Month: March 2020

March Resolutions Update

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On 31st March 2020

In Blog

It’s that time of the month again so here is a hobby resolutions update!

Paint 867 Models – 42.45%

Really making progress with this one, but a bunch of supply crates and promethium barrels really helped me!

I am now at 368 models painted, well a few more because I have been hard at work on my Warcry/Age of Sigmar terrain, but I donMt record them until the whole set is complete.

Finish Painting The Blood Ravens I Own on 1st January – 38.46%

Making good progress with five captains painted your this month, but I still have all the units with multiple models to go yet!

Finish The Death Guard – 58.33%

Ok I actually went backwards on this cause I got two more Chaos Spawn, but they shouldn’t delay this too much!

Complete 2000 Points of Stormcast Eternals

I made a start on this, albeit very slowly by painting the Easy to Build Sequitors I got with Mortal Realms Issue 1, but I am not counting these until I have actually built the ones from Soul Wars to make it a full unit.

Other Resolutions

  • Complete 1750 Points of T’au
  • Complete 1750 Points of Orks
  • Rebase Blood Ravens
  • Rebase Orks

No progress on any of these, but I did manage to figure out what we have in terms of Orks and Megan and I plan to start on these very soon.

12 Weeks Lockdown

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On 28th March 2020

In Blog

I am considered by my doctors to be an extremely vulnerable person due to my crappy immune system and diabetes.

Whilst the government have not ordered me to shield for 12 weeks the doctors told me that I should do so by the Monday just gone, they were very firm about telling me that I needed to do this.

Of course it’s all moot now because Boris ordered a full lockdown of everyone for three week, to start.

I knew this was gonna happen after I saw idiots on Facebook boasting about their last night at the pubs, it’s a shame that idiots made this necessary.

We need to keep vulnerable people safe, people more vulnerable than me, the doctors say if I catch Covid-19 there is a good chance it will put me in hospital, they don’t think it would kill me, but they don’t want the risk.

But I have people I care about who are much more vulnerable, a mate with a pacemaker, a nearly 90 year old nana who chain smokes like there is no tomorrow, a father-in-law who had a heart transplant, a nephew who recovered from childhood cancer, etc.

We need to shield these people from the virus, so whilst I hate the Covid-19 bill and I detest the lockdown, I will comply, because at times like these we all need to pitch in and do our part, and for many of us, it’s to stay at home.

Others can help shop for vulnerable people, donate blood, do key jobs to keep things moving etc.

We can all of us do our part to get us through this, so let’s roll up our sleeves and get in with it.

What I Am Modelling

Given I am in lockdown I am gonna really crack in with some stuff!

I started with the Magnavent Walkway, I got this from the issues of Conquest I bought at Forbidden Planet, thinking I would need it for Company of Legends, of course I didn’t!

Then I painted the Thermic Plasma Conduits Andrew face new.

Chris gave me a few bits which I am adding to the Conquest scenery, a pair of Imperial Bunkers and a Plasma Obliterator, so I go these done on a Sunday.

Then I finished off the scenery with Andres mashup of Sector Fronteris and STC Ryza-Pattern Ruins.

I then painted up my Imperial Navy stuff for Aeronautica Imperialis.

And then I finished a trio of Easy to Build Stormcast Eternals Sequitors.

I have already painted these, but got a bunch with Mortal Reams issue 1, so figured why not have a set with the helmeted head for the Sequitor Prime.

I then finally finished up the Three Hunters by painting Gimili, don’t know why but I found him a lot more intimidating than Legolas or Aragorn.

And then I painted up five Captains for my Blood Ravens, two Primaris Captains, one with a Stalker Bolt Rifle, the other with Auto Bolt Rifle and Power Sword, one in Cataphractii Terminator Armour, two in Terminator Armour, one with a Storm Bolter and Power Sword, the other the store exclusive model from the Sunderland Warhammer refurbishment.

And finally I painted up a squad of Seekers for my Heresy Ultramarines, not my best paint job ever, but I am looking forward to playing with them.

Right now on my desk are a Death Korps of Krieg Quartermaster and Retinue, Death Riders Ridemaster and four of Grenadier special weapons men.

I also built and primed all of my Warcry/AoS terrain and will also be working on that at the same time.

I am gonna now be getting back to the painting plan, which currently looks like this.

