The Beard Bunker

Things I have done with Devlan Mud Sitting there, looking at a pile of 56 unpainted Skaven slaves; I'm thinking “I'm going to cherish and value each and every one of you and give you a paintjob fit for a prince of Slaneesh”. 2 rats in, the base coats are going on with a drybrush and I'm thinking “I want to get shot of you as quickly as possible and you’re going to get a paintjob fit for the dirty, useless, and expendable, 2 point shod that you are.” The redemption for these very poorly painted models was that they’d get a lovely coating of Citadel Devlan mud wash once the base colours were on and dry. Devlan Mud was splendid! It hid where I’d gone over the lines, did some shading, added definition to the model and even filled in the crevices - a la the old technique of black lining. It made everything look dirty and shonky and gave the illusion that I was a competent painter. It was my staple diet for rat painting and I thrived upon it. ...

Good day fellow hobbyists. Many moons ago during one of Charlie's scenery parties. Yes, that a party where we all get stuck into building and painting scenery, it's a really great way of getting a lot done in a short time and takes a lot of the tedium out of the process. Anyway, I had the honour(?) of painting a Skyshield landing pad. Whilst its a really good bit of kit, it's rather huge and I decided in my foolish youthfulness to paint the whole thing in the patented Jeff-Rust method ( PVP Workbench tutorial: rusting ). Well, doing that over the 500 square inches (I counted them!) of the surface it was definitely a labour of love. Now, Em and I are building our very own urban board and I really wanted to have a Skyshield of my own. They make great objectives and general scenery piece. Since times and paints have changed, here is an updated step by step of getting the same/similar effects in new money. Mobile users, this is going to be picture heavy. First thing, R...

It’s been a long, long time since the last update on our Hochland campaign. One of the reasons it’s been so long is that so much stuff has happened that it was hard to think of a format in which to deliver said events. Or at least, a format that wasn’t just a series of bullet points slightly drier than an octogenarian’s happy parts. Finally it came to me: what better way than to write a letter from the perspective of the Empire’s new commander writing his first report back to Tussenhof? Rikarht von Hess But first, here’s an update of the campaign map: I’ll sprinkle a few portraits of the characters mentioned in the letter as a reminder of who’s who. For the attention of Aldebrand Ludenhof, Elector of Hochland My lord, Now I see why you delegated so much responsibility to Von Rüdiger. Our armies are engaged on so many fronts that it would be impossible to conduct the business of ruling the province at the same time. Admittedly, Von Rüdiger had ...

Hello and welcome to my first and last commission job. Approximately ages ago, my mate Nick decided he wanted the Banebeasts "Chimaera". He really, really wanted it. And then he asked if I’d be willing to paint it. For money. Me: And you want me to paint it, like, nicely? Nick: That’s kindof the point, yes. Me: Judging by the photo on the website, it looks quite big. Nick: Yep. Me: It might take me a while. Nick: Sure. Me: A long while. Nick: OK. Me: Which means commissioning it might cost a fair bit. I quoted Nick a big number that would have me working for over 70 hours at a low wage. I figured at this point Nick would give up and let me go back to having no money ever. Nick: Can I pay in instalments? Clearly I hadn’t appreciated quite how much Nick wanted this model. Also, I suspect Nick didn’t realise quite how long it’d take me to finish. Admittedly this is more because I’m a dreadful person to hire as a painter, since my brai...

For reasons that will become readily apparent in the next campaign update, I recently found myself in need of a new general for my Hochland army. Whilst plans are still afoot for Hochland’s Elector Count on a griffon, I also wanted someone a bit less points-heavy. More specifically, I wanted a general on foot who could sit in the middle of the battle line (where his leadership bonus would be, you know, relevant). Thus, without further preamble, I give you General Rikarht von Haas: Rikarht’s been serving as the captain of the Tussenhof city watch. As much as he’s respected in the city, the most dangerous situations he’s dealt with involve gangs of hungry refugees looting the Tussenhof markets. Being an officer of noble birth, he’s well-schooled in matters of strategy, but he’s got no front line experience; he knows full well that the only reason he’s been given the job is that there’s no-one else left. The conversion work on the model was relatively limited. The origina...

This is a shameless plug post. I make no apologies for it. I recently had the pleasure of finding a new independent games shop in Middlesbrough: Asgard Wargames. I'm a big fan of businesses setting up in town/city centres – I think that towns should be places for people to go and interact and do all those human things that just don’t really, well, work in retail parks or on the internet. Anyhow, I found out about Asgard from the Faeit 212 blog. (If you’re a wargamey person and haven’t come across Faeit 212 here it is: http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/ ) Faeit 212 runs a ‘blog exchange’ and one of their chosen blogs was about starting up a games store. Imagine my astonishment to discover that this little Indy start-up was in my very own Middlesbrough. I work nearby so the very same day, I waved goodbye to the circus and popped down town.  Gilkes Street's Premier Wargame Supplier The owner greeted me, he was a thoroughly pleasant and engaging chap,...