48. Random Update part 10. Going, going, gone! Some Experiences of the Second Hand Mmodel Market.

Hey guys, I know I said there would be another modelling update. I half lied.
My bad.

This update is about buying models on the internet.
Specifically from sources other than shops.

What sources you ask?
Well;

ebay,
Trading groups...

And well, that is about it.

Ebay
Now we all know that ebay is full of bargains and rip off, amazing service and complete bastards.
But despite being the soul destroying auction site of evil i managed to find some great stuff on there recently.
So I thought I'd share (and rub in) some of my loot.

SKULLZ ULTRAMARINE.



This guy I got for £10. Which, is really quite cheap considering how rare he is.
He has a little wear and tear; he's come off his base peg and there is some excess superglue, but nothing that isn't fixable.

GAMES DAY 2006 DWARF DAEMON SLAYER.



This is my bargain find (more so than the Skullz guy). £9.03 plus postage (£2.99).
Sure it isn't in the original packaging, but as I intend to build it I'm not bothered.
Came with an extra Damon head too!
DWARF COMMAND DRAGON SLAYER



The Dragon slayer from the dwarf command box. I probably paid too much for him (he is 1/5th of the £20 box, so say £4? I paid £6), but is is still less than, say, the new GW plastic slayer.  I can that win enough which is win for me. Especially considering....

AVATARS OF WAR DWARF BERSERKER REGIMENT (Well, half of one...).



Yup. Avatars of war do a regiment box for Dwarf Beserkers.. In other words, plastic slayers. With command options.
The box contains enough to make 20 'slayers,' but this was only half a box.
I paid £10.03 and £3 postage.
That's right! £13.03 for ten plastic models, as opposed to GW's £40 for 10 metal models.

Between this and my Dwarf bitz I'm sure I can throw together an interesting unit.
When you add in the Games Day slayer, The Daemon slayer and the Skull Pass plastic slayer, I only need two more for a 15 strong unit.
Which brings me to...

AVATARS OF WAR DWARF BERSERKER.



Make that 1 more.
I really like the Avatars of War Dwarf stuff.
I'll admit I didn't bid for this one, it was a buy it now and BNIB so I paid a little extra for him.
But still, he was only £9.95 including postage, and a much better sculpt than, say, the new GW plastic ones.

1:24 SCALE RED BRICKS

Another buy it now, and no image for this one.
£8.99 for 500 bricks. I don't know if that is a good price, but I love them!
Well, I love the idea of them. I am yet to use them. But I reckon they could be used to make some amazing basses and/or scenery.
Overall I think I did well over the past few months.
(I also bought a couple of GameCube games, which I was grossly over charged for. Swings and Round abouts, eh?).

Moving on...

Trading Groups.
The other source of models is via trading groups, such as those of Dakka, Facebook and so on.
These are often a mixed bag, with peoples issues being immediately obvious to everyone.

I've had a couple of bad scenarios occur (Items not turning up, people committing to buy and then letting you down/not replying to messages)

I'm here to endorse such groups though.

So long as you buy through paypal you are pretty much guaranteed a refund,

And as long as you send items via a reputable courier service (royal mail, for
example), you are covered for almost all losses (at least in monetary terms);
you get your postage cost back, as well as the value of the item sent (proof
required, sorry limited edition models) and the buyer as stated gets their
refund.

He's one of the best;



£20 including postage. Brand new.
I'm not complaining.

I've had some great trades too; I got rid of some OOP scouts in exchange for
the Space Hulk Genestealers. Both parties were happy; not only did we both get
something we want, we also got rid of something we don't want or need any more,
with the postage our only expenditure.
I also traded a Tau Etheral for Griff Oberwald.


Times are getting harder and harder, and hobby activities only ever get more
expensive.

So next time you're thinking of starting/expanding an army, have a look at your collection.
Do you need all the stuff you own?
Why not offload some of those projects that are never going to get done.
Use the money to buy new models, or second hand ones.
You might even find a good swap deal out there.



Got any nightmare stories about ebay/trading groups?
How about success stories?

