I was looking for something good to strip some old metal models, and one suggestion I found on Youtube was cellulose thinners. Unfortunately, I've dunked and scrubbed these old Battle Fortresses twice, and some of the paint is stubbornly resisting. I guess I'll have to find something better.
On a more successful note, I had to fill in a little gap on this Epic Ork Warboss on boar, where I'd glued the two models together. Once that was done, all it needed was some paint.

Cellulose thinners fail

Warboss Gwapstik on his albino boar
Lots of other painting has been going on the last couple of months, and I've been going back and forth between my Epic Orks and Epic Tyranids, as these are the first two armies of the four I'm hoping to finish this year.
I'm pretty happy with my progress so far, even though I doubt I'm going fast enough to paint 4 armies. I might have to switch to an easier-to-paint army like my Epic Eldar or Androids.
I'm especially happy with how the Gargants have turned out, though I'm having more fun with the Nidz. It definitely helps to fight the boredom when every unit is a different colour. With some of the Nidz, I'm leaving them the colours I painted them way back in the 90s, but just re-doing them much better.

Gwapstik's Boyz all done

Gargants!

Updated Dominatrix

Some colourful Nidz
Ages ago now I started work on all of my Epic buildings from the old 1st and 2nd edition box sets, as they were in a right state. I separated all of the card walls from the plastic roof sections. Said plastic parts then got a good scrub to get them clean before I undercoated them, along with a few models that I was planning to work on at the time.
It was at this point I decided to go no further. I just think it will make much more sense to get a 3D printer to make new walls rather than try to use the old card walls again. And to me it will make more sense just to paint the entire buildings when they are all assembled.
There's nothing stopping me from painting the ruins from the Epic 40,000 box though. Yeah, maybe I should get to that...

After spraying some stuff

Starting to lay down some base colours
These pictures here show the progress of the Epic ruins I was building last year. They've pretty much stalled at this point as I wait for better weather in which to spray them.
But I'm really happy with how they look so far.

Construction of the new ruins begins

Continued construction

Construction complete. Painting next.
My heavier, metal Epic models got a couple of little upgrades. Firstly, I finally decided to put them in a proper carry case, as they have always just been lying in the bottom of a box up to this point.
And one my Andrayada Titans got a new base, as its old one was twice as big as it needed to be.
That other base will instead go to the Hierophant Titan, when I eventually manage to paint it.
I don't think that will be too long now though, looking at how few Epic Nidz I've got left to do.
Can't wait.

Boxing up my metal Titans

Work on an Andrayada Titan base
Looking forward to playing more board games recently as I shift my attention more in this direction and away from computer games for a while.
We got around to trying Burke's Gambit a few weeks back for the first time. Not really sure what to think of it, as it was a bit awkward to get into. I think maybe we need some more games of it to really settle into it. After all, it took us a few games of Secret Hitler to get into it, and we ended up loving it and using it as our main game for months.

Trying Burke's Gambit

Trying not to be a Burke
I've also just picked up two other cheap games. One is an old game called Scotland Yard, where one player is the hidden criminal trying to escape the detective players. I have been wanting to play a much more up-to-date version of this called Whitehall Mystery, but that's very hard to find it seems.
I also picked up a co-op card game with a similar theme called There's Been A Murder, where players must work to catch the murderer before he gets away. No idea how this one is going to go down, as the rules aren't fully clear in a few areas.

Picking up Scotland Yard, which is handy...

...because There's Been A Murder
Just recently whipped out my old Space Hulk from the loft, after I learned that the old first edition (which is the one I have) has a solo variant. Now, I bought the game from a fellow student at college back in the 90s for a whole £20, which was quite a good deal considering it had most of the Genestealer expansion, and the board sections from the Deathwing expansion, included.
However, even after all this time, and all of the versions that have followed, Space Hulk remains a game that I have never played.
Regrettably, most of the models that came with the game were covered in paint so thick that you could barely make out the details. So after some failed attempts to strip them, a lot of them went in the bin. If only I knew then what I know now about stripping plastic models. But anyway.
A single plastic Terminator survived my purge (the Librarian in my 40K army), and several of the Genestealers went into my 40K Tyranid army. The only other models I have are a few of the Hybrids from the Genestealer expansion, as they were not painted yet.
So in order to actually play this game, I'm going to have to dip into my 40K collection. But that will be fine.
When Scoob learned I was looking into Space Hulk, he recovered his old copy of the game and gave it to me. He's used the models for other things, but it gives me more up to date rules in second edition, the custom dice, and more board sections to throw into the mix. Which is cool.
The end goal is to ultimately make my own game using both the Space Hulk and Space Crusade resources I have available, but that's a long term goal. Got to get my Epic and Super Dungeon rules going first.
But for now, I'll be hoping to try a few games of solo Space Hulk to actually get a little use out of it. Only 25 years later...

Sorting out all the Space Hulk board sections