Rangers of Shadow Deep Cards

 Creating Bestiary Cards for Rangers of Shadow Deep

I like cards.  There is something awesome about holding a thing in the palm of your hands with information easy to access.  I also like the look and art to cards, whether it be my Spider-Man Magic The Gathering collection (I actually don't know how to play), my Back to the Future II cards, or my beloved NBA Sports Card collection.  I wanted to get some Bestiary Cards for ROSD, but the original cards produced by Modiphius are no longer available.  I needed a break from painting so I decided to take the plunge and make some cards of my own.

I have always loved Citadel Combat Cards and have owned a few over the years.  I especially like that late 80s and 90s retro look to them.

So I came up with my own look, with a nod to the past containing the base 30 mobs contained in the original Rangers of Shadow Deep Rulebook.  I happened to have nearly all the models required to make the cards, the majority were already painted from a variety of miniature rangers and I only needed to paint a handful more.

Rangers of Shadow Deep Front and Back Cards

Using the Graphics program, Gimp, I started to play around with templates to capture the vibe of the Citadel Combat Cards.  I didn't want them to be an exact copy but more of an appreciation to what was created without the ease of modern technology that we have today.

Rangers of Shadow Deep Terror Wing.  I love this guy. It was the Large Demon from Frostgrave.  I created wings for him by 3D printing a basic shape of wings then using Modpodge and Aluminium foil to create the actual wings.

The Epson ET-8500 a beast of a printer for Print and Play

I did all the Miniature painting and photography myself.  Using Card Engine on Steam, it saved my a lot of time and effort in the card layout and once I came up with a test card, it was as simple as doing it another 29 times.  It was a little time consuming but once I figured out what I was doing it took around 5 -10 minutes per card from editing a raw photo to having it all laid out in Card Engine.

I have probably the best bang for buck home printer, the beast of a machine the Epson ET-8500.  This thing prints photo quality images at a very minimal cost.  I watched a few YouTube videos on how to physically make the cards and boom!!! Here they are.  The best thing about this project is it is 100% my work.  I have no Desktop Publishing experience, no graphic design experience, no photography or editing training and I'm an average to above average painter.  Creating the J-Card was extremely easy, I literally looked up the dimensions online and created a little template and filled in the gaps.

The J-Card came out real nice

If you want these cards they are available here.

How to Make 40k 2nd Second Edition Cactus Cacti

 1993 and the release of Warhammer 40000 Second Edition, aka 40k 2nd Edition is back when I first fully got into the hobby.  I was obsessed with 40k 2nd edition and I had a large Space Wolves Army and a sprinkling of Imperial Guard.  

The 2nd edition Cactus or Cacti is one of the most recognised terrain features of this golden era of Games Workshop.  I have had a 40k 2nd edition project going on in the background for a few years now and am hoping to eventually have a Blood Angels Space Marine force and an Ork Army.

I use some old Cardstock and smear a thick coat of Modpodge on other side to prevent warping

Using cheap foam balls of Amazon, I use tooth picks and Modpodge to hold them together

I create all sorts of interesting shapes and combinations.  I cut toothpicks at either end and stick them firmly in a blob of blue tack then paint them red, no need to prime

I use gapsand and modpodge to seal them and create texture. I prime them with a white spray paint but no need to apply it too thick

Bases are contrast Aggaros Dune, the balls are painted with Goblin Green slightly watered down.  I use Coat d'arms Goblin Green and save my precious OG Citadel Colour Goblin Green

The toothpicks are added with a tiny bit of modpodge on the blunt end and slid into position

I use a bit of flock on the bases to break them up a little

A wee Bad Moon fellow

Grin and Scowl... Pop Culture and Zombicide

One of the biggest appeals of Zombicide is their pop culture references to their survivors and villains.  This all started in the original Zombicide Kick-starter with many a nod to recognisable characters over a diverse amount of genres one of the more known examples is their Big Bang Theory themed survivors.  

I love the Batman universe and Batman has got to be one of my favorite Superheroes.  Naturally the Joker has to be one of my favorite villains.  Zombicide Black Plague released an exclusive box set in the "Knight" pack during the Black Plague kick-starter.  As a backer I received the two exclusive characters, Scowl who is a hero and a reference to the Dark Knight and a necromancer known as Grin and is a homage to the Joker... most likely the late Heath Ledger's Joker portrayal (haircut aside!).  

