Dino’s April 2022

There is always something refreshing about this month, as it is a common tradition in western regions to pull a prank at the beginning of the month. Accordingly, I also tempted Bunker Boss Dennis to post an April Fool's joke on the Chaosbunker.

In our persiflage, we've taken the mickey out of a few topics that have recently found their way into the hobby in a lesser good way, but that's a topic for a whole series of articles. For now, let's just say that sometimes it helps to laugh a little!

I have also been laughing at the face of the challenge to finish my second playable army for Mortal Gods. Although progress is rather slow at the moment, I am nearing the aforementioned milestone of a finished army.

The second Corinthian was supposed to show a bit more of the typical Greek style of a hoplite, so I invested a bit more time on the shield and painted a checkered pattern onto the edge. It is the simplest form of a relatively good looking freehand: draw a bright gray border, divide it with straight black lines from the shield center to the edge into sections and finally slightly highlight the created squares.

With the next hoplite, this will probably not be so easy, since the edge of the shield does not lend itself to this. Let's see how we can make this shield a little more exciting, because I only have one decal left depicting a Pegasus and unfortunately it is white, which automatically requires a darker background on the shield.

At this point it is appropriate to thank the community, because as so often in the life of a hobbyist, I am tempted to devote myself to another project - in this sense, many thanks to my readers of the German-speaking forum Tabletopwelt.de, who have encouraged me not to be tempted by another project so close to the end.

Nevertheless, I started browsing my miniature inventory and treated myself with a blister of robots from the StarGrave assortment.

It is difficult for me to describe the appeal of the whole thing, since much has already been said about this (also read in the review). I think a big part of it for me is the neo-retro-look of the models. Also, I tend to be in the upper-middle range with my painting skills, so I don't like it when the model is overloaded with too much detail.

By the way, YouTuber That MrShy mentioned in his review that the setting reminds him a lot of the classic series Firefly. After watching the unfortunately only existing season last week, I can only agree with that. This also fits quite well with my plan to carry the whole thing a bit more in the direction of Bravestarr. How I'll implement the project in the end is still up in the stars, but at least I've already assembled a suitable antagonist for my "evil" crew:

The Wargames Atlantic kit of the spiders has a few parts with which you can modernize the spider and I tried to use as many of them as possible. The futuristic backpack is a wild mash-up of scraps. The hat is from a leftover head from the Frostgrave Soldiers.

As you can see, April has brought a lot of fresh air into the Chaosbunker, and I think, besides Greek mythology, we will see one or the other StarGrave model here this year.

And now that we're already a third of the way through it, I'd also be interested in your progress in the hobby. Have the easing of COVID measures led to more playing again? Are you taking the momentum from the quarantine to continue painting more? Or has the sudden suspension of all measures brought you back to your former style? Let us know.

Budget Challenge

Since I had enough money left over from the previous month and also want to make some progress with terrain construction, I needed some tufts in particular. As afore mentioned, I also got tempted by the Stargrave Robots and also got some Renedra Bases. I am reluctant to take gray bases, but unfortunately there seems to be no black ones left in all of Germany. The reason why I prefer black bases is simple. Often I paint base rims black anyway, so possible rubbed off color won't be noticed. But even with brighter base edges, strangely enough, gray simply catches my eye more when paint comes off somewhere.

My budget in April:

Balance previous month: 60,- €

April 2022 budget: 80,- €

April 2022 spendings: 34,70 €

April 2022 rest: 45,30 €

Expenses for work materials:

April: 0,- €

Balance until April 2022: 37,54 €

Hm...with just under 60 Euro there would be enough money for a few Stargrave packs...and maybe a few Gunfighters from Great Escape Games...

Greetings from the Chaosbunker

Dino