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I'm glad to hear your family has all recovered, and I wish your father to complete is recovery quickly. Nice work on what you accomplished in 2020, and I wish you a bright future.

Trying times indeed Ragsta, best of luck to you going through it.
Nice looking setup and lightbox though, looking forward to seeing how well it works with these incoming infantry...

Chiming in my support as others have done, good to hear recovery is going well for your family and it's good your father is able to get home. Family members in hospital is tough for everyone.

You've got plenty of infantry to work on! Keen to see how you get on with them.

Thank you so much, guys. I really appreciate your kindness


I have actually been rather productive recently (still currently employed but that will likely end very soon). However, I still have lots of basing to do and don't really want to show you WIPs yet

I want to continue cataloguing my whole collection, and as such here are the beginnings of my rather worryingly significant collection of random robots!



These pictures are my first tests of the wee light tent I picked up. I added an additional lamp behind the camera to remove some shadow but I am pretty pleased with the result. Plenty of improvement for me to work on no doubt!

The two wee dudes come from Zombiesmith miniatures and they are adorable - if you like random sci fi and Rogue Tradery style miniatures then give them a look. The big droid is a kit bash using Warlord Games Gates of Antares pieces. I like the idea that the two small droids guide their more ponderous big brother around the action only to hide behind him when things get rough!

A collection of random robots is never really a bad thing to have I think! Lovely big robot and the two little ones have plenty of character to spare. Nice basing too of course.

Cheers bro! Appreciate the love, and the Zombiesmith sculpts really do have character. Glad you're cool with the basing!

I'm slowly learning the ropes with the light tent - it's a cheapo set up but I'm liking the pictures so far. I'm working hard to have the paint jobs look as life like as I can, even if it highlights where I need to improve!!

More robots for the horde - I promise they're not all painted green and white but there's a reason for it that may become apparent eventually..!



Pig Iron Productions do some really nice stuff - these are from their War Droids set with bio hazard heads from Max Minis. They could make nice alternative Ogryn for techy Guardsmen or of course Ad Mech :rolleyes: Really enjoyed weathering these guys up.

I have around 50 infantry to base up now - it's been a bafflingly productive start to the year and I'm not even a bum yet! Officially unemployed as of Monday...

Good luck with that really liking those Wardroids with Stargrave on the way the Pig Iron stuff is looking tempting.

I love the bots. I am a sucker for a good green and white color scheme - always one of my favorites. The basing is truly impressive. Where do you get that large variety of plants?

Llamahead wrote:Good luck with that really liking those Wardroids with Stargrave on the way the Pig Iron stuff is looking tempting.

Thanks Llama! Yes, Pig Iron would be great for Star Grave, they have so much variety. My Flexberg use lots of their sculpts amongst their infantry.

The Riddle of Steel wrote:I love the bots. I am a sucker for a good green and white color scheme - always one of my favorites. The basing is truly impressive. Where do you get that large variety of plants?

Thanks for the love, Mr Riddle, I really appreciate it. Yeah, I'm braving painting white more and more often now, its a fun colour combo but there will NOT be any Biel Tan in my future thank you!!
Glad you like the basing! I wanted to inject more flavour and a sprinkling of colour into my projects some time ago, so I started pimping them up a little more. I mainly use tufts from Tajima and would recommend them for quality. Serious Play Scenics for some more variety plus Mini Natur for sheer volume of l'il dead tufts


So I have been unemployed for two weeks now. I'm slowly ramping up on actually finding work again. Good news is my dad had a very positive post operation report from his doctors, so it looks like the family are continuing to be fortunate where it matters We have also recently fostered two guinea pigs (the warhamster is not impressed) so that is keeping us occupied!

Some pictures of my old collection to keep people amused - I have a HORDE of new toys to show you but they need their basing finished as I have previously mentioned. I don't want to take short cuts- I must stay strong



Some kitbashes I cobbled together using my bits box. I didn't really know what I was building until they were finished but it looks like I've ended up with some suitably grim looking henchmen for an Inquisitor type.



We call them Perceptors, 'cos of that big ol' burning eye they pierce ya with. Don't get too close... I don't know what it is they're roving around here for and I don't want to either.
The Cogheads out at Fortuna won't speak of 'em but they don't go out after them either so I dunno - maybe they're Imperial? But that means there's gotta be someone inside there right? Yeesh...

Cool kitbashes and minis, all suitably grimdark which appeals to me. Great news about your dad too and enjoy the new furry additions to the family.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Cool kitbashes and minis, all suitably grimdark which appeals to me. Great news about your dad too and enjoy the new furry additions to the family.