So years after I received the kickstarter I am going through a Black Plague resurgence and thought I would add to my ever expanding collection of painted miniatures.  Don't let the sometimes overpriced value of these miniatures stop me, I am in it for fun, not profit. I have even had Scowl slay many a zombie in a recent game.  He is a fantastic survivor.  Grin has yet to hit the table but he is ready and has been added to my box of painted Zombicide models.

The models are painted very differently.  Grin has received many layers of paint all from the Scale75 range of acrylics.  No washes were used om Grin.  I decided to do a very bright base using Games Workshop Contrast Paints and blended them together to show he is a magic user, evil doesn't need to dark.

Scowl was painted my usual go to method, block in, wash, highlight and pick out details.  I think the two are both instantly recognisable for whom they represent... Scowl more so.

There are so many more awesome pop culture references in Black Plague, too many to mention and yes I have them all! I can't wait to add to my Zombicide Second Edition survivors as there are many awesome models that are based on pop culture and real life heroes and villains.  

Back to the Future is my favorite Movie Trilogy EVER.  I have both Undead or Alive and Invader especially for their references to Marty and Doc.  Speaking of Invader, one of my favorite shows which I am rather obsessed with is Rick and Morty and Invader gives a very awesome nod to them.

I can't wait to eventually get around to painting these.

Social Media, my Hobby... and Paint All The Minis

 My twitter account has been very inactive recently. There is no need to go into the reasons why so many people have abandoned twitter but it's fairly obvious the platform has changed significantly since it was bought out. Twitter used to be such a great space for hobbyists but now it's only a shadow of it's former self. I don't like the name X and I much prefer it's former name and the “Twitter” branding. The little bird tweeting was such a nice concept and the chirping alert was just “chef’s kiss”. 

I am not abandoning twitter, I'm simply not going to engage with it as much as I used to. The algorithm alone on twitter is very hard to skew towards the hobby despite me trying to look at and only like content related to the hobby. I will still post occasionally as I got so close to 1000 followers and to abandon it would be sad. It's a great record of my hobby journey.

I am going to be using Bluesky, Instagram and Threads. Instagram allows you to post to Threads at the same time so I may as well use the feature. I think Threads will eventually die out and it didn't really take off. I rarely post anything on Facebook these days. Social media is forever changing and I see it as a necessary evil. I especially do not like the “Metasphere” but it's almost essential for us hobbyists. Instagram is probably my preferred platform at the moment. So many hobbyists are on there and the variety in content is absolutely enormous.

A few months back I created a Bluesky account. Now that I am back regularly doing hobby, I am going to commence posting there and see how much I can grow on that platform. I want Bluesky and Instagram to be my two main social media platforms.  Regardless of the platform, I am almost always hitting the like button on a variety of content to help drive the algorithm and tailor it to what I like.  Strangely my content gets very few likes with my Instagram posts averaging around 20-30 likes per post and twitter around 30-40 likes per post.  Sometimes a post only gets one or two likes. The internet is a strange place at times. I think if you see anything creative online that remotely interests you - give it a like.

Discord is another platform I have been using mostly for video games but I have a separate account to separate the two hobbies.  I think its a great platform but a lot of content gets lost in it.  Its strength is its ability to create communities within a self contained server. 

I am now a contributor at Paint All The Minis (I'm Dave by the way),  the website that supports the legendary Podcast.  I have published a couple of articles. Dan is smashing out the episodes for the Podcast and it is always worth a listen. You will see many of my minis scattered across the various pages of the website. Its a fantastic site and an even better Podcast. If you haven't heard of it... what are you doing, click that link!

So there you have it, a short update on my thoughts on social media and what platforms I will be using.  See the links below to get in touch with me.

Creating A New Hobby Space Part 1

 It has been a while again since posting but I have the perfect excuse. Without disclosing too much, my partner and I welcomed our first Child into the world on the 16th of October 2024. Baby Michael was born at 0940am and weighed 3.5kg and was perfect. We are truly blessed and I appreciate what I have everyday.

Leading up to baby Michael’s birth I had to do some huge changes to our house. I am quite the DIYer but I also used professionals when required. 

