Dystopian Wars: Initial thoughts on the Russian Coalition

I know that's an FSA BB, but I needed a flashy title snapshot!

So I've jumped head first into the Russian fleet for Dystopian Wars, and I'm a few games into learning how they fit in and function. Spoiler alert: I love them. They're different enough to feel unique, and the strength/weakness balancing issues are a fun challenge.

First things first: I love the aesthetic. The models are beautiful, and definitely show a progression in Spartan's digital sculpting talents from the original 4 fleets. As you've come to expect, the models are bristling with details. I continue to find little details I hadn't noticed before, especially after getting a coat of primer on them. Speaking of primer...

Summer Spell, and Ron's Wisdom

I want to share some wisdom from Ron over at From the Warp. He recently posted about his Summer, and how he's had a bit of a hobby hiatus. We all juggle our hobby time, real life, and work. At one point or another, we all take a break from hardcore hobbying, be it painting, gaming, or what have you.

In his post, "Forty days and forty nights with no hobby", Ron talks about the circumstances surrounding the hobby, taking a break, and the after effects such as new-found enthusiasm. It centers primarily on 40k, but I feel it applies to any hobby really, and certainly any aspect of the miniatures and gaming hobby in particular.

DIY: Paint Shaker

 Tired of shaking your paint? Lazy? Either way, here's a solution.

The Russians are Here!

Quick update today, I got some presents in the mail and I had to share. The beginning of my Russian fleet came in today, and I'm dying to slap some paint on them. I loved the aesthetic from day one, and ordered them as soon as they were available.

Project Monolith: Desktop and Slide-Out done!

Still making progress with Project Monolith, this time on the desktop and slide out work surface. Let's jump right in.

My new hero, Tokkutai

Hi all! I wanted to take a minute to plug a blog I've just discovered. It's really blown me away, I still haven't picked my jaw up from the floor.

His handle is Tokkutai. So far he's focused on scratch-built and heavily converted ork models. His pcard skills are absolutely top notch, and his eye for unique bits use is simply brilliant. Take a look, you'll see what I mean.

http://tokkutai.blogspot.de/

It's amazing stuff, really. I plan to loot a great many ideas from his work thus far!

Project Monolith: Paint Rack Done!

After a handful of minor speed bumps, the paint rack is finished and mounted inside The Monolith.

After realizing the cabinet doors were mounted backwards, I swapped them (phew!), leaving myself with an interesting challenge: The rack was now mounted on the opposite side, upside down, and now interfered with the top internal shelf.

Project Monolith: Doors and Paint

The theme for this post would have to be "sometimes the best ideas get completely turned on their heads and you have to do a boatload more work to iron things out".

Okay, so it's not the most concise theme, but the statement stands.

Project Monolith is underway!

One expects to see Hominids learning to use bones as weapons...

After seeing a couple of different hobby desks based on old armoires or television cabinets (like this one, source unknown), I decided to make one for myself. With no real plan other than "Take the junk from the desk and stuff it into a custom, organized armoire", I set about making my own personal hobby nest.

Of course, the first step was finding the right piece of furniture to start with. I wanted something sturdy enough to handle day to day use, but handsome enough to function as a piece of home furnishing for years to come. So nothing cheap, and nothing ugly.
Then I got picky. I didn't want anything too beat up. I can salvage/re-surface/re-finish, but I wanted to minimize the amount of elbow grease needed before I would even start converting it into my hobby mecca. I wanted doors that swing open, not the more common type that fold back into the unit on rails. I also wanted something somewhat large, as a lot of smaller TV cabinets couldn't possibly contain the massive amount of materials I needed to store. Aside from all that, I'm partial to dark wood, as it fits into a more man-cave, den environment.