Get everyone Viv here, I hope you're all keeping well, welcome back. Alright, so I've got a stucker hats out. I've got one of my paperboy hats on and I'm really feeling the vibe to start making some videos again. You know, it's making videos for YouTube has been a big part of the hobby for me for years and years. So 2009 was the first year I uploaded a hobby related video. And before that, I'd spend a couple of years, I think since 2006 or whatever, you know, making way back then they had video responses or you could put my response and post it back to somebody's video. But 2009 was the first year that I started making hobby related videos and overlasts God. Five years maybe. Six years. I don't know, ever since the bunker closed in 2012, I think it was 2011 or whatever it was. Jesus, that was 9 years ago. I really haven't done a lot on YouTube. You know, had a couple of really furious years where I was, you know, in a very different mindset. But, you know, made loads of loads of videos. I'm really missing it, so it's time to get back to it. So here we go. I thought I'd put up a little up there on some of the things I've been working on here on the table. I've got some of my dark age figures. These are some sacks and sort of crusade of miniatures. I picked up a bunch of figures from Warren P.C. on Australia when they were having a clear out a while ago. I've got loads of dark age figures sitting around. You know, it's always been a period that I've been interested in, but never really, you know, concentrated on it. I don't think I've ever actually played, you know, like a mass battle game with like rank units like you see here. I've played a lot of saga, you know, first edition, I've never played second edition saga. That's a different story. But, you know, I've had this figure sitting around for ages. Now, my good friends, Ara and the crew feel mannered, press and no, I know a bunch of other people who play, you know, big battle, you know, historical games, out really into dark ages or the early middle ages. So, if I look, let's sit down and paint some up. So, I've got some of these guys done the other week, you know, very, very simple jobs. These are just some arches. You know, I've got a big problem with, you know, differentiating. Now, at least for simple figures like these, you know, they're very, very simple figures, great fun to paint. A big problem with identifying, you know, who's a Viking, who's a Saxon, who's a Norman. Obviously, there are some differences when you really start to look at shields and all that sort of stuff. But for simple sort of figures, like these ones from Crusader, you know, these guys, you know, I could run them as Vikings, I could run them as Saxons, you know, whatever. I don't, I can't seem to tell the difference. And even when I look at the Crusader website, they just seems to be very minor differences like in the hat, like some of these guys here is a one guy here, maybe not on this stand, but perhaps on the other one. Let's have a look on this stand here, on this group of figures here, you know, this guy here at the front here, he's got that like little peaked cap. That seems to come from the Norman set. Anyway, so I don't know, I don't know if these are Saxons or Vikings or Normans or for me, they're just going to be middle-aged figures, you know, dark ages, it, you know, not really a historical buff, you know, I'm a gamer really. So that's why these guys have got very simple paint jobs. Great fun to paint. I painted up 49 figures over a weekend, a couple of weeks ago. You know, I sat down on my Friday evening after everyone went to bed and started painting. I probably stayed up most of the night on the Friday, like I do when I get into these painting rhythms, you know, like I painted a whole bunch of moderns last year, I painted 62 moderns over a weekend, simple, simple paint jobs, we'll get those out and see those in a different video. And you know, just went for it, simple base coats and you know, just a wash. I might pick out some highlights and stuff as we go on, but you know, for me right now, you know, it's enough, you know, simple paint jobs is, you know, really all we need. I need to finish off this, this is just a unit of, of, of saxom warriors. I know there's a lot of axes in there, but there's a, you know, one, two, three, four, five, six guys in this unit here that I'm supposed to have spears. Now I, a lot of these figures don't come with spears. You need to buy them separately. I don't know who maybe North Star make these little packets of steel spears in 50 mil and 100 mil spears for spears and pikes, but they're really, really thin and I just don't like them. So I'm thinking about what to do. I have watched the video from Footsaw. They've got a great video on how to make your own spears. Look up their channel from Footsaw Minatures on how to make your own spears out of Flora Swire, but the only Flora Swire I've got, it's got that bloody green, you know, casing, that plastic casing on it. By the time you take that out, the wire rod that's in there is even thinner than those little toothpicks from North Star. So I need to try and find some sort of metal that I can, you know, file down or shape on the dremel and then crush with a pair of pliers to make that spear point. You know, so it's not just a, you know, a straight rod, it's straights and then flanges out a little bit and you get that spearhead on it. And in Footsaw's videos, they do, in their video, they do that by pinching the top of the wire with a pair of pliers, but, you know, the steel wire that I've got, just way too hard, I can't do that. So I'm going to have to find an alternative. Because after I painted this unit, you know, I was really excited. I just did a simple job on the shields. I didn't want to use, you know, transfers from little big man