Summer is Coming!

And Summer means outdoor activities. Last Autumn I discovered a Family LARP group in Svendborg, and started participating in their 'Vatnua' campaign, taking place in a Forgotten Realms inspired setting.

I have a lot of LARP gear from the time around the start of the millennium when I arranged an indoor fantasy campaign for young people, and as I quickly fell in love with the 'Family LARP' concept, I decided to start up a project utilizing our rather large garden/yard (more than 4000 sq.m. with various levels, lots of big trees and hazel bushes, a camp fire hut and two additional camp fire sites).

Today I have prepaired some 'gold coins' (Gylden), and earlier I have been doing some 'copper' and 'silver' pieces (Shillinger and Thalere).

I also got this little thing for the Human Faction. The old King is dead, and the throne is vacant (yes, I'm also preparing a throne).

Well. that's all for today. Stay safe out there!

No Elf on the Shelf ...

 ... but a lot of headache.

I spent all morning moving one shelf down and putting up another in order to be able to arrange the contents of our kitchen cupboards a little better.

The walls of our 108 years old mansion are really difficult to drill, so I had serious trouble getting the rawlplugs to fit and stick in the holes (at several occasions I was inches away from a nervous breakdown), but after 4½ hours, I had closure.

I don't think it gets much better with old fashioned analog tools.

Needless to say, between this, physical exercise, and picking up Lea from Grammar School/High School), I did not have much time for painting, but I THINK I might get a winter/xmas-themed mini ready later this evening (right now I am watching the World Cup (1/8 final, Japan leading against Croatia)

Sellswords & Spellslingers: New Set of Cards

I have simply NO idea where I have put my SS&SS card set and 3D-printed deck holder, and as I plan to play a game with Emil quite soonish, I had to print, laminate, and cut out a second set (this time it is going to be stored in the games gear box!)

My printer is not currently running, so I built a deck holder/card shoe from LEGO. It is not as swaggy as a printed one, but it will have to do for now.

Re-furnishing the Study

This is where my Pain(t) Station desk used to be

I have not been doing much on the hobby front lately; first of all because we went on our annual family camping vacation the last two weeks of July, and then because it is so hot here in Denmark that it takes a lot  of guts to do anything but cower in the shadows.

Last weekend though, we spent packing and moving stuff from my late Mother-in-Law's estate outside Haderslev, and I have been busy emptying my trusty old desk in order to replace it with the somewhat larger and nicer desk formerly belonging to my, also late, Father-in-Law.

I also took the opportunity to organize some of the mess along the radiator under the windows (I have placed the bookcase 15-20 cm from the radiator, and as it has legs, I expect some kind of convection to happen when the radiator is on). Some of the figure cases are all but empty, and as soon as I have removed the last minis from them, I shall sell them off to free some space.

I have built another filament spool tower for the Prepping Station. I now have LotR minis on the right one, all kinds of mixed stuff on the other.

Yesterday I finally got the new desk put in place. I can store most of my paints in and on the desk, now, and as the Miniaturicum paint rack fits behind the elevated desktop, I am going to put something underneath it to be able to reach it while working - and I am going to print some racks to sit beside it, as there is plenty of room left.

So, next up is to find some suitable STL models for the extra racks, and boxes or the equivalent to elevate the racks.

In two and a half week we have Lea's postponed confirmation, and I shall be busy making preparations for it (moving stuff out of the living room so we can set up tables for the celebration, tidying up the garden and coutyard, etc., etc....), but after that, I expect to find time to work on the Smials for Frodo's Quest (and other projects).

My BIG Summer Project

I am finally (almost) done renovating the driveway.

This project has been running over three years, with most of the workload (and cost) this summer.

Phase 1: The asphalt ramp.
Done two years ago.

Phase 2: Filling out the hollow.
Last summer I got access to removing a lot of beach stones from a garden elsewhere in town, and this spring I helped a single mom emptying a large sand box.

