On the Painting Desk 309

 The new joblife has started, so that means there will be some adjustments to the painting schedule in the coming weeks and months as I get the hang of the new time schedule.

The good thing though, it is night shifts, and very calm in the deep of night, so I will at least be able to put together a lot of models and perhaps even bring along some paints for undercoat and bigger base layers.

But that is something to look at in the future.  For now, the past week has been good in done work, as the Greatswords regiment is now also finished, and I'm painting on the final unit, the Crossbows, for the initial 500 points in the Escalation campaign.

On the same manner, I already began working on the second "wave" as well, namely the things I'll be surely adding with the base points I'll be scoring, before any game bonusses.  How many that will be, I'll only know at the end of january though as my game is scheduled for the 24th of january.

But let's first see how much we can do in the final weeks before the new job kicks in seriously in hours and shifts...

The Haul Report 410: the last nights before Christmas

 Well, the next episode will be the yearly christmas haul, but I did obtain some stuff before that still.

And it came from a variety of sources this time round.

 

Starting out this humongous overview, I received a few manga to add to the reading backlog, as my My Box from Archonia arrived this week.

From a fellow TSA member I got these models for Star Wars Legion, a Landspeeder and 2 units of Rebel Commando's, for a far cheaper price then they are in store (basically, I paid a discounted price for the Landspeeder and got both commando units as such for free).  Because of course, it is time to expand on that game for the eyeing of future tournament efforts.

 

 

 

Visiting the local Warhammer store, I took with me two blister packs for the Soulblight Gravelords.  Not that I'm building the army in the foreseeable future, but these fellows are ideal as bad guys in my solo game adventures that are planned. 

I also went to my local supplies store, Baillien, and walked out with " a bit more" then the 6 paints I went for...

From a clubmate, Patrick, I finally took the plunge to do Warhammer 30K: The Horus Heresy.  Which of course will be with the Emperor's Children, what a suprise.  I took over a whole lot of figures from him, on sprue and some assembled and primed grey, for a third of their price new.

 

And then the postal services and couriers started to arrive, and I had a lot coming my way...

 

 

First off, my pledge from the second Kickstarter for MechaTop arrived, with the campaign books for the game and some nifty Zaku dice.  This is one game guaranteed to pop up in my solo game efforts next year!

 

 

From Intratuin garden center came this little fellow, pointing the way to the toilet in the amusement park, as my mom ordered something, and he tipped it over the limit for free shipping.   

 

 

The first parcel from Vinted to arrive where a metal BSB and Captain for my Marienburg army. 

Vi arrived, who will be getting a role of Priest in the army, think of her as a Priestess of the Order of the Wet Clam.

I also got some command groups to expand both the Greatswords and the Halberdiers units with, and some additional models as such to use as heroes.

I also obtained the classic Warhammer Quest Noble and Sigmarite Priest, with the noble bought to become the leader of my Escalation force, because it remains one of the coolest human figures GW ever made.

From Fantasy Welt, another order arrived, not only containing various colours gemstone tokens for the solo games next year, but also the needed cavalry for the Escalation League, and Bolt Action Belgian support troops who where at -53% discount.

 

 

Another find on Vinted, these well known Blood Bowl commentators, made by Ziterdes, are now in the collection as well.

 

 

While I also obtained some endless spells.  I'm not needing them for Age of Sigmar, but I will be basing them on a 3" base to represent my magical vortexes in The Old World when I go to the tabletop.

 

 

Another find is the Soulscryer, which I lacked in my Idoneth collection and is currently only available through the Spearhead box, no longer seperate.  But once I painted him up, I no longer need to proxy him as my general with a Tidecaster or such. 

Another Vinted grab was a Giant Rat for when I start the Rangers of Shadowdeep "Chaos Dwarf" campaign soon.

 

 More Hedonites of Slaanesh arrived, also through Vinted, as I scored 2 units of Slaangor and more importantly the Slaanesh dice for a serious discount.

 

 Of course, all that needs basing, so enter AliExpress for a huge load of plastic...

 

So that is a mighty haul to go into the holiday season with, and much "putting together" will be done in the coming weeks as a result as well.

 

Now to actually get everything painted up...

 

 

On Tour to the Frituur 12: 't Draakske in Deurne

 Time for another visit to a fresh place and enjoy the number 1 Belgian fastfood: fries!

And this time my journey brought me to Frituur 't Draakske (little dragon if translated), located here in Deurne, Antwerp.

It doesn't have a website though, but it's adress is Frans van Heymbeeckstraat 20, 2100 Deurne.  The place is spacious, with ample seating for eating in, and run by a middle-aged chinese couple.  It's clean and the furniture is well placed in order to not be in the way for the ordering line on busy moments.  I went there on a monday evening, and it was a constant coming and going of customers.

My order

Staying with the regulars, as I didn't immediatly spotted something "stand out" on their extensive menu card, I took a medium fries with spices, a berepoot also with spices, and a pot of fresh tartare saus.  All combined with a fresh coke, as I was thirsty as hell when I got there, having been shuffling in traffic all around the city for 2 hours.  This all put me back a very descent 9.50 euro.

The fries where baked nice and dry, and the berepoot was excellent.  Enough onion, and no grese on the meat at all.  The sauce was also nice and fresh, as if it stands to long it can have that thin "skin" on it, which wasn't the case here, and sufficient to dip my fries in.

