Urban sprawl and a book.

For almost two weeks my Internet has been running at the pace of a startled snail and today it finally reset to bring me back to the shining light of the Astronomican and reboot my life support system. Even though I was lost in the Warp, the time wasn't spent idly. I rediscovered the long lost art of reading a novel, which I'll talk about towards the end, and I also spent time working on some scenery.

All the scenes are in various states of basing at the moment and have also given me the chance to try out some new bonding spray mixtures as well as just have a little fun with rubble. Two of the smaller scenes also have razor wire that I made myself by just wrapping some 1mm galvanized wire in 8 amp fuse wire.

I also went through some of the scraps and modelling supplies I've had sitting around and in some cases I've had some of this stuff for over 20 years. I thought it might be time to put it to use. I've had the iron sheeting that I used across the window for so long that I found out I can't even buy it anymore.

It also gave me the chance to have a play with and tidy up some of the other scenes I've had just sitting there, so that now they're ready to be base coated and painted.

Old model scraps weren't the only thing that got pulled out of the box, the base of the little scene above is a couple of pieces of foam board taped together to make a base large enough for the building. If I can help it I waste as little as possible. The building itself actually started life as another building that I just didn't like so I tore it apart and turned it into three smaller pieces.

Also I started to give new life to another model that's been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years. At the moment I'll just say to take note of the building scraps as they are. Where ever I cut the piece out of a wall panel, none of the offcuts get thrown away, and I really do mean none of the offcuts. Anything that is way too small to be able to see any real detail gets chopped up again and added to a container for general rubble.

The left section of wall in this building is also broken away and falling forward. This was intentionally done after seeing some photos of buildings that had been bombed in Berlin during World War II. There are some great references on the net so get into it.

Now finally into that novel that I read. I'm not a big fan of novels, mainly because I've been disappointed so many times or they've started so damn slowly that by the time you're meant to get you to the section that sucks you in you're just so over it that you've fallen asleep.

This is not the case with Faith & Fire by James Swallow. This one sucked me in so damn fast that I was just about screaming when it was over. I want to hear more about Miriya and Verity!!!

It's has painted such a strong image of the Sisters of Battle in my mind that now I'm bitterly disappointed in what Games Workshop have done to them in giving them a half hearted codex and using a "one size fits all" approach to the models, not to mention that there isn't even one new sculpt in the range. Who was the half wit that decided to treat them as the poor cousin you keep in the cupboard, but gave them a fantastic author to paint such a rich image of them........

Anyway, I think there will be a lot of customisation when I break out that box of Battle Sister that's been sitting in storage for about 10 years.

Now after that spewing of information, I think I'll go have a lay down. All the excitement of having a fully functioning Internet connection is just getting a little overwhelming.....