Adventures in 10mm (and a bit of Vapnartak)
January has flown by, and I am happy to report that I will no longer be unemployed in a couple of weeks or so, as I've managed to land a new job. Start date is yet to be fixed in place for certain, but the wheels are in motion! It is a good feeling to know that I won't have to plough through all the savings I managed to get together over the last couple of years. The role is part time, but pays well; it does mean that I'll have to keep a tight leash on the wallet though!
In amongst all the other things I've been doing (sorting out research project related guff, job applications, and providing comments and corrections on no less than three research papers, while also trying to write a fourth!), I've squeezed in a bit of painting time. I've been focussing on clearing out some old projects that have been hanging around in my office, starting with the 10mm stuff that I picked up from Kallistra at Vaprnartak in 2025. Yes, these have been hanging around, undercoated, waiting to be finished off, for over a year.
The undead army was quite quick to paint—a lot of washed and drybrushing, capped off with some quick speedpaint additions to pick out details. I'm quite happy with how they turned out and they look great all together as a group.
Examples of some of the undead forces I've been painting up for my 10mm project.
I've now moved on to the High Elves, which do take a bit more time and effort, due to their white clothing and the free hand shield and banner designs that I decided to add to the hero I painted as a test model way back in February 2025. I am very happy with how the first batch of spearmen turned out though, and I've managed to crack through some scouts too. All I have left to do is finish off the archers and knights, as well as a couple of heroes. Then I plan to use the two armies to get some games of Midgard in, which is a great game that can scale to 28mm or all the way down to 10mm just by adjusting the overall base range that the game runs on. Plus, the tiny size means that I can scale down the board size from 6'x4x to just 2'x1.5'!
The first batch of High Elf spearmen.
Talking of Vapnartak, which is where I got these little buggers from, York's largest wargaming show was this last weekend. I popped down for my second time attending the event with a very strict budget (that's unemployment for you...). I managed to meet up with my mate Paul and some of his friends for lunch and a chat, but did miss some others who were attending. The show was lessened a little bit by the loss of some stands, particularly Pendraken's, as I wanted to pick up some of their 10mm buildings. However, they're just down the road in Middlesborough, and I haven't visited their shop yet, so there is an excuse to go have a nosy.
I mainly focused on terrain this year, with an eye to having something compatible with the 10mm project I'm finishing off. With that in mind, I did grab a bunch of 10mm scale trees and wall sections from The Tree Fellas, which were a bargain and will make a good few forest terrain features, as well as some Dark Age buildings from Kallistra. I also picked up a bunch of injection moulded hills and escarpments from Kallistra, which I'm planning on painting and flocking up for a couple of different environments. They came in sets of three, with sizes suitable for a range of scales, and at a tenner a set were a decent bargain.
Of course, I couldn't resist some new miniatures, and picked up a box of Rogues and Ruffians for Test of Honour. I've been wanting to play this for ages and need a second warband to loan to friends in the hopes of enticing them to play. At just another eight miniatures to adorn the slopes of Lead Mountain, I think that's OK, right?
The climb continues...