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1st February, 2009 | Good things often come in small packages
The highlight of the week though was without doubt the arrival of a small package from Warhammer World tournament veteran Scott Baird, who very kindly contacted me looking for a home for some very special models from his collection, namely four of the Studio's Epic 2nd Edition painted Titans. I will feature these more fully in the next few weeks once I get some decent photographs done, but as a taster I couldn't resist including a picture of the Reaver here in all its glory. A huge thank you obviously goes to Scott for donating them as together they are a little piece of Epic's history. Neither of us could remember who it was from the 'Eavy Metal team back then that painted them, so if you know, or can remember, please drop me an email as we would love to know. On the subject of Titans last months tidy-up revealed another long lost bits box of ancient Warlord parts which has resulted in three more hybrid variants getting added to the collection; including the latest edition sporting a pair of Corvus Assault arms and one designed to bridge the gap between the 1st Edition 'Beetle Back' and the current version. More on those when I finish pinning them together. Now if only it would stop raining! 19th January, 2009 | Bunkers, barricades and bin liners Still continuing unabated with my terrain overhaul, only some of the emphasis has shifted from 6mm (Epic) to 28mm (40K) just to keep it interesting and not too monotonous. I bought one of GW's Arcane Ruins boxed sets just after new year as I thought it might go well with my Sand Jackals marine army, plus it would suit the new boards. After splitting the kit into three or four different sized sections I was all set for painting them when the weather turned (yet again!) before I could get all of them textured and undercoated. Not a big deal as I had plenty of old 40K style barricade sections and a bunker I made a couple of years back for Starship Troopers which could be given a fresh lick of paint in the meantime instead. The trouble with making any terrain though, is the amount of mess you seem to generate is inversely proportional to the size of the terrain you are working on at the time. This was true of the ruins as two rather innocuous pieces including a pair of tumbled pillars and a standing stone arch resulted in an unhealthy amount of foam-core card debris trampled around the house much to the annoyance of my generally understanding other half. Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, I thought a clean up was in order and in true fashion, what started as a quick tidy-up turned into a full weekends spring cleaning operation. on the plus side, I have a bit more space to work in and I managed to unearth from a few of the darker corners some real gems including one of Pig Iron's excellent resin Ironshields which was ready for it's main weathering stages and final detailing. More on that at a later date though. With more space to work in I finished re-painting not only the bunker, six barricades and the arcane ruins in short order, but additionally a few resin 40K road sections I had lying around, a Forgeworld fuel dump and ammo dump. All of which should help immeasurably in getting some of my 40K gaming up and running again. So despite the weathers best efforts, not a bad week at all if I say so myself. 13th January, 2009 | Buildings deserve to be loved too!
I also got into a rather curious debate with an old friend about painting Forgeworld's resin buildings, hence the solitary example you can see on the right that has been on my workbench the past couple of days. He, who shall go unnamed for now is quite happy to give them a quick dry brush in various greys and leave it at that as they look perfectly adequate. To be honest I also see nothing wrong with that and I have certainly followed pretty much that exact approach myself the past few years. The trouble is, I introduced into the debate the following question "Would you spend the equivalent amount of money on say, a new character model for your 40K army of choice and then be satisfied just giving it a quick slap of paint?" The amount of money in this instance being around fourteen shiny round pounds sterling. His reply was "obviously not!", which then led into said debate about why we do exactly that with the buildings even though we have spent a not insubstantial amount of money investing in them. So that got me into thinking what exactly I should be painting them like? Now, don't get me wrong here, I am not advocating as much time should be spent painting all the fiddly bits in painstaking detail as you would perhaps a character or army centre-piece, they were never designed for that. But I did wonder how much better they would look with maybe just a little more love and attention lavished upon them beyond a hasty dry-brushing in codex, fortress and space wolf grey. The more or less finished example can be seen here and pleased with the improved appearance, I now intend to give all of my resin buildings a similar overhaul. The amount of extra time invested really wasn't that much and I have made a note of the colours and mixes used so I can write the process up for a proper future update to the gallery. If you are like me and in the past have maybe mistreated your poor Censoriums, Administratums and Librariums. Perhaps now is the time to make amends and give them the love and attention that they really do deserve, I know it made me feel better about myself. Just kidding, I am doing craters next and its dry-brush city all the way with those! 4th January, 2009 | Its official, I'm old Yes, I turned forty today. The world did not end, although I did wake up today with a really annoying trapped nerve in my neck just to let me know it's all downhill from here and make sure painting the last of the gothic buildings was going to be 'really' irritating. I also decided to keep this section as a sort of semi-regular 'not a blog' (see note above). On a more positive note I finished putting together yet another hybrid Warlord Titan which is destined to join my surprisingly and quickly growing Warp Runners Legio. I also started work on a converted Mega-Gargant just to keep the power balance. 