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Let me begin by saying I apologise for the cheesy title of the blog. It is really to demonstrate what I wanted to talk about today. I have recently reached the milestone on Facebook of 101 likes. Which, after over a year may seem actually a very slow achievement, but I'm okay with that. I haven't been pushy with my blog, My goal hasn't been an exercise in social media engagement, rather a personal journal of hobbying and sharing with like minded individuals that are genuinely interested.

 

I wanted to do an online version of the conversations I have with Illustrious Opponent, Brother in Law and other wargaming friends. I have since discovered that there are an awful lot of people doing the same thing. I hadn't really come up with an original idea, but thats okay. I'm not trying to monetise this, I'm not turning adverts on, I'm not trying to sell my wares.  

During lockdown this has also become a way of keeping my chums up to date with what I'm up to. Although when we can get together again for a pint I'm not sure what I'm going to talk to them about!

I recently joined a Facebook group out of idle curiosity. The group claimed to be for bloggers to share tips and tricks on getting your blog noticed etc. I thought it would be interesting to see how non Wargaming bloggers are doing this as well. All the posts in the group seem to be geared towards monetising though and their blogs are writing about how to monetise or advertise blogs. There are no blogs on just "stuff", like crafting or hobbies. It all smells of a pyramid scheme to me!

So, recent painting? Well over on Twitter a chap going by the name of Sonic Sledgehammer came up with the idea of everyone painting the same model and posting pictures of it with the same hashtag, not as a competition, just as a shared community project. You can see his announcement video here.

 

Go to Twitter and look up #paintinglathgertha, there are some lovely paintjobs. Now regulars will know I have already painted a mounted Lathgertha from Bad Squiddo for my Dragon Rampant army. The blister set actually comes with Lathgertha mounted and on foot, so I already had the model ready. Those that didn't, Bad Squiddo Annie temporarily arranged for the Shield Maiden on foot to be available individually.

So, here is my final paint job, I was inspired by the film Brave, where the main character Merida has a massive head of bright red hair, so I then looked up the tartan pattern her Father is wearing in the movie (she actually doesn't wear any tartan in the movie, just a plain green dress) and gave her a tartan cloak.

 

 

 

 

Also on the painting table I have finished my Bad Squiddo gnomes. I've based them up on three bases for a Dragon Rampant army. Surely there is nothing more terrifying than a swarm of killer gnomes sweeping across the battlefield charging at your ankles.

 

 

 

 I took a delve into my wargaming storage this weekend with the youngest sprog. We had been looking at my rule books and he wanted to see evidence that I had all the Space Marines and Grey Knights listed therein that I was showing him. Obviously the pictures in the books are a lot better paint jobs than my own, but yes I do have some of those "cool space dudes", so we were having a look to see if anything would inspire maybe a small tabletop game. (I'm thinking not 40K rules as I don't think he's quite ready for that, but something simpler.) Whilst delving a few things were kept out that needed some repair work or paint touch ups. One of of which was the following.

 

These Necromunda House Escher gangers from Games Workshop are over twenty years old now. I've always had a memory of my early paint jobs being terrible, but actually I'm pretty proud of these. Apparently my younger self was conversion obsessed. I couldn't buy a model without finding a way of hacking off a section and glueing something else on.

I'm a comic book fan as this page can attest, so I took some inspiration from Tank Girl and attempted some tattoos.

Apparently when my vision was younger and my hands were steadier, I could paint eyes! Not something I do anymore. The shotgun barrels do appear comically overlarge at this angle.

 

Apparently I decided they only wore black leather or camo. Minimal primary colours in my Grim Dark Future. 

Finally with some more comic book inspiration I present my hired gun with a head swap. Against better judgement I took him along with me on my interview for GW back in the day. (you can read the terrible tale here) Apparently the interviewer was not a fan of conversions. It's my version of James O'Barr's the Crow. If I remember correctly the head is from an Eldar Guardian, no idea where I got the crow and gravestone from. More black leather. In fact my weekly walks down to the local GW back then I would be dressed head to foot in black with my long leather coat with the Blood Angels pin on the lapel. A look I am afraid I could definitely not pull off today. (I probably couldn't back then either.)

 

Photographing him was tricky, the all white face reflects a lot of light, so I had to go for a moody lighting look.

Looking at all the models I hacked at back in my youth and now looking at what the untouched versions go for on ebay now I sometimes regret some of my enthusiastic conversions. This guy though, I'm really happy with, I would do it again in a heartbeat. In fact I have two more of the same model. I just don't have any more Eldar Guardian heads. I wonder what they go for on ebay...