This week has been pretty straightforward and so I thought I’d bring you a quick update on the Wizard’s Workdesk. Its coming along though there’s still a fair bit to go at the same time. I worked on the rest of the desk items which means I got to tackle a freehand challenge. I wanted it to look like an occult book or possibly even a spell book on the desk so I had to research occult symbols. My initial thought was to try some kind of hexagram and the one I chose (pictured below) proved to be too difficult. I just couldn’t get it looking right.
Instead, I ended up with what I think of as the Illuminati symbol and an item from the video game The Binding of Isaac known as Brimstone. I have played Binding of Isaac for almost 450 hours now and can’t seem to quit playing it off and on so I guess its one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve certainly played it more than almost any other game, if nothing else. It is definitely a funny (in a sophomoric kind of way) and entertaining game where you have to kill bosses including Satan, Mega-Satan, and your own mother because she has some kind of religious mania. I kind of doubt there is anybody else who has played Isaac out there but if you have, please sound off in the comments!
And here is the actual mini which you’re patiently waiting to see.
I also took Dave’s suggestion last week and made the highlights a little less bright on the crystals which makes them look more realistic, I reckon. I enjoyed practicing freehand while I can certainly improve quite a bit, I think the results bring the book to life so I’m happy with that. If nothing else, the drawings look as if they were done by hand and imperfectly at that, which is pretty realistic as perfection is not easy to achieve unless you’ve practiced drawing quite a bit.
I also have been working on the desk itself which is looking better. I still need to work on the sides and back. Once I get a bit further, I can add the piece pictured above onto the desk and you’ll start to see everything coming together at that point. There’s another flat piece that goes on top to be painted as well so there’s still a ways to go on this piece of terrain.
Other than that, I did two noteworthy things hobby wise. The first is that I double-checked what rules supplement and card pack that I don’t own for Fallout Wasteland Warfare “First Edition” are still available. Fortunately, nothing is sold out yet, though a couple of things are close to selling out online so I can prioritize getting those in the next month or so. Then there are some PDFs that I will have order from Modiphius directly that I’m less worried about. All in all, its about $150 to buy everything, I’d guess, so it will take me a couple months to acquire it all but I believe I can do that before anything sells out. My assumption is that each of these items are basically out of print now and they will disappear from the market as Second Edition launches so now is the perfect time to snag it before that happens, especially considering I plan on playing First Edition for quite some time.
A little while ago, I traded the G.I. Joe Deck Building Game and Sentinels of the Multiverse to Noble Knight Games for a fair price in store credit. While I really enjoyed Sentinels, there is reason to think that I can’t get my hands on the rest of the expansions because of the tariffs and inflation problems going on currently so I felt like this was as good of a time as any to part with it. The G.I. Joe game I fell out of love with and have been ready to get rid of for a bit. So I cleared out some storage space and in return I got more terrain pieces from Kromlech that I’ll use with Hellboy which are pictured below.
So now I’ve got everything I need for Hellboy, I just need to get enough painted up that I can use it in-game. As with the previous pieces from Kromlech, they all are high quality sculpts that have crisp details. I’m looking forward to getting started on them in the near future.
I also picked up another Arkham Horror: Third Edition expansion which seems to be a little hard to find in the US on the secondary market. I now have three of the four expansions so I’ve almost got the entire game at this point which is awesome as well. It will be quite some time before I can actually play this new expansion but I think I will try and get Arkham Horror: Third Edition on the gaming table in the next week or two. I’ve been wanting to play it again for a little bit and really any gaming I can do sounds great at this point.
So a good shopping haul was had this week and I barely spent any of my own money which makes it even better. Speaking of buying things, the computer desk that I’ve owned for nearly ten years seems to be falling apart more and more with time. I’m a little concerned that its not going to stay standing if I don’t replace it soon so I will probably go get a new one this week and work on building it next week. This could interrupt normal service so don’t be shocked if I get an update in late in the weekend or maybe even not at all. Whatever happens, I will do my best to get the Wizard’s desk done soon as I should probably get back to working on Lokaris soon.
Kuribo's Painting 
Fantastic work on the desk Jeff, the crystals look more dynamic now, and the freehand is excellent, and fitting for Hellboy, the new scenery looks great and should be interesting to paint. Good to hear what you need is still available for Fallout, and can understand pacing the purchases. Hope the new desk build goes well for you.
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Thank you, Dave. Your feedback really helped. I’m looking forward to working on some of the new terrain pieces as well. I really like working on these somewhat mundane pieces of furniture surprisingly. I’m going to try and show the world that I learned some good lessons when I built the previous desk. We’ll see if I manage to do better with a bit more patience this time!
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Coming along nicely, Jeff! 🙂 I like the pages in the book!
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Thank you, John! Its always good to practice some freehand.
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That book looks fantastic! I will never understand how folks can paint such small things so crisp! Looking forward to seeing it all put together, once you’ve sorted the actual desk as well, of course 🥴
So which expansion for Arkham 3 is eluding you? I’d been trying to get Under Dark Waves for years before I finally found it about this time last year, it seemed to be a real challenge at the time…
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It takes a couple of goes and some adjustments to get freehand looking decent. Almost everything you see on the book and pages took 2 or more attempts to get right as its easy to mess something up. If I can put the video games down for a bit, I’ll get the desk done in fairly short order 🙂
Under Dark Waves is the last one I need. It isn’t hard to get here in the US currently, thankfully, so that is why I got Secrets of the Order first. I don’t know if Third Edition is going to stay in print for the next few years or not but it feels like a good idea to snap up everything I can for the game, just in case…
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I suppose it’s similar to what you were saying about eyes a while ago? Just need to keep the practice going, and tidy up as and when you need to? Looks fantastic, at any rate!
