A Quiet Week

By

On 17th January 2021

In Blog

Well this week has mostly been quiet, the only bit of real stuff that happened is that Lord Barrington had to go to the vets, he has an ulcer in his eyes, and I became an affiliate on Twitch.

We watched WandaVision on Friday and it was amazing, if a bit sinister. We were so happy it was good, we needed something to fill our Friday night TV slot given that there is no more Star Trek for the first time since October.

But it’s really been a quiet week overall, I have been doing some work on my streaming setup, and hopefully will be able to show off the final product on tomorrow nights stream.

So I am just sat here watching DS9 with the girls and Bonnie sitting between my legs.

What I Am Modelling

I started out by finishing up the Primaris Outriders for the Blood Ravens, these were an interesting until to paint. A lot more dynamic than the standard Space Marine bikes but a touch more difficult to build and paint.

I then moved on to the last remaining piece of the Blood Ravens I had out standing, the Assault Intercessors, I had the 10 from Indomitus and a single one from Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000.

I then got the columns for my Zone Mortalis painted, there were a lot of these to do but they have been sitting under my desk for nearly two months!

They are currently at the washing stage.

So what does my painting queue looking like heading into next week.

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Escher Gang x 10
  3. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Palladors x 6 & Knight-Azyros
  4. Sons of Horus Destroyers x 10
  5. T’au Y’vahra & Trchnical Drones x 2
  6. Morgoks Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  7. Nighthaunt Endless Spells x 3 & Liekoron the Executioner
  8. T’au Ghostkeel x 2
  9. Imperial Knight Gallant
  10. Plague Drones of Nurgle x 6

What I Am Reading

I read The Head of Mimir by Richard Lee Bryers, not made much progress this week but I am half way though.

What I Am Playing

Played a little bit of Star Wars Squadrons which is very entertaining on the Xbox Series S.

On Tuesday I returned to video game streaming by playing four hours of The Witcher III.

And whilst trying a few things out on my stream I played a couple of games of Star Wars Squadrons. Just technical tests to try out a few things.

And finally on Friday I played two hours of BioShock 2.

What I Am Backing

Not backing anything, but I did get and return the survey for Wyrd Science Magazine.

What I Am Cooking

On Saturday night, me and Megan made tea. We made Honey Buffalo Wings, me and Megan made the wings together and Megan made the sides.

She made baked potatoes, which were then stuffed with broccoli and a cheese sauce made only from cannelloni beans and cheese, and some honey and garlic glazed carrots.

And this morning, I made breakfast, an American classic of southern fried chicken and waffles. Although the waffles were store bought, I didn’t want to put pressure on Megan to make any fresh.

Affiliate Status Achieved

By

On 16th January 2021

In Blog

As the title says, I just gained affiliate status on Twitch!

It’s taken some work to get there, but I have found my niche, and it’s streaming painting, so for the time being, video games are moving to YouTube, but not being streamed live.

It’s taken a few painting streams but they have been hitting their stride and were able to bring my average up nicely, the video game streams were pulling it down.

So until March, I am no longer streaming video games on Twitch and will focus solely on hobby.

So this means the schedule is likely to change going forward, because I think squeezing in another painting session would be good, but I am gonna chat to Megan and Lindsay about that this weekend.

In the meantime my schedule going forward at least until the end of January is Monday and Thursday nights 2000 – 0000.

And I am probably gonna initiate a raid from 2330 or so.

The Odd Change Here Or There

So I ended up moving my streaming software from Streamlabs OBS to OBS Studio, simply because many of the features I was looking for only worked in OBS Studio.

For example I have now got a thing set up do that when I get a subscriber, my window goes crazy with rainbow colours and anime speed lines!

And because I managed to trigger someone Echo in the middle of a stream, I have built some webhooks in IFTTT to control a few things in the studio, so for example, I can now hit a button to boil the kettle ready for my break.

I am also thinking of doing something with a spare webcam I have, it’s been suggested I place it elsewhere in the studio to provide a sort of behind the scenes view of the stream, so I might try that tomorrow.

Anyway I need to get some sleep, but I have had my first subscription and I am happy as Larry with that!

2021, Come At Me

By

On 10th January 2021

In Blog

Going forward I have decided to move my blog post from roughly Monday to Sunday.

Hence the missed week, but let’s take a look at what on earth has been happening!

What A Year It’s Been, Oh It’s Only January 10th!!!

So what a start to the year, we actually saw an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States, which was frankly mental.

And Twitter and other social media platforms have banned Donald Trump, so let’s take a look at that.

I think the decision to ban him at this time was right, he went way too far. Until now I think there was a good public interest reason to allow him to tweet, he is the president of the United States after all.

