another update from tonight...

hello HobbyZoners!

i am back to show some photos of some other stuff i am working on...

i picked up Legions Imperialis the other day... and i built a pair of Sicaran Battle Tanks tonight...

i wanted to to show the scale so i have taken photos with some of my Adpetus Titanicus Titans...

i will post more photos of my Titans later on...

so till next time Hobbyzoners! Takecare!

hello HobbyZoners long time no updates... apologies!

Glad to be back updating my Hobby Blog... it has been a very long time!

I am still warming and building and painting models... i picked up some T'au to play in 40K... i scoured Ebay... ordered a few bits from GW Direct and this Summer i ordered the remaining T'au from Wayland Games UK...

one of the stand out things was a T'au Stormsurge!

i will post below photos of what i have built and painted so far...

until next time Hobbyzoners! 🙂

Remembering Gene Simko

Hello my dear Hobby Zoners...


It has taken nearly two weeks to fully process but I am typing this on my laptop tonight, I am remembering a Hobby Hero of mine. Someone who I only knew through Facebook (FB).

I would often check those Hobby related FB Groups for inspiration. There were many talented kit builders on a couple of those Groups. One night I received a FB friend request from a Chap called Gene Simko. It made me grin when I got the notification as I had been following his work on various FB Groups. This incredible man was a kit building genius. He would often build 1/35 military model kits then cut away parts of them and custom build interior detail. His skill was astounding and I could see he had a real love for what he was doing in his work.


For almost 2 years I was able to follow Gene and his journey through Life. He was a Scholar and an ex-military man. (Gene attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, received a BBA in Economics from Temple University, an MBA in Management Science from Temple University, and a PhD in Strategic Management from Baruch College of the City University of New York. Simko held a commission in the United States Army Reserve, Adjutant General's Corps, 1/309 78DIV(TNG). His retirement dreams included returning to his beloved West Point to teach for a semester (and don't you forget: GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!). 


(Gene Simko had been an avid scale military historic modeler since he first wandered at the age of 10 into his neighborhood Marsh Hobby Shop in his hometown of Trenton. He amassed an extensive collection of both built and unbuilt model kits and enjoyed scratch building armored cutaways. His first model kit was the Aurora Panther Tank in 1963. When he wasn't teaching or out to eat at his favorite restaurants, you could find him lurking the aisles at Red Bank's Hobbymasters, chatting with his dear friend Steve. Some of his model builds were featured in Scale Model Builders Book in Black and White. In the book, he described his model-building avocation.)



He was also a family man and loved dearly by his Son and Daughter and his Wife Patricia. 

Seeing Gene's FB posts was always a privilege and a great joy to me. He would often visit eateries and ordered pizza many many times, and sometimes bars where he would often have a photograph taken with his signature drink, a Bloody Mary. Gene really lived Life to the full and all could see his sincerity and kindness. People loved him and he seemed to make fast friends easily.

I often left messages in comments on his posts and interacted with him like that for almost 2 years.
The saddest thing for me is we did not actually sit and talk online ever. Though he passed away suddenly on June 12th 2018, the echoes of his Life linger on and I can still see his sincere smile in my minds eye. 


It was the love of kit building that allowed our paths to cross and for that I am truly grateful. 
I now will no longer see his vibrant and cheerful posts on my Facebook feed.
I now will no longer see his progress on various complex kit projects he was working on. 
His Hobby space is empty of his presence. Such is the way of Life, things end as all things must.


In my own way I want to honour Gene, so I am going to start the build on a military kit I had picked up several years ago. I will take plenty of progress photos as the build goes along. It will be my farewell to a Legend among kit builders.


One of Genes quotes really stuck with me, so here it is.


"Building a model for me is a return to my carefree, halcyon days of my boyhood. It is an errant wish that sometime, somewhere on a summer night as I build, that I may not have to grow old. And I smile, even for a moment, as I finish the kit and relive the sheer joy of holding history in my hands. Of course I will grow old, but I will have a lot of fun as I journey along." Gene Simko.

Eugene Stephen "Gene" Simko


In closing I will say this. Live like you only have a day left. Hug the people you love and make it clear you care. Dont be afraid to reach out to someone. You never know how long they will be around.

It is the things you dont do that you regret the most. 

Till next time Hobby Zoners... Farewell!

Its been awhile...

hiya Hobby Zoners!

its been awhile since my last post... RL has caused me to be busy in other areas... i have been doing Gameboy repairs and modding since last October... its kept me busy and also away from my hobby desk! but i am back... this weekend i started work on the Cerastus Knights from Adeptus Titanicus... they are assembled and tonight i primed them... will be working on a pair of Warhounds on Sunday...

anywayd its good to be back posting here on the Blog... i aim to do at least a weekly post every weekend... so keep an eye open...

amyways wish all of you lovely people a great remains of the weekend...

catch you all soon!

Long time no Blog...

Hiya Hobby Zoners!

Its been a very long time... In UK Brexit is still ongoing and the World has been dealing with the Pandemic... 

For me i stopped updating the Blog as i was side tracked with other things... But now i wanted to resurrect my Blog...

I had so much fun updating it for a very long time and if am honest i really miss doing it... I want to aim for at least one update a week... Possibly on a Sunday evening....

