Category Archives: Terrain

2016 Hobby Year in Review

Now in its third year, let’s take a look at my hobby work over the past year.

Overview

I started the hobby year working through the Malifaux Black Friday order and getting a few things ready for Adepticon. Then the queue got real. In 2015 I felt I had been a little too stingy at Adepticon. Let’s just say I didn’t have that problem this year.

Continue reading 2016 Hobby Year in Review

Terrain: Fence, Outhouse, and Signs


At Adepticon 2015, I was tempted by Tri-City Laser’s buildings, but waited until later to buy any. Somehow I forgot to add the fence set to my cart. So I remedied that this year.

The fence set comes in eight pieces – four straight sections and four corners. It’s got the same neat woodgrain texture which may be out of scale but comes out really nicely when drybrushing.

Outhouse
Outhouse

I also grabbed an outhouse, just for an extra piece of scatter.

I also grabbed these signs from Tectonic Crafts Studios. Sadly, I’m not totally in love with these pieces. Between the fibers of the MDF and the relatively low resolution of the laser cuts, it’s too hard to clean them up to any decent standard.

Terrain: Plasticraft Suburban Props


While I was at Adepticon, I sold my brother-in-law on Malifaux, but he didn’t want to buy more than a crew box. The Wyrd booth was running the $100 alt Witchling Handler promo from the Easter sale. Since he picked Guild, I said I’d help him get over the threshold to get the bonus model. I picked up a crew box of my own, and ended up using this as a filler to get over the line. I needed more scatter terrain, anyways.

These boxes are surprisingly nice, although there were quite a few bubbles in the resin on the underside. I painted them using Weathered Wood from the new weathering paints released by Secret Weapon at Adepticon. Just quick a paint/brown wash/offwhite drybrush makes a nice old wooden look.

There’s also a collection of garbage cans in the set. These are just basic metal with a wash, even though I suspect that metal trash can are anachronistic.

2015 Hobby Year in Review

Once again, I’m obligated to produce a year-end retrospective.

Overall

I started the year strong, and burned through outstanding projects once, but then bought back up, of course.  It’s been managed pretty well, although I just spiked due to Wyrd’s Black Friday sale.  40k went on the back burner this year, with only a few models painted and a handful of games played.  Malifaux (including adding Gremlins as a new faction) and Dropzone Commander (new to me this year) has been taking my attention.

I built and started regularly using the Spin-o-matic this year, which produces neat 360º views of my models.  I just almost completely replaced the setup with one which should be easier to use in a consistent way.  Maybe someday I’ll post about it.

I also upgraded my photography setup in the middle of the year, with a new lens and lighting set.  It’s improved the look enough that I’m tempted to reshoot old stuff when I got back to look at it.  I doubt I’ll ever find the time.

hobby-burndown 2015

  • 144 individual models completed (+9.9% YoY)
  • 62 Malifaux models (47 on 30mm bases, 7 40mm, and 8 50mm)
  • 56 Dropzone models
  • 27 terrain and misc models (including 2 with my daughter)
  • 1 40k model (plus a few extra weapons)
  • Exclusively used painted models in every game, even when starting a new faction and a whole new game.

Malifaux

Malifaux header

I started playing Malifaux the middle of last year, and it has become my main game this year.  I did Tale of Malifaux Bloggers with Zoraida in the spring.  After Adepticon I realized I needed a second faction to keep things fresh, so I moved Zoraida over towards Gremlins.  Now I swap between the two every couple of months.

Dropzone Commander

bears_kodiaks_header

I got a free starter box at Adepticon and managed to squeeze a demo in between other events.  After I got home, I decided to give it a go, and built up a UCM army.  It’s behind Malifaux in favorite-ness, but the mobility and scale is very interesting.

Terrain

I decided late this year to build a board for home use, to allow gaming when I couldn’t get away from the house.  It hasn’t seen a whole ton of use, but I’m glad I have it.  I’ll probably slowly build up the terrain collection, and hopefully get people over more often.

Other

No list would be complete without an ‘other’ section.  This includes the only Reaper model I’ve painted this year, and a few projects I’ve done with my daughter and wife.  It also, surprisingly enough, includes the few 40k models I’ve done in the last year.  40k hasn’t been grabbing my interest so much these days, although I’m sure I’ll be back.

Looking to 2016

I expect Malifaux will continue to occupy most of my gaming attention, with Dropzone sprinkled in for flavor.  I’m not finding myself super pulled towards another Malifaux faction, but Resistance in DZC has been tempting me.  I’ve also just picked up a Team Yankee US starter, although I haven’t played any games or decided how much energy it’ll get.

I’m signed up for Adepticon for a second year.  Malifaux, Dropzone, Space Hulk, and seminars are scheduled.  I’m hoping to have time to explore other games and products.

We’ll see how much Team Yankee grabs me.  I dig the WWIII semi-modern setting, and 15mm scale tanks are cool.  I don’t know how many games I’ll actually get in, since there don’t seem to be a ton of players around, but I’m looking forward to trying to airbrush camo.