It’s Christmas Eve, time of writing, and I’ve set aside some time to sit down with a beer and look over what I’ve been up to this month.
To be honest, I didn’t get a huge amount of actual painting done. I’d run up a massive queue of miniatures that needed a second coat of varnish, so that took up a lot of my hobby time. However, I still managed to do some painting. All of it Chaos-themed.
My next project is imaginatively titled “The Beastie Boys”. These guys are exclusively from one of my favourite miniature companies, Knightmare.
This herd of Chaos Beastmen will ally with my Chaos Warriors in large-scale games, or fight against them in Real of Chaos-themed skirmish battles (using the Open Combat or Song of Blades & Heroes rulesets!)
I’d expect to have this lot finished in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for a dedicated post about that. And if you’re reading this around the time of release, thanks for keeping up with my content on this humble blog. Wishing you all the very best for 2021!
This month has all been about Dungeon Saga, by Mantic Games.
I recently picked the game up (along with the Adventurers Companion expansion) and quickly burned through all of the miniatures in the box.
There’s also plenty cool dungeon furniture included, so I’ve slapped some paint on those pieces too.
The standard of boxed game miniatures comes in for some (justified) criticism at times, but I was seriously impressed with these. They were a lot of fun to paint. Here’s my full write-up on working through them all.
The Adventurers Companion supplement gives you the freedom to create your own characters, parties, and stories.
These minis are predominantly designed for Oathsworn’s Burrows & Badgers game.
They’re full of character, and a joy to paint.
I selected each of these anthropomorphic warriors to replace the four original heroes in the Dungeon Saga box. Here’s my full write-up on that.
So that’s the bulk of my work this month. I’m now looking to get back to finishing off my retro Chaos Warrior warband before the end of the year.
What about you? What have you been up to recently? As always, feel free to post your own links and updates in the comments section below. I’d love to take a look.
The end of October sees Bedroom Battlefields celebrate its first birthday. Who knew that one year ago, when this humble blog was launched, it’d go on to become one of the most influential voices in the tabletop miniature hobby?
I mean, I didn’t, because that hasn’t actually happened. But as one of the few folks who does read this thing, I salute you!
Anyway – what did I get done this month. A decent amount of stuff, as it happens.
So I’ve spent the past couple of months researching ‘dungeon crawler’ games, and finally settled on Mantic’s Dungeon Saga (and expansion pack, The Adventurers Companion). As you’ll see, I’ve tentatively started to splash some paint on the miniatures, too.
I found an old Space Marine miniature from my recently unearthed childhood collection, and I gave him a lick of paint. I hadn’t painted a Space Marine since about 1997.
The Terminator minis will be up against these Soviet Heavies from Konflikt ’47. Again, I went for a quick and simple paintjob, but they’ve turned out alright.
I could never go a month without painting something by Knightmare Miniatures. This Chaos Champion has just eaten a very hot curry.
If that’s what his head looks like, can you imagine his… no, let’s not go there eh…
Another restored childhood mini was this GW Warhammer 40k Imperial Assassin. Just a guy, in Lycra, who likes to kill stuff from a great distance. Very impressive, mate.
Finally, I completed a warband of goblin archers (again, by Knightmare). These were good fun to paint, and relatively quick to get through.
So that’s the fruits of my labour for the month of October 2020. What about you? Painted more stuff? Possibly. Made a better job of it? Definitely. Stick your links and/or updates in the comments section below and give us a wee look.
One of the big positives of keeping a productivity blog is looking back at how much you’ve achieved over the past month. Obviously that swings both ways, and some months I’ll reflect and think “is that it?”. But September has been quite fruitful for me.
I did this trio of Chaos baddies. The beastman and archer were old Battlemasters miniatures. The multi-limbed champion is by Knightmare Miniatures.
I’m always banging on about the Oldhammer aesthetic, and that prompted me to do a roundup of Oldhammer Miniature Companies I’m aware of.
