A dozen years

Who would have told. Twelve years ago, a day just like today, I started this adventure, this Old School Workshop. Twelve years in a row.

Wow. I know I've said it before, and that I repeat myself every time, but I wouldn't be able to do this everyday without your continuous support. Once again, thank you. Thanks for being out there, reading, commenting and supporting the blog. It means a lot!

What's been happening over here during the last twelve months? Let's recap!

I had the craziest of games, a mod of Formula D but with racing pods, in the Boonta Eve Race:

I managed to muster part of the crew of the bold Agreusa, Athenian trireme:

I closed December with the scratchbuilt airship, the Laika:

I started January 2024 bringing the old Dark World Manticore back to life:

Oh, and enjoyed quite a lot coming back to my realscale Carcharodons with these slightly converted marines, making the old school vibe look new, and with the addition of this monstrous Rhino:

I kept on recovering old minis, and so I repainted this Ork cyboar rider:

And then these ancient Space Crusade Androids!

I also finished the Infinity project (well, "finished", ahem, you know)

Year of bringing old stuff back on duty! I put some work on this (only relatively old) Orc Warboss on Wyvern for a friend:

I also got the long forgotten pleasure of drawing during a few days off with the family, which was a much appreciated thing to do:

Again, making old school vibe back to modern times, I went full Red Era with a twist:

 When the date came, I posted this quite particular take on St George and the Dragon:

I was really in need of updating my old Epic Titans, and I took the opportunity to build a few more:

 When I thoght I was done with AvP, it happens that I still had some unfinished bussiness!

 Mwahahaha, no one expects the ancient Khorne Blood Slaughterer!

In this year of nostalgia, I tried not to get myself lost inside the Labyrinth... 

I felt comfortable (or fool) enough to try a second chance with Epic, even making this conversion to build a Banelord:

My Orksies got even more mobile reinforcements, as I added all these bikes to my Waaagh! army force bunch of pals:

Oh, when you thought I had more or less a coherence in the stuff I was painting this year... this happened. Make mine Marvel! Both heroes, villains and stuff:

The last part of the year has been essentially devoted to the Qala Debdou board, which has consumed quite an amount of time and effort, but has also left some rewarding experiences. I recklessly put some lights on (or in?) the board, I hollowed a space for a bazaar, also built a thematic and ethnic entrance, ended the main hulk of the board and finally cared about the details that bring a board to life. I still may put some additional work to change some stuff, but this first module of the board is essentially finished.

Oh, and after such an endeavour, I felt the need of doing something much more sizeable and reasonable, which was the Eldar Farseer:

 

This is all my work from the last twelve months! You may rightfully observe that I apparently have done no work since the Eldar, and that was almost a couple of weeks ago. Oh, fear nothing, I'm already working on new stuff. So buckle up, counter is set on zero again and there we go! Ready for the lucky thirteenth year!

I know that everyone uses to do this kind of recap posts by the end of the year, instead of on the blog anniversary, but I find it a nice way to remember the date, kind of a birthday party. I may move it to the end of year next time, I'm not sure. The only think I know for certain is that I still fancy painting little people and that I'll love to share my stuff with all of you up there. Thanks again for showing up, for commenting and for your own blogs, which, trust me, are a constant source of inspiration and encouragement.

Let's keep on!!

Interlude: Eldar Farseer

 After finishing the Qala Debdou project (Well, "finishing", you know... "finishing this stage of the Qala Debdou project". Or maybe "finishing the core stages of this stage of the project") I needed something really simple. Call it a palette cleanser, call it whatever. The simple pleasure of taking a single mini and painting it, from the beginning to the end. Start a project and closing it. So this was the perfect choice.

I had this Eldar Farseer for some quite long ago. It's the modern Eldrad Ulthran model, but I don't really have any plans of starting an Ulthwé army. However, I have this Biel Tan warrior, as white/green is a scheme I find pleasing, so I decided to go the same way with this one. Please let me introduce you Ellinderelion, Farseer of Biel Tan.

I made no conversion at all but just cutting the rear crest out. It was a little too much for me, and I think I've saved the poor guy a lot of neck pains.

What do you mean "over the top"?

I couldn't just paint it plain white and green. This is undoubtly a singular character, and needed a little more ornament. I mean, it makes no sense to have such a mini with all those details and then painting the robes with plain colours. Not that I'm capable of doing complicated freehands, of course (besides, this was to have a relaxing experience!), so I made simple paterns with grey over white and white over green. Simple, but it adds something to the general impression.

Yes, of course I could have painted way more stuff there. I could, but I couldn't at the same time

Of course I couldn't paint any metal on the mini, not even the bracelets, as it's all wraithbone. Maybe some golden colour would have looked nice (aesthetically speaking, just in chromatic terms), but it wouldn't have made sense. I tried to make a difference between white and bone, I hope it works.