And people have had a right to listen to what he says, because on a political level we have needed to know what he was saying/thinking, even if it was utterly ridiculous.

But Twitter and other platforms have had a good business reason to not ban him until now, whilst he has been in charge, he has had the power to change the law to make things more difficult for them. So yeah, on a purely business reason, they had to be careful to not get into issues with the government.

But let’s be clear, he went over the edge, his rhetoric resulted in the death of four of his followers, and the brutal murder of a policeman.

So now the time has come to silence him, he can still talk his nonsense, but no company has an obligation to let them use his platform to spout hate. Instead he can bugger off to Parler, and the echo chamber there.

But I do think that the social media networks should have acted earlier by starting to attach fact checks and warnings to his ramblings long ago.

The situation we found ourselves in this past week was largely down to his being allowed to spout his nonsense without being challenged adequately.

We can only hope that never again is a demagogue like him allowed to rise to power.

What I Am Modelling

I finished Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers, loved these models and really happy that they are painted at last.

I then painted the Blood Raven Intercessors Squad with Assault Bolt Rifles and got them finished on New Years Eve whilst watching Matilda.

I then decided to get the desk clear and start work on the Escher Gang, but I really wasn’t feeling them.

So instead I started work on the Skaven Blood Bowl Team, setting up a big production line for them.

I got these finished and I have to say, I am rather proud of them!

I then decided to actually clear the remaining Blood Ravens, and thus I picked up the Bladeguard Veterans, Bladeguard Ancient, Liutenenat and Captain, all from Indomitus, and get those painted.

And overnight on Friday I painted up the Chaplain and Judicator from Indomitus along with Chaplain Tarentus and Lexicanum Barus.

And on Saturday daytime I painted up the Eradicators from Indomitus.

So what in my painting queue then for this week.

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Escher Gang x 10
  3. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Paladors x 6 and Knight-Azyros
  4. Sons of Horus Destroyers x 10
  5. T’au Y’vahra & Technical Drones x 2
  6. Morgok’s Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  7. Nighthaunt Endless Spells
  8. T’au Ghostkeel x 2
  9. Imperial Knight Gallant
  10. Nurgle Plague Drones

What I Am Reafing

I finished The Rose in Anger by Danie Ware which was very very good, I hope Danie does a full novel for these girls!

I listened to Flight of the Kharadron by Tom Huddleston which was a lot of fun, can’t wait to hear what happens to the gang next.

I have now finally started on The Head of Mimir by Richard Lee Byers.

What I Am Playing

Has a brief game of Star Wars: Squadrons, but that was about it for video games.

On Sunday we did have a fun game of Tsuro: Phoenix Rising but which Lindsay won!

What I Am Backing

Nowt right now!

What I Am Cooking

On Saturday me and Megan made a meal of Cajun chicken wings, I cooked the wings and Megan made the sides of herby pasta and roasted garlic and parmesan broccoli and cauliflower.

Resolutions Final Update and New Ones For 2021

By

On 31st December 2020

In Blog

So how did we get on in the end, well let’s take a look.

In the end we got 1413 models painted this year, which was absolutely incredible!

The featured photo you can is the first set of models I painted this year, and the last set, the first was a squad of Death Korps of Krieg Guardsmen and the last is a squad of Blood Ravens Intercessors with Assault Bolt Rifles.

If you want to take a look at what I painted, you can download the list here.

Paint 2000 Points of T’au – Complete

I finished painting the KV128 Stormsurge, which completed a 2000 point T’au army for 2020!

Complete 2000 Points of Orks – 27.65% Complete

I completed a Megatrakk Scrapjet, Mekboy Workshop and Meganobz this month, which gets me a bit over a quarter of the target.

But this was clearly not to be!

Rebase the Orks – 0% Complete

Yeah the box with them in is at the bottom of a big pile in what is now Lindsay office 🙁

Completed Resolutions

So this year I did the following!

  • Paint 867 Models
  • Finish the Blood Ravens I Owned on 1st January
  • Finish the Death Guard
  • Painted Mortarion
  • Completed 2000 Points of T’au Empire
  • Completed 2000 Points of Stormcast Eternals
  • Rebased the Blood Ravens

Resolutions for 2020

Seeing as the Hobby resolutions for 2020 went so well and I only failed two, I thought I would continue it this year.

But I will be more restrained in my aims, because the Orks were more than I could hand in 2020.

I will be following along with Paint Slam, the new name for Jessica’s Painthammer, you can find the Discord server for this group here.

So let’s take a look at the plan, I decided to be a bit more select and do it per system.

