January 2022 Roundup!

 We have reached the end of January, and how did I do? Did I hit all the notes on my manifesto?

1) I participated in the January challenge - I completed Lieutenant Julius for #TheBigJan!

2) I bought no new models!

3) I tried a new thing - GUNPLA!

4) I did something every day!

In those terms, January was a success ... but I did, in fact, only complete one model, which is a bit small, really....

Still - I did everything I said I would!

Huzzah! Great success!

=][= Danforth Laertes

January 31st 2022: Lady Diana

 

I continued with the 3d printing, but once you've got that dialed in you are no longer Henry Ford - you're just one of his guys on the line.

But here is the Model T - or perhaps the Edsel (maybe she'll get perils of the Warp and she'll explode and we can call her a Pinto). Enough of such metaphors! Here is Lady Diana, assembled and converted and ready for a lick of paint. But next month is #Squaduary not #TheBigJan so . . . she'll probably wait.

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January 29th & 30th 2022: 3d Printing

 A friend wanted to get some Ghost Soldiers - futuristic troops in clear resin. He bought the resin and provided the .stl files, and I spent some time getting supports set up and printing them. Great success!

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(I also worked on a model for the Black Queen, but it's not quite finished and so I can post something of that later).

January 28th 2022: Roleplaying

 We got back to roleplaying after a long break!

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January 25th, 26th and 27th 2022: World Anvil - Antak'ya and the Black Queen

 More work on the background, but instead of just correcting errors and adding little details I expanded into some discovered-but-uncharted territory of Antak'ya and found one of its fascinating inhabitants, Lady Diana the Black Queen.

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January 23rd & 24th: The White Knight

A couple more days spent on the White Knight. The 23rd was spent doing some painting on the gun, and the 24th working on the backpack. I've been taking it slowly, but it is coming together!

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January 22nd 2022: Photobooth

Cleared and tidied out a corner of the laundry room, and built a photobooth there for the wife to photograph her Etsy things, but also for me to photograph models. Also did a little bit of painting on a couple of things, but nothing excessive.

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January 21st 2022: Fun time with friends!

Friday night is for fun with friends, and tonight my buddies converted their riders to look more like their RPG characters.

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January 20th 2022: The White Knight

Finished the printing of the pieces for The White Knight and cleaned them up, and worked a bit on assembly. I also ordered a Redemptor Dreadnought powerplant, which will allow me to finish it off.

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January 19th 2022: World Anvil Page

 Not much to show, really - but a bit more work on the background pages.

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January 17th & 18th 2022: "The White Knight"

 

Well, it didn't take long before I pulled the Gundam apart and started changing it up! The T'au are clearly heavily inspired by Japanese themes, including Gundams, and turning a Gundam into a T'au-inspired Imperial Knight was not beyond possibility. As part of the Outremer background, I developed The White Knight and wanted to represent it as a combination of T'au and Imperial technology. So... some 3d printed parts from a Riptide, some hooves from a He-Man toy, some Armiger pieces and it's starting to come together.

I began doing most of the work on the torso - I disassembled it and painted some pieces. I want to preserve the bare-plastic colors of the Gundam as much as possible, so I didn't just prime the thing and start over. Instead, I carefully chose pieces to paint and - if I needed to paint a component just partially - I primed it with some matte varnish to give a bit of tooth for the paint.

Some final pieces are running on the printer right now, and I have an eBay order for a powerplant from a Redemptor Dreadnought which should let me assemble it all up!

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January 16th 2022: "Master Grade" 1/100 Barbatos

 

I completed the assembly of the Barbatos model - it is very nice indeed, and has great detail and poseability. I took some pictures showing its scale next to a Knight, a ruler, and its smaller cousin!

All in all, Gunpla is a very fun hobby although I don't see myself doing much more of it. The kits are beautiful and much more reasonably-priced than Warhammer models, but the aesthetic is just not the same ... and I don't need another setting!

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January 15th 2022: Gunpla!

My "MG" 1/100 Barbatos arrived - it is much larger and more complicated than its smaller brother. I started assembly.

