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Kromlech – Wizard’s Workdesk Done

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The joke title for this update is IKEA – Idanas Desk Done. But truthfully, it was a bit of a nightmare. For $700, I got a desk that was a pain to assemble, is surprisingly heavy (though I suppose that’s fine) and has a finish that is extremely easy to scratch (which I learned the hard way a couple of times). I bought the thing on Friday and took apart the old one that day. It took most of Saturday and 3-4 more hours on Sunday to finish the new desk. I have to thank Dave Stone for unwittingly teaching me a “skill” in IKEA furniture making. I accidentally broke a piece off and was worried about even finishing the desk at one point. And then I realized I have wood glue and so I used some where the chipboard (or whatever it is) was broken and sure enough, that seemed to work out pretty nicely and made up for the damage I caused. And who says modeling/miniature painting isn’t useful?! Anyway, here’s a look at the new desk and the old desk. The new one has more storage which I’ve already commandeered for some unassembled miniatures. That’s a nice improvement, if nothing else. My room looks slightly (though only slightly!) cleaner so there’s some improvement there too I suppose.

New desk
Old desk

The IKEA desk took up the whole weekend which was pretty deflating but I have been busy hobbying since then. I managed to finish the Wizard’s Workdesk which came out nicely, I must say. The OSL effects are not my best work, but they get the job done and its hard to squeeze them in, in some ways too. Either way, I’m happy to share this desk with you.

This is a big step towards getting the Hellboy terrain done and it also will make for some pretty cool cinematic photos I have planned in the nearish future using Hellboy too. I’ve already started on some other Hellboy stuff so expect to see more, including something to go with this desk in a week’s time.

I got to play Arkham Horror: Third Edition not once but twice since I last updated. So far, I’ve played three of the four scenarios and beaten two of the four. I returned to the one I played but have not beaten which involves Azathoth and it really is a punishing scenario and easily the hardest of the three scenarios. I thought maybe if I used three investigators and delegated an important role to each, that would work pretty well for beating it this time. I had some poor luck, including one investigator taking six damage in one go, but I still came up well short of beating the scenario. Indeed, Azathoth returned and consumed everyone in the past and in the future.

After giving it some more thought, I looked over every investigator closely and looked for two that I thought could work well with this scenario. That ended up being Wendy Adams and Calvin Wright who are both fairly good at some important things. Both have good Lore and Observation which makes them good at getting rid of Doom counters (which will quickly end your game, otherwise) and researching clues. Calvin is also not a bad fighter all things considered which meant I had most of my bases covered.

That actually proved to be the case because I was able to beat Azathoth finally! Hopefully this makes sense to those who have never played Arkham Horror: Third Edition, but there are cards that provide your current goals at any given time in the game and they update when certain things occur. In Azathoth, you end up finding out that something is wrong pretty early on and if you do well enough at getting clues, you find a ritual barrier which you can destroy and then proceed to preventing Azathoth from manifesting and winning the game. The other route, which occurs if you’re less successful, punishes you pretty harshly for not removing the barrier in time. Instead you have to travel beyond time and space and hope to successfully apply clues towards a more formidable Azathoth. Each turn you do this, you take two horror damage while in this alternate realm which sounds pretty punishing. I like that the game gives you two different paths, its very similar to Arkham Horror: The Card Game, though the path I took (which I could only do because I was having a good run during the scenario) made it considerably easier to win. I don’t know if I love that there is a hard path in this already difficult scenario but I was happy to beat it and I feel like I have a much better feel for which investigators are good in the game now, whereas I didn’t previously. There’s no doubt that picking some of the stronger investigators will help mitigate your bad luck and give you an increased chance of banishing Azathoth as well. Cthulhu is my next and last opponent which I look forward to playing in the nearish future. Once I do that, I’ll probably write up a review for the game as I quite enjoy it and it will be a fun exercise for me as well.