  1. Death Korps of Krieg Quartermaster & Retinue, Special Weapons Grenadiers & Ride Master
  2. Warcry/Age of Sigmar Terrain
  3. Myrmourn Banshees x 12 & Tomb Banshee
  4. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Men x 10
  5. Blood Ravens Bikes x 3 & Attack Bike with Multi-Melta
  6. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  7. Canoness Veridyan
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Men x 10
  9. Untamed Beasts
  10. Tech Priest Maniplius x 2

What I Am Reading

Honestly I have been too worried to read anything.

What I Am Playing

Sadly nowt this week, but Megan and I are going to play some small 40k stuff next week.

What I Am Backing

Not a sausage, but I did just fill in my backer survey for The Rival Networks.

What I Am Cooking

I cooked twice this week, a very basic pulled pork on Sunday for when Paul and Mary came over, and then I made BBQ shredded chicken for lunch on Wednesday.

What I Am Spending

I bought a copy of Mortal Realms Issue 11, want to have two of the old Garden of Morr, and it will look really good on my Age of Sigmar table, although I plan to wait for issue 15 before I build some of it.

I also subscribed to the Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy, because I have a feeling that will be brilliant.

A New Normal

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On 20th March 2020

In Blog

The virus, well it’s become a huge problem these past two weeks.

I mean I knew it was a thing, I kept an eye on it, but I never thought it would be like this.

The whole thing we are living through right now feels like a nightmare, getting food is so difficult, in Asda the other night, 80% of the selves were bare. Funnily enough they had loads of Pot Noodles, so I guess they don’t sell well in the apocalypse.

I am diabetic with a bad immune system, so when the government tells vulnerable people to stay at home for 12 weeks on lockdown, I am expecting to be one of those people, I am not looking forward to it.

I worry about my vulnerable relatives, Megan’s dad had a heart transplant so is very vulnerable, and her mums nursery are refusing to close despite being asked to by the government, so I am scared he will be exposed.

My nana is not in the best of health and refuses to stop smoking, I don’t think she would survive it.

All in all, it’s very worrying and scary, and I just wish right now they would announce a start of the lockdown because the not knowing is making me way more anxious.

Of course it does mean that EGX Rezzed and the U.K. Games Expo are no longer happening and all my upcoming work is cancelled, so money will be tight.

Life is changing, and I have seen the very best and very worst of humanity these past couple of weeks.

I just hope all my friends and family come out this safe and well.

What I Am Modellimg

With Company of Legends having been imminent, I focused my painting efforts into scenery, not that it matters now.

The first thing painted was a Basicila Administratium from the old Cities of a Death range, this was given to me by Chris.

This was followed by a Manufactorum, again from the same range, also from Chris.

And then a pair of Sanctum Imperialis buildings, one from Chris, and the other from Phil.

At the same time I finished up the ruins from the Sector Imperialis Killzone from the Kill Team Starter Set.

Then I moved on to some of Andres terrain, starting with a bunch of scatter terrain from his Killzone Sector Munitorium.

At the same time I finished up some random pieces that I had been given by Chris, a lone piece of Promethium Relay Pipe, and a lone Aegis Defence Line part.

Then I painted Andrews Thermic Plasma Regulators, and judging from the colour of the plastic, I think these came from Conquest.

And finally a Haemotrope Reactor for Andrew.

I also built all of my Age of Sigmar terrain, this was basically three of the Warcry Ravaged Lands, a Defiled Ruins, Shattered Stormvault and the terrain in the original starter set.

Plan is to get the painted up during my forthcoming isolation period.

So my current painting plan has been abandoned and will be reworked.

Right now my priority is to complete Andrews terrain so he has some to play on, the finish a few things I had on my desk followed by Nikis remaining Death Korps of Krieg.

Then I plan to hit the Warcry terrain hard, along with the Untamed Beasts.

What I Am Reading

I have read the first two stories from Tales from the Crucible but I have been so preoccupied with news about the virus, it’s been hard to concentrate.

I have however been listening to The First Wall on Audible.

What I Am Playing

Life is just way too crazy right now to even get a moment to play, but I am going to fix that.

What I Am Backing

Still just Broken!

What I Am Cooking

We have been struggling to get food, so I haven’t really been able to plan anything to cook.

What I Am Spending

My last Black Library Celebration/Store Birthday order arrived.

This consisted of the Beastgrave Gift Pack, the Warcy Shattered Stormvault, The Wurmspat a box of Battle Sisters, and Corpse Grinder Cult Card’s and dice.

