In other words, it was a bit of a slow week for me hobby wise though I did chip away at a few things. While the picture isn’t that great, I did pretty much finish up another piece of Fallout street terrain. It just needs some rust effects on the sewer lid and its good to go.
This is the 4th one that I’ve completed and now I just have one more to do and then I have enough finished to have a road that can across the entire battlefield in one direction. That will be a nice milestone to hit. Once I finish the last one, I need to varnish all of the pieces. Can anyone recommend some rattlecan varnish that they’ve had good luck with? I haven’t used rattle can varnish in probably 5-6 years after I ruined some LOTR miniatures I had spent a fair amount painting. I don’t want a repeat of that here but at the same time, these pieces are too big and tedious to varnish with a brush like I normally do so I’m hoping somebody out there can recommend something.
I’ve also been chipping away at the Khorne display project and truthfully, I’ve been doing all of the unglamorous stuff that you gotta do for a competition that isn’t fun to work on. That means painting the back and touching up any little mistakes I might have made along the way. I’m ready to attach one of the arms and start painting that which will likely be a bit of a pain but I’m glad to be able to move forward finally. I just need to get the hands and weapons done and then the rest of the work is on the base so I’m making good progress.
Partially because I was getting tired of working on the Khorne project but also because I had some trouble sleeping this week, I did make a start on yet another piece of terrain that’s been waiting patiently on my desk for quite some time. There’s a looong way to go on this one and it will take a while to get done since there’s a lot going on with the front and the back but hopefully it will look nice once it is done. You can’t have too many barricades after all!
Outside of that, I had my endoscopy yesterday (since its just past midnight now) and the good news is that I don’t have anything majorly wrong like an ulcer or anything cancerous in my stomach. The bad news is that I don’t know what’s wrong still and have to wait a couple weeks for further test results to come in. If that isn’t conclusive, then the doctor thinks a colonoscopy would be the next step which is an incredibly exciting possibility. So the waiting game continues and I don’t get my life back for a while longer.
If there is any silver lining it is that I’m using the extra laying about time to read more like I had hoped to do in 2023. I’ve started reading about Ancient Egypt’s history which I knew nothing about previously and while I’ll save my thoughts on that for a later update, it is interesting and it makes me want to paint all manner of ancient things. Its a good thing I have that 75mm Anubis miniature waiting in the wings. I do think its a shame that there isn’t a go-to game for Ancient mythology. Wargods and Broken Legions are two of the few games that I can think of. Broken Legions would probably be my best bet since it has a low model count so who knows, maybe one of these days I will get some minis for it and paint those up.
I’ve also taken an interest in reading more comics this week. Truthfully, I’ve read my fair share of comics. According to Goodreads, 650 of the nearly 1,000 books I’ve read are comics. I honestly thought that the percentage was even higher than that. Regardless, I wouldn’t be surprised if I talk a bit about comics if I come across any that are interesting in the future. Maybe even a Marvel miniature will make it into my queue too. There’s a couple I’d consider painting if I can find the time. I imagine that would make a few regular readers happy too so we’ll see what the future holds.
Kuribo's Painting 
Sounds like thanks are moving on all fronts! 🙂 Good news that the endoscopy didn’t find anything but still some way to go. I had a colonoscopy a couple of years ago and was quite impressed with how they did that and what can be seen (in my case it didn’t reveal any major issues).
As far as varnish goes, I now always use an enamel spray matt varnish. My experience is that it doesn’t have the issues with white frosting at all but it may yellow slightly with age. I doubt you’ll be able to get it in the US but I use Railmatch enamel matt varnish from Howes Models in the UK. On something like a worn road any slight yellowing may not be an issue if it happens anyway.
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I know what you mean on the ease of the procedures. If I didn’t mind having my blood taken, then it really wouldn’t be a big deal at all!
That is interesting about enamel spray varnish. I wasn’t aware of that option and a bit of yellowing wouldn’t be a problem on the streets, I imagine. I will look into that a bit more and give this some more thought. Thanks for sharing what you use, John!
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Great news on the endoscopy Jeff, and hope the results come back positive for you.
The road looks excellent, and almost there with the road project now. Can’t help on the varnish as I never use it, unless it’s gloss varnish which is painted on. The Khornate guy is progressing nicely, and that next piece of scenery should look awesome when you’ve finished it.
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I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can figure out what is going on soon and get back to eating spicy food! And what in tarnation!? You don’t use varnish at all? How do you keep the terrain you’ve worked on safe from harm? You’re going to have to explain a bit more!
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With terrain it’s not handled as much as models, so I don’t find the ware and tare that you would get on models, and luckily anyone that games on my tables is respectful and not picking at it as a nervous twitch while gaming ! LOL
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Interesting! I have some Hobbit SBG terrain that is the exact opposite of what you describe. The paint constantly chips off (and that’s with varnish) so that may make me more concerned about terrain preservation than I need to be. Its also just me using the terrain so I don’t have to stranger proof it for the scenario you described haha
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More Fallout terrain… yay!
I have been disappointed too many times with aerosol varnish. I have tried using my airbrush but generally just stick with applying it with a brush. Even the big terrain pieces. Still, you may want to consider a cheap airbrush.
You make an excellent point about the lack of a good Ancient Egypt themed skirmish game. It is something I have been considering since Reaper Bones 6 has a bunch of excellent mythological Egyptian themed pieces. My current thought is to use Egyptian pieces as figures for a dusty version of Frostgrave… er Sandgrave…
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Perhaps you could do some houserules to create an Egyptian theme for 5 Leagues From the Borderlands? I hear a lot of good things about that solo game.
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I’ve heard good things as well so that is a good thought as well. Cheers, mate!
