Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor

Last Thursday night was club night down at Collectormania.  Russ was the only other person there so it made the line up easy.  He brought his Gondor army, with some new models that he wanted to try out.  I had my tried and true Haradrim, who are about to undergo a major revision.

The battle lines meet.

Commission work - Necrons

I do some sub-contracting from time to time.  One of the guys down at the shop has a painting service.  He has tried everything to stay ahead, raising prices, refusing requests, he's still booked to the eyes.  When he gets behind he throws assembly work my way.

The whole army. 

Year of Rules (continued)

The year of rules is over.  It was, officially, 2012.  Having said that, I'm still exploring some new ones and two that I've got my heart set on were recently on sale.

I'm looking forward to both sets of these, as much as I've enjoyed Hail Caesar.

Battle Report - Harad vs Dwarfs

A week ago my friend Keith, aka "the Hobbit", was in town and had some, very rare, time to play.  Keith is the one who introduced us all to the Lord of the Rings SBG.  Six of us went over to Rob K.'s house where he hosted with tables, snacks and pizza.

The battle, several turns in.  I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures.

Painted Romans - January goal

January is over and I managed to meet my goal of painting twenty figures.  Will miracles never cease?

Veteran Command

Warhammer Wood Elves

Here are the pictures of the Wood Elf army I recently received as a gift/bequest.  There is not a lot to it, and no paint on it at all.  This leaves me with questions and opportunities.  For a couple of reasons, it's very important to get this army just right.

The full army.

Manufacturer Links - 28mm Early Imperial Romans

Continuing my pages with manufacturer links, this one is all of the folks who make Early Imperial Romans.  As always, if you know of some that I missed, please leave me a comment and I will add them in.

A late Christmas gift

The other day my friend asked me to come over after work.  I always make time for this particular friend, and so headed straight there.  When I arrived he said that he had my Christmas present for me.  On his kitchen table was his Warhammer Chaos army.

That's five units of Chaos warriors and four units of Marauders.  

Hail Caesar Battle Report - EIR vs Carthage II

Today was another game of Hail Caesar.  Jonathan and I have both added to our armies, though he has actually painted his units.  As usual we met down at Collectormania, arriving just in time to get a table.  The place was packed today.  We had a fair amount of interest with quite a few people stopping by to see what we were playing.  This game went much more smoothly that our last one.  We did not bother with points, just using the special rules from the army lists and bringing whatever we had ready.

Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor

I've now played my first game of the year.  It wasn't the 1st, but pretty close.  I met Russ down at Collectormania and we took the new Hobbit rules for a spin.  We are both very familiar with the LotR rules but we still had to flip through the book a fair amount.  It was a fun game, only slightly marred by my loss.

Faramir and his Osgiliath veterans. 

My 2012 Ouptut - For posterity's sake

These are my Assembled/Painted numbers for 2012.  I'll be keeping them here, just so I can compare, year on year.  Using Curt's point system for the Analogue Painting Challenge this is 934 points painted.  That's for a whole year, mind you.  Some of his contestants are closing on that after a couple of weeks.  I guess I'll need to try a lot harder this year.

Painted models just look so much better, I'm not sure why it's so hard to get motivated to paint them.

2012 In Review and 2013 Plans

How's that for an inspiring title.  I love seeing what everyone else plans for the year, and how last year's plans panned out (or more often did not).  Since a large part of my keeping this blog is to keep track of my hobby, I also look forward to seeing what the last year held for me.

This was the biggest accomplishment of the year.

Final assembly

That's it.  I'm calling it a year.  No more hobby will happen before the 1st.  I accomplished most of what I was aiming for the last few days though.  The pile waiting for priming has grown.

Auxiliary Command from Warlord.  Very nice models.

Fanticide minis

I received my Fanticide Kickstarter rewards awhile back.  It was definitely good value for my money.  The book is beautiful.  The rules are interesting and fun.  The ability to build your own warbands is brilliant and the models are characterful and well made.

Flying monkeys from the Kingdom of Odd.  Awesome!

Hail Caesar Battle Report - EIR vs Carthage

A month ago (I know, I'm a slacker), Jonathan and I played our first game of Hail Caesar.  We've been working up to this for about seven months, so it was much anticipated and long over due.  We each brought three units, what we had assembled and ready to go.  We did not play with any mods, or terrain on the table, aiming simply to figure out the rules.  There was a lot of flipping through the book.

The Carthaginians form a line.

End of year frenzy

I've been out of action for the last two months.  The blog's been quiet because I have not done anything hobby-wise.  My shoulder is starting to feel better, at the same time that I have a week off of work.  I'm trying to get a whole bunch assembled so that if the weather gets nice enough, I can get it primed.  I have a fair bit primed already, but most of it is not for any current project; rather they are artifacts of past attempts to paint armies.

Several of my kickstarters have come home to roost in the last two weeks.  First through the door was Fanticide.  This was the rules, cards and a Liberi war band, as well as a sample pack and the unicorn.

