What has he been doing?

Quite frankly not a whole lot!
I have finished my room and moved in. It looks very nice, and I will try to take myself by the neck and post some pictures of the finished room shortly. Come to think of it, I do believe I owe you readers a whole lot of pictures by now. I promise to read through the blog and post a big picture post one of these days as I have most of the pictures on my computer, I just need to post them here.
The hobbyroom didn't turn out quite the way I had thought, as the furniture took a little more space than anticipated in the "design" phase. The stone walls are also a little weaker than expected, so I don't get to put up big shelves on one of the walls where I had planned to do so for my dioramas. But in some areas it actually turned out better than my fears, and I am quite happy with the solutions I have ended up with.
I managed to get my old worktable in, along with a desk drawer where I can keep my diorama stuff, two glass cupboards with lights (for finished miniatures), and shelves to store the unfinished models. I also managed to get a rack for all my Citadel and Tamiya paints set up at the wall directly over my worktable.
I got my old and faithful desk down with me, so I have the old computer and some space to do paperwork and work with stuff that doesn't smudge too much (like finally getting to build some buildings out of cardboard and stuff like that).
I also have a filing cabinet where I will keep my sheet music, so my wife can get her linnen closet back. As a big band leader for about 10 years I have collected a lot of sheet music, and it still seems to drop in new stuff from time to time. This used to float around the house until it finally got stored in and on top of the linnen closet, but now it will get a good home in the filing cabinet. This piece of furniture will also work as a stereo table, so I have a place to keep my amp and cd player.

The worktable is now filled with a 1:35 diorama of a German self propelled flak gun from WW2 (don't remember the name of it right now), and it stands on a base along with a ruined farmhouse and some trees. The plan is to make some mud, so that the flak gun stands partially with it's tracks down in the mud. This is because it was the first model I made after starting up again and I was a little clumsy with the hot iron when I was supposed to weld the tracs tight around the drive sprockets. The result was that I needed to use staples to keep the tracks in place, so that needs to be hid. Also a soldier climbing up onto the firing platform from the ground has his foot a little bit above ground, so by adding a thin layer of mud he gets his foot on the ground.

Along with this diorama is a whole lot of Space marines in different stages of production and painting. Many of them are based on Dark Angels or other special chapters and will work as elite troops in my 1st Company. They will get the look of the 2nd Ultras, but still keep some of their special characteristics. They are all based on spare parts from the bit box or pieces bought on Ebay, and some of them also gets some modification work done to them.
Also I have a cowgirl waiting for the final stages of painting. She's a little larger than the usual miniatures I build, and the plan is to mount her in a small plastic box and make a mini diorama with her.

I don't know exactly when all this will be finished, as my mother is terminately ill with cancer and is in the hospital. So at the moment most of my spare time is spent there. But I will return to my hobbyroom when I get the time and keep on working.

building update

jut a small update on the state of my room.
We got the walls and the door up yesterday, so now it looks like a room. All that is left to do now is to get the door to the storage room next door to my room in place, and build a new roof all over the basement. We will start on these tasks on friday.
Then after this is done, I can get the roof painted and put the carpet in to the hobbyroom, and then I can start to get my furniture back in. I will have to buy some new shelves, and I have an idea of what I want, but I will have to take some final meassurements before I go out and buy anything.
Then later on I will get the electrical work done, but this doesn't have to be in place before I start using my room.

Hopefully I can move in to my room in my holliday.

Why isn't there any updates?

These last few weeks have gone really fast. I have started on more Space Marines, this time it is a specialist Veteran force based on marines from the Dark Angels chapter. They will still fit in to my Second Ultras, as they have arrived to fill up the thin ranks and provide specialist expertise for the 1.st company. I haven't worked out all the fluff yet, but since they are mostly robed and mysterious looking and armed with either guns and chainswords or just with bolters they are probably there to provide expertise on hunting down a race that they know alot about. Don't know enough about the Dark Angels to say who that is yet, but I'm reading up on them and painting them in accordance with the secund Ultras fluff and adopting them into my unit. Hope the fluff is ready about the same time as the minis are finished.