Let me know in the comments an/or on twitter @DarKHaZZl3
Peace out, and thanks for reading

-DH-

43. I Don't Even Know. Part ?!

This was meant to be a post dedicated to a new project...

These pictures of a Tyranid test model for an army that someone close to me was going to collect; something we were going to do together.
Recent events make the likelihood of this somewhat ambiguous at best, and impossible at worst.

I was really looking forward to the future of this project, and everything associated with it.
I couldn't just let it slip away into nothingness, so I've posted it here.
This way something will exist to immortalise what has been lost.
I still hold out hope of some form of reconciliation, but again.
At best, at worst.

-DH-

41.Random Update part 9. Killing Them With Kindness (and a Little Spite).

So yeah, I can't be arsed to paint lamppost right now.
Go figure!

   In the meantime I'm painting all sorts of odds and ends... as you saw by my recent completed dwarf.
I guess this is just to keep my mind on painting, without drowning my enthusiasm with painting just one same process over and over.
That and ya'know, little pieces for my gaming board are not all that exciting.


Anyway, here is another little side project.

I posted this on the Bolter and Chainsword a few days back.
Unlike there, I feel I can go into more detail here.
Story time!

  A considerable amount of time ago I had a group of friends.
We'd meet up regularly and game, drink and generally be merry.
One day it all just stopped. Me and another of my friends were frozen out.

Snap back to not too long ago. I start a new relationship with someone which opens my eyes to why all this happened.
And it is petty.
Vindictive.
And just a dick move all round.

Justifiably I was angry, but as time goes this anger has faded.
I got the vast majority of those good folk back in my life now.
But I am still a little bitter.

One day, my girlfriend mentions that the instigator of this cluster fuck asked her to paint some models.
To which I replied 'fuck that shit.'

But then I thought, you know what?
I'll paint them. And well too!

I'm kind of being the bigger man.... but not really.
At the end of the day these models will have been painted by me, and everyone will know that.
I think that will be more irritating than anything; receiving praise knowing it is all down to someone you tired to freeze out.

The models in question are Space Marines of the Ultramarines, second company.

So here is the progress so far;





I managed to get the 'prototype' miniature basically finished.



So yeah. A few touch ups, and nine more to go.

HA

-DH-

40. Random Update part 8. Progress Dwarfed by Procrastination. PUN! Maybe!

  Yup, I guess the sentence makes sense....just?

Well this is the cause of my lull in progress;

 

I PAINTED A COMPLETE MODEL!!!!!

This post shall be therefore be a Hall of Honour post (and maybe the first of my Fantasy posts)!!!

FUCKING A!

-DH-

37. Random Update part 7. DIORAMAAAAA (which will now have its own post sequence).

I know I said it would get its own title... but there is a lot of work to do on this, so I probably should...

While I was in Grey mode I did some more paintwork on my diorama.





Thats all the base work done really. Need to detail it and acquire/build/paint the models.
Quite fond of it already, especially knowing whats going to be happening on it!.

Anyone out there who reads this got some objective markers/dioramas they'd like to share?
I'd love to see them!

Post them in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter (See the 'various areas of DH on the left sidebar).

Peace.
-DH-

35. This seems almost identical to my last post. Random Update part 6. Diorama (No it will not get its own series).

Yup, you guessed it. Black. Grey. Copy. Paste. Done.






Can you tell I had a lot of the same paint lying about

-DH-

33. Random Update part 5. Dirodrama.

I started work on a diorama that I've had planned for a long time.
It will incorporate an objective marker I've also had planned for some time.



That is literally all I'm saying about it.

Peace
-DH-

30. Random Update; that from this point out will have a name, 4: Blood Bowl! Part 2 (technically).

YES! Technically! Blood Bowl was my first post in the 'Random Update' Series! So in your FACE!

Ehem.

Sorry about that. But you know? FOOOTBBAWWWWLLLL. ROWDDDYNNESSSS. RAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHH.
Or something along those lines.

So yeah, I've done some Blood Bowl stuff.

I got back into the idea after Blood Bowl the PC game came up on the Humble Bundle a month or so back.