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas Everyone!  I hope that you are all with family, friends or associates of your choice and that you all get some gaming goodness as well as the recharge of the soul that a great Christmas can bring.

Five Worthy Blogs

I have been given the Liebster Award by Jonathan over at The Inevitable Spark.  So Thank You Jonathan.  This is a meme, started I know not where, that has been making the rounds the last few weeks.

This award is a way for our community to share, by picking five of your favorite blogs to pass the award to.  I find it a little ironic that I received it after not really managing any hobby for a month, but I'm grateful.

In the end this is nothing more than a chance for us to share some of the blogs we enjoy.  That's a worthwhile goal and well worth the effort.

The five blogs I'm going to showcase below are the ones that I look forward to reading the most.  Some that I might have chosen have already received this, very, prestigious award.  If you are not one of these five, know that every blog on my blog roll is there because I consider reading it worth my time and I gain something I value from it.

First up is Rear Guard Action.  J. de Jong is all about board games.  I have quite a collection of board games, but nothing like him.  This is a part of my hobby that was critical during my formative years, but that I don't get to spend much time on these days.  This blog has been helping me to get back in touch with the world of board gaming.

Tim K. Actually wrote this.  I've actually played games with him.  That's pretty awesome.

Next up is Cursed Treasures by Tim Kulinski.  I've met Tim a few times; played several games of Lord of the Rings against him, one of which is even covered on this blog, back in the mists of time.  Tim is the author of Legends of the High Seas.  His blog is an eclectic blend of genres, along with a fair amount of disenchantment with a certain company that used to give him joy.  I'm in touch with that emotion, so this blog resonates with me on several levels.

Roundwood's World is a blog by the very talented Sidney Roundwood.  While there are a lot of interesting posts on this gem of a blog I'll sum it all up in one word; TERRAIN.  Sidney's terrain boards have inspired me.  I'm just working up the courage to get started on some of my own, though the step into WWI gaming will have to wait.  Incidentally, I can't believe I'm the first one to put him up.

The next blog is Analogue Hobbies.  This one just blows me away.  The WWI in grey scale is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life.  The sheer insanity of it is an inspiration.  Curt also posts up a periodic series of scenarios, which we should all appreciate, as gamers.

The final blog is The British Army at Waterloo.  Following my theme, which seems to revolve around a certain level of insanity, even for we hobbyists, this blog is documenting the effort to collect and paint the British army at Waterloo at 1-1.  I find the concept beyond imagining.  I'm not certain I could even contemplate such a project, but it does make me feel a little bit saner.

As I said above, I enjoy and value each blog in my blog roll, but each of these is something different and unique, for either personal reasons or just the content of the blog.

I hope you all check them out and enjoy them as much as I do.

Bring the Pain

I finally had my follow up appointment this week.  I won't bore you with details, but it turned out they had to rebuild the entire front of my shoulder.  The good news is that it should be good as new, in about three months.  The bad news is that It's going to take awhile to get better; about three months.  I'm hoping to be able to hold a paintbrush long before then, but right now I guess I'll be reading rules and surfing blogs.

When the hobby hurts

I haven't posted much this month.  It's really come down to health issues.  My shoulder has been bothering me for years but has gotten really bad in the last few months.  I finally had surgery last week.  What does all of this have to do with anything?

Sometimes the hobby hurts.  Physically hurts.  For the last month, and especially, the last week, almost all hobby activity has been painful to perform.  I can game, which may be part of why I'm so excited about X-Wing right now.  I can't hold a brush, or a file.  I can't hold two little pieces of plastic together while the glue sets.  Most of the hobby is outside my reach, both figuratively and literally.

I spent a couple of days staring forlornly at the models on my desk.  There's so much to do and I'm not accomplishing any of it.  Then I started to consider how I would adjust if my temporary disability were permanent.  What could I do to allow me to paint and assemble models?  How would my collecting change if everything became harder?  This was purely an exercise in "what if" since I am expecting to recover fully.  It was really something to keep my mind occupied while I sat here and drooled on myself.

One result of all of this thought is a new found appreciation for all that I take for granted.  It's good to have things taken away from us sometimes; it helps us realize what we have and what we value.  The prospect of re-gaining full use of my right arm is something that fills me with great pleasure, above and beyond the hope of living without pain.  I definitely find that I am a person who wants what they can't have.  I'm surprised at the sense of loss I feel right now.

I am obsessive about miniatures and gaming.  I think about them way more than I should.  They have helped to keep me sane through many military deployments.  I need to keep my brain actively engaged.  I haven't watched TV in years and have a hard time sitting through a movie.  Miniatures are the balm that soothes the savage beast, so to speak.

I'm going to wrap it up here, both because I'm sure this is rambling (stupid pain killers) and because typing hurts too.  But I do have a question.  What disabilities do you guys suffer from and how do you compensate? It could be as simple as failing eyesight or as difficult as a certain sculptor's missing hand.  I'd be fascinated to hear all about it.  Or are we all insufferably healthy?