Gorram’s 2026 Log

I’ve not got a lot to say about the how of this creation because I got so utterly focused that I just spent hours on it yesterday and documented nothing.

Here it is though. Two painted gladiators, two painted civilians, four painted braziers and a bloody arena (though I haven’t added any blood effects… yet) finished in around 36 hours. The whole thing is around A3 in footprint and less than 20cm tall. I don’t know where it is going to live. Right now Tracy Island is still stuck in my living room XD

I have weird feelings about this side quest. I think the end result is cool and I enjoyed making it. However it is an example of me letting myself get carried away. I did no work on any of the more pressing projects I should be working on. I did none of the chores than needed done. None of the life things that really would have made my coming week easier.

But I can re-enact Gladiator if I want.

Surprise! I got distracted again!

I was interested in Blood on the Sands when it was on KS but knowing that it would be hard to get to the table, it was too rich for my blood. I haven’t really thought about it much since then.

This morning my new copy of Wargames Illustrated came through the door. With a sprue for making two gladiators and a quick start version of the rules. Normally these freebies get put into a box and largely forgotten about. I’m poorly today though and so have nothing better to do with my weekend than build a quick table between coughing fits.

First step was to build the models. The sprue is designed with a beginner’s game in mind – you get bits to make a Murmillo and a Thraex plus two civilian characters. The “quick start” book is 30 pages long so I haven’t read it but I went with what matched the pictures. They were put onto 25mm round bases and primed.

At this point I was watching the playthroughs on OTT and saw they have tokens for braziers. I could make some of those I thought.

Four old 25mm round bases with the sloped sides were turned upside down to make the burning vessel. I used bits of the sprue for three legs for each one and glued them onto 25mm flat round bases. For the fuel, I used a healthy layer of thick super glue and added in some pebbles I’ve had in the stash for the best part of 15 years now. Then some bird sand to fill the gaps. A quick prime with black.

Next up I needed an arena. I don’t have a printer at home to print off the one on the website but I do have is foamcore and a Battletech base. Drawn on with pen, each line was then cut with a hobby knife and then the pen run back over all the lines to give them good definition even after texturing.

At this point I copied three quarters of the arena footprint onto some thick card to work on the stands. Why only three quarters? I don’t really know it was an active decision; that was what was in the booklet and my brain isn’t doing a whole lot of thinking today.

The arena then got a coat watered down white glue and bird sand and off it went to dry. For the walls of the arena I cut some foamcore to a height of 6cm and gently folded it over the edge of my desk so I could work a curve into it. Using white glue and pins through the top sheet of foamcore and the bottom sheet of cardboard, I got the main shape of the arena made up.

Now was the time for good old trusty coffee stirrers, balsa wood, textured eva foam and more cardboard and foamcore. There isn’t really a lot to explain here other than I cut things to size and worked until I was happy with it. The door was just to add a bit of interest to the far wall and isn’t functional.

There is going to be a little more work tomorrow before painting begins to make the middle bit raised and covered suitably for a higher class patron of the arena. The surface itself is a bit warped so I’ve put a layer of watered down pva on the backside of it to see if I can warp it back. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow if it works…

I haven’t been posting here much over the last couple of months but let’s dip a toe back in shall we?

I know it is terribly frowned upon to praise GW for anything but I really like their miniatures. I paint from a lot of different companies and across genres and scales but I still come back to Warhammer in some form regularly. For the next two-ish years, it’ll be regularly once a month. I decided after a bunch of humming and hawing over it to subscribe to the new Age of Sigmar partworks magazine, Spearhead. But only for as long as I can keep up with painting it. Models come in, models must be painted.

Due to timings, I ended up with the first six issues coming pretty much all at once so my first month’s worth of models consists of eight Stormcast Eternals and five Skaven.

My Stormcast are going to be Lightning Hawks. I’d love to tell you that I picked them because the lore sung to me but I just liked the colours. I nearly went for the Hammers of Sigmar (the standard ones you see all the time) because I’ve really enjoyed the Blacktalon animated series and quite fancy picking the character up at some point but I find the gold too garish for my tastes. Lightning Hawks it is then.

1. Prime black
2. Drybrush with Army Painter Gun Metal
3. Lighter drybrush of Citadel Stormhost Silver
4. Wash of AK Interactive dark grey wash
5. Several thin layers of Citadel Incubi Darkness on shields, shoulder pads and scabbards
6. Citadel Vallejo Cavalry Red for the weapon hafts and some of the material on the character models.
7. Citadel Retributor Gold on all the trim details
8. Wash previous two steps with Citadel Reikland Fleshshade
9. Bases are AK Interactive Wet Mud texture paste, washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade, dry brushed with Citadel XV88 and then Summer tufts from Tajima1

All told this was about three evenings work and I’m very happy with the final results. It should also be easy enough to replicate as the rest of the Spearhead turns up.

I’ve spent most of the month working on my nids for the Warhammer World project I have going on. One of my hobby goals for the year though is taking part in the OTT community painting comp every month.

The January theme was Saints and Sinners and I didn’t really have anything that fit the bill. I was considering buying a Joan of Arc model just for the fun of it and then the universe went out of its way to encourage me.

The Rest is History podcast decided January was the time to release their four part series on her. It is a really interesting little series about someone that, if I’m honest, I knew very little about going in.

I knew that the model(s) I wanted were the mounted and on foot ones from Bad Squiddo. They were, as usual, really good casts with very little flash. They came with spears and two copies of each banner so if you make a mistake, you have a back up.

It is the opening weekend of the World Rally Championship this weekend but it is also my six day week so I’ve been playing catch up on the coverage. It did make for a very fun evening of painting though; a cracking rally and some lovely miniatures. They were lovely to paint and a great break from the army painting of the nids.

Spent the first day of the year painting up the core box for Star Trek Away Missions, Battle of Wolf 359. I bought it as a present for a friend’s birthday but a combination of me being disorganised and the Royal Mail being rubbish, I only ended up with one day to get the contents painted.

Today I woke up with a cold so won’t even be seeing her to give her the present XD

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel painting them as they are caricatures but in fact it was really fun. I’ve not had a lot of time for painting in the last month or so and having something like this was a nice way to ease back in.

I kept things very simple without edge highlighting or bothering with doing the eyes – at the end of the day they are for someone who is a board gamer and I needed them painted and varnished in a day.

Good start to the year though.