studios because they just looked too fanciful. You know, again, I'm not a historical person, I'm not sure if that's, you know, accurate or not. But it would be, you know, they're used by so many people. And you know, every time you see something on Facebook or on forums, I'm like, oh, did you hand paint that shield on? I don't know, decals or transfers from, you know, little big man studios. But I just wanted to go for something simple. Now, this unit, the main base color is blue and then I've highlighted that with a bunch of different colors. I've airbrushed that blue color on and then I hand painted the other colors and, you know, each of the units I do, I'll do a different, you know, base color. And eventually the other one just blend and tie in together. So I need to get some spears into this guy, into this unit. And that's really what's holding me back. I was super excited to continue working on more of these figures. I literally have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. But the fact that I didn't have the spears, sort of, you know, held me back because I got to the point where I like that unit's not finished. I understand I haven't finished the bases and stuff. But that unit's not finished. And I just, you know, got a little bit sort of, you know, demotivated and, you know, didn't continue. So anyway, I did a little command stand here. Just, again, three guys here. This guy at the front is a cool little character figure. But, you know, again, he's got an axe which, you know, I think is very Viking-ish. You know, Saxons seem to, I did want to do an Anglo-Saxon army. And obviously, you know, they use predominantly spears and swords. But, you know, so many of the figures that I've got have got axes. You know, from that lock that I bought from our, um, War and Peace, there was all sorts of stuff in there. And I just opened them all up, put them into a box and said, there's the dark age figures. So I'm just going to use them as dark age figures. I'm really not fast. Anyway, so I did this little command stand, you know, with, you know, some sort of general character. And he's got two guys at the back here. I think if I hold it up like this, you might be able to see they've got their hands here for putting some spears in. And obviously I haven't done the base, even the base coat on this base yet. You know, like I said, I got demotivated. You know, I couldn't put the spears in there. I was like, what's the point in continuing? I can't finish this. But you know, great fun simple little figures to paint. I think these three figures probably took about, you know, 30 minutes to paint, you know, very simple jobs. You know, everything was undercuted with an airbrush. And then, you know, certainly for these figures, you know, predominantly chainmail and metal helmets, you know, just a quick dry brush and, you know, pick out some, you know, details and, you know, there we go. So, you know, these are the dark age figures that I've been working on the last couple of weeks. I'm really happy. I've got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them to paint. If I can just find that wire or some other sort of solution for a spear that's not as thin as those ones from North Star, then I can get cracking on this project. I've got loads of stuff I've been working on over the years. You know, like I said at the beginning, I'm really feeling excited about, you know, getting back and sharing my hobby with people. It's been a big part of my hobby is, you know, sharing. You know, that's why I opened a retail store so I could have better communications with people and interact with people on a more social level and, you know, talk to the customers that are coming to the stores. That's why I made videos for YouTube. You know, that's why I run, you know, Knights of Dice Now is to share my enthusiasm and passion for the hobby with people. And I think the video component is really what's been missing. Both personally here, you know, where I'm talking about, you know, my dark age collections and you know, modern figures and all that sort of stuff, but also certainly from a Knights of Dice Perspective. I've got a nice set up here at home now. I need to get the set up at the studio replicated because dragging all this stuff back and forward between home and the studio just meant nothing was getting done anywhere. You know, I've got another camera sitting out over here and you can see there's two cameras up here. I've got lights everywhere. There's a third camera down here and that's all set up now at home. I've got this stuff here. I want to take more of this stuff to the studio so, you know, I can set it up because once it's set up, it's very easy. Just click, click, click, click, click, and record and then go through and edit all the footage. So I'm excited. I'd love to do more. I'm really looking forward to doing more. And as I spoke about in my video about Twilight the other day, I've got lots of painting that I need to do there. So we'll probably see a few more videos of what I've been working on. I've been doing some miniatures that I've finished, armies that I've painted and all that sort of stuff. And, you know, I don't know if I'll do any painting videos. Maybe that might be possible with so many cameras and all that sort of stuff. I don't know. But anyway, thanks for tuning in again, guys. I'm really looking forward to doing more videos. Hopefully, you know, even some traentatories. I've started collecting bits of recycling again. Got a couple of tops sitting around now. So maybe we'll see some straight off the table. I haven't done one of those for 10 years. Just put the cameras on and hop glue some stuff together and you know, have some fun. Anyway, here we go. I've ran around for long enough. Thanks for tuning in, guys. I'll catch you next time. See ya.