Messing Around with a Light Box

I decided a while ago that I need to improve the photos I take for the blog. I tend to find that even with lots of lights on them they are dark, especially in the winter when there is very little natural light around.

I know that a lot of people use light boxes so after finding a cheapo one on Amazon for £7.99, I took the plunge. The light box itself is just an expanding wire framed box with white cloth over it. I didn't get the set that comes with lights because I decided in the short term that I would see if I could use my daylight lamps.

After setting it up, here are the results:

Here is a comparison shot of my recent Skaven both how I normally to do the photos (top) and the light box one (bottom):

I can't personally see a massive difference, perhaps I need some better lights? Also, ironing the back ground cloths that come with the light box wouldn't hurt. The main positive is that it doesnt matter how dark and miserable the weather is, the light will be constant.

Complete Skaven Unit

Having picked up Dragon Rampant rules just before Christmas, it prompted me to look at the forces I had suitable for fantasy. I have very small forces of Undead, Elves and only ten Skaven. I decided finishing off another 10 Skaven to make a full unit of 20 would give me a suitable size unit to use in my games. I quickly finished off these guys to achieve this:

 When put with the other ten and stuck on a movement tray they look like this:

The important thing to remember with these chaps is that they are base coat of maybe 8 colours and a wash, then basing. So I reckon that unit took maybe 12 hours all in spread out over 6 evenings. In other words I could easily sit down and do a unit in a day if I had nothing else to do with my life, which I think is a pretty healthy speed.

My intention now is to do a few solo trial games of Dragon Rampant to learn the rules and see where things go from there. I suspect, from a quick read of the rules, that I might what to house rule a few things already but they seem a straight forward stater for fantasy games. Just need to get the games table sorted with a few bits of terrain first.

In other hobby related news: I've had my first play around with a light box to get better photos, I have my first ever 20mm World War 2 inbound and I'm mulling over going in on my first kickstarter ever as well. Lots of new stuff to look forward to.