I have also stocked up on paints to a degree, most of these I already had spare from Conquest, but I have added a few to the overflow tin this week in preparation for the lockdown.

I also bought myself a few things from Battle Bunker because I want Jus to still be there after the crisis is over, so I bought a squad of Retributors, a Stormhawk Interceptor and Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers.

From Forbidden Planet I bought myself the last two copies of Conquest, I know they will come through the post, but at the time we were still running Company of Legends and I figured the terrain would be handy now.

  • Mood:- Worried
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 8
  • In My Ears:- Best of You by The Foo Fighters
  • Book Last Read:- Tales From The Crucible by Various
  • Movie/TV Show Last Watched:- BBC News
  • Current State of Projects:- Galvanic Magnavent supports completed, Easy to Build Sequitors 35% done.

Meet Bonnie

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On 10th March 2020

In Blog

Since we lost Sweep and Cookie last year, the house has felt a little empty and when we found out we weren’t going to have to move, we decided that it was time to get another cat.

So we started looking around and after a few leads that didn’t pan out, Paul and Mary introduced us to Yarm Cat Rescue, and we saw a few cats in the group, two of which really caught our attention.

We asked which had been searching for a home the longest and we were told that this was Bonnie.

So we adopted her, she is a sweet girl, just 19 months old and is very loving and gentle.

She is taking a little time to settle in with Misty and Jenny, but that’s to be expected, but she loves to curl up next to you on the sofa and just get strokes.

I do love cats and they always make me feel happy, and I am very glad that we have been able to give a home to Bonnie.

What I Am Modelling

Company of Legends is fast approaching and I need to get this new table finished for it as well as a couple of additions to another table.

So I started the week with two thirds of the Honoured Imperium set. The broken Aquila was missing the centre piece so I filled it in with some texture paint, assuming the gold that made it up had been whisked away somewhere to form a part of some nefarious ritual!

I then painted up the second Galvanic Servohauler frame from Conquest, although this one I had gotten from Forbidden Planet as I was sick of waiting for Hachette to send it.

And then I worked with Megan to paint some Sector Imperialis Ruins, some from a box of them, some from Kill Team.

And finally I painted a set of Sector Sanctoris Ruins to use as scatter terrain.

I am now working on the bigger building in this box and they hopefully will get done this week.

As I said before my current painting plan is suspended until after Company of Legends and even then it will be suspended until I get back from EGX Rezzed, but here it is anyway.

  1. Death Korps of Krieg Quartermaster and Retinue with Death Riders Ridemaster
  2. Easy To Build Stormcast Eternals Sequitors
  3. Blood Ravens Captains x 5
  4. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Wrapons Men x 12
  5. Warcry Terrain
  6. Myrmourn Banshees
  7. Blood Ravens Bikes x 3 and Attack Bike armed with Multi-Melta
  8. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  9. Canoness Veridyan
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Wrapons Men x 12

What I Am Reading

I finished The First Wall and I enjoyed it, it was really good, I know others have given it mixed reviews but I really got into the story of the Imperial Guard and their conclusion really felt like a stab to the guts.

I absolutely would recommend it, and I am going to listen to it on audiobook as soon as I can.

I have now moved on to Tales From The Crucible which I will be reviewing on the blog

What I Am Playing

I went to Meeple Perk, my local board game cafe on Friday night with Megan, Lindsay and our friend Jo, and we played a few games.

We started off with a game of Just One, in which we scored 11 points which we were really happy with.

And then we played three games of Codenames Disney, we all lost the first one when Lindsays first clue lead Jo right to the assassin and me and Megan won the last game together.

Then on Sunday we went to Paul and Mary’s house where we played three rounds of Telestrations, which was very very funny, and then two rounds of Just One, before we headed out to tea and returned home for a game of

What Am I Backing

Still just Broken!

What Am I Cooking

I helped to makes some breakfast sandwiches on Sunday.

They had in them, BBQ shredded chicken, in my Kansas City BBQ sauce, topped with some streaky bacon and a cheese slice and a fried egg.

What Am I Spending

The next two lots of my Black Library Celebration/Store blowout arrived! The first was a Nemisis Warbring Titan for Adeptus Titanicus and Traitor Command and The Deaded Ambull for Blackstone Fortress.

And the next batch was the Adeptus Titanicus Command Terminals, two sets of Custodes Dice, Valerian and Aleya, Larissa Shadowstalker, Sgt Jovan, a backpack, art prints, plasma gun ammo tin and a couple of paints.

