Monthly Retrospective 4

Another month is done.  I'm still having a hard time keeping up with how quickly this year is going.  It's time for my obsessive compulsive side to kick in and take stock of May.  Considering I was on vacation for two weeks, with no internet or hobby access, I'm pleased with how it went.

Last month I started 15mm, strictly in Sci/Fi.  I'm pleased with my purchases so far, and I added more.  I've got a good start on my Sahadeen army, which will be something else in my setting.  I need to buy some more Arc Fleet recon troops from CMG to flesh out that force.  I've also begun the process of planning out the army's with all of their gear.  This is a lot of fun as I can mix and match from different manufacturers.  

The cover for Gruntz

I bought Gruntz, sci/fi 15mm rules.  They are $9 and well worth it.  I played a couple of solo games to get a feel for the rules, and liked them a lot.  I had ordered a copy of Tomorrow's War but the shop was unable to get it in.  I have not rectified that yet, but I still plan on picking them up, though it will not be this month.

I also added some terrain for 15mm.  I am starting from scratch so I needed something fast.  I covered that here.  I will be adding more, a lot more.  I want to build a space port, so I'll need a lot of stuff.  That's down the road a bit, but it's good to dream.

On the 28mm front I was less productive.  I finally received my UAMC Marines from Defiance.  There is a review of them as well.  I have assembled two of them and they are just waiting for paint.  I also began painting my Celts.  I don't like to throw up WIP shots, so no reporting on them yet.  I am hoping to get ten Celts and two UAMC painted this week.  I also completed my first cohort of Romans and then went through and cut the rest of my Romans off of their sprues.  That was a good hour of my life gone.  

I got one game in, sadly.  It was good fun, but convinced me that my Harad army is just not a good build for the new Warbands era.  I still need to sit down with the book and figure out a new build.  That should give me a chance to paint some more Haradrim as well.  I really need to step up the gaming though.

I also got to visit some nice historic sites in Boston.  It's always great to see some of what we game in real life.  I've also found that you can only really understand a battle if you walk the field.  Sadly that is not an option for Bunker Hill as it is all overgrown.  What I did gain was an appreciation for just how close everything really was.  The Constitution was amazing and increased my desire to do some age of sail gaming.  I've wanted to have a couple of Napoleonic era fleets for about thirty years.  That may just happen this year or the next.

This is a clever guise of the devil.

Other than that, the blog was mostly blogging.  Me running my mouth and you listening.  That's not a bad thing but it doesn't get my armies done.  I told you how much I hate putting on transfers, about a video game I'm playing and about prizes and deals.

This month I also entered the exciting world of crowd funding.  I have supported one indigogo campaign and one Kickstart campaign.  I'm considering another.  Truth be told, I'll be supporting it, I'm just going to wait until later in the month.  These things seem to be offering great deals on stuff as well as giving us the goodies we want sooner than they would appear otherwise.  I like the model and I like the results.

I got four more followers this month.  The reason I bring this up is so that I can highlight their blogs, where they have them.  First is Richard FourEightTwo Minatures.  His blog, of the same name, is brand new, only being started in May.  He has some cool stuff he's working on.  I hope he keeps at it.

Second was the Frontline Gamer.  I've mentioned Jody's blog several times before so it was gratifying that he came over and joined mine.  If you have, inexplicably, not visited his blog, hye thee hither immediately.  It is more than worth your time.

Next was Jerry of Miniature Inspiration.  This is another blog that got started in 2009 and then dropped, only to be resurrected in 2012, (mine being the other one I was thinking of).  He has an eclectic set of interests and some serious painting skills.

Lastly is MSRyan with An Intermittent Firefight.  Another blogger who covers a wide range of topics.  He has stuff that I haven't seen before, which is always nice.  I like popping over just to see what he is up to.

So there's my new followers pimped.  The month was mostly taken up with my vacation to Ireland.  In the time I had, I got a lot done.  There never seems to be enough time, but at least I know that I'll be happy in retirement, twenty or thirty years from now.

So for June I am hoping to step things up a notch.  I plan to complete painting my 43 Celts and the two UAMC Marines.  I'll also get the latest 15mm stuff painted, both terrain and models.  I plan to get the next 20 legionaries assembled as well.  That's should be plenty.  On the rules front I want to pick up the army list book for Hail Caesar.  I'm going to purchase a few more Arc Fleet to fill out that infantry platoon.  I may pick up a couple terrain pieces as well.  All of that seems like plenty.  I've learned just how short a month actually is, since  I started this blog back up, so this may turn out to be way too grandiose.