Scratch built Viking Longship

I don't often get requests but my youngest son saw me working on some card Sail ships and asked me if I could make him a Viking Longship.
Here is the result, it took me about 3-4 hours and I used the same techniques as I've used to make the card War Artisan kits. The scale is unknown but the base is about 115mm long.

After I finished, I realised I had completely forgot the rudder but my son wasn't bothered. The sail was a downloaded file to which I added a Thor motif. The rest is painted card, a nylon coated jewellery wire and some coffee stirrers for masts.

Full Thrust - a new addiction

For Christmas Santa sent me some stuff to paint. Actually it was a present from the wife and kids and it came from Ground Zero Games. I'd downloaded the free rules (full and lite) some time ago and convinced the kids it would be fun to play.
I ordered the Fleet Intro Double and modular Space Station to use as an objective in defend/attack scenarios. I chose the FSE and NSL fleets based purely on their looks. Each Intro Fleet comprised of a Battlecruiser, Heavy Cruiser, 2 Light Cruisers, 2 Destroyers and 2 Frigates. I spent just enough money to be eligible for some free Xmas goodies and also received a freighter and an Escort Cruiser of each faction. A very generous bonus.
OK now some pics, I've managed to paint about half, starting with the smaller ships and the freighter.

The Freighter "Lola"

Frigates and Destroyers of the NSL - New Swabian League

Frigates and Destroyers of the NSL - New Swabian League

FSE and NSL Escort Cruisers

I've managed to play a couple of games with the boys already using the 'Lite' version of the rules and all enjoyed playing and the games took between 1-2 hours. After the first play through I fashioned some card play aids which helped during the second game. We played on the floor but I have plans to either buy or make a game board/mat at some point.

Course clock

Turning/fire arc tool

Damage markers

Destruction markers

The destruction markers serve no real purpose but we left them on the play board for one turn after a ship was destroyed as a reminder of the carnage. My kids happen to be the luckiest of dice rollers and we have a house rule that one failed dice throw, against me, can be re-rolled by them to give them a 'chance'. Consequently, I've lost in both games so far.

Last of the Ultramarines

Here are the last of my sons re-painted Ultramarines, sold on ebay but recorded here for posterity.

More ebay stuff

Sold some more 40k stuff for my son on ebay, these posts are just to keep some sort of record of the stuff I've painted really.
These are the latest:

All are plastics from the Black Reach starter set.

40K Chaos conversion

A while back my son expressed an interest in Warhammer 40k and used some birthday and Xmas money to buy the Black Reach starter set and some extra bits and pieces, as I was keen to share the interest I forked out on a Tau starter army.

The interest didn't last for very long and he has decided to sell off his plastic figures. During the peak of his interest we found some poorly painted chaos plastics at a local 'Boot Sale' (flea market for all you non-UK fellas). I have since stripped the paint as best I could with Dettol and while I was converting the Sapper in the last post I have been converting a Chaos Marine in tandem.

A Chaos Lord, or Captain. A marine slightly better than the bulk of the remainder at any rate.

Most of the converting was achieved in plastic. This was an earlier plastic Chaos figure (it's a slightly lighter plastic than the more recent releases). The axe is a combination of unused Kroot weaponry the teeth around his loincloth were from an Ork Loota. The belt knife is Kroot. The hand holding the bolt pistol is from an Assault Marine holding a power sword. The spike on his back is a sprue and the helmet also from an Assault Marine and the top-knot is from an Ork head.

The rest was fashioned from Green Stuff to resemble stitched skin and if you look closely you can see a crude face on the back of the cape in the bottom left-hand corner, hinting at human skin.

I don't play 40k (I used to many moons ago) but I do like to model and paint their product if I can get hold of it at a reasonable price. I've been painting my sons Marines and Orks in order to sell them on Evilbay and hopefully make back some money on his behalf.

These are the results currently.

Black Reach Terminators

5 figure Imperial Guard set (that boy just wanted to collect them all)

Only a marine Tactical and Assault squad plus a Dreadnaught and a Predator Tank to go...

...and then all the Orks!

Ressurecting the hobby

My figure painting during my 20's was patchy to say the least. Limited mainly to painting figures in board games and some continued interest in Games Workshop products. I invested in some GW paint during my early 20's and this was to see me through this period. The paints either ran out or dried up during this period until I was back to that limited palette and one or two brushes.

The inspiration to rekindle my interest in my chosen hobby came about when the family decided to buy a copy of my wife's favourite board game Cluedo. I was surprised to see that the coloured pawns of days past had been replaced by hard plastic figures.

"I'll paint those for you, my dear" I says to the old ball and chain (hopefully she won't read this). I searched through the few cardboard boxes that contained the remnants of my pre-marital existence and found what remained of my paints and set about painting the six figures for my beautiful soul mate and muse (she may read this so I'll be nothing but complimentary from now on).
These are all that remain from that period of limited painting activity, but after these were painted I purchased the green and black toolbox that was to become my paint box bought some 1/72 plastic figures, some additional paint and a hobby was reborn.

Beginnings

I didn't paint these soldiers. They were painted by one of my sons. When I started to paint soldiers as a child in the 70's, they looked alot like these.

To be fair, my son is a much better painter at this age that I ever was. He has had a guiding hand, and has been fascinated by my 'paint box' ever since he first saw it. I had no parent or sibling that shared my obsession as a child but almost every spare penny I could muster was spent on Airfix figures, kits or enamel paints (to think that my Dad allowed me to have a bottle of white spirits/meths in my bedroom at the age of 10 boggles the mind).

My early efforts were crude, my palette limited by my budget and my brushes in a poor state. My carpet was a patchwork of accidental spills covered only by my piped 70's Y-fronts that littered the floor.

The most important colour in my arsenal at that age was red as almost all of my carpet warriors had been bravely injured in combat much like this Gladiator shown here.

Every painted figure was started and finished in a single sitting, the patience required to attain a decent finish eluded me until my mid teens. By this times I had gone from plastic toy soldiers to metal D&D or Games Workshop figures. I continued to paint until I went to college, discovered girls and my figure painting all but stopped.