Conclusion

A very good place, nothing really to say about it that isn't positive, and as such I'm rating it a hefty 8.5 and definitly one to visit if you want to sit in and eat calmly.  We Belgians do have a take-out culture for fries, but sometimes, you just want to sit down and eat after all.

Definitly recommended for the first new discovered place for this year!

Terraformars volume 16 - Yu Sasuga and Kenchi Tachibana

 After the struggle to read through "Breasts..." (see earlier on this blog) it was time for some good old action reading.

And we do that with Terraformars 16th volume in the series, with the survivors about to be rescued from Mars at last.

 

The ship is protected by it's two crewmen, one being an old acquintance of Akari. They defend the vessel from the roaches, as they lay out the plan to retrieve the other survivors.  But even so, politics are still at play as Germany made a secret request in exchange to provide the engine for the rescue ship.  The ship is operated by Ichi Security, founded by the previous mission survivor and now prime-minister of Japan.

 

In a flashback, we learn the origins of Joseph and how he was the result of selective breeding.  Joseph's youth friends, Jack and Michelle, are lovers, but Jack gets involved in the murder of one of Michelle's teachers.  Refusing to talk, he takes his secret with him to the correcting facility, forcing Joseph and Michelle to move on with their respective lives.

 

But Joseph was behind it all, using his wealth to get close to Michelle himself and having a child with her, but when Jack comes out of jail he reconciles with Michelle and they move to the United States.

 

Back on Mars, Joseph is controlled by the spores from the Chinese commander, facing the captain's group.  They manage to bring him back from his spore controlled insanity, causing the chinese vessel to open fire on them.  But Joseph had planned it all all along, serious about wanting to be killed by the others, and stops the barrage.  Liu, Asimov and Shokichi now not only have to face him, but also the chinese controlled terraformars.

 

 

As Liu and Asimov hold the roaches off, Shokichi engages in a duel with Joseph.  But when Shokichi is accidentally hit on the temple by one of Joseph's electro attacks, he seemingly awakens a divine inspired speed and attacks the perfect being that Joseph is.  Enhanced further by the thought lost metamorphosis drug Liu still carried with him, Shokichi evolves and finally kills Joseph, decapitating him once and for all.

 

As the other survivors take off with only 38 of the projected 2000 samples, Liu and Asimov make their last stand on the surface of Mars.  The survivors weep at the failure of the Annex project, when Ivan, of the Russian team, reveals they found the ruins and confirmes "Theory 2".

 

But what theory 2 might be, that is something for the next volume that I personally can't wait to dive into!

Hordes of the Things 15mm K'daai

 One of the smaller, and not materialized, projects this year was to build a Chaos Dwarf force in 15mm, using the HOTT rules.

Basically, the fantasy version of DBA, by the same authors.

Never the less, I did manage to finish a single unit for the project, in the form of these K'daai.

The models are small Oni demons from Clan Wars, and based on a 40x40mm square base as per the rules of the system, making it an element of 2 points.  Every army btw has a 12 point value in the game system, so this doesn't count through to heavily.  Never the less it will mean that the rest of the 15mm models, for those known in Chaos Dwarf ranges lovingly called "tjublings", will have to wait longer to get painted, and then a second force of some kind will have to be bought for some solo face-offs.

 

 

But it was a fun little in between project, and something that gradually will be added to over the coming years in the end.  

Brickmania Antwerp 2024 Lego convention

 It's that time of the year again, to take Thorin out for some amazed gasping at the famous little LEGO bricks.

Well, he wasn't the only gasping...

Being kept in the Antwerp Expo complex again, we arrived the sunday around 13.00 hours, and there still was a very busy crowd in the first of the two halls.  

Now, sadly I won't be presenting an indepth review of every build this time round, as with the little man being less little and as such needing that extra eye on.   As a result, I have been mostly taking video clips so I can look back at the builds a bit more calmly in the evening, but those you can find on my YouTube channel, as I now uploaded all of them there as well.

I did take some pictures though of course, but as said, not in super detail and definitly not of everything that was there to see, but let's have a look never the less.  Think of it as a teaser to already plan your visit to a Lego convention!  Because all the eye candy, even still for a retired adict like myself, still is awesome to see.

Like this Groot / Venom hybrid build, that blends both characters nicely together.

 

 

A very impressive Castle display.

Mini scale Belfort of Bruges.

There was of course a lot of Disney present, including these adorable Stitch and Simbo builds of excisting kits.

 

 

Now this is really the stuff of legends.

Well, it was a bad moment for a toilet break...

 

The Antwerp Steen, including the new horrendous (in real life, it has been build great!) modern style visitor centre they attached to it.

 

Can't spend a sunday without making a Death Star run!

 

 

This would make one awesome display on your cabinets at home, and you can't forget to water the plants as an additional bonus.

 

Tiny souvenir style builds, can you see where they come from?

Jace and the Wheeled Warriors, that was such a cool cartoon back in the day and fantastically represented here!

 

And of course, Thorin's absolute favorites of the show.  Guess it's time to do some Bricklinkin' for the little man.

So another filled afternoon and great fun to meet back some old familiar faces.  And of course, next year we will be making the trip again for some more eye candy and temptation resistance building.