that state of regular small scale cleanup work myself... seems i have to mature one day like you did... all cleaned up like this i really can imagine that your hobby engines are finally kicked into high gear again...

the whole update for yo was more than worth the long wait... all these very interresting upcoming pieces... specially the epic rooftops idea is "ground" shattering^^... the tank craters i am particularly interested in seeing soon...

anyways... i hope you can keep it all clean and tidy from now on... for me that would be the hardest part... your desk before looked all to familar to my own^^

Very nice Clean and sort. Very nice indeed.

That's one heck of an update. Also, my wife now concedes my mess is not completely awful.

Oh you have the same little plaster crates that I have, and bizarrely you have one on a little palette like I just made. What a strange cosmic coincidence.

Did you ditch the magnifying lamp? Was it no use or did it break? I like the idea of those but I am not sure if I would get annoyed with it pretty quickly.

Great, now get some more posters to cover that hideous wallpaper and you'll be set

I kid, I would spill blood for a workplace like that.

lol... now i have noticed the wallpaper too and i second the suggestion for more posters^^