  1. Paint 2000 points of Necrons for Warhammer 40,000
  2. Paint 1000 points of Early War Germans for Bolt Action
  3. Paint 2000 Points of Flesh Eater Courts for Warhammer Age of Sigmar
  4. Paint The Scourge for Dropfleet Commander
  5. Paint Blackstone Fortress and it’s Expansions
  6. Bring my Mechanicum to 3000 points for Horus Heresy, including the Warhound Titan

I am also including a couple of would be nice to achieve things in here, but these aren’t hard and fast.

  • Rebase the Space Wolves for Warhammer 40,000
  • Finish the Orks with Megan’s Help
  • Finish the Blood Angels with Megan’s Help

I think these are achievable, and if I work hard I will get them done.

As with this year there will be a monthly progress round up.

So what’s my painting queue looking like right now?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Escher Gang x 10
  3. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Palladors x 6 & Knight-Azyros
  4. Blood Ravens Bladeguard Veterans, Bladeguard Ancient, Lieutenant & Captain
  5. Sons of Horus Destroyers x 10
  6. T’au Y’vahra & Technical Drones
  7. Morgok’s Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  8. Blood Ravens Primaris Chaplain, Terminator Chaplain and Judicator
  9. Skaven Blood Bowl Team
  10. T’au Ghostkeel x 2

Starting Orruk Warclans with Mortal Realms

By

On 29th December 2020

In Blog

Many of you in the next few days will be getting your premium kit with the Orruk Warclans for Mortal Realms and as such, may be thinking, can I start an army of these.

So just like with the last two packs for Flesh Eater Courts and Sylvaneth I will take a look at how to expand this pack into 1000pts and 2000pts as cost effectively as possible.

So let’s start by looking at what you get in the pack.

  • Megaboss
  • Weirdnob Shaman
  • Brutes

Now plugging that into Battlescribe, that gives you a total points of 390, so the lowest number of points in these packs so far!

Now for this I am going to do my best to keep you to the Ironjawz, which does limit the available units quite a bit.

So where to start with these to get them to 1000 points, well I would look at the Battletome first which identifies that from what we have and I think we are going to aim for an Ironfist, for which we need 3-5 Brutes, Ardboys or Gore-Gruntas. So we need to make a purchase, and the first one I would make is, Start Collecting Ironjawz, which gives you 10 Ardboys, 3 Gore-Gruntas and a Warchanter.

This will bring you to 910 points, not including the Warchanter, so I would then purchase a single Command Point and leave it at that.

So one purchase, gets you right up to 1000 points, and gives you the below list, ignore the weapon choices and go with what you prefer.

+ Leader +

Orruk Megaboss

Orruk Weirdnob Shaman

+ Battalion +

Battalion: Ironfist
. Orruk Ardboys: 2x 5 Ardboys, Standard Bearer (Orruk), Waaagh! Drummer
. Orruk Brutes: 5 Brutes, Boss Choppa, Pair of Brute Choppas
. Orruk Gore-Gruntas: 3 Gore-Gruntas, Pig-iron Choppa

+ Command Points +

Purchased Command Points: 1 Command Point

Now to get you to 2000 points, I think this is a nice opportunity to purchase one of the nicest kits in the whole Age of Sigmar range, the Megaboss on Maw-Krusha!

Now I am gonna suggest another Warscroll Battalion, the Weirdfist, so we are gonna buy some other stuff too. Now lets add a unit of Brutes to the Ironfist, and move the Ardboys to the Weirdfist along with the Weirdnob Shaman.

To complete this, we need to buy a box of Ardboys and another box of Brutes and this brings you to 1970 points.

Giving us this list, again ignore the weapon choices and go with what you prefer.

+ Leader +

Megaboss on Maw-krusha: Boss Choppa and Rip-toof Fist

Orruk Megaboss

+ Battalion +

Battalion: Ironfist
. Orruk Brutes: 5 Brutes, Boss Choppa, Pair of Brute Choppas
. Orruk Brutes: 5 Brutes, Boss Klaw and Brute Smasha, Pair of Brute Choppas
. Orruk Gore-Gruntas: 3 Gore-Gruntas, Pig-iron Choppa

Battalion: Weirdfist
. Orruk Ardboys: 2x 5 Ardboys, Standard Bearer (Orruk), Waaagh! Drummer
. Orruk Ardboys: 2x 5 Ardboys, Standard Bearer (Orruk), Waaagh! Drummer
. Orruk Brutes: 5 Brutes, Boss Klaw and Brute Smasha, Pair of Brute Choppas
. Orruk Weirdnob Shaman

I am not gonna pretend I am a tactical genius here, this list is probably very sub-optimal, but it’s what I would do personally because I think this is a nice route to 2000 points. And if purchased from Element Games, this will cost you a grand total of £191.51.

You are also left with a Warchanter, and 5 Ardboys to do something else with should you wish.