Here is my prototype;







Not a fantastic job, I know.
But;
A) Prototype,
B) Table Top standard
C) FOOTBBBAWWWWLLLLLLL

Since then I've started painting the rest.
I also managed to get my hands on a Griff Oberwald and Varg Ghoulchewer, so both the Orks and the Humans have a star player to liven things up a bit.

Do any of you guys play Blood Bowl?
Let me know/tell me what you think of it/the PC game/my work

FOOTBBAWWWLLL!

-DH-

25. Random Update part 3 - Charity.

  As the title suggests I did my bit to help out charity.

I spent 99p on an item (The full price tag of the item. No haggling).

Wanna see it?









Near mint condition. Was missing 1 door mount/base, which I promptly bought for £1.54.
Total expenditure £2.53.
Current sales range for a complete set? £50 - 100 +

Yeah. I know.

If you want to know more about it, Google it, or look here - http://www.unboxedtheboardgameblog.com/2010/01/space-crusade.html

If you want to try it for yourself, either
A) Look in charity shops and see if you can find a copy/ get the missing components
B) Buy it of ebay (I might even sell this one)
C) All rules/pieces/boards can be found in printable format here -  http://johnliu.net/spacecrusade/
PS. You are welcome

PEACE
-DH-

23. Random Update part 2 - House Army, aka, Something different. Again.

  A while back I was discussing the hobby with a friend.
This friend is whom originally got me into the hobby (and probably why I've ended up doing Salamanders).

We were talking about how a substantial portion of our friends were into strategy games and board games. Which brought us on to 40k.
A couple of these friends have expressed interest in the hobby before, just not the financial backing, time or resolve to build an army.
We thought it would be great if we could get these folk to play.
But how to go about doing this, without lending them one of my armies (as currently I have no playable armies XD), or throwing proxies around?

One of the pulls of 40k is making your own list, and playing games with nicely painted armies on awesome battlefields (like pretty much all table top war games). So this is what needs to be done.
Then it hit us.
A House army.

I find myself in a unique position: I have way more Space Marines than I have use for.
So the basic idea is, in adittion to my armies, I will also be building a basic set of Space Marines for any, none hobbyists to get stuck in with.
They will be built, and painted, and ready to rock; just like a board game.

If they don't like the game, then fair enough. If they decide they do, then they can keep using the house army. If they decide they want to use 'X unit' instead of 'my Y unit,' then they can go out and buy that for themselves/ donate one to the house army. Thus getting folk started in a more exciting way.

Anyway, enough writing.
I did a test model for it....well, I started one at any rate.



I've decided to wait until the new codex lands before continuing with either Space Marine project.

But what do you guys think?
Yay house army, or neigh?
What do you think about the test marine?



Any comments/criticism on this warmly welcomed

Thanks for reading/ adding to my google adsense account. ;).

-DH-

19. Random update, but it has models so it has a name and number. Part ?

Bit of a random update to go along with my sisters update.
Firstly because there will be little to no thematical language, just normal talk,
and secondly because of the content.

I shall explain.

  My Girlfriend has long expressed an interest in the hobby. I think it is mainly fuelled by her artistic side, though she seems keen to model and play the games too.
This is an expensive hobby to get into, and an expensive one to mess up.
So I thought I'd lend a helping hand.

We built her first Space Marine together a few months back;



 She said that if she collected space marines she'd want to do either Dark Angles, or Black Dragons (cool choices yeah?).
Unfortunately, as cool as the marine is, she wants to collect Tyranids (what is it with ladies and these chitinous monstrosities?).
So, instead of painting power armour I thought it would be better if she learnt to paint on softer edged models;



TEAM ORKZEZ.

While I will be painting;



TEAM MON-KEIGH

Yes! Blood Bowl! (yet another distraction from what I am actually meant to be doing!).

I've had the box set a long time now, and recently, me and my friends have been playing a lot of board games.
It occurred to me that, if I can get these models finished, then it will be just like another board game; once the lists are written at any rate.

Don't expect an update about these guys soon. But eventually, they will turn up again.

Touchdown!

-DH-