So that’s hobbying and gaming out of the way. I have two other topics to touch upon, if you’ll humor me. The first is that I was on Instagram the other day and happened to see that Scibor Miniatures is preparing to sunset some things that I’ve always liked about their “brand”. One is conversion parts, which I totally get. I’m not so sure that their conversion pieces aren’t for pre-Primaris GW sculpts, though I might be wrong on that. What I was sad to hear is that their terrain might be gone in the future. I say might be, because some of it is definitely disappearing to clear the way for new molds but it isn’t clear yet what is, exactly. Scibor has a lot of interesting looking Dwarven pieces such as the following:

There are plenty of others that are nice, I unfortunately don’t have a Dwarven table in the cards, which is a shame as friend of the site, Bret, does own one and it fills me with envy when I see his beautiful work! At the same time, I do really like the look of these Dwarven Stone Heads but not for what you might think.

Is it just me or would this look really nicely in some kind of Conan terrain? There is something a bit ominous about these stone heads which makes me think its perfect for the Barbarian. Perhaps somewhere like Vanaheim or Asgard in the tough, snowy landscapes. Unfortunately, if I want this set, there is merely one for sale in the US currently for a reasonable price (where as the website on Scibor’s site is somehow $50 higher, no joke!) so I might have to try and find room in the budget for some Scibor stuff to stash away for the future. If you’re interested in Scibor’s terrain, it can’t hurt to try and track down what you like before it disappears for good.

And to tie Arkham Horror and Conan neatly into a bow. I’m pretty close to catching up on the last comics in my backlog and I’ve been thinking about things to read that will inspire future gaming fun. I’m reading through the Conan issues last (I generally save the best stuff for last when reading through comics) and I’m looking for ideas for future gaming possibilities as I do. I haven’t quite worked out how I’m going to tackle it but in the future, I’ll be writing about what I’m reading out and talking about potential ideas. That will help me remember ideas that I come across and perhaps it might inspire others to do the same. So there’s more to come on that. My goal is to revisit Conan comics I’ve already read and read the Robert E. Howard stories for the first, if not some of the pastiche novels later on down the line. It will most likely be in that order as I think the comics will probably give the most inspiration considering their visual nature.

I’ve also been inspired to get back to Lovecraft after playing Arkham Horror. I’d love to reread some of his better works again. Its been ten plus years since I first read H.P. so its not exactly fresh in my mind. I’ve also never read any of the works from people other Lovecraft that are used in Arkham Horror. This includes the likes of Clark Ashton Smith and Robert Chambers. So I’ll see if I can’t work some of that into the mix. If I can find the time, I’d like to get back to reading the Arkham Horror novels as well. I enjoyed the first one and fell off of them for some reason. There are tons of books out there now. Probably something like 20-25 so catching up will be a tall task. If I can find a way to turn them into some interesting articles, I will perhaps write about these in the future as well. We’ll have to see what I can accomplish as I’ll still be reading comics as they come out as well. No matter what happens, my hope is to have fun and have some nice escapes from reality, if nothing else. Its nice to have some goals to aspire towards as well.

26 thoughts on “Kromlech – Wizard’s Workdesk Done”

  1. Are you trying to make me spend more money than I should? Went down the rabbit hole of Scibor miniatures looking at their dwarven terrain, those heads are tempting.

    I liked to finally see the sides and the back of the wizard’s desk, it showed that you payed the same amount of attention on the less detailed sides to make it a complete model.

    I always have a love/hate relationship with IKEA, glad it worked out for you.

    Jealous that you had the attention span to get some games in, I’m having a horrible time being focused on painting and hobbies in general. Just need to pick up the brush and get busy.

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    1. Haha, maybe! I’m sure you’ve given me ideas for things to buy at some point and so turnabout is fair play. Scibor’s Dwarven terrain is really up your alley and between your work on Moria and Scibor’s products, I have thought about how cool a Dwarven board or diorama would be. Since I posted, it looks like he really is getting rid of most of the terrain eventually as more and more stuff is being discounted so if you see anything you like, scoop it up! Noble Knight has a lot of Scibor stuff stocked, just don’t go buying those Dwarven Heads before I do since they only have one left!

      The back and sides aren’t nearly as interesting to paint on the desk but I try not to cut corners as its a good practice/habit to have when you’re display painting.