Phase 3: Spreading granite chippings on the parking part of the driveway.
Late spring this year. While doing this, I decided to make some sort of edge on the two 'naked' sides of the part going to become a sun patio to keep the chippings in place and grass and weeds out.
Shortly after, someone in town wanted to get rid of a bunch of old 55cm x 55cm cement tiles.

Phase 4: Getting rid of the hedge.
My firewood pusher knows guys, and he has access to a mini excavator. My neighbour suggested  removing the hedge entirely instead of just digging a trench for the tile edge.

Phase 5: The cement tile edges.
This was really hard labour. Those tiles are heavy as hell, and difficult to handle for aligning.

Phase 6: Raising the driving lane to the back yard with earth.
As the local water plant has two wells in the far end of our back yard, they have right to access the back yard with their trucks for maintenance. Thus, I had to make sure that the tile edge is flush with the surface, otherwise the tiles may break when passed by a heavy vehicle.
The girls and I moved 8 m3 earth during last and this week.

Phase 7: Placing the granite post/column, and spreading granite chippings in the rest of the driveway. 
This was done today. Anna helped me getting the granite post placed and secured. After covering the last part of the driveway in chippings, I enjoyed a well-deserved can of beer on my new sun patio!

Phase 8: Filling up the sun patio part with granite chippings.
The final phase will stretch over the next couple of years, as granite chippings are not the cheapest material.
I have about ½ m3 left to spread out before pausing this project for now. I shall probably do that tomorrow.

All in all, I think I have spent about DKK 12,500 on the driveway, plus time, and petrol for driving a lot of trailer loads of stones and sand.

I think I have earned the right to a nice summer vacation, now!

The Garden this Spring

The sewers all over thown are being renovated this summer, and the contractors asked for permission to use our backyard for redirecting soms drainage water while parts of the system were beinng worked on..

You do not see steam erupting from sewers every day!

We have an abundance of Forget-me-Nots behing the house and garage.

I got a load of cobblestones to finish (I hope) the lawn edging project this summer - but I also got some granite chippings for the driveway beside the garage, and that project kind of escalated, so I have not yet begun laying down the cobbles.

The driveway/parking space after spreading the first load of chippings.

Because of the blasted slugs and birds, we decided to put our strawberries in raised beds with nets. The slugs also killed(!) my horse radishes by constantly eating all the green parts of the plants, so we have gotten some new plants and planted them in a raised bed beside the veggie garden (to be seen in a later post).

Lea's confirmation was postponed to August, due to the Corona pandemic. We decided to give her one of her gifts in advance, as it would be a bit pointless to get a garden trampoline just in time for winter.

Gaming Mats Completed!

As per the intentions mentioned in my previous post, I have been making DIY gaming mats galore.

The above mat is 4'x2' (instead of 40"x20"), and thus a wee too large for The Walking Dead, but as I want all my mats to adhere to the 'normal' convention of using whole feet for table measurements I had to add those few inches to the standard All Out War board sizes.

Here is the concrete/tarmac/rubble/whatever 4x2 mat.

And the 2x2 version - various kinds of daylight, and inconsistent use of tungsten lamps messed a bit with the colour - it is more or less the same as the above mat.

Finally, I have made two earth mats for covering a full 6x4 table. They look almost square, which is because the short edges (meant to form the 6' edges of the board) are actually a bit more than 3' - I simply decided to use the whole width of the material.

Another Terrain Mat

I am making some additional mats for playing The Walking Dead: All Out War, and other purposes, probably also Frodo's Quest. The first two are going to be this 2'x2', and a 2'x4' earth/dirt mat, and then I am going to make both a 2'x2', and a 2'x4' concrete/tarmac/ash waste mat, so that can stage scenarios in both rural and urban settings.

I am aware that The Walking Dead specifies 20"x20", and 20"x40" playing areas, but I want the mats to fit in with 'feet standardized' mats/tables.