Anyways some of my Gaming Club Crew (who are also my D&D Crew) are doing a Hobby Challenge where each of us builds/converts a model abd paints it to gift as an Xmas present... 

So without further delay here is my model to be gifted to Parkey... (Bryan P.) he runs the awesome Varchild's Vault Hobby Blog... 

I also decided to make a model for David G. And Neil F.

Anyways Xmas is fast approaching...  What are your Hobby related aims and goals? Let me know in the comments...

Thanks for looking and till next time Hobby Zoners!

Hello Hobby Zoners! so yesterday on a fine sunny Saturday in London my good buddy David G. popped over for some painting time. He brought with him the new GW Contrast paints which I am going to talk about a little now. 

Well I applied them over a normal primer with Army Painter white, then after shaking the bottle for 30 seconds to thoroughly mix the paint I carefully applied the paint, it goes on really nicely without the need to thin it at all. Make sure you apply a slightly thick even coat all over the areas on the model you want to paint.

It does not pool in the same way wash usually does, it is more sticky but once dry gives a very nice effect almost like i had primed + based + and applied shade/wash. The operative word is that it is super effective at what it does and it removes a step from your painting, which saves alot of time. And it just works, you cant really screw it up too much. 

So here I have painted only with a few colours from the GW Contrast range. My initial reaction was pleasant surprise as i was a bit sceptical how good they actually would be. And the truth is they are excellent!

I definitely recommend them to any painters wanting more tools in their hobby toolbox. They are worth the money in my opinion but situational. You wont use them on everything, but say priming silver then applying GW Contrast colours gives a very nice metallic effect, and i can see this being used in such a fashion alot. 

I would rate the paints a 5/5 for effectiveness and convenience and for the results you get they are decent value as they are 18ml bottles compared to the 12ml for regular GW paints and 24ml for GW shades/washes. I really think you all should try them for yourselves. 

Till next time Hobby Zoners!

Welcome back Hobby Zoners!

A smallish update tonight from me, just have some photos of the progress I made on those Blood Angel Successors Primarus (Inceptors) and some Dark Angels Primarus Hellblasters.
Also did a little work on on the DA Intercessor Sgt. as his face needed doing.

Hope you all enjoy the photos!

And many thanks for taking the time to look. :]

Till next time Hobby Zoners!

Hello Hobby Zoners!

Got some progress on my Relic Deredeo for Warhammer 40K. I managed to almost finish him and also do the basing too. He looks rather cool. I went with a desert base to contrast with the green armour. I also used some dead grass tufts just to enhance the overall look.

I think Tassitus One is almost ready, only thing left was the eye lenses but I am waiting on some paints to do the glow effect.

Also I have made more progress on those Blood Angel Successor Primarus.

Here are some pics of the Relic Deredeo Sniper Tassitus One.

I will post more photos on Sunday, but for now I bid you all goodnight. :]

Till the morrow Hobby Zoners!

Hello again Hobby Zoners!

So a good buddy of mine was selling some Warhammer 40K stuff he didn't need.
So I messaged him and Lewis dropped the bits off this Wednesday evening. We chatted and discussed hobby stuff before he had to leave. 

Then I went through everything. There were forty-two Primarus all told, a mix of some Intercessors, Reivers, Hellblasters, Inceptors and various character models including a Standard Bearer and Hero in Gravis Armour. All in all it was an amazing deal and I was super happy to get such great models.

So looking at them I noticed Lewis had started painting a few in a red scheme.
Just base colour and wash, but that gave me an idea to run those Primarus as an allied contingent of Flesh Tearers or another Blood Angel Successors Chapter.

The rest I sprayed using Army Painter Angels Green spray then I washed them with GW Nuln Oil. (I am still getting through some of the Reivers and Hellblasters right now)

The red Primarus, including some Intercessors, Inceptors and all the Heroes I will continue painting. Lewis did a good job of putting these models together and the fact he had started the painting on a few just made me think that it would be a waste to have to strip them when I could try out a new scheme.

So I have been painting them yesterday and today. Though I had been battling depression for a few months, I find hobby time is really helpful and relaxing. It keeps my mind calm and is a very good distraction from thinking about things that would otherwise cause me some turmoil.

I only mention this as I know some hobbyists struggle with Mental Health stuff and wanted to say that they are not alone. Its good to support each other and be helpful and kind.

The Wargaming Community can be a toxic place online sometimes but generally the gaming communities are full of great people and that is one of the things that always struck me about our hobby.


These is what I got from Lewis the other day.

Anyways some photos of what I am working on...

The Reivers and Hellblasters after two light coats of Army Painter Angels Green spray. It goes on very smooth but of course you need to make sure your ambient temperature and humidity are OK or it will affect your results.

These are the colours I am using on the armour of the Primarus.

This is after the third and final stage of progressively lighter drybrushing, now onto blacking out the other details.

Also a photo of those Dark Angels (DA) Primarus Intercessors I have been working on for the past week or so. They are 60-70% complete with just a few more details to be finished and the face of the Sergeant left to do. I am aiming for a good tabletop standard here, nothing super fancy.

This is it for tonight but I wish all of you a great few days! Till next Time Hobby Zoners farewell! :]