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January 14th 2022: Gunpla and Dragons

 

I took delivery of another Gundam - don't worry, only one more! And I assembled it while my buddies assembled the dragon models I gave as Christmas presents (for their RPG characters).

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January 13th 2022: World Anvil

 More work on World Anvil for Outremer - there is a lot of work to generate a wiki!

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January 12th 2022: NEW THING! Gunpla!

Today my 1/144 scale "High Grade" Gundam Barbatos arrived and I spent about an hour and a half assembling it. And based on nothing more than this one kit, here are my views on Gunpla!

It comes in a nice box. The seller (I got it from eBay) had blacked out the original price ($12.99) ... probably because he sold it to me for more! But, it was a fair price compared to other figures it seemed.

Opening it, there are sprues and an assembly guide.

The parts are well-cast, with few mold lines (and those that are there are mostly hidden when you assemble it).

The body came together very easily.

The sprues are not as closely packed as GW ones, and the sprues themselves are more delicate.

Even with the words being in Japanese, it is easy enough to follow the instructions.

So, what do I think?

Well, the kit is very nicely made and it is inexpensive; I paid $22.95 including shipping - that is $10 more than the kit is apparently "worth" but who knows what that "comp est value" really is; the prevailing exchange rate of the Yen at the time? This is an import from far, far away ... I'll pay $10 to have it delivered to my house.

I am certain that if this were a GW kit of comparable complexity and detail, it would be considerably more.

The articulation is very cool - it is a tiny action figure once assembled - and the different colored plastics are also very fun. The thing is immediately "done" once you have assembled it.

The process is quite unlike building a GW kit - it is snap-fit, of course, but there is something else. It is delicate and small (even though at just over 5" the model is quite tall). It moves as you assemble it - it has a "living" quality unlike a wargaming figurine.

Many people have suggested using Gundam figures in 40K - as Knights, perhaps. The 1/144 scale are too small - but the extra 40% size of a 1/100 would be a different matter, I think. The 1/144 models would work as a slender Armiger, but not a Knight.

(Edit; added a photo showing a size comparison between the Gundam and an Armiger)

All in all, it was very enjoyable and different. I could see how someone could easily get very into this hobby - although I don't think it is for me. My interest is in wargaming figures that tell my stories, and Gunpla is about collecting figures from a franchise I am not interested in. But, the models are cool and I think I will enjoy building some others.

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January 11th 2022: World Anvil

 Some more work on the background for Outremer.

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January 10th 2022: Chevalier bodyguard

The pieces have been sitting there for a while; I finally assembled another of my Chevaliers bodyguards - only another two to do!

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January 9th 2022: Blood Angel Lieutenant & Sororitas Zephyrim

Just a little bit of work getting some colors on them - I think, after painting 32 models in December, I am a bit burned out on painting! I also did some small work on my World Anvil page - just finding and uploading some pictures, really.

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January 8th 2022: World Anvil

 More work on Outremer, focusing on the Battle of Ha'tin and a few other things.

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January 7th 2022: World Anvil

 I worked on the World Anvil page again, creating The Three Cities page.

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January 5th & 6th 2022: Outremer World Anvil Page

 I worked on the World Anvil page for my Damocles Gulf setting Outremer, mostly tidying things up and adding in cross-links etc. I need to get down and really drive into putting things I know in my head on paper (or pixels, as the case may be).

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January 4th 2022: Blood Angels Lieutenant

 No picture, but I carried on painting the Lieutenant from yesterday.

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January 3rd 2022: Blood Angels Lieutenant

 

Another Lieutenant, this time converted from Dante!

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January 2nd 2022: Blood Angels Lieutenant

 Lieutenant Julius completed!

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January 1st 2022: Blood Angels Lieutenant

The first day of the new year, and an old model I've pulled out. It's a Lieutenant for my Blood Angels, converted from Jes Goodwin's old Ultramarines Captain. And as this is a hero or leader it counts for the January challenge #TheBigJan!

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