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It might be a week or two until I get back to the Fallout terrain. I think I’m going to try and get the weapons done on the Khorne mini though if I get tired of it, I won’t hesitate to go back to Fallout. I expect to work more on Fallout stuff when I get this project done regardless too.
I’m already starting to get cold feet on using a rattlecan varnish. I bet I will end up going the laborious brush varnish route. That is what I do for everything now and now I haven’t had anything ruined so why mess with a good thing?
It is surprising that someone doesn’t have an Egyptian themed skirmish game, isn’t it? I like your idea of Sandgrave. I think that would work really well. Pulp Alley would be another system that could work too. I don’t know if I can swing Egyptian terrain from a storage perspective with my other projects I have going but one of these days I’d like to do something like that. I need to make some progress on the various gaming projects the rest of this year because they’ve been a bit neglected as of late…
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Good call on Pulp Alley.
Space, such an annoying limitation.
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Time and space are the two inescapable limitations. At least you have an advantage with one of them!
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Glad your medical is clear of something serious; lame it’s still a mystery.
The terrain looks good. All the streets will set the scene. I’m like Dave and I don’t tend to varnish terrain. Though I would think any spray would work; just not when humid obviously bc that’s what causes the cloudlyness. Try a test piece first. 😀
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The diagnosis is definitely taking longer than I would like but what can you do? That’s interesting that a couple people don’t varnish their terrain. For flocked stuff, I wouldn’t varnish since you can seal it with PVA but for something that is painted like this, it feels like some extra protection would be helpful. I’ll see if I can’t get it sorted out and I definitely won’t spray anything when its humid! I learned that mistake the hard way 🙂
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Seems like going to the doctor ends up being more was it isn’t vs was it is. Hope you get answers soon.
Interesting piece of barricade, is it big enough to block a road piece?
The only Egyptian game I can think of is Warlord Games Hail Ceasar but that usually involves large units.
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Yeah, I think this is a process of elimination type of situation which is not my preference. Not that I have a choice!
The barricade will just about block the whole street, yeah. There are two other barricades to be painted and they are a little less wide so they probably wouldn’t work quite as well in that regard.
Hail Caesar does fit the bill but the model count would be tough with how slow I paint. I took a look at the Egyptian minis and I think they aren’t as high quality as other Warlord releases which is a bit demotivating too. If I were to paint up a huge army, I’d definitely go for Romans and barbarians!
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I don’t know if my other comment went into moderation or disappeared due to a link but check out the rule set King David.
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I didn’t see it though WordPress comments can be a bit finicky. Is this the ruleset you’re talking about: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/431038/King-David?
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That is the rule set, wargaming with Barks blog talks about it
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Found it and thanks for the recommendation. I would have never heard of it otherwise!
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Good to know your checkup didn’t find anything, Jeff! The road piece looks great, suitably weathered and knackered, and as for spray varnish I use Krylon’s stuff. It does the job well, although it did frost up once or twice. For brush-on varnish I use Liquitex Matte Varnish.
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Thanks, Matt! That is useful info on which varnishes you’ve used as well. I’ve basically only used GW’s rattlecan varnish and then I started brushing varnish using Vallejo so I think its time to experiment with some other products.
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I own a copy of Of Gods & Mortals, but haven’t played it yet. It focuses on mythological battles between Greek, Norse, Egyptian, and Celtic mythologies. It’s a spin-off of Andrea Sfiligoi’s Song of Blades & Heroes system, and so on the lighter side of complexity. Worth a look.
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That’s a great suggestion! I will definitely give it a look. Thank you for mentioning it!
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I love that road section, I bet your Fallout games will look even more amazing now!
Good luck with the ongoing medical investigations. I know that it’s frustrating not to find out what the casue of the issues is – even when it’s paired with good news like ‘it is not an ulcer’.
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I hope so, mate. I’ve got one more piece of road to go and then we should be able to find out!
I’m still waiting and hoping to hear something soon. Thanks for your kind words. I knew there was a reason I chose to be your manager (besides the money of course)! 🙂
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I find the not knowing to be worse sometimes, but sounds like things are better than you thought. I’ve had a colonoscopy and also not fun. Speaking of…is the butt crack on this mini always going to be exposed?! 😂
He’s looking good and now that you got some reddish tones on the top of the skin I think it’s looking much better. I also really like that Fallout barricade. Much more interesting than the random bit of concrete or wooden crates. Actually looks fun to paint!
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I have been meaning to give a brief health update and pushed it off for two weeks now. Next time around, I’ll mention a bit more about it. I’m mostly better and avoided a colonoscopy (for now anyway).
And yes, the butt is there for all to see! I guess demons and half-demons can’t be bothered with pants 🙂 The barricade has a nice variety of things to paint on it for sure. I’m actually working on finishing it up this week and its been nice to chip away at it slowly over time surprisingly. I’ll be curious to see what you think of the finished product!
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I thought maybe there was a skirt going on the backside still. No worries here on the exposed flesh, if it fits the character, I think they should go for it. You haven’t mentioned Watchmen yet, but I remember so many people going off about the ‘big blue dong’! I’ve seen so much female nudity in American films, that it seems weird to me that people would be so offended that male nudity gets shown once.
I think the worst part of colonoscopy was not knowing exactly what I was getting into. If/when you do get one, make sure to ask some friends or even message me. Or hopefully your Doc gives you the whole story.
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It surprised me when I realized that there was going to be bare demon butt with this mini too. It seems a little unlike modern GW to do that to me but what do I know.
I forgot about the nudity in Watchmen as well. I wasn’t offended nor did I really take notice. I know exactly what you mean though. We have some interesting hang-ups to be sure.
That is good to know on the procedure. I would assume it is somewhat similar to the endoscopy I had in many regards though I could be wrong. At this point, I don’t think I’m likely to get one in the near future and I’m totally fine with that.
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