      I like the look of IKEA and I used to like the cost, but this desk was overpriced and a pain to assemble. I’m not sure if I’ll be buying anything else from them anytime soon so I think I’m in the love/hate phase with them too.

      For me, playing Arkham Horror actually has kept me working on gaming stuff so if you have something you can play, that might help get you motivated. I’ve also been venturing out and looking at websites that focus on gaming more and more which is something I might talk about next week, if I can remember.

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  2. For a moment there the pictures made me think that the painting of the wizard’s desk had taken on a very modern slant! I absolutely love that wee bit of furniture and I’m amazed by the effort you put into something that will literally just be a tiny part of the background of any game you play. I think that the crystals remain my favourite part but I do really like the way you’ve painted the candles too.

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    1. Its funny how I was working on an IKEA desk and finishing up this Wizard’s desk at the same time. I can’t say that was planned but it tied together nicely. Thanks for your kind words, mate. I enjoy bringing worlds to life with our hobby and that is nearly as much fun for me as actually gaming is.

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  3. Awesome work on the desk Jeff, both the wizard’s one and yours, glad the trick with the wood glue came in handy, a lot of my hobby tricks came from DIY over the years ! LOL

    Great that you’ve managed some gaming, and that you managed to defeat the scenario that you had been stuck on.

    Sounds like some great ideas are formulating for your Conan idea, and look forward to seeing what develops.

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    1. Thanks, Dave! I was a little bit proud of myself for thinking of the wood glue solution. Who knew that building MDF terrain would be so helpful?!

      I’m looking forward to seeing how the Conan thing develops as well. Its a good excuse to read lots about the Cimmerian too which can only be a good thing, I reckon!

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  6. That desk is incredible – you may not be impressed with your OSL, but that’s one of the first things that grabbed my attention! Beautiful stuff, well done – and as a flatpack enthusiast, well done on the life-size desk, as well 🤣

    Glad to hear about your Arkham adventures, by the way. It’s been some time since I played the game, but I do enjoy it. I think the monumental set-up time usually puts me off, so it ends up languishing a bit, but I really should try to play it some more this year. Hopefully now that the nights are getting longer, I can get some bigger games to the table! I would love to read a write up about the game from you, anyway! Cthulhu is a very… flavourful scenario, I won’t say any more just now! 😃

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    1. Thank you! I’m really glad you like the final results. I’m afraid I don’t know what a flatpack is. Is it a British term, bruv? 🙂

      Do you have any organizational stuff to help with the setup? I need to buy more stuff in that vein as I have the funds as I think it would help me with setup. I’m looking forward to seeing what those devious fishmen throw at me. It will probably be a few weeks, if not a month or so, before I play again but I’m happy to savor the experience.

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      1. Oh, my apologies! I just assumed it was a universal thing! It’s furniture that has been, well, packed flat, so Ikea is flatpack heaven because that’s their whole thing 🤪

        Actually I do have stuff for Arkham!

        Gamegenic Token Silo

        I picked this up last year for all the tokens, so now they’re nicely contained within these little trays. I was quite literally over the moon with it, and even now, when I see it there in the closet with the rest of the game, I still get excited for the fact it exists! Silly, I know. But the amount of space it saves by not having the tokens in piles, plus the tiny amount of time saved by not having to open bags etc, it’s just ridiculously good! They do an XL version now, I see, so I’m hoping I can find more games that might need this kind of thing, because it’s just excellent 🤣

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      2. Maybe I just don’t know the term but I immediately understand it and what it means now! Ikea is flatpack heaven to be sure 🙂

        That looks handy for keeping all of the tokens! I have a couple of cheap plastic cases used to hold trading cards that serve a similar function but I need to get some more or come up with a different system as only the main stuff in Arkham: health, sanity, and dollars are in those containers currently.

        I am going to eventually get some kind box/storage system for the game and all of the expansions because the base game box that I bought is heavily damaged as it is, sadly. This is something you’ll read more about when I get around to it! 😀

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      3. Not to turn into some kind of shill for Gamegenic, but the token silo is a tremendous piece of kit for that, as the trays can lift out so you can put them around the table where they can fit (and, as per the marketing, you can then use the case itself as a dice tray!)

