Breaking radio silence

OK, so it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. This can be attributed to a number of things, but the main two have been health issues at home, and the arrival of a long-anticipated computer game, Diablo 3. I am not one of those who was avidly reading every hint of news on the internet and drooling over each sneak preview, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been looking forward to playing it for years. As such, it managed to absorb most of my free time for about a week after it arrived on the shelves.

Diablo will undoubtedly continue to consume some of my spare time, however I haven't touched it in a week or so now (since I finished the game on Normal difficulty and have seen the whole story). This means I've actually had some time for hobby-related activities. Part of the time has been spent on the Wolfygryphs (some progress pictures are further down in the post), but I've been doing a number of things at the same time.

First up, I have been rearranging my workspace. I wanted to buy another half a dozen shelves to completely cover the wall and give me plenty of room to stash all of my paints, but IKEA let me down by no longer stocking the cheap and cheerful spice racks I used last time. This was very disheartening and somewhat unexpected, but I guess it's what you get for putting things off for close to a year. In the end I went for a completely different solution and bought some plastic drawers from Bunnings.

My modelling workspace, halfway through its re-arrangement

Wolfygryph progress

Last weekend was not the best in terms of modelling progress - work destroyed painting night and we were busy for all of Saturday and most of Sunday - but I have moved along a little bit since the last blog update. My focus has now fairly firmly clamped onto my converted Thunderwolf/Demigryph models, so my efforts have been entirely on them. Below you can see the furthest progressed of the models at this point.

No, they're not complete. But all they need now is cloaks and shields...

I have not put as much planning into these guys as I probably should have, so my approach is a bit haphazard. I hadn't even decided which torsos to use for the riders, however when I realised the plastic Knight torsos were far larger than those of the Pistoliers, it kind of made the decision for me. The riders should be large, powerful, and hairy - like their mounts. Little round breastplates were not going to cut it. Unfortunately I've kind of had a gut-full of the plastic Knight torsos, so I decided they needed to look a little different this time. I decided this was a good time to finally make use of the wolf medallions that come on the old "hairy head" sprue, and set about carving the front off the breastplates and shaving down the medallions, before combining the two...

The Wolfygryphs are coming...

I have spent a lot of time modelling over the last few days - far more than usual. It's slightly depressing then that I have so little obvious progress to show for it. Nevertheless, I figured it was time to show what I've been working on.

On Saturday I went to the club as usual, however I brought bit and pieces rather than an army, and spent the time clipping Thunderwolves off sprues, cleaning them up and gluing them together. It's amazing how long this process seems to take, but that was why I decided to do it at the club - where I would have several hours uninterrupted in which to get it done. 

I also decided to bust out a Witch Hunter that I've had sitting in a blister for some time. I got him as part of a second-hand bundle, so I didn't really stop to think how old he really was. The model is the old Warhammer Quest Witch Hunter model, but I guess I figured they had been selling him as a regular Warhammer character for some time. It was only when I went to trim the mould lines that I realised how soft the metal was - he had lead content. Then I checked the packaging, and realised the poor guy had been stuck in there for the last 17 years...

Free at last! The Warhammer Quest Witch Hunter finally escapes the confines of his blister pack

My gradual progress

Well my updates have definitely been less frequent lately. Things have been busy, and the blog tends to take a back seat. This doesn't mean I have stopped painting, although I haven't had that much to report. My efforts recently have been spread rather than focused, which means I don't have as much to show for my time as I would have liked. Nevertheless, here is what I've been up to...

I recently posted pictures of all the knights I plan to paint to match my older regiment based on Voland's Venators. As always seems to be the case with my projects recently, there were a lot of them to do - 27 to be precise. Well, the majority of my effort has gone into them. In fact, some of them are done.

4 completed converted "Venators"