The hobby A.D.D. it never really goes away....

I've referenced Hobby A.D.D. before and although I generally feel like I get quite a lot of stuff done there are periods where my attention span won't stay on one thing and I keep changing gears and starting new projects without finishing old ones.
So with that insight in mind I'd like to share the 5 hobby projects I started over the past 3 days, none of which are completed yet.

Cowboys!

I've been talking for awhile about getting some new cowboys done.  I got my grubby hands on Dracula's America and even though I have a decent amount of stuff done from my recent binge of Warhammer Legends Of The Old West I can't bring myself to play a new game without adding at least some new figures.  These guys are the Earp (or Tombstone I forget the actual name) pack by Black Scorpion.

Orcs!

As part of my recent retro/nostalgia-gaming fix I got some of the Orcs by Antediluvian Miniatures.  These guys immediately take me back to Saturday mornings in the early 80s.  I think my gift to myself when I get all 5 of these projects done will be to get myself another pack or two of Antediluvian Miniatures.

Venger!

Those Orcs need a boss, right?  I might be one of the few people of my generation who could never really embrace Optimus Prime as a noble hero because every time he opens his mouth to speak I hear Venger's voice.  Venger was the chief villain of the animated D&D series in the 80s and still holds up really well as a cool fantasy evil villain.

Frostgrave!

I'm planning a long overdue return to Felstad and much like the cowboys I probably don't need to paint new figures but I just wouldn't be me if I rolled up with the same-old-same-old.  The actual driver for starting these was digging through my unpainted fantasy figures looking for a knight with two-handed sword to try the free print-and-play intro rules for Relic Blade with my newly painted pigmen.

Survivors!

Almost a year ago I ordered a bunch of packs of modern/near-future survivor models with the intention of using them for This Is Not A Test as well as Last Days.  Unfortunately my experience in purchasing these models was not 'free of hassles' and when they finally arrived I had lost any and all enthusiasm I had for them.  (This was one of the customer service things I was up on a soapbox about earlier this year.)  It has literally taken me an entire year to even look at these miniatures again but once I picked them up I decided I really did want to get paint on them.  Oddly enough it wasn't until I looked at them up close I even realised who they were supposed to be.  I had ordered them thinking they would make good pseudo Division-style trained survivors but then when I cleaned and primed them I realised they are actually the two leads from Stargate SG-1.

Well there you have it.  Nothing done, but a bunch of projects that are each one sit-down away from completion.

-Jay

Some toughs and another hero for Marten's Marauders

After taking my sweet time I finally put a rush on getting some outlaws done for Legends Of The Old West late last night for a game that I had this morning.

First up I painted up one of Black Scorpion's cowboy packs to represent the "toughs" in my Outlaw gang.  These are really good serviceable old west figures that look and feel great and are extremely well cast.

From left to right the Marauders are; Six-Gun Sid, Randy Randy, "The Gent" and "Dollar" Bill Dollarhyde.     

I also finished up my final character Artemis "Clyde" Frog.  This is an older metal Malifaux Guild sergeant that I had laying around. He felt like he fit the setting but also had some character of his own.  I'm typing this up after having played 3 games with him and I have to say over 3 games all my other characters had some highs and lows but Artemis accomplished NOTHING and managed to get seriously injured in 2 out of the 3 games he participated in.

I'll be circling back to the Old West in a week or so but I'm going to try to focus on finishing some Walking Dead models and a piece of scenery over the long weekend here.

-Jay

 

Polly Prissypants

The cowboy (cowgirl?) collection continues to grow.  I desperately wanted a female to add to my posse because...reasons (certainly not because I can't get the South Park Wild Wild West episode out of my head) and without having planned ahead properly that turned out to be a super difficult thing to get my hands on unless I wanted to change scales significantly and switch over to Malifaux figures.  Luckily my buddy Andrew stepped up and donated a Deadlands Rail Wars miniature to the cause.  Normally a Deadlands Rail Wars figure would have been way too tall and slightly too bulky but luckily for me because this figure is posed crouched down a bit and with her arms in close to her body it conceals those disparities in scale with my Black Scorpion miniatures.

Polly will end up being another character model so tonight/tomorrow I need to get all my basic cowpokes done.

Any suggestions on a Cartman-as-Jim-West figure?

-Jay

The leader of Marten's Marauders

I'm just over a week away from my first game of Legends Of The Old West in over a decade.  Today my second of three heroes, I'll be calling him Marten (for now) but he is in fact the Pat Garrett miniature from Black Scorpion.  So somehow I've started my cowboy collection with Billy The Kid and the man who killed Billy The Kid.

Two things really appealed to me about this miniature.  First up his cigar while not a utilitarian option for a wargamming piece makes him feel like a man of wealth and taste, secondly his layered clothing let me play with the colour palette a bit and paint his pants and jacket (under his full coat) like a traditional 'Canadian Tuxedo', overall that makes him feel like he could fit in the old west or possibly a western themed post-apocalyptic game.

I'm still looking for a miniature to be my third hero but in the meantime I will probably just get started on my grunts.

We'll see what's next if I don't get distracted.....hey! these Walking Dead figures look cool.....

-Jay

YEE-HAW!

I'm gearing up to jump back into a game from the way back machine that I always enjoyed but never felt I got enough opportunities to play; Warhammer Legends Of The Old West!

About 15 years ago Black Library/Games Workshop created a separate division called Warhammer Historicals dedicated to producing historical rather than fantasy or sci-fi games.  They never found a big audience for the games but they were well thought out games built around existing GW rules sets that already had loyal followings.

Legends Of The Old West was always my favourite for two reasons:
1.  I'm much more enthusiastic about gaming that time period than 'ancients' (which is cool, its just wasn't my thing)
2.  It's built up off my favourite GW rules; Lord Of The Rings (the pre-Hobbit version of the current Hobbit rules).

I hadn't thought about the game in years and then I saw a friend had the rulebook, somebody said "we should play" and a week later I had 12 cowboy models on my desk.

Today's addition is the infamous Billy The Kid.

The Kid is a really flexible miniature for Legends Of The West because he's youthful looking, well-equipped, and a named character for the game.  So I can use him lots of different ways.

I've got a couple of different irons in the fire right now but there are definitely more cowboys looming on the horizon.

-Jay