I still have one more delivery to come which was dispatched today so I expect it either tomorrow or Wednesday.

A Big Ball

By

On 3rd March 2020

In Blog

The past couple of weeks I have found my motivation has taken a real nose dive, as I put it my ball is big.

I visualise my mind as a box with a depression button in it, and there is a ball bouncing around the box, when it hits the button, I feel crappy.

Sometimes the ball is small, which means that the button is less frequently hit, but lately the ball is pretty big and it’s constantly hitting the button.

I am waiting for a decision to come through the post, I know what it will be, but the anxiety of waiting for it is kinda dragging me down a lot as it’s going to mean some big changes have to be made. I will fight it, but it doesn’t stop it hurting in the meantime.

So yeah, my motivation is utterly gone and I can barely read, paint or game and most of my time is sat in a bit of a mope. right now I want to paint, but the ball is hitting off the button like crazy and the office is a bit chaotic at the minute with very little room for me to be at my desk.

What I Am Modelling

So it’s been a fortnight since my last post, but I haven’t painted a lot.

I started with a 40 strong Chainrasp Horde, which was a lot of fun to paint, its very simple, not exactly painted up to the best standard, but these are horde troops and I did them in a way that delivers a decent result fast for a lot of models.

Having gotten sick of waiting for my next issues of Conquest I purchased a couple of issues from Forbidden Planet, and worked on those, the first being a set of Chaos Spawn, which unpainted mostly in Contrast which I think worked really well.

I need to get the next table for Company if Legends done so my painting plan is on hold whilst I do that, it’s a table of mixed city ruins and I am wanting to go a bit further with it and weather it a bit more.

I started with the oldest kit in the box, some old school Gothic Ruins, the scheme is dark and meant to represent some basic rockcrete. I added some posters taken from The Regimental Standard and some blood splatter, I tried to add some scorch marks but it’s doesn’t show up too well on the dark stone.

And I also did a couple little pieces of scatter terrain for my Conquest scenery box from the first Galvanic Servohauler sprue.

I do also paint three models, but these are for a secret project I am not ready to reveal just as yet!

I still have a painting plan, it’s just suspended until I get the terrain done.

  1. Death Korps of Krieg Quartermaster and Retinue with Death Riders Ridemaster
  2. Easy to Build Stormcast Eternals Sequitors
  3. Blood Ravens Captains x 5
  4. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Wrapons Men x 12
  5. Warcry Terrain
  6. Myrmourn Banshees x 12
  7. Blood Ravens Bikes x 3 and Attack Bike with Multi-Melta
  8. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  9. Canniness Veridyan
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Wrapons Men x 12

What I Am Reading

As I said my motivation is dead, but I did read Will of the Legion which I enjoyed, I am gonna hit up The First Wall next, then I have a couple of books from Aconyte to review for the blog.

What I am Playing

I played in the Sunday of the Durham Raiders Age of Sigmar retreat, I took my Khorne and lost both games, first was to Legions of Nagash and I lasted the game but lost on points.

Second game was against Ogor Mawtribes and I was tabled in two turns!

Part of this is down to my playing style, when playing Khorne I prefer to just charge at the enemy for brutal slaughter, because that’s how the fluff works!

This past Sunday, Megan’s parents came round with her sister for a birthday celebration for Megan, we played a couple of games of Just One, not doing very well in either game.

Unfortunately I had to go have a nap and missed the rest of the games.

And yesterday Paul came round so we played two games of Codenames, we both lost the first game as Lindsay had Megan uncover the assassin with her first guess, but me and Paul came back from behind to win the second game!

What I Am Backing

Nowt apart from Broken, which makes me giggle with every update!

What I Am Cooking

With Megan’s help, I managed to make Kansas City Pulled Pork with my BBQ sauce for dinner on Sunday, and it was delicious!

What I Am Spending

I save up money every year for the Newcastle Warhammer store birthday, apart from last year where is coincided with Company of Legends so I spent that money at the Sunderland reopening instead.

This year I went Conkers deep into Blackstone Fortress and bought the base game, three expansions and the annual.

I also bought the Aeronautica Imperialis starter set, a few Warcry card packs, some paint, Imperial Navy dice, Legion Pin Badges and the Stormcast Eternals Knight Questor for Lindsay.

A few other things were ordered and are being delivered hopefully this week!

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