When those are done, I am going to purchase a new roll of that 'painters' felt' so that I can make some 4'x3' mats without old splashes of paint; I want to be able to keep just one set of blank boards near the living room to put on the dining table to accommodate a variety of mats. I can then keep my chipboard boards in the attic with no need for carrying them back and forth, which facilitates switching to the living room when the attic gets too cold for gaming.

3D-Printed: Insert for Pallet Tank Top Inlet Spigot

My wife recently purchased a second hand pallet tank (1000 l) for collecting and storing rain water and use it for watering the garden.

However, it seems impossible to find some kind of 'adapter' for drain pipes to fit the top spigot. The only thing close to it has exactly the same diameter as the spigot, and thus does not fit either on the outside or the inside of the spigot.

Argonor and 123D Design to the rescue, and after a couple of tests, I have now printed an insert that will allow us to have the drainpipe going straight into the pallet tank without risk of getting leaves and other filth into the tank, cluttering the tap.

The pallet tank spigot

With the insert... inserted.

And with the piece of drainpipe inserted - in the background you can see the downspout which is to be connected to the tank

3D Printed: Four Tyranid Capillaries

Finished the fourth one yesterday, and as I am now on a two-day print of a Tyranid Spyre/Chimney (or what ever it is called), I think it is time for cleaning some of them up for painting (I am going to print at least one more, so that I may have enough for the highest number of Objectives it is possible to roll up in Grimdark Future: Firefight).

3D-Printed: Tyranid Capillary #3

This piece is 11cm high, and the third one successfully printed.

I am printing another piece of the first one with slightly different settings, to see if I can get rid of the stringing, and when that is finished, it is time for cleaning up all four for priming.

I intend to ink-paint them over white primer, to keep the production time as low as possible, as I also want time for painting a couple of character minis for Age of Fantasy Skirmish and Sellswords & Spellslingers, respectively (not that they are not both going to be used in both games, eventually, but, ya'know...).

The rest og the day, my printer will be churning out 3-man Mortal Gods sabot bases for use in Age of Fantasy Skirmish, as our games has reached a size where moving entire units in one go is nice and saving time.

3D-Printed: Tyranid Capillary #2

I printed the second capillary - also found on Thingiverse - yesterday, and the third one (somewhat taller) should be ready later this morning.

I really like how these turn out, and I cannot wait to have enough to slap some paint on and get them ready for the table.

I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoy being able to make low-cost themed terrain like this for my games, and I heartily recommend getting a printer for gaming and other hobby purposes!

3D-Printed: Tyranid Capillary

Printed this today, the file kan be found on Thingiverse.

Although not extremely apparent, I still have an issue with stringing (I have had that since I changed my settings to try avoiding the clogging problem I had for a while), I hope to get Cura dialed in again, soon.

I am printing some of these to use as Objective Markers in One Page Rules Grimdark Firefight, for when my Tyranids are on the table.

I have another one printing at the moment, and it should be done this evening, when I shall start a larger version to print over night.

As soon as I have four or five I shall prep and paint them, so that I can get them on the table.

3D-Printed: Camp & Baggage WIP

My CR10S S3 has been busy making some Camp & Baggage the last week.

The large Black Pavilion of course is the field habitation of my Necromancer,.
It can be found HERE

The Oseberg tents can be used for various purposes.

The file is to be had HERE

The first two printed have been sprayed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone and had the A-frames basecoated - I intend to do a little more work on them before each game they are to appear on the table.

The crates and the barrel are both from a Delving Decor Dwarven set - found on Thingiverse just like the tents.

I have not had time to sit down to clean up and assemble the Renedra Saxon tents - I shall reveal the reason in my next post.

More Snowflakes

The collection slowly grows.

I am going to print all 25 from this series, then start experimenting with smaller versions of the nicest ones, before printing some icicles to hang from the inside top of the living room windows.

3D printing is FUN!

3D Printed: Deco Snowflakes

I have started printing snowflakes to decorate the windows (I think). When I have enough, I think I shall try my luck with some icicles.

The files are from Thingiverse, there is a lot of different designs to choose from-