Unproductive? Maybe not.

Hi folks,

It's been a few weeks since my last update on the blog, and I do try not to leave it too long without posting something. No progress to speak of painting wise, once the AHPC challenge ended my painting mojo just went with it. I think this might be linked to it being my 3rd week in the house and 2nd week of full time working from home. I spend all day at my painting desk, and when it comes to evening time I'm struggling to pick up a brush.

Things I have done, however, include setting up a table in one of my spare rooms just to take some pictures of bits and bobs. I've since moved the setup as I wasn't getting a lot of light in it's initial placement, but I've not done anything else with it since.

I also spent a fair amount of time working on an article for the Flames of War site. I'm not sure if it will see publication as it was pretty heavy going - basically trying to focus a little bit on Anti-Tank unit markings and where the M10's attached to a formation might come from and what markings they should/might have.

On a whim last week, I dug out my old BFG ships, which have been languishing for some time. I sorted a few bits out and sprayed them last weekend, but beyond that have done nothing. I also bought a few bits for them off eBay, specifically some 3rd party ships in the same style. These came with spare prows, which I had the bright idea of using to fix up some 'reclaimed' Imperial hulls (which had been badly converted into Ork ships).

On a side note, if anyone has any Ork ships for this game they would like rid of, give me a shout!

The new ship - an merchant cruiser for my Rogue Trader fleet, along with the reclaimed hulls using extra prows and other spares. These will be based on 'Lathe-class Monitor Cruisers' - effectively light cruisers designed for long term exploration operations.  

You can see the state of the recovered hulls from the two at the front. I've ordered another of the merchant cruisers to do as a pure merchant ship, which will also give me the prows to sort out the other two hulks. 

This took a little work, which I actually really enjoyed.

The light carrier (rear left) needed some bitty work to replace a backwards launch bay and add some other parts, but was otherwise a simple clean up and then a fix for the engine area (detailed below).

The right rear ship took more work. The upper hull was so badly damaged I ended up turning the whole ship upside down. I swapped the gun bays to be correctly orientated (there is a narrow top and a thicker bottom, with the ship now being upside down, these were then wrong). I added a bridge in front of the previously ventral (now dorsal) fin. This was clipped out from a Chaos cruiser bridge I'd spare. The 'conversion' to Ork ships had included the crude cutting out of the middle of each engine area to add in a 'fin'. I replaced this fin with a section taken from the previously cut up Chaos bridge, to add a rear detail. Obviously a warm place to be on the ship, but it works visually. I'm planning to do the same with the other two hulls.

I may do some green stuff work when all four are done, just to tidy them up a bit, prior to spraying.

I also prepped and primed a unit of 10mm Camel riders and a unit of spearmen for my For Joshua project. I based some of the Orc's I'd been given by John, but ran out of bases so had to order more. Post seems to be slowing down, as it took a fair while for the bases to arrive, despite being posted fairly locally. In fact, I had several day's worth of mail arrive at once.

When these arrived, I started work on bases for all the stuff still on the shelf. I used 3 packs of 50mm by 100mm bases, along with a load of dice cell packs to make up 30 bases. I now need to paint these brown before I can start putting figures on them. Then they will need sanding and static grass. However, I am pleased to have made a start and I'm hopeful I can start showing peoples contributions again soon. I know there is more stuff coming, but appreciate international post (and getting to the post office) are all issues just now.

I also dug out the 15mm armoured cars which had been in the works prior to Joshua's death last year. These have been checked and a few broken off bits glued on, and they are now back in the painting queue. I'd like to make progress with these this year, but want to break the back of the planned 10mm stuff first.

I ordered the paints I think I will need for my Cruel Seas ships, which is another thing to do when I find my mojo again.

I've also started a new chapter of my ongoing DnD campaign, allowing my players to start with level 1 characters as a bit of a side game while their main characters do some town building. And now, based on the BFG ships, I'm thinking of also running a Rogue Trader game. Given no-one can go anywhere, seems the perfect time to run some games.

And lastly, I am taking part in a play by mail/social media 'Wild West' game being run by DaveD. Seems to be working out so far... more on this later!

So looking over all of this, while I've not been painting it's not like I have been idle - just not productive with the hairy sticks. I've still an article to do for the AHPC challenge, showing off all I've done over the 6 months. I've held off as I'd like to get a picture of some of the stuff I was also given during the challenge, but I may do that separately. As an aside, my 10mm human force hasn't been posted to my blog, which I also still need to do! It was nominated for 'challengers choice' and can be voted on here. To be honest, I thought my diorama I did for Dave was my best work of the challenge, but I am honoured to have been nominated.

That's it for now - hope everyone is staying sane and safe. If anyone wants a hobby chat, drop me a line - always happy to arrange a google hangout just to chew the fat.

James