If you are wondering about the picture in this post, wonder no more! This is the beginning of my new and improved workspace. The wife and I have been tearing down the old cellar walls, so all my miniature stuff (except for my mobile workstation with the above mentioned marines, two chaos knights and some paint and glue) is neatly stacked in our small sauna. I really didn't know how much 1:35 scale models and warhammer (Fantasy & 40K) miniatures I had until I saw it stacked in the sauna. Granted the sauna is small, but still it was a suprise!
Spent the last few weeks on clearing everything away and tearing down the old walls. The clearing things away is what really took time, 'cause where do one move it to? The solution was filling the sauna and neighbouring areas.
As you see, the re-building has started. My workspace will be in the room with the window (where the ladder is at the moment). It gives me a lot more space, and improved storage of both finished and unbuilt models and miniatures. The finished miniatures will be showcased in glass monters. I am looking to find a way to showcase the finished 1:35 dioramas as well. They do look really good in the glass monters, but because of their size that is out of the question for now. Guess I will have to see if I can get some glass doors on the shelves where I stack them (or something similar).

We start to install the walls tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully we will get quite a lot done on friday as well. Will keep you posted on the progress, and you can rest asure the new room will be presented properly in a post in here as soon as it is ready.

What's going on?

That is a good question, or as the group 4 non blondes said it so well " hey hey hey hey hey, what's going on". The answer is: Quite a lot actually, even though this blog doesn't reflect it.
I know I've fallen way behind with pictures of my miniatures in here. I hope I can do something about that this weekend.

I have finished my dwarf Ironbreakers. It took several weeks longer than stated in an earlier blog entry (mostly because I did everything but miniature painting), but they are finally done when it comes to the painting. All that is left is fixing the bases and I hope to do that this Friday or Saturday.
I have also built and finished my first SpaceMarine Rhino, and I think it came out looking pretty good. As usual when building by the instructions provided by Games Workshop, there were a few suprises. But everything came on the right way and fitted pefectly (so nothing like the Land Speeder this time), and I think it turned out very well. I have put the Rhino up on the spot where I usually take my pictures, so as soon as I get the second lamp back in the workspace I will take pics of it (this weekend for sure).

I have decided that using decals to put on markings is not the way to go. I looked over a few of the old markings and even though the model has been standing still on the shelves the markings are coming off. That tells me it's nice that I'm even further behind when it comes to putting on the finihsing coat of protective varnish on my miniatures. If they don't keep their markings standing on the shelf, then they will surely loose them while being used for gaming.
I have an idea to paint everything on, and I hope I will be able to try this shortly. The idea is to make a template in thin cardboard or thin plastic and paint it on by using that. Most shoulderguards are the same size and my biggest problem is applying the Ultramarines logo. Also I might need a template to add company markings and Ultramarine markings to vehicles, but the decals seem to stick better on thise flat surfaces. But I'll see what I can do with it.

Future workspace

My wife and I have decided to do something with the basement this summer. The general idea is to make it look a little more like regular rooms and a little less like a basement just used for storage.
I have a small workspace in the basement today, and this is shared with the storage of paint used around the house, all the daily stuff not currently standing around the house (like a small pizza oven, flowerpots not currently in use, servingplates, and so on).
The idea is to remodel so that we get one room that we use for storage of "stuff" and one room that will be my workshop. The workshop will be brighter and more comfortable and inviting than the workshop is today. I will get almost three times the space of my current location, double the deskspace and a lot more shelves than I have today. Also I will get a glass cabinet to display the miniature armies in, and I'm working on finding a good solution to display my 1:35 dioramas that I work with from time to time. Hopefully in the new workshop it will be easier to work with my scale models alongside my miniatures.
I will document the work as it progresses, but it won't start up until late june/early july. But still I've already bought some of the stuff to go in the room. Arrangements for the glass cabinet is made, this will be bought second hand and I'm currently awaiting the owner to be home so I can collect it. Also I have bought and assembled a shelf to keep my paints in. This is really a large wardrobe drawer for ties and belts, but when I set it up against a wall it will give me plenty of storage space and easy access to both my Citadel and Tamiya paints.

So, what has been going on?