Javvo the Productive – Chaos Multitasker
Another company with a great old school aesthetic that I like to buy from, are Midlam Miniatures.
I needed some additional fighters for my village militia units. More on that a bit further on.
Oathsworn are another miniature company I’m a big fan of. Here’s a Starling Rogue that I painted up.
This Plague Apothecary (from Warmonger) is a miniature I’ve had for a while, and finally got round to slapping some paint on it. I’m trying to get better at big smooth flat areas (like capes and coats).
I’m not 100% happy with it, but practice and progress beats perfection every time.
This Lovecraftian horror is another Midlam miniature. A really cool little figure.
In terrain news, I found this standing stone I’d “made” as a kid (circa 1995). I very nearly threw it out, but then decided to give it some TLC.
A bit of a zenithal priming and some Citadel contrast paint had it looking much better in no time.
Seems to work pretty well on the battlefield, and makes a nice addition to my terrain collection (with added nostalgia factor, too!).
It was a big month for movement trays. I bought a pile of these ‘Infamy Mob’ trays from Warbases.
I like the way they house units that wouldn’t look quite right formed up into neat, organised regiments.
I now have 2 completed village militia units.
These guys are a mixture of goblins and snotlings.
Whilst these are exclusively snotlings. They’re from the old metal blister packs where they were all meant to be based on the same little square, to act as a swarm in Warhammer or 40k.
Here’s the classic Krell miniature leading some modern-day GW skeletons into battle.
And more modern-day GW miniatures – this unit of Chaos Marauders I’d finished up last month. I have 10 more still to paint, and those will form up a second regiment.
And that’s about it. As I say, not a bad month looking back on it. I’m starting some new projects but I’ll save those for my October update. In the meantime, what have you been up to? Fire a comment and a link down into the section below. As ever, I’d love to take a look!
“The nights are drawing in” is a common bit of smalltalk you’ll hear at this time of year. And whilst the inevitable death of summer is a bit depressing, it does potentially mean more time painting and playing with toy knights and goblins.
This month for me was really about making progress on the things I’d started in July. I finished my first squad (or unit) – is it a squad or a unit these days? – of GW Chaos Marauders. I enjoyed painting these guys, despite not being a huge fan of modern GW minis. I’ve been big into Viking fiction this past year, so I think that’s where the inspiration came from.
With these guys it’s very much a wash and drybrush job. So I picked out a few minis from my to-do drawer to mix it up a little. An old Chaos Barbarian Archer and Beastman from the wonderful Battlemasters game of the early 90s. On top of those, I threw in a Chaos Raider Champion from the brilliant Knightmare Miniatures range.
I bought myself a new thing too. I grabbed the Frostgrave 2nd Edition rulebook after hearing Dan talk to creator Joe McCullough on the Paint All The Minis podcast. I’ve had a few leaf-throughs so far, and it looks fantastic.
Aside from that, I’ve been very well behaved with not buying new stuff. I have an ever-growing wish list, but I also have plenty unpainted miniatures to warrant these new ones remaining unpainted on someone else’s shelf.
So that’s where I’m at with everything right now. How about you? Feel free to post your own hobby updates or blog links in the comments below. I always like to read through them 🙂
Lockdown ain’t what it used to be – at least where I live, anyway. There’s more opportunity to get out the house these days, it seems. That’s obviously great, but the painting output has taken a slight dip.
Nevertheless, I said last month I’d hopefully finish this small band of Perry Miniatures bowmen, and I did. They were multibased on a strip of wood from Homebase. I’ve got 3 more identical units I plan to get done, though they’re not on my immediate to-do list.
Must be hard work for the lads having to dig up and re-plant these wooden stakes each time they move in a game. But I’ve seen multibased units who have to carry trees and ponds around with them, so it could be worse.
I’ve massively enjoyed Song of Blades and Heroes so far. Such a good skirmish game. I picked up its sci-fi companion Mutants and Death Ray Guns too. Rogue Planet is also one of the most innovative rulesets I’ve ever seen. Here’s more on both.