Thanks chief, and I'm glad you like the builds. I like cobbling things like this together as it fleshes out the 40K universe for me. Plenty of nefarious characters that can fit and flesh things out. Maybe some good guys too? Nah...

I have been unemployed for c. 3 weeks now, so my hobbying has been chugging away quite nicely. You may have noticed my 2021 goals from earlier in the thread so we don't need to go there again - needless to say I have a small heap of models I would like to finish off sharpish so I can move onto new projects!!



I have been hacking my way through a random mob of Wargames Factory, Mantic and Victory Decision zeds and here's my progress so far. The WF sculpts were very soft but the end result came out nice. The zombie dog picture figs were not painted by me - I bought them from the mighty Wyrmalla and performed a refurb on their basing and painting touch ups. It's still progress!



Edinburgh Miniatures Company figures with parts from Pig Iron, Anvil Industry, Northstar Miniatures and Victoria Lamb. I bought them on a whim and painted them to suit my Chaos forces only to laugh when I realised they looked a bit like Death Troopers from Star Wars!



A small work in progress Imperial Guard project. I have my Flexberg infantry company but I wanted to create a smaller force to contrast with them in style and doctrine. No further info for you guys as yet - want to take better pictures with a larger force and fluff to back them on my blog in due course.


Thank you for looking. I am so very close to having a 'finished' zombie horde, a 'finished' Flexberg infantry company (HA!!! flippin' Guard...) and a 'finished' Chaos force but it will very likely take the rest of the year to beat them into submission. Luckily I seem to have the time...

You're really motoring through the minis Ragsta! How do the infantry models scale with each other? They're looking good nevertheless.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
You're really motoring through the minis Ragsta! How do the infantry models scale with each other? They're looking good nevertheless.

Thanks bro! Yes, I have a certain number of figures I really want to complete soon to get this monkey off my back and so far making good progress!

Regarding scale, these troopers scale up nicely with my other stuff. I should have said these are Tox Troopers conversion parts - here is a link with scale comparisons that the creator has pulled together: https://miniaturesofthenorth.blogspot.com/p/scale-comparisons.html


Progress continues - 9 more zeds for the horde, and that FINISHES my current collection of zombie stuff to do!! This picture highlights the limitations of the old Wargames Factory zombies - they're all pretty much dancing to Thriller... But I'm not complaining as the horde I bought ended up barely 50p a figure

I like your gritty style! Bunch of cool stuff across the pages.
I'm pleased to note I was not the only one who started a hobby blog almost a decade ago, then had a a few "short breaks" along the way

Sorry to hear about the work situation, but I'm glad that you have managed to make the best of it hobby wise!
Having hobbies we enjoy is really important during these times.

Pretty about work, but you’re properly cranking out the minis. The tox troopers looks great, must resist buying more plastic! Great job finishing off all your zombies, and will we be getting a monster group shot?

Your zombies are looking great, the flesh especially so!

Ezki wrote:I like your gritty style! Bunch of cool stuff across the pages.
I'm pleased to note I was not the only one who started a hobby blog almost a decade ago, then had a a few "short breaks" along the way

Sorry to hear about the work situation, but I'm glad that you have managed to make the best of it hobby wise!
Having hobbies we enjoy is really important during these times.

Hey thanks man! I'm pleased you like the grit And also relieved that I'm not the only one with a blog that likes to take rests haha.
Absolutely yes, having hobbies is really key in such times.

gobert wrote:Pretty about work, but you’re properly cranking out the minis. The tox troopers looks great, must resist buying more plastic! Great job finishing off all your zombies, and will we be getting a monster group shot?

For you, gobert, I promise a group shot of all the zombies ASAP. I've been working on magnetising all their bases, along with the rest of my model horde, so they can be transferred into more space efficient Really Useful boxes. Once this is done I can see about some pictures! It also has the added bonus of freeing up space in my display cabinet... Would be a shame to leave it looking so empty...

Tyranid Horde wrote:Your zombies are looking great, the flesh especially so!

Thank you sir! I do like painting up zeds, there's so little risk of messing them up eh.

While I was away I celebrated my latest birthday, which was very nice thank you. I am nearly at a noteworthy conjunction of decades appropriate to the Warhammer universe... So maybe there's still time to finish all my current projects before this time next year??!

I also have something completely different to show you - I shared a fleet of Orks on these hallowed pages many moons ago and this will be me sharing their current state. They've been bashed together using kit leftovers, pen lids and all manner of McGuffins.