Goodbye Hobby Room

For nearly 10 years I have been using one of our spare bedrooms as a dedicated hobby and storage space. I had a built-in Wardrobe that was chocablock with terrain, hobby supplies and miniatures. It was a fantastic, albeit poorly designed space for storage needs. It was hard to access everything and a haven for attracting mold due to poor air flow.  The plan was to gut this room and remodel it for Michael but where would all my hobby go?

My Old Hobby Room

How I stored my painted figures. I also built that coffee table when I was 15

I patched the walls, repainted and put in new carpet for the baby

Putting in an attic

We have an old 1960s built home, single story with not a very high roof. This aside I was hoping I could squeeze an attic in and I got some experts in that surprisingly gave us nearly 14m squared of storage space! I transferred all my hobby into the attic successfully and was very pleased with the outcome. It is the perfect solution for both short term and long term storage, especially when it comes to hard to store items such as terrain.

I am most likely going to leave my 3d printer in the attic as I have power and a good space for it there. I have a monitoring camera for it and it will be out of the way. I will install a small smoke detector up there for peace of mind.

The outdoor Cabin

I did not want to take over another room in our house with my hobby and after months of searching I found the perfect solution, an outdoor studio. I got an absolute banger of a deal on an ex-display model. I got it professionally installed and did the majority of the internal fit out myself. Given the angled roof I decided against doing the dry wall myself and got some plasterers in. I then installed floor boards, window jambs, and added molding to the window jambs and door jamb. I added skirting boards and architraves around the doors and the windows and was rather pleased with the outcome.

The old space and crappy garden shed

The new outdoor cabin installed

Deck added, doors primed and flooring down

Setup very WIP

Creating the ultimate gaming setup.

The Cabin features a Desky standing desk that is motorised. I also have an ergonomic chair as I have had dramas with sitting at desks and using a computer. I almost stand exclusively now. I have a 5 x 5 IKEA Kallax shelf for storage, and IKEA side table and lamp and have a Temple and Webster 2 seater couch.

I scored some sweet Displates for Christmas. One being the cover art for Warhammer 40000 second edition box set. The other two are from Back to the Future (the greatest trilogy ever) and Spider-Man (my all time favorite superhero).

Warhammer 40k Second Edition Box Art Displate

I am a massive video gamer and huge fan of 7th and 8th generation games as modern gaming… well it's kind of shit. In the cabin I have one of three Xbox 360s (my limited edition blue Xbox 360e) a PlayStation 3, PlayStation 5 (limited edition Spider-man 2 console) PlayStation Vita, Xbox One (needs repairs),  and an older but still solid gaming PC (still rocking a 1070ti that plays many a game well in 4k at 60fps). I have a Xbox 360 and Xbox series X in my living room. Yeah I like video games. I also have many controllers at my disposal. I have an awesome video game collection particularly for Xbox 360. Best generation of games ever. 

A mere fraction of my collection of games

I have a 32 inch true 4k monitor with HDMI 2.1 support and have a HMDI splitter box.

I also have a gaming laptop that I mostly use for anything but gaming. 

Cable management... very WIP!

Hobby wise I have a number of dedicated spaces within the Kallax for miniatures and paints. I will store my painted miniatures in the attic but build and paint in the cabin. I will have all my books and magazines in the cabin. I have installed some cupboard doors on the Kallax to hide some stuff as well as having some baskets for bulky items I want out of site.

It's still very work in progress and once completed I will show the cabin off. The company that sold it to me has seen my work in progress and want to eventually send a professional photographer out to photograph it. See how we go.

Externally I have repaired a lot of the weatherboards as they were probably a good few years old and a little neglected as it was an old display model that was in storage for a few years. I have given an entire fresh coat of paint to the exterior and still need to landscape around it.

It truly is going to be an awesome set up once I am done with it.

Hobby Projects

As I'm a dad to an infant my hobby time is extremely limited. I'm going to try and focus on a couple of projects being, WW2 28mm Battle of the Bulge and the other painting up my various board game miniatures as I really enjoy these games. 

I have always had a keen interest in the Battle of the Bulge and I love hobbying a winter theme. With Bolt Action 3rd edition coming out with a starter set themed for this period, it's a great time to revive my long delayed project. I can wait to mix up a number of Warlord Sprues and create some awesome looking winter Germans and US forces.

I will still use Twitter for now despite how Elon has pretty much destroyed the platform however I am now on BlueSky. I will post regularly on BlueSky once I get some hobby done.

Thanks for reading.

Bring on 2025!