A game of SBH in full swing. Note that it uses 3 wooden rods to measure distances, rather than a tape measure. This seems simple and unimportant, but it makes such a difference to the flow of a game.
On the painting table are a squad of Terminator Genisys Endoskeletons (was there ever a better film than Terminator 2?). I’m also about to tackle some Soviet Heavy Infantry from Warlord Games’ Konflikt ’47. I’ve never played K47, I just really liked the look of them. That’s the way of it, eh!
Finally, here’s a Chaos Marauder I’ve named Frosty Jack, due to his white mane. I’ve still to add his shield on, but I’m pretty chuffed with him so far.
What have you been up to yourself this month? Always enjoy reading the comments, so pop your own update (or a link to it) in said comments section, and I’ll have a look!
I’m going to go against the grain of my usually self-deprecating nature and say I’ve made a qualitative leap this month.
After feeling like I’d plateaued with my painting (and not on a very high plateau, at that) I decided to try something new. I set aside some time to dive into the world of YouTube, and came away with the intention to try Zenithal priming.
I’d never heard of this method until recently. Basically, you undercoat everything black, then spray a lighter colour (white, or one of the contrast base colours) from the top down, hitting the areas the sunlight would, and leaving the shadows darker.
I felt this seemed to give me a much better starting point with a miniature. In fact, it almost felt like cheating. I’m not saying what I’ve done here is going to impress anyone other than myself, but it’s a decent leap forward from everything I’ve done up until now.
This little fellow might be familiar to kids from the HeroQuest era. He’s a goblin from the Battlemasters game, from around the same time.
The other minis here are mainly from Midlam Miniatures. I’m a huge fan of the “Oldhammer” vibe of their characters. Last month I painted some of their Kev Adams goblins.
Going up a level with my painting has got me thinking about all the miniatures I’ve painted in the last 6 months, and how I should strip them and start again. From all the advice I’ve seen online, this is a dark and ruinous path to go down. There be dragons, as the saying goes.
The final Midlam piece I’ve painted this month. He reminds me of a pub landlord who’s having to fetch his sword and sort out yet another brawl outside his premises. I picked up the much-recommended Song of Blades & Heroes rulebook recently, and will definitely be using these guys in my first warband.
In other work, I’m a lot less impressed with these guys. To be fair, this was just a quick “get them ready for the table” job, using about 3 paints. The first is a unit of knights from Perry Miniatures. I had built and painted 6 of them last year, and this was me finally getting round to the rest. Because of this, the bases look a little different. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, though.
These Perry bowmen are going to be multibased on a strip of wood. They’ll be in a row of 6. I’m looking forward to seeing how that turns out. I should have it finished by this time next month.
I mentioned last month that I’d picked up some GW minis for the first time since my return to the hobby. The Necrons I bought are an absolute disgrace to build (alright, maybe it’s just my lack of skill, but let me have my soapbox) and they’ll be getting sold, or given away very soon.
The Chaos Marauders, on the other hand, I quite enjoyed putting together. The first one was good fun to paint, too. I actually managed to do some “proper” eyes on him. These were primed with Citadel Grey Seer before my Zenithal adventure, but I’m still happy enough with my work.
Finally, I managed a game with my new 6mm terrain. I invited the wife up to the spare room for some “hardcore six”. I think she misunderstood me. She looked fairly glum sitting there in her fishnets, repeatedly rolling ones, and wrapping her knuckles with a tape measure.
“I told you I’d give you a right pounding”, I said.
Update number 6 eh. So that’s me been doing these wee posts (amongst the other content on here) for 6 months now. How time flies, and how the world has changed in dramatic ways during that period. None of which has anything to do with me buying and putting paint on tiny little warriors.
And that’s exactly what I’m here to talk about. May saw me complete a trio of Kev ‘The Goblin King’ Adams’ gobbos from Midlam Miniatures. I’ve always loved his work, ever since I was a kid in the early 90s leafing through the pages of White Dwarf.