I hijacked a blissfully straightforward paint scheme from The Beard Bunker for these ships - I wanted a relatively quick and dirty scheme to be able to churn out a time effective project!
It's a spray base coat followed by heavy silver drybrushing, then weathering powders. The powders I used can be found here - I'm not convinced they work quite like other weathering options but I'm pleased with the tabletop quality. The name plates come from Versatile Terrain.

I have plenty more where these examples came from, so I'll work on getting larger group pictures that don't look like bottom.

In other news I have managed to get a new job! I don't have a start date yet, and I've been warned that their HR can be between 6 and 12 weeks but I'm still really pleased! It's a total change of career for me, I'm looking forward to the next steps.

But that also means I better get a move on and churn out more projects while I have the time...

Excellent news! Those Orks in the new scheme look excellent although one thing which still bugs me. How do Orks get rusty in space?

Great news on the job, now get cranking out projects!

Love the orks!

Ragsta, I love what you did with the Tox Troopers from Edinburgh. I think your heads are much improved. It’s too bad they seem to be mostly out of stock - and not shipping outside the UK anyway - because otherwise I might be tempted to do something similar. I’m still looking for the right models and bits to do a traitor militia for Horus Heresy to align its my Sons of Horus.

I also like your zombie horde. Very bloody and menacing, with some nice variety!

Llamahead wrote:Excellent news! Those Orks in the new scheme look excellent although one thing which still bugs me. How do Orks get rusty in space?

Hey chief! Glad you like the scheme, and the answer to your question is of course 42

gobert wrote:Great news on the job, now get cranking out projects!

Thank you! I'm trying, I'm trying!

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Love the orks!

Thank you, buddy, really appreciate that.

The Riddle of Steel wrote:Ragsta, I love what you did with the Tox Troopers from Edinburgh. I think your heads are much improved. It’s too bad they seem to be mostly out of stock - and not shipping outside the UK anyway - because otherwise I might be tempted to do something similar. I’m still looking for the right models and bits to do a traitor militia for Horus Heresy to align its my Sons of Horus.

I also like your zombie horde. Very bloody and menacing, with some nice variety!

The Tox Troopers are good pieces, they need a little bit of clean up but nothing you shouldn't expect from the hobby. Glad you like the head swaps - I don't mind the originals but I like the personalisation. Yeah, Brexit has kiboshed a whole load of hobby fun - I can't get Mad Robot stuff for the very same reason :/ They might be a shot for your militia actually? And I'm pleased you like the zeds, they're always good for a palette cleanser!

Thank you very much, mate! I was really pleased with the end results, and it's pretty fun knowing none of the ships are official models either. I can get away with using them as pirates, Orks or Chaos! Probably won't stop me picking up a Chaos fleet at some point to avenge the one I sold off in the mists of time... :rolleyes:

Another picture deluge of my Reaver fleet. I have pictures of the flagship too but that deserves a separate post, I think.

While I am okay with the pictures it's clear that I still have a way to go. My lovely lady says she likes how they appear to be hanging in the blackness, so that's good - gotta love fiddling those settings eh

The smaller multi based ships are Vanguard's civilian ships. I bought some and couldn't work out what to do with them until I rewatched Serenity haha. I would use them as counts as Ramships.
There are also multiple metal Klingon models assimilated into this host - again because I had no better place to put them! They are from Studio Bergstrom's Sing On range and they are lovely chunks of metal.
Name plates from Versatile Terrain.

I stopped by to take a look through all the work and it's amazing! Love all the little different projects that have been compiled together here.

Really like those Navy Marine minis from a couple pages ago! The heavy armor bodies and Maxmini space police heads really mesh together well.
Also, I'm really a fan of all the BFG stuff you've done over the years. One of the few blogs I've seen that have such a variety of them! A true ship yard in this log. haha

Can't wait to see how log continues to progress! Also, what brad is your lightbox for your newer photos? I'm in the market for one and can't really decide.

Mate thats a wonderful fleet. Really creative use of bits and a great scheme. Love the bases of baby ships to give some scale and gravitas to the bigger ones!

Congrats on the job too mate! Hope it's a quick turnaround and doesn't get in the way of showing us more of those green robots!

Good news on the job have you checked out A Billion Suns? Osprey starship rules well worth a look.

Boxhead wrote:I stopped by to take a look through all the work and it's amazing! Love all the little different projects that have been compiled together here.

