An eclectic weekend of hobby undertakings

 I took a bit of a break from hobby work after the Cauldron event- it was nice to step back and do some regular studio work and a couple long bike rides. But- Labor Day weekend turned out to be all over the place with hobby endeavors in a pretty fun way. Philly Indie Tabletop met on the Monday, and folks wanted to play TWO new games I've never played- Gaslands and 1490 Doom. Both require pretty minimal preparation of miniatures, so I decided to knock out a car for Gaslands and a three-mini Doom Company for 1490 Doom. 

I admit I was working fast and had not read the Gaslands rules. I knew I had this little police van kicking around in my bits cabinet, but that's the only small car I had. So I just went for it. 

Sprayed them gold because I had leftover gold from the Cauldron tokens. Then all the washes and drybrushing I could handle. 

It came out great, including the Perry Napoleonic driver with a chainsword. BUT- then I got to the table and realized this van is WAY TOO BIG to fit along with Matchbox cars. 

Case in point. I ran it as a School Bus (Dr. Frazzle's Manic Schoolbus), which meant it could be loaded out with all manner of silly weapons- caltrop dropper, flamethrower, etc. 

The schoolbus quickly became a target, though, and despite 20 Hull Points it got knocked around pretty hard. I enjoyed Gaslands but we played with 6 players- so a bit slower than I'd hope. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to play 1490 Doom, but that's next on the list. 

Pretty happy with this little Doom Company though. Mostly Perry bits leftover from building my Turnip army, some mysterious helmets and the central one is a Ramshackle Games helmet. I usually go for a more riotous color approach, but off white, red and tan looked really good for these guys. Left to right- a Saboteur, a Beekeeper, and a Scavenger. Very excited to try this game out soon!

AANDD... just for good measure one more hobby project this weekend. Until yesterday I'd just kept my paints in little rows on my work table. Kind of crazy. Plus I would set some of them upside down when they got empty, and eventually that would cause an avalanche of falling paint bottles... which drove me crazy. Happily I live above my woodshop, so it was time to address this issue. 

I had a weird little slab of oak I'd been hauling around for years that I decided to use for the back panel. The shelves are maple. After some fiddling around I realized I could drill a small hole in the middle of each larger hole, and that would let me put paint bottles upside down without them falling over. 

This seemed like a nice solution. A little sanding, then glue up and a coat of oil. 

LOOK AT ALL THAT TABLE SPACE! What a revelation! I find little projects like this extremely satisfying. Now it's finally time to finish that scratch-built ork dreadnought I started before the Cauldron event (that's the bits in the foreground). Planning on sharing a detailed build log of that project soon. Thanks for reading, and apologies that this post is a bit scattered... I think I'm trying to frantically cram in hobby time before the school year starts up again.