Old Stuff Day 2012

 

It's Old Stuff Day - it's just like shopping at thrift store, which I've done in the past because I had no money in law school, not because I'm a hipster... Anyways, not like one inch warriors has been super productive since Old Stuff Day 2011, but I've combed through the archives to give you some links to awesomeness.  First, my best post from the last 12 months was about painting wooden weapon shafts, which I wrote a few weeks ago... not that vintage... well then, go check out my Stegadon and the Chapel of St. Nigel.  Those should keep you from doing anything productive for a couple of minutes.

A Note on Painting Wooden Weapon Shafts

I've always been a bit beguiled when it comes to painting weapon shafts - you know, spears, flails, etc.  It's easy to do a simple highlight but with that large amount of blank, cylindrical space, I always felt that a wood grain texture gives the model more life.  The problem I've had is finding a way to paint such for a 20+ figure unit in way that looks good and is efficient - the latter of which is always a constant struggle for me.  I've tried something before with my Saurus Calvary, but it was too tedious and I wasn't terribly excited about the results. 

I had one of those lovely Eureka moments while reading a recent post on Dave Taylor's blog - who is a much more prolific painter and blogger than I.  There's a nice close up one of Dave's Empire Flagellants, who's wielding a flail with a dinged up wooden shaft.  With that close up, I was able to break down Dave's technique and realize that this is the solution I'd been looking for.

After making some crude post-it diagrams breaking down the necessary steps (my best thinking is usually transcribed on these yellow squares), I grabbed a few Temple Guard and went to work:

Where the *bleep* did one inch warriors go?

What MacArthur said about old soldiers is also true about blogs -  they don't die, they just slowly fade away.  For a while I was content to let one inch warriors fade away into the depths of the blog rolls, never to see site traffic again... although apparently I've still been getting tons of hits from bizarre Google searches, but that's probably a result of the images I've poached to spice up my posts.  Alas, having spent months away from blogging, painting and gaming altogether has renewed my spirits and instilled a new, yet slightly tempered yearning for hobby action.  I also have a bunch of half-finished posts that if left uncompleted would make me feel criminal for the deprivation inflicted upon my (hopefully) loyal readers.

Right before my on-again-off-again hobby odyssey was put on a self-inflicted temporary hiatus, I had agreed to help best-warhammer-buddy Justin work on his then new and shinny Dreadfleet box.  Unfortunately that didn't get too far due to a multiple fatality car accident that kept him stuck in traffic on the freeway for most of the day that we were planning on using to assemble and paint the games pieces.  With the little time we had, we got things built (those boats were challenge) and primed... and then decided to go drink beer with our old college buddies!  I did manage to get one ship painted a few days later:

Need a seafaring vessel - why not Zoidberg?

Saurus Unit Filler WIP & Other Odds and Ends

I like to be frugal, whether I'm shopping for groceries, pet supplies or hobby goodies.  This is why unit fillers in WFB appeals to me.  My two Saurus units presently have 20 models each, but I want to expand the units up to 24.  Inexpensive solution, take the 8 unpainted models I have and turn them into unit fillers.  After sketching out some crude diagrams on post-it notes, I've assembled the first one.