A load of waffle and some WIP bits

Greetings all,

2020 is off to a relatively slow start for me in terms of hobby output, but I'm kind of ok with that seeing as I actually am doing some things. The last year (or so...) has been generally quite crap, and that has led to my hobby mojo really suffering. It's also meant that I haven't really been blogging much, as I haven't exactly had much to show.

Things are hardly going to change overnight of course, and 2020 looks set to bring its own challenges, but things do seem to be on a (very, very gradual) upward trajectory, and I'm fine with that for now.

It got me thinking about why I (occasionally) update this blog. If it was just to show off my painted and converted models, and maybe get the odd comment, then I might as well just post it on Facebook, or one of the many other popular social media platforms. It occurred to me that this isn't really the reason I do it. This blog is to document my hobby journey, and that's hard to replicate anywhere else. I don't have millions of followers, or even get that many comments these days, but that's not really why this blog is here anyway. Frankly I get enough enjoyment out of re-reading my own blog posts to make it worth doing. It's easy to get swept up in life and forget about all the things you've achieved (or indeed, not achieved), and this is a great method of taking a look back over what you've done over the years, and the sort of person you were then, and are now.

I guess maybe for some people it's not quite as deep as all that, and maybe it is just about looking at pretty pictures of painted models, without tumbling down an existential rabbit hole. Personally though, I love seeing the journey, as well as reflecting on my own journey. Whenever I follow a new blog, I like to go back to their very first post(s) and see where they've come from and what made them start it.

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure of the point I'm making, mostly because I'm not really making a point. I'm going to continue blogging as and when I can, hopefully with more to show than I have had in a while, and hopefully a few people will continue to find it interesting. Mostly though, I'm doing it for myself, so that I can look back in a few years time at the road I've taken to make me, me.

With that brain dump out of the way, check out this big pile of old Blood Bowl crap that I'm working on, as and when the urge takes me:

I've done a few small conversions here and there that I should probably take a picture of, because that's interesting too right?

That's it for now though, till next time.

2019 hobby retrospective

Greetings all,

Well once again it’s been a while since I posted, but such is life. This blog doesn't seem to get a lot of interest these days, but of course that might change if I actually, y’know, posted stuff.

Anyway this is sort of a “what I've painted recently/year in review/what I'm working on” kind of post. So a little bit of everything really, but it’s better than not posting anything at all.

Well first up, I have actually painted some models recently. Only four of them mind you, but they’re painted and that’s something. You may remember that I have a 2nd edition Orc team for Blood Bowl. I've been using them quite a bit this year (pretty much all I've been playing). While they look awesome, the old Blocker models are a bit too small to represent S4 Black Orcs, and it gets a bit confusing for my opponent sometimes. With that in mind, I painted up four of the much larger 3rd edition models to make things a bit clearer. I also took the opportunity to give them darker skin, as befits a Black Orc. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with 3rd edition models, but the Orcs are definitely among the better ones.

As for a year in review, this bit shouldn’t take very long… it’s been a pretty shitty year this year, both in terms of hobby output, and also life in general. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say I'm glad to see the back of 2019.

In terms of what else I actually painted, see below:

Including the two extra balls I painted for Blood Bowl (not pictured: my balls), that totals a pretty pitiful 21 models. Oh well, it is what it is. That said, I have been attending a new club semi-regularly, and I've still been occasionally gaming with my good buddy Alex, so it’s not been a total fail. I had really wanted to go to BOYL too, but life very much got in the way of that.

Comparing my achievements to my goals at the start of the year… well there isn’t much comparison really, but that’s to be expected.

• Familiars project! If I make a plan and stick to it, I could get this done very quickly. 

Nope. I didn’t even get a single one of these painted, although I did re-appropriate some of them as markers for my Chaos Renegades Blood Bowl team, so they should see paint in 2020.

• More Nurgle. I'd like to have a playable force for both AoS and 40k painted by about July. 

Not really. I painted 10 Plaguebearers to use for summoning, but never got any further than that. Could be one for 2020.

• Necromunda. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do for this, but I definitely want to do something. Probably a Chaos Cult, but I would like a house gang too. 

I assembled a few bits for this, but it never really took off because the rules release was such a mess and I was kinda put off altogether.

• Dragon Rampant. I'm not sure about this yet. I've just picked up the rules, and it looks like good fun. I can throw something together with what I already have painted, but if I really like it then I might paint a few bits specifically for it. 

Nothing on this at all.

• Other Osprey stuff. Ok so this is a bit of a wishy washy resolution, but basically I want to paint stuff for and play a few other skirmish games like Ghost Archipelago and Rangers of the Shadow Deep (ok, that one isn't actually Osprey). 

I played a bit of Frostgrave, and picked up a few books that I wanted, but no real progress made.

• Play more games! I haven't played enough games this year, so the intention is to play many more next year. Definitely with a bit of a focus on Blood Bowl and Necromunda, because those are the two that got me hooked on all this nonsense in the first place. 

This one actually was kind of a success. I didn’t play nearly as much as I would have liked, but I did play a decent amount of games, considering everything else that went on. I'm back to Blood Bowl straight away in 2020 too, so I'm happy about that.

My 2020 resolutions are gonna be pretty simple really: paint two Blood Bowl teams, and paint the rest of my Nurgle stuff. It’s all stuff I've had sitting around for two long and I just want to get it done now. Plus I'm playing a lot more Blood Bowl, and I don’t want to do that with unpainted models! I'm also interested in playing a little bit of Kill Team this year, so something will have to happen there. Ok so:

• Paint my Chaos Renegades team 
• Paint my Skaven team 
• Paint the rest of my Nurgle army 
• Build/paint a Kill Team. 

Seems fairly simple and achievable, but we shall see… anyway, in terms of what I'm working on atm, check out this cool Skaven team I'm putting together:

There will be about 14 normal players, plus a couple stars, coaching staff, and mutations. They're the classic Jes Goodwin Skaven so they should look pretty cool.

Right that’s it from me, till next time.