Really like those Navy Marine minis from a couple pages ago! The heavy armor bodies and Maxmini space police heads really mesh together well.
Also, I'm really a fan of all the BFG stuff you've done over the years. One of the few blogs I've seen that have such a variety of them! A true ship yard in this log. haha

Can't wait to see how log continues to progress! Also, what brad is your lightbox for your newer photos? I'm in the market for one and can't really decide.

Hello Boxhead! Glad you're enjoying my random stuff, I do have a soft spot for BFG I must say. I see you've picked up a light box now - my one isn't really worth naming as it was dirt cheap and extremely basic really

tzurk wrote:Mate thats a wonderful fleet. Really creative use of bits and a great scheme. Love the bases of baby ships to give some scale and gravitas to the bigger ones!

Congrats on the job too mate! Hope it's a quick turnaround and doesn't get in the way of showing us more of those green robots!

Thank you so much, tzurk. Really pleased you like the fleet and the basing for the smaller killers in particular. Yes, I'm looking forward to getting back to work in something new!

Llamahead wrote:Good news on the job have you checked out A Billion Suns? Osprey starship rules well worth a look.

Hello mate, great to hear from you! I've had a look at Billion Suns yes, I'm still mulling over the options. I do have a soft spot for Full Thrust - the ship building rules are great fun once you get your head around them


It's been a while since I've posted but I haven't been idle. I have been magnetising the bulk of my collection so they can sit neatly inside Really Useful Boxes. The tutorial I followed can be found here. One advantage of this is I've been able to properly organise my display cabinet so there is some structure and attractive organisation of figures instead of the mass scrum there was before - the Really Usefuls came in reaklly handy as a 'transit' stop during this process.

I have also been churning out Imperial Guard - I intend to post some group shots of my infantry company very soon.

Gobert asked for a zombie horde picture so I have decided to post the whole bloomin lot of 160 zombies in a mob of pics! You can see an example of my magnetised basing in the first picture too:



I also have some more progress on my Ork Reaver fleet, being their flagship the War Bastard. I was tinkering with this model for literally years, slowly adding more and more junk to the hulk until I was happy enough to paint it. Painting was primarily several different spray cans, some heavy metal drybrushing then numerous weathering powders.
I will have some more pictures using my starfield battle mat in the future - I have a few escort ships and cruisers that need to be touched up before then.




As we march into the second half of 2021 I have taken stock of my hobby progress in the year so far. I've managed to paint 90 models this year, creeping up on my 2020 total of 107 rather quickly!! Here's a list of what I hope to finish in the next wee while - I always tell myself NOT to post To Do lists like this on my hobby threads but it helps keep things in perspective!

3 BFG Ork escorts to refurbish (weathering powders/ some modelling)

6 BFG Ork cruisers to refurbish (weathering powders)

15 assorted Imperial Guard infantry to paint

Inquisitorial Henchman kitbash to paint

Giant lizard to paint

Giant spider to paint

Thank you everyone for looking at my pile of junk, I really appreciate you guys

Ragsta

These ork ships are astounding!
the effect it gives is just superb. a great way of unifying a rather differing and eclectic mix of ship designs.
to damn good effect. more please!

that’s one amazing shambling horde of zombies! The closer shots give a sense of a massive herd of them, so big they can’t all fit in shot! Thanks for posting, must’ve take a while to arrange them all

osjclatchford wrote:These ork ships are astounding!
the effect it gives is just superb. a great way of unifying a rather differing and eclectic mix of ship designs.
to damn good effect. more please!

You are far too kind, you know I love your own ships and their execution! Praise from the praiseworthy. I am chuffed that you see the unifying effect too, one of the few times I have ever executed some form of plan with a project like this!

gobert wrote: that’s one amazing shambling horde of zombies! The closer shots give a sense of a massive herd of them, so big they can’t all fit in shot! Thanks for posting, must’ve take a while to arrange them all

So glad you like the shots, mate! My friend also said the same thing, I'm just really pleased that my wee fellas have gone down so well!

The weather in gloomy Scotland continues to be awesome. I have recently discovered that actual daylight photos of my hobby makes me feel better about what I'm achieving for some reason. Therefore, I have exploited our front room to maximum potential while I still can!! My new job starts at the end of July, so I still have SOME time to eke out a bit of hobby...

Mr Latchford asked for MOAR PICTURES of Da Boyz, so I took the opportunity to refurbish some of the cruisers as mentioned in the last post. Oh, and post them all up here of course:



There are 4 Ravagers to be added as they need a little bashing before I consider them done. Also got the chance to use my lovely star mat that a mate got for me. Good times!

Wow! That is a massive and diverse fleet! It looks like da boyz have been lootin' from multiple sci-fi universes.