31st December, 2008 | The Big Fat Review of the Year As I sit here reflecting back on the past twelve months, it occurs to me what a watershed year it has been for me for so many reasons, some good, some not so. As no doubt some regular visitors will have noticed (assuming there are any left still!) the site spent a significant period of time without any updates, not least the earlier part of this year. In part this was down to the usual real life work related issues that dogged me throughout 2008 and a certain degree of gaming 'malaise' after I lost my workshop for a while due to needing the storage space whilst the wife needed to work from home during the earlier part of the year. But winter turned into spring and I finally dug my workshop out from the depths of boxes that had haunted it for several months and a renewed sense of purpose and need to inflict war on something again motivated me. It was about this time that I decided to get the site up and running again. After spending a few days overhauling all of the old templates into something more streamlined I finally re-launched Dropship in the format you see today at the beginning of June. Back painting again I looked forward to kick-starting my gaming again as it had been a barren few years without so much as more than a token few games under my belt. To further improve my enthusiasm, GW re-released Warhammer 40,000 and I was keen to dust off my Death Guard and Sand Jackal armies to see how they fared under the new rules. And that was when I hit my first 'speed bump'! After a long period of tests and scans, I was informed that I would need to undergo a course of radioactive-iodine treatment for a malignant thyroid nodule. Fortunately, the treatment was pretty straightforward and non invasive, but it did rather knock my painting plans for six for a while. On the plus side, it did mean I spent quite a while off work and had the fun of setting off anti-terrorism radiation detectors at airports when safe to travel again. In the gaming arena others were not faring much better either and after I got involved in both the Starship Troopers and Babylon 5 ranges, Mongoose Publishing sadly had to pull the plug on their miniature production so as to ensure their survival as a viable business. This very much seemed to me to be the theme for the year and more than one games range or miniature company went to the wall. Over the years I have always remained positive and upbeat about my gaming, especially Epic which has always been and will probably remain my favourite gaming system for many more years to come. But the past year even I have found it hard to deny things on the Epic front have been getting quieter and quieter with old faces disappearing off the scene all-together. With nothing really new produced for the game outside of what Forgeworld have produced for Aeronautica Imperialis, it has once again fallen to the fansites and forums to keep the Epic torch burning, but how long this will continue for is hard to tell as updates and posting became less and less frequent. It wasn't all doom and gloom though, as over the years a lot of the Epic vets successfully gravitated towards the 'Tactical Command' forums which has very much gone from strength to strength. Throughout 2008, though they may not know it, they were a huge influence in me keeping Dropship going and a primary source of inspiration. Similarly, there were other success stories on the 6mm front, not least amongst them DRM (Dark realm Miniatures) which I was thrilled to see grow steadily into a fantastic product range. Not miniatures I have personally set any sights on adding to Dropship just yet as I still have an insurmountable mountain of Epic metal to climb over for a good while, but I dare say I would be persuaded eventually should I find myself at a loose end. Certainly hats off to Doug, Paul, Iain and Audrey for keeping 6mm sci-fi gaming very much alive and kicking in DRM, long may that continue. With the years earlier health issues behind me, the latter quarter of 2008 were rounded off far more positively as I set about overhauling my entire gaming boards and terrain collection. Having served me well for many years, I felt it was time to invest in some new battlefields and set myself up for a far more productive year of gaming in 2009. An initial investment into new more durable gaming tables paid off in December and new and renovated gaming terrain has quite literally been flying out of the workshop all month with no sign of me slowing down just yet. As 2009 (and my 40th Birthday!) rapidly approach, I have made myself a promise that the next twelve months will be a halcyon gaming and painting year. There are so many projects that I have put off for so long and despite reservations over officially seeing much, or even anything new for Epic in 2009, I am not going to give up on it without a fight. There may be a credit crunch and the tentacles of a global recession casting its shadow upon us, but while I still have room in my workshop and models to paint, it seems there is time for at least one more campaign. .However you choose to spend your time, have a great 2009 and may the dice gods smile favourably on you. Carl Woodrow
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My
word has this been a busy week or two! The miserable weather continues unabated,
proving to be either just too wet, or windy, or cold to actually undercoat
anything. In disgust I spent most evenings in retreat in the workshop continuing
with some of the Forgeworld Epic buildings (gosh there are a lot more of them
than I remembered!). In a slight change of direction whilst waiting for an
opportunity to undercoat the rest of the buildings I have been furiously
cleaning and assembling one hundred assorted Orcs, Warg riders and Trolls in
preparation for the 'War of the Ring' launch in March. I had forgotten just how
great the Lord of the Rings miniatures looked being so used to the over
exaggerated caricatures of 40K and Warhammer. It was actually a pleasure to work
on something totally different for a change and I suspect I will probably end up
adding a 'War of the Ring' section to the site in the not too distant future
once they are painted. 
Not
as much painting done this past week as I would have liked, mostly because the
weather has been rubbish. First it was too cold to spray and no matter how much
I warmed up my cans the white came out like fake snow which was not really the
start I was looking for. Then it was too wet and windy and I ended up
undercoating myself more than any of the subjects, so I decided to give it up as
a lost cause and work on some other terrain projects instead.