I haven’t played Secrets of the Order yet, though picked it up when it was still fairly new and very cheap on Amazon. Under Dark Waves is a great expansion though, I’m very glad I was able to pick it up. Definitely makes the game into a massive table-hogger of course, but I hope you can pick it up soon to experience it! Definitely not a bad idea to get what you can, when you can…
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Yes, it is similar to eyes in some ways, though those are generally much quicker to get done. Freehand requires a good critical eye to make small adjustments to make the shapes look right. If one side of a square or rectangle is off, for example, you need to see it and fix it. The more you’re willing to do this, the more “perfect” of results you can achieve.
You’ve certainly whetted my appetite for Under Dark Waves. I’m imagining that all the expansions are fun as the base game doesn’t have any bad scenarios in it. I’ve only played three of the four so far but I’m confident the unplayed one will be good too!
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Oh yeah, that definitely makes sense about the freehand. I remember years ago trying to do the Alpha Legion symbol on a banner, back when I was younger and had more confidence in these things, the A was okay, but the omega symbol was a bit of a mess. I tried to pass it off as being on a draped cloth, so of course it would look wonky… but yeah… 🤣
If you haven’t tried Dead of Night yet, I can highly recommend those scenarios as well! They are definitely fun and thematic, one of them involves bootleggers and all that fun stuff! Definitely a good time to be had!
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That is the perfect example of how freehand can go. I think when we were younger, it was a much more useful and commonly used skill. Every army had a banner and it needed some freehand. Nowadays, those types of banners are less and less common.
That does sound like a great time! I love it when the criminal element is part of Arkham Horror 😀
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Nice work on the book/desk! I really like the little details like being able to see the page through the magnifying glass and the highlights on the ink pot.
Ive heard good things about Arkham Horror (from yourself in the past too), and my gaming group is a bit interested in playing it so maybe I have some of that in my future too!
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Thanks, Nic! These items will be front and center on the desk so I figure its worth putting the effort in.
Arkham Horror is a blast and I’m pretty confident when I predict that you’ll have a good time with it. Do you know which edition you’re playing? Second Edition is probably the most popular and more fondly remembered. It is a massive table hog and has enormous randomization which is why people enjoy it so much. I say all this because I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if that is what your group is going to play, though if it is indeed Third Edition, that is a great time as well 🙂
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I hadn’t realised there was multiple editions! None of us own it so I assume it’ll be what we can find.
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Second Edition can be found second-hand, I would think (no pun intended) but Third Edition is available at retail still. Now I’m even more intrigued to see how this all shakes out! 🙂
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That desktop looks spectacular, mate. I love the icons and text effect you’ve achieved – especially at this scale!
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Thank you, mate. I have been inspired by your excellent freehanding over the years and so it was nice to be able to harness that in this project. I ought to look for ways to do this more in the future as it can be rewarding to work on.
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Oh wow the desk looks so cool man
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Thanks, mate! I hope you like it even more when I get it all put together.
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catching up on your work after some family time with minimum internet availability, your desk is looking awesome and always impressed with your freehand. In the game are they objectives or great looking terrain to make the game visually better?
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I had noticed you’d gone quiet both here and on Instagram and was starting to consider sending you an email to make sure you’re doing okay. Glad to hear that is indeed the case.
The terrain certainly makes the game visually better but you can also hurl it at enemies and some of them can do the same towards you as well. I should experiment with it a bit more and see how good that is. I rarely do it as the furniture/terrain gets destroyed in-game in the process!
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Thanks for the concern!
My latest Instagram post was because I was watching The Fellowship on the plane coming home, still have some half finished elves on my painting queue.
Interesting game idea about throwing furniture at foes, hadn’t heard that concept before.
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That’s a good way to travel, I’d say. I look forward to seeing those elves as well.
I don’t think I’ve seen it in many dungeon crawlers either (not that I’ve played a ton). It fits Hellboy’s personality as he tends to make a mess wherever he goes.
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That looks so good, I can’t wait to see this finally assembled and in it’s full glory.
How are you finsing 3rd edition Arkham Horror? I’ve only played a wee bit of 2nd edition (I think? perhaps even earlier?) with my brother and enjoyed it a lot. But he did a lot of the bureaucracy of deck-building and upgrading etc so it was a very ‘sit down and play’ experience for me.
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Cheers, mate. Its done so you’ll be seeing it relatively soon!
If I’m not mistaken, it sounds like you’re talking about Arkham Horror: The Card Game since you mention deck building and upgrading cards. I haven’t played the Card Game in months, if not a year plus now. I play Arkham Horror: Third Edition which is a board game with a fairly similar name. It is a longer game (3-4 hours to finish a scenario) but I really enjoy it. That is surprisingly easier and more doable than a full-on campaign for me anyway.
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Ah, my mistake about the different Arkham games. Now that you tell me that I have a slight suspicion that I’ve made this mistake before in some comment to a previous post. Thanks for expanding my knowledge!
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No worries at all and it is an easy mistake to make because the names are similar. Maybe not the best marketing idea there. I can’t recall you ever mixing them up and I did used to play Arkham Horror: The Card Game quite a bit which is what it sounds like you’ve played so we have that in common, even if I don’t play it any longer.
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