As you can see I kept both the sword and the staff in bone colour. I didn't want the model to be a colour splash; less is more and keeping it sober was a conscious decision. A decision I immediately broke painting all those sprit stones! I didn't want to paint them all red, so I chose this RGB pattern. It adds some variety, I believe, and it still makes the model look decent, I hope.

Here you have my whole Eldar force:

Can this be the beginning of a Kill Team?

I definitely have no plans of starting an Eldar army or whatever, but I enjoy these models, so I'm happy with these as they are. I don't see myself purchasing Guardians or anything else in the immediate future, so I'll just enjoy these.

This is it for today! I have another new project on the bench, but it still will take some time. I'll bring something however soon!

Cheers!

The (final?) touches

 It's been quite a long way until we've reached here, but I think I can say that I declare myself satisfied with the results. You got to see essentially everything on last post, but now I had to add some details here and there to see it all finished.

Well, "details" can be sort of an understatement, given that the first thing I'm bringing is a whole piece by itself, but you know how these things happen.😅

If you recall the last post, there was an open terrace up on the top left of the board. It's meant to be a dock, but it needs a platform where ships can load and unload their stuff. I had been keeping this child toy for ages. It originally had some wooden pieces and plastic marbles going all the way down.

But, once upside down, it will be a decent landing pad

 

In fact, as you can guess, I designed the dock on the building thinking of the height of this platform. But of course it will need a base:

Can't even remember the source of that

 

I kept that... thing because in my mind it would be a Tyranid egg/organism/whatever. But fate turned different and will serve this way:

I'll make it look like rock or something

I covered all the surface with cardboard and glued some random gubbins here and there. All the base was heavily covered (and filled) with DAS to add weight and stability:

I do hope it won't fall

I also needed a bridge to connect the landing pad and the dock. Using my recently discovered technique of adding handrails, I got this:

It will have to do

OK, so some paint then!

Ta-daaa

It looks big, but it hardly can harbour any ship

Definitely nothing larger than the Arvus

 

Well, once I have the large piece finished, now it is really time for the tiny details all over the board. Nothing too elaborate, just these tiny flowerpots from GreenStuffWorld. I filled them with tufts, as I wanted just to add some colour, but not to provide any garish sense that would be out of place:

Still the most colourful thing of the whole board

I placed them randomly on different windows, just to give the impression of people taking care of what scarce life can grow here in the depths of the desert. In the pic below you can see a couple of them and another tiny silly proof of life in the town: look up in the corner, you'll see the laundry hanging on the rope:

Cozy corners

So, after five long years of interrupted work, long periods of procrastination and a final rush of frenetic activity, this is what I've finally got:

Remember, it all started with a Danish butter cookies box

Let me show a few close-ups of the whole monster:

Some strange visitors approach the bazaar to bargain their lavish products

The fellas in the Cult didn't expect to find another underground dweller here

You better keep an eye on your purse when entering here!

Hard neighbourhood, but interesting to visit in any case

Traffic can be an issue though

Apart from that, everyone has a place in Qala Debdou

Problems with the Administratum can be dealt quietly and in civilised manners

Planet Express delivers here too

When you have a labyrinth of streets, these encounters quite logically tend to happen

 If I add some of the stuff I've built along the years, I get this:

I should have put the desert mat for the pic

And what about a few pics with my recent silly idea of adding lights?

Let's sing some carols!

Blade Runner meets Mad Max

This could be the stage for a Broadway musical

The sign only reminds you that you can also play Firefly on this board

Scary? Dangerous? What makes you say that?

Private security escorts the lady to her home

If you are patient enough, here you have a puny video to show the whole thing:

 

I've never edited or prepared a video of this kind in my life, but if you find it useful, I may try better attempts in the future!

SO.

WHAT NOW?

Little shock. Please remember that this is just the first module of the board. It is by no means finished. I will try to add a second module upwards, on the back section of this board. It won't be as half as large or elaborated, of course, but it will avoid that sense of rectangular shape and will allow more interesting interactions with the third dimension, providing (I hope) some fun gaming options.

How will I build it? When will I dare to build it? Honestly, I cannot tell at the moment. I simply don't have room enough for such an element at home, so first of all I'll have to sort out the logistics of storaging such a piece and then I'll be able to design it! I don't think it will happen in the next weeks, so please be patient with that.

I'm declaring this module of the board finishe... Hmm. I'm declaring this module of the board almost finished. Esentially finished. I may still add minor elements (I'm not entirely convinced with the flatness of the entrance tower; the antenna on the front building doesn't look as satisfying as I originally thought...). But in any case there will be really small changes.

For the moment I have to say I'm happy with how this board came out/ is coming out. I may take a break of this kind of scenery projects for a while, as I need to do any kind of different stuff. Whenever I'm ready to come back to Qala Debdou don't worry, I'll let you know!