There haven't been all the time in the world to work with the miniatures since my last update. I've been busy with work and other activities, but that's just how it is when you don't have any specific deadline to work toward. Still, the Easter hollidays have been very good for me when it comes to miniature work.

The Dwarf Ironbreakers are almost done, they will be done by Sunday at the latest.
Joseph Bugman is finished, based and ready to go to battle (or to the closest watering hole to test the local brew). He doesn't look too intimidating with the crossbow on his back and a mug in one hand.
King Alrik and his shieldbearers are based (well, only the shieldbearers really, as King Alrik stands on the shield they carry) and ready to lead the dwarfs in battle. They have been standing ready painted in the workshop since the last update.
The old sculpt of the Dwarf Engineer is comming along nicely, and is close to completion. I just need to paint his pick and helmet.
The dwarf cannon and crew is almost done, just a few details and cleanup left before they are ready to follow King Alrik into battle.

Since I removed King Alrik and his shieldbearers and Joseph Bugman from my mobile workstation I had to add something new. So I went down to the basement and found myself a Dwarf Thunderer Lord sculpted by Avatars of War. I hope this mini will fit nicely into my dwarfs and be a great leader for my thunderers in friendly games. I might not be allowed to use him in some tournaments, but for most of the time my minis will be standing on display or being used for friendly games so I think he will be ok.

I've also added a new Space Marine Captain to be painted up. This is a captain from the Black Reach box and he looks relly powerful and fearsome. In a lot of ways he look a lot more like a commanding officer than my Commander, but I guess this can be explained with the fact that the commander has been more of an HQ type and not been in as many battles and therefore not decorated as much as the Captain.

The Devastators that I have painted have also been based, but I need to decide if they should have all-black gravel on their base or a mix of black and yellow-brown. I reacon I'll end up painting the brown-yellow black as this probably will look better than the mix.
I will make a decition on this in the near future as this will give me a little extra work. But everything to make the best look for the Marines...

I also based a small bunch of night goblins. Two squig herders, three squigs, a netter. the first two goblins of my second core unit and two figures that I suspect really is Chaos followers (one looks like a Goblin has been attending the KKK and the other look like a snotling walking on a new pair of stilts). Also I have finally based my Goblin King (an Avatars of War miniature).

Status update monday March 16th

There has been a long time since my last update. I admit (again) that taking the Pledge didn't work as well as I'd hoped for the update frequency for this blog. But it has helped when it comes to stockpiling miniatures, so all hope is not out. I haven't bought a scale model set in over a year (because I started buying miniatures instead, if I should tell the whole truth), and it is now about a month since I bought a miniature.

I haven't been that good when it comes to painting my miniatures either, but at least I paint a lot more than I did before. I have great plans to end up with more models painted than bought when 2009 gives way to 2010.

At the moment I am working on my first Ironbreaker unit (I guess there will be more of them in the big dwarf army I hope to build over a period of many years to come). The armor is painted, and all the minis are standing firmly and steadily on their bases courtesy of Green Stuff. The Ironbreakers have been a pleasure to work with so far, although I must admit I prefer working with the plastic models over the metal ones. One of the main reasons for this is that I feel the paint sticks better to the plastic. Given time it sort of chips off the metal if they stand a long time before they get coated. But after they are coated they are just as robust as their plastic counterparts, and a lot of the metal minis are more detailed and I love details (except at the exact moment when I try to paint them).

King Alrik and his two shieldbearers are done. Miraculously I managed to get the shieldbearers to hold on to the shield by only pinning one of them. I know how I can pin the second if he decides to drop the shield at a later time, but I hope he will hang on to it by the GW superglue he is attached with. At the moment I am trying to decide if I should glue (or pin) Alrik to the shiled or not. The advantage of glueing/pinning him to the shield is that he stands a lot better when played with, but if I don't glue or pin him on the miniature is much easier to carry around to tournaments or games. And I hope to do some of that in the future.

I have also added an old metal sculpt of a dwarf engineer to the workspace along with a unit of a plastic cannon with three crew. I'm told the latter is from the Battle for Skull Pass Boxed set.

Hopefully some pictures of finished models wil follow in the near future!