        I don’t have a solution for the box though, so all the tiles and cards are just in the core set, and it’s not ideal! I’ll therefore be keeping an eye out for what you come up with!!

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      4. How much of a commission is Asmodee paying you anyway!? 😀 In all seriousness, that does sound really nice. I’ve been wanting a dice tray in general too. I don’t have one and could benefit from one. So your sales pitch is working! 🙂

        I will definitely report back on that when the time comes around. I’ve got Arkham fever (a true Lovecraftian condition) lately and I’m plotting how to get some more Arkham gaming going in the near future!

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      5. 🤣🤣🤣 Oh, I wish I could be on retainer for Asmodee!! Interesting that you mention Arkham fever, as I think I’ve started to show symptoms myself lately. It’s got to be about a year since I played the LCG, and have started to think about decks and stuff once more. Plus, of course, the board game is probably overdue an outing after talking about it so much recently with your good self!!

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      6. So you’ve been walking around with the “Innsmouth Look” and muttering unintelligible phrases too!? That is good to hear! 🙂 I have been tempted to get back into the LCG which is scary because I know I don’t have enough time to dedicate towards it with Fallout, Hellboy, AH: Third Edition, and potentially Conan gaming in the future. I’m tempted to get Eldritch Horror as it sounds like that is a very good game as well. Either way, I’m glad to hear you might be playing Arkham something soon. I’ll look forward to reading about it!

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      7. Oh yes, lots of mysterious chanting in the dead of night! 🤣 I could really see the LCG coming back to the fore before too long for me, do you still have your cards, or did you off-load it like LotR?

        Eldritch Horror is fantastic, I’ve been meaning to get in more games with it so you can expect to see some of that soon, no doubt!

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      8. Its funny you ask that because it was a bit of a journey. I had a couple of setbacks with Arkham. The first was that I used to play on an affordably priced folding table and it collapsed mid-game when I had a glass of water on it and so a bunch of my cards get wet in spite of being sleeved! That was a real bummer but I also realized at a certain point that I couldn’t keep up with the content FFG was pumping out. Between video games and other board games, it was tough. That was disheartening and that is why I ultimately stopped playing and got rid of it.

        While I wouldn’t say that I ever question my decision, there are times I miss it and its the only game I’ve owned and gotten rid of where I can say that.

        From what I can see, Eldritch Horror covers some “flavors” of Lovecraftian fiction that I like and that Arkham Horror: Third Edition never will so that certainly makes it tempting. Its also not a campaign game which is a plus too.

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      9. Eldritch Horror feels very much like a better version of the second edition of the AH board game, I always think. Don’t know if you ever played that? AH3 is so different, it seems to take the best bits of the board game and LCG and mix them together, I’ll never understand why it didn’t do better than it seems to have.

        Man, that sounds like a rough journey you had, I can imagine that you’d want to be rid of it with all that happening!! I think it’s my worst nightmare to mess up a game that way. I should really not have any food or drink near the table when I’m playing some of these things 🤣

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      10. Yes, I played a bit of AH: 2nd Edition back in the day and I enjoyed it but I found it hard to play solo. It was a bit overwhelming at that time, though it was probably the first “real” board game I ever played so maybe it was me as much as anything.

        Surprisingly, the cards weren’t as ruined as you’d think they’d be. There was some warping but they weren’t as bad as I expected. With that said, I almost never have any food or drink on hand when gaming, especially not after that incident!

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  7. Nice job on the desks! The one for you looks very practical, and the Helboy one looks very cool all together! It’s a nice amount of busy, lots of details to look at, and clearly when you do look at them they’re all very nicely painted!

    Those scibor bits of terrain look extremely cool I might have to keep an eye out for them, sad to learn they’re going away.

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    1. Thanks, Nic! The desk is definitely quite busy but I like that about it. It makes it visually interesting to look at. Added some variety to the painting as well.

      I’d be curious how easy it is to get Scibor in Australia. I think there’s basically one retailer in the US that stocks most of his extensive catalog so its by no mean a common sight here!

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