CanCon 2014: A spectacular find!

Drove down to Canberra for the Australia Day long weekend with my husband, to visit CanCon, as we do every year. It was surprising, though pleasantly so, to see a change in atmosphere. I was happy to see more female hobbyists, as well as young families with children and even non-gamers/hobbyists wandering in to see what it was all about.

We picked up some awesome stuff from the Bring and Buy, as well as the folks at Eureka. Probably the best thing I got was this old elven attack chariot - coincidentally one I've been hoping to find for ages - though it is missing a couple of accessories. We'll see about finding some replacements or doing some sort of conversion to make up for it, but SO happy to finally have one (and it was a bargain too!):

I also picked up some cool, old high elf dragon princes in metal to go along with my plastic ones; some 15mm fantasy minis (including a tiny Pegasus!); a dark elf bolt thrower; another plastic high elf lion chariot (not sure if I'm going to build it as the regular Tiranoc plastic chariot or do some sort of conversion with it).

From Eureka, I picked up this helmet tank - simply because it's quirky, but it will definitely fit in with my steam-punk figures if we ever get around to playing Empire of the Dead:

I also bought one of the new female elf conversion kits - the semi-armoured one, though they also have fully-armoured and unarmoured archer torsos available - BEST thing they've brought in for a while! They only come with heads and torsos, though you can buy spear arms separately. With the abundance of spears I already have in my high elf army (16-strong unit of maiden guard - plus the Everqueen - and 20 Lothern Sea Guard), I thought it would be nice to have some archers - though I wanted semi-armoured ones rather than the unarmoured ones in the kit from Eureka - so I picked up some legs, quivers and archer arms from Bitz Galaxy. Looking forward to putting them together and seeing what they look like! They'll make a nice balance for my troops, along with the unit of Sisters of Avelorn (also archers) I picked up from Good Games last year.

As always, post-CanCon enthusiasm has also led to some unplanned purchases, mainly to use with my high elves. Stay tuned for some interesting conversions!

The Free State of Schnöselburg

Welcome to the Free State of Schnöselburg, a territory of the world of Valon! I have to admit I'm not that much of a fan of modern history, but when Christian showed me the dogmen figures from Alternative Armies, I loved them! Here are the first few recruits of the Royal Guard of the Free State of Schnöselburg:

The ranks are as follows:

• Rittmeister Heißhund (captain)
• Grenadier Schnüffler
• Musketier Leckenstein
• Musketier Sprungstien
• Musketier von Schüssel
• Trommler Schwanz-Wedelte

TIP: check out a German-English dictionary for some interesting name translations!

The musketeers come from this set of line infantry and the captain is in this set here. The grenadier is from this set and there are plenty more of them waiting to join the ranks!

I've also got a jager coming along soon! He's from the infantry set. Pic to come shortly!

Got some more plans for the RGFSS, so stay tuned!

We sing for Wanderers!

With Christmas rapidly approaching, my husband and I started wondering what we could give my brother this year, since he has the tendency to buy whatever he wants the second he sees it! As he'd liked a couple of mini dioramas Christian had made him previously, we thought we'd try a soccer-themed one! He is an avid Western Sydney Wanderers supporter and part of the RBB band, SO we made this:

Here, the Wanderer (with a replica of my brother's jersey) faces off with two Sydney FC defenders. Needless to say, he thought it was AWESOME!

The figures were painted mostly by me, with the small details done by Christian, particularly the writing on the jerseys. The terrain was done by Christian and the team colours on the base by me. Was an interesting project ... the minis are very slight so they were a tad difficult to hold while painting, but they turned out pretty well in the end.

We didn't get a chance to get a photo before wrapping it up, but I will get some better pics to put up soon!

New year, new projects!

Happy New Year, all! 2013 was one hectic year. But here's to a new start in 2014!

After a fantastic trip overseas, I finally got into painting some Flintloque minis from Alternative Armies. They're not quite finished yet, but I'm hoping to post some pics by the end of the week!

My husband and I also put together a mini soccer diorama as a Christmas pressie for my brother - pic to come soon, too!

I'm looking forward to actually getting some projects finished this year - a new year's resolution, one of many! CanCon is coming up in a few weeks, which is always fun, so hopefully I'll pick up something interesting there. I usually do!

Just a bit of a hint (or wishlist, perhaps?) as to what I plan to work on this year:

• The Free State of Schnöselburg (stay tuned!)
• GW High Elves
• Large models (have a couple I've wanted to get started on for a while!)
• Christmas in July (a Flintloque escapade!)
• Some more VSF and mythology models
• Supercity!

It's going to be an interesting year in terms of study and other things, but this is my plan. Here's hoping!