In which we mourn the loss of a landmark

Metro Hobbies on Swanston Street, Melbourne has been my favourite hobby shop since they renovated a few years back. Before then, I didn't have a favourite hobby shop, they were all equal in my eyes. Now Metro Hobbies (formerly Victorian Hobby Centre) is closing down, having been compulsorily acquired as part of the cross-city railway tunnel project. This sucks for a number of reasons.
1: As I said - favourite hobby shop.
2: There are only two hobby shops in the CBD anyway, so now there will be only one. Like the Highlander. Only a hobby shop under Flinder's Street Station called Hearn's.
3: Going to Victorian Hobby Centre was a massive part of my childhood - even before I was a hobbyist I used to get dragged there by my brother, and I bought some of my first models there. (I think I bought my very first at Hobby Place, which closed years ago).
Alas, alack, oh fie, oh misery and oh bugger. We shall miss Metro hobbies.

On the plus side - Stock liquidation sale!
On the minus side, this was the first chance I had to get there, so almost everything is gone since the sale's been on for a few weeks now.
On the plus side - Tamiya Toyota model AB Phaeton - or as I like to call it - WARBOSS SNAGGATOOF'S PIMP MOBILE! Watch out for updates on this project in the days to come.

GeekFest 2018 Paint+Take Survey

Once again shall I run Paint+Take at GeekFest in 2018. Yet there is a difference! In line with the prevailing preference of the people for DEMOCRACY, I shall no longer be forcing my choice of miniatures to paint upon the public like a despot - this year there shall be a VOTE! Yes! You, the people can choose which miniatures you paint AND take at Paint+Take 2018! And all by filling in this simple survey! Go forth and bask in the glories of democracy at work!

MFH ninteen: Orktillery part wun - Lobba.

Well, the banner's a total lie now, what with it being the middle of August, but I'm still scratch building 40K orky stuff, so it's sticking around a bit longer anyway. I got thinking about orktilery last week - big gunz and mek gunz. Big gunz are another of those odd areas of the Ork range where the minis are still old hang-overs from 3rd edition, and metal to boot. Not as old as buggies, but pretty old. And only the kannon is still available anyway. So I decided to rectify the situation by building a lobba or three. Because that's just how I roll.

Here's Grot to explain things...

Forgot to get a shot here - I've started to use a pair of dividers from a mathematical drawing set to scribe small circles - you know the ones, basically like a pair of compasses but with two points instead of one point and a pencil. If you dig one point in at the center and spin them around several times you can scribe a line into the plastic deep enough to snap the circle out or finish the cut with a knife. These were done with a cheaper somewhat shaky example as I left my good one at home and bought a cheap replacement from a newsagents to go in my travelling tool kit. Which is a thing I have. What do you mean you don't have one?

And there you have it, Hippo Fans! It took me about a week to build all three of these, and that's working around social commitments, work and so forth. I've also started work on the other flavours of Big Gun, so keep an eye out for those. 

You'll notice that the work bench changes a few times - this is the natural upshot of my working on them at home and at The Hoodling's Hole amidst the players of Battletech and those who say 'I really should do some modelling,' glue two plastic pieces together and then go to sleep. Light weights.