Christmas Wars: Summoning Complete ... Or Is It?

I get VERY little hobby time in currently (sick kid the last couple of days, altered appointments that pose logistic challenges, etc., and more CHistmas shopping coming up on the weekend), but my display still does get an upgrade now and then,

The pics are a tiny bit shaken as I find it difficult to hold the camera completely steady by hand, but you'll get the situation.

Miss Puddingsixpence has succeeded in summoning a Spirit. but is it the right one, and will it 

The Evil Snowmen are approaching from the forest. What heros will N be able to rally against them?

Christmas Wars: Bad Moon Risin'

Today has been Crazy! This morning, after the first night with some notable frost degrees, we found that we had no warm water, and the radiators were cold in all of the ground floor (the top floor, oddly enough, still had some heating).

Anna almost suffered a nervous breakdown, as instead to taking a shower and washing her hair last evening, she had postponed it untill today, so we had to boil water and mix it with cold tap water in the bathroom sink, and the wifey helped her.

I had to drop off the Land Speeder at the garage for changing tires (and the rear windshield wiper), but as soon as I returned home, I called the plumber (as the pipe from the community heating plant leading into the basemant was hot, the problem had to lay somewhere inside our home).

Thankfully, the plumber could come right away (their smithy/workshop is just down the street), and an hour later or so, the radiators slowly began to warm up again. It seems that some kind of dirt filter was clogged, and now we should be marked safe from cold mornings for a while.

Then, after picking up the Land Speeder, I went to Ringe to work out at the Fitness Center/gym and pick up the girls from grammar school afterwards (15:15). Lea had to be at work at 15:30, and Anna took her time to appear, so I had to leave her behind at first to get Lea to work on time. I could not get Lea to call Anna right away to reassure her I'd be back for her (she was changing shirt for work), so Anna kind of panicked and thought I'd abandoned her. Which didn't make my day any better.

All in all, today was pretty shitty, and I did not have the mojo to do much hobby stuff in between.

But, I got the Christmas Display updated, and the story can unfold ...

Miss Puddingsixpence seems to have some problems harnessing the Power of Light here  under the Full Moon. Meanwhile, another Snow Goon has emerged from the Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Whose bidding are the foul constructs doing? And what is their purpose?

Christmas Wars: The Snow Goon Incursion of '22

 Clearly a violation of the Santa Clause, stating that no evil spirits can enter the Mortal Realms between Samhain and Epiphany, this situation may call for the activation of N's Sleeper Helpers. Miss Puddingsixpence seems about to invoke the Spirit of Christmas Present to summon some reinforcements - but will they arrive in time, and will they be enough to stem the tides of Darkness, or will Christmas be jeopardized ...?

So It Begins

December is dedicated to painting minis which will show up in the Christmas Display on the sideboard. The first 'mini' finished this year is the largest of the trees, which I have given a washer base built up with some wall filler and painted with Humbrol Matt White Enamel and Citadel Apothecary White Contrast.

I am basing more of those cheap decoration trees (and I shall also give the small tree a bigger base), and I have quite a line-up of pop culture icons in the pain(t) queue,

November Output

November was fairly productive, even a few more models finished than the previous month.

4 Skeleton Archers painted, one Leader rebased.

3 Skeleton Catapult Crewmen painted-

5 Revenants/Skeleton Guards painted.

2 Small Tents painted.

1 Mines of Moria Aragorn painted

4 Mines of Moria columns/pillars painted-

1 Warhammer Quest Barbarian painted.

2 Gravestones painted.

1 Mines of Moria Peregrin Took painted.

2 Middle-Earth Rangers painted.

2 more Gravestones painted.

Another 2 Gravestones painted.

Yet another 2 Gravestones painted

1 old Metal Magic Rogue rebased and repainted/paint repaired-

Yet another 2 Gravestones painted.

1 Mines of Moria Meriadoc Brandybuck painted.

1 Ranger of Ithilien rebased and repainted/paint repaired.

If I have counted correctly, I painted 35 models and rebased and repainted/paint repaired 2 old models in November.

That's OK, I think. December will see a lower count, as I have a lot of iconic pop culture characters and other nice stuff lined up in the pain(t) queue, and they will need more attention than some of the rank.and-file I did in November.

The Last Gravestones - For a While

 Two Renedra Plastic. one Citadel Plastic from an Undead sprue (I have a shedload of those).

These were the last gravestones that I had prepped and primed, and December means focusing on some other stuff, so don't expect to see more of this kind until January.

More Stone Slabs

Soon, there will be a short break from these, as I have only three more prepped, based, and primed.

I found a couple of rogue 'leaves' when tidying up my pain(t) station, so I glued them on.

I hope to finish Merry Brandybuck tomorrow (one of those diminutive plastic sculpts from The Mines of Moria) - he has taken me far too long!

Even More Grave-markers

 Still doing some of these. One Citadel plastic, the other Renedra plastic.

More Gravestones

 Another pair of tombstones/gravestones/headstones.

Funny thing about these: I used the exact same paints for both, just varied the intensity of the brushwork (those GW Undead tombstones are as made for drybrushing, really).

Another Pair of Headstones

Finished more stuff for the cemetery. Nothing else to report today.

More Headstones

I thought it was about time that I show some hobby stuff, so I knocked out these two today.

I have several minis and a terrain piece coming up, but they are not quite there, just yet.

Frodo's Quest: Some Moria Scenery

These are the plastic columns from the Mines of Moria boxed set, finally painted up and ready to provide some cover from Goblin arrows.

Renedra Small Tents

Today's post is a bit bland, but I quickpainted these over several sessions, and they are now ready to be used in whatever context they might be needed.

I would like to get more Renedra stuff, but I need to find an EU vendor who carries it, as there is too much hassle in ordering from outside the Inner Market.

I am struggling with a Mines of Moria plastic Aragorn at the moment - very tiny compared to other 28mm stuff, so I make very slow progress, but I hope to finish him tomorrow.

October Output

Taken into account that I came back to the hobby some days into October, I think I have been relatively productive.

Four games played, one of them a solo introduction game, which took me several days to work through, as I had to refer to the rulebook a lot until I had the basics down.

During the week up to the Hell'O'Weekend I prepped, based, and painted up almost an entire sprue's worth of Renedra headstones (17 in all), and a resin pile of skulls I got from a small independent manufacturer some years ago (I sincerely don't remember whom).

These three guys got some TLC and joined my Army of Darkness, hurling stuff at their mortal antagonists.

The archers were a direct consequence of the games I've played, as I felt the need for packing some ranged punch against the mortal instruments of Law and Order.

Finally, this venomous arachnid finally got ready for the table. I started rebasing it onto a large washer a LONG time ago, but in the process of removing from its old plastic base, I broke one of its hind legs, and I kind of dreaded the task of getting it fixed back in its proper place. As it turned out, it was a bit fiddly, but I am pretty chuffed with the final result. It seems that my Undead Host will comprise a Monster Unit next game 😃

All in all 31 minis painted, and one big creature rebased (and quite a few prepping/painting and/or rebasing WIPs on the side). Not too shabby, innit?

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.