I bought some modern-day Games Workshop minis just before things shut down. They arrived recently, and I got to work building them. The Chaos Marauders were a lot of fun to put together. The same can’t be said of the Necrons, if I’m being honest. Unbelievably fiddly and a gruelling task for my clunky layman’s hands.
My adventures in 6mm wargaming continue too. I got my delivery from Baccus, containing some lovely roads, rivers, and bridges. I’ve started painting them up and here’s a few early ‘work in progress’ pics of my battlefield.
That’s what I’m chipping away on at the moment, then. Hoping to produce some final result pics by the end of June.
What about you? I always enjoy looking through other folks’ hobby progress. So if you’ve got a blog or site, be sure to pop a link to your latest update in the comments section, below!
I’ve managed to get through quite a few things in April. We’re currently in lockdown, though I’m still (fortunately) able to work. This has shaved around 2 hours of commuting time off my weekdays though, and weekend recreational opportunities are very limited at the mo. A good excuse to crack the paints open…
Last month was heavily focused on painting skeletons. I was in the market for some palette cleansers, and had discovered a horde of childhood miniatures recently. I decided to try my hand at this classic Warhammer 40k gretchen. I swear I used to have about 8,000 of these.
I’ve also been drawing up plans for some battles at 6mm scale. I ordered these superb medieval/fantasy buildings from Total Battle Miniatures.
I was basing the little cone trees on Fimo Clay, and I decided to try a sort of hill-based defence too. At this stage, it looks like a particularly gruesome pair of falsers.
I’m really looking forward to getting a game with these. I’ve been using scaled down Kings of War rules, and the troops are by Irregular Miniatures.
Back up to 28mm, this big guy from Oathsworn Miniatures was a lot of fun to paint. My painting is still very early stage, but I’m always trying to improve and learn with each finished piece.
I also repainted the old Krell miniature I found from the 90s. I’ve ended up giving him a bit of a “meth mouth” but I’m quite pleased with how he turned out.
That’s all for now. As we head into May I’m starting on some Kev Adams goblins by Midlam Miniatures.
I also got a few blog posts out this month, so be sure to have a look around if anything takes your fancy.
At the time of writing we’re in the beginning of what is likely to be a long lockdown here in Scotland.
As Nurgle’s rot sweeps the planet, we’re being asked to stay at home to assist in the control of the disease, and avoid putting too much strain on the Imperial Medics.
Hobbyists can play a small role here by locking themselves in isolation, and working through their piles of unpainted minis.
Over the past month I’ve finally been able to finish my regiment of GW skeletons. They were enjoyable to paint, but – as is the case with most units – I’m glad to be done with them. It’ll be good to move on and try something completely different.
I’ve called this unit Isaac Bonefingers’ Skeleton Guard. Isaac himself is a plague apothecary from Warmonger Miniatures. His “assistant” is an old GW metal ghoul.
The skeletons were fun and interesting to build. As is the case with GW minis, they’re incredibly detailed and well made.
I’m still learning the ropes with my painting. I used Citadel contrast paints on the bones of the skeletons, and the remainder was done with my “minimum effective painting” technique of drybrushing over a black undercoat.
I do want to try and be more adventurous though. I’d like to test myself and learn some new skills. I decided my next project will be to work through an eclectic pile of miniatures I own.
Some here are quite old and were found in the attic. There’s also a couple of beautiful Oathsworn pieces which look like they’ll be a lot of fun to paint up. A good opportunity to have a proper play with the Citadel contrast range.
So that should keep me busy for the next month as we ride out the pandemic. I also have some new board games to play with the wife and I’ll be doing reviews of those in the very near future too.
What have you been up to yourself recently, hobbywise? What are your plans for the coming month? Give me a shout on Twitter and let me know.
Stay safe, stay responsible, and use this time productively!
