The Beard Bunker

It's laid dormant for a little while, but recently there was a little itch at the back of my head. "Hey, Jeff, you know what you want to paint? WW2 dudes..." Keep reading till the end to see this photo again... only better!

Maisey: 2017 was going to be year of finishing things. For the most part that has been true. Looking back at my to do list from the beginning of the year and this is what I have actually managed to get done. Orge Scrap Launcher. DONE Bolt Action German veteran Grenadiers. DONE Frost Grave warband, board, and scenery. DONE Tabletop world buildings. DONE Charlie’s Storm Eagle. DONE Desert board scenery. DONE Industrial scenery. DONE Thousand Sons. DONE + More What is still left over from that list? Vampire Counts - This was meant to be a tidy up and finishing thing. Sorting out all those little bits and bobs. I’ve not actually started anything here, in fact I totally failed and ended up buying some more models. In my defence, I picked them up off a friend and it was a time limited offer, so I jumped on it. Also, we’ve not actually been playing fantasy at all, so if something is going to get bumped down the priority list it’s going to be the thing that isn’t being played. Em...

Today I would like to talk. About how Project Get Things Finished is going. About why I have butterfly brain. About how I react to creative urges when there is no outlet, or direction to them. Also about what I want from the hobby. Firstly, Project Get Things Finished. This is actually going well so far in the sense that things are getting finished. I can say that so far this year I have ticked the boxes on a Frost Grave warband, and the board and scenery for Frost Grave. I've finished off the few Tabletop world buildings that were sat ready and waiting for the love. Whilst we're talking about scenery I've also got a usable amount of scenery for my desert board as well as starting to clearing out of the backlog of my industrial scenery which should be all done this month. As for models, well we have finished off the Ogre Scrap Launcher that I never got around to, a bunch of German Veterans for Bolt Action, as well as a fairly large pile of Thousand Sons. Oh, and the Stor...

We here at the bunker often talk about the hobby butterfly. Like the butterfly we are drawn, powerfully and inextricably toward something beautiful and all consuming. It takes over our hobby desire so completely. We throw ourselves into that project and immerse ourselves in its beautiful nectar. For a short while. Until we catch the alluring scent of the next bloom and we find ourselves floating towards that next shiny thing. So then what happens to all those forgotten flowers? All those neglected blooms? All those undercoated Orks? They sit on shelves, or packed into cardboard boxes stuffed under the stairs. They slowly gather dust, hoping for the day when they will feel the sweet caress of a brush and given their time in the sun. When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils I’m certain, if you are anything like me, this will be a familiar story. You will have those projects that started with such zeal only to wither and dry out like daffodils left on th...

Greetings bunker dwellers! It is I, Jeff of the... well, the Beard Bunker actually. I've finally moved in permanently from the old site so you'll be seeing me rather a lot more going forward. To kick off, I thought I'd return us to the dry desert heat of North Africa with a companion project to Maisey's Aussies , my Bolt Action Italians: This lot are the first squad of the army. Italian formations of the period are a bit weird to British eyes and making them fit Bolt Action's rules took a little finagling. I'll be talking more about the historical aspects of the army in future posts so stay tuned for that. Today, instead, we'll be focusing on the models and the painting. Let's get to it! Ignore the base rims, that's not a mistake to be fixed later, no... it's a stylistic choice honest... The models are Perry Miniatures ' range of metal Italian WW2 chappies. Now, before we get much further, I have to have a tiny grumble: I love the ...

Back in the glorious summer of 2016 I set about a little personal project to create a North Africa themed collection of models and scenery. I've already posted a little about before in  I've Got Sand In All The Wrong Places . Well I've finished the British and Australian section of the project and now ready to get started on the board. I had several options when it comes to creating the actual board it's self. Firstly I could try and lay my hands on one of the good old Realm of Battle boards from Games Workshop. They were great boards, if a little on the pricey side. We have successfully created a desert board from these before by sculpting mud cracks over the skull pits. This gave the board a dry feel and was pretty simple to do. A second one of these would mean we can take the one that Charlie owns and create a huge 6'X8' or 4'x12' gaming surface for those really big games. This plan met a fairly terminal halt when I discovered that GW don't ac...

Hello,  So, been a little bit slow on the old model front recently. Primary reason being due to a house move. Which meant packing everything away, and then moving things, then having to unpack everything again. Hobby stuff was about halfway down the priority list, far below the bed (who doesn't like sleeping?), the kitchen stuff (eating is my third favourite thing!), but above silly little things like clothing. Anyway, we're now safely settled into Nerd Cottage Mk.II. It's bigger, better armoured, and now carries a 57mm cannon... ok, maybe not a cannon, but it does have a shed with a light bulb in it! Being a nerd, what does a new house mean? Well, it means a new project, and this summer's project is going to be a dusty one. My plan is to create a new gaming board, with scenery, and two (small) armies to play on it. Anyone who has read the title might be able to make an educated guess that I'm doing a desert board. And the armies? Well, I'm in a bit of ...

Hi Guys, All of my recent hobby has been totally absorbed by my new found enjoyment of Bolt Action. If you keep up with Jeff over at Pirate Viking Painting  (and if you don't, you should!) you will have noticed an alarming number of Soviet tanks cropping up. To counter this buildup of Bolshevik armour, I've been getting busy with assembling a German tank force for the glory of the Fatherland. This is a picture heavy post... but who doesn't like lots of pictures. First, the imaginatively named SDKFZ 251/1 Ausf D. Also called the Hanomag after one of the factories that supplied these armour carriers. Used by all branches of the German military in all theatres. In this case these will be protectively ferrying my Panzer Grenadiers into combat. I've got two of these beauties running around. Next we have the SDKFZ 234/2 'PUMA'. This a wheeled scout vehicle that was attached to Panzer Divisions as a recon vehicle for Panzer battalions and for anti-tan...