Lurking on the Fringes

It has been quite the long gap in posts, and I am sure more than a few people will be surprised to get a messaging popping-up on an update on this blog.

I have been quite busy with work and social activities the past couple months with little time for hobby stuff.  I have managed to squeeze a bit of time to play 40K in, but mostly because I was asked to take part in a league that has games every two weeks (so fairly easy to manage).  Today’s update is mostly a few odds and sods that I have been working on, with absolutely nothing having been completed.

Games Workshop Tau Piranha.

As 40K has been the bulk of my hobby time, a few of my Tau models have been getting some paint.  Although the basic hull is about 90% done, this needs a lot of work.  The white is fairly smooth, I just need to clean up the mess from my black-lining and of course paint the crew and compartment.

 

I have enjoyed playing my Tau and I did buy a few models, but I have committed less than $100 to this army between getting models in trade and on sale.

Sci Fi urban terrain.

Sci Fi urban terrain.

As the title picture shows, I have started a new terrain piece for the urban terrain.  I have decided to use some of the random plastic pieces from my junk box to make a power relay station which is also built on a piece of MDF.  I clad the outside in a foamcore wall and built the small out-building and have called it done.  There are a few other minor details but they won’t really look like much until it is painted.

 

Bugbear by Reaper Miniatures.

Bugbear by Reaper Miniatures.

Another couple WIP have been my Reaper figures.  I got quite the large assortment of Bugbear miniatures in Bones 2 and I have just started painting them.  I had put on the base coats on a few of them when I decided I wanted to build one up to finished on the skin tone.  At that point, I had a friend contact me and ask if I could teach him how to paint…that night.

 

So he brought over a few figs and I showed him a few techniques, but these bugbears were the most handy.  Between the different stages of progressive layering he was able to see how I paint and he even threw paint on a few while he waited for paint to dry.  By the end of the night he had a good enough for table-top miniature for his paladin character in the weekly DnD campaign he is playing in.  He also decided to gift a few minis to his group and my box of Bones turned up 3 members of the group for him, leaving him with just one more fig to get for Christmas gifts.  As for the bugbear, I will still need to finish his armour and make his fur stand out more with highlights and a wash.  And the weapon of course needs lots of work too.

Stone Lurker by Reaper Miniatures.

Stone Lurker by Reaper Miniatures.

Also getting a bit of paint is the Roper.  Reaper calls it a Stone Lurker to avoid lawsuits, but it is obviously the iconic underground horror the Roper.  I am not sure what else I want to do with this guy.  A wash or two on the tentacles will tone them down for starters and I am not very happy with the mouth on top.  The eye needs a bit of work too.  In other words, it is very much still a work in progress.

I have always been fascinated by that monster since I was a kid and I loved the artwork in the AD&D Monster Manual as a kid.  Something about it just seemed so unnatural and weird.  Funny thing is, I have never faced one in a game nor have I used one as a monster in a game I ran.

Anyhow, now that I have a painted miniature, maybe it will make an appearance at some point in a game.

So a bit of a short post with a lot of variety, but hopefully still inspirational.  If nothing else, it shows that even with a long hiatus from hobby time it is possible to jump back into things.