In terms of painting, I would point you towards the tutorial on YouTube by Duncan Rhodes when he was at Warhammer TV for Ironskulls Boyz and the more recent video by Nick for Mogrok’s Krushas

So let me know what you think of my ideas, and if you are gonna give them a try out, let me know how it goes!

Just a quick note, if you do follow the links to Element Games and buy something from them, a little bit of a commission is made for Edge of Empire which helps keep the podcast running.

Christmas with Covid

By

On 29th December 2020

In Blog

Christmas this year had been planned very differently, but Boris changed out plans by saying we could only mix for one day.

Originally we had planned to go to Paul and Mary’s after we had a Christmas dinner together, but because of the changes, we did it very differently.

Me and Lindsay went to Paul and Mary’s for Christmas dinner, and Megan went to her parents.

After dinner we played a couple of games if Fluxx and then came to ours for a picky tea and so Paul and Mary could meet Lord Barrington.

We eventually had our Christmas dinner on the Sunday, but we have decided that next year we scrap the whole thing and start again, and come up with a meal that is different from what me and Lindsay have done the past few years.

I was very happy with my gifts, I got a few nice hobby things and a box insert for Codenames and Codenames Pictures.

It was a weird Christmas, not what I hoped for but, next year should be better.

What I Am Modelling

Not a huge amount, I started out by getting the main colours for the Death Korps of Krieg Death Riders done, but that took a silly long time to do.

But once that was done they were finished fairly quickly.

I was also working on Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers on the side too, and Hrothgorn himself is mostly done.

So what’s on my painting queue going forward into the last week of 2020.

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Hogthorns Mantrappers
  3. Blood Ravens Intercessors with Assault Bolt Rifles x 10
  4. Escher Gang x 10
  5. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Palladors x 6 & Knight Azyros
  6. Blood Ravens Bladeguard Vetrens x 3, Bladeguard Ancient, Captain and Lieutenant
  7. Sons of Horus Destroyers x 10
  8. T’au Empire Y’vahra & Technical Drones x 2
  9. Morgoks Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven
  10. Blood Ravens Terminator Chaplain, Indomitus Chaplain, Judicator & Terminator Librarian

What I Am Reading

I finished up The Harrowing of Doom, and you can read my review here.

I then decided to read the three Heresy short stories published during the Black Library Advent, starting with The Serpent’s Dance by Mike Brooks, which was a rather good book, a kind of proto-Inquisitor story.

I then moved onto Embers of Extinction by Brandon Easton, which was ok but not amazing.

This was followed by The Lighting Hall by Graham McNeil which was amazing, I love House Taranis and this was a great look at how they got from where they were in Mechanicum, to where they ended up.

And to finish off that nights reading, I read The Dead Hours by David Guymer, which was good, and I kinda get the sense it’s a setup for another story.

I have now started on The Rose in Anger by Danie Ware.

What I Am Playing

I got around to uploading the video of my last play of BioShock 2z

As mentioned on Christmas Day, I had two games of Fluxx, one of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the other of Fairy Tale.

I also got in a few games of Among Us on Boxing Day.

What I Am Backing

Nowt right now!

What I Am Cooking

As mentioned earlier, me and Megan made what would have been our Christmas dinner, but a fair few things went wrong sadly.

The Harrowing of Doom

By

On 27th December 2020

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Untold novel The Harrowing of Doom by David Annadale, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am also friends with David on Facebook, but I suspect that’s more about him connecting with fans rather than being a big fan of mine!

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

The Story

This story focuses on Doctor Victor von Doom, the ruler of the Eastern European country of Latveria, and his quest to free his mothers soul from Hell.

He teams up with a hermit witch Maria von Helm, as they work to change the rules around Dooms yearly duel with a champion of Hell, so that he might fuse science and sorcery to free the soul of his beloved mother.

But as with all things, there are forces allied against him, in particular an old enemy from before his revolution.

So the story whilst being about Doom, isn’t Dooms story, whilst a lot of it is told from his point of view, you also get the points of view of an enemy who hates him more than any other, his head of security, a priest reluctantly drawn into his web, his archivist and a nurosurgeon.

It would be so easy for David to have just done a story about a cackling mad scientist super villain, but this isn’t that story, instead its a bit more nuanced, its more insightful, giving us a glimpse into Dooms determination to not only free his mothers soul, but to protect his people.

And that’s one aspect of Doom, which is very much out there, he cares for the people of Latveria, yes they are his tools, yes they live in fear of him, but he genuinely cares and wants to protect them, with his rulership even coming over as considerably more liberal than that of his predecessor with trans citizens being afforded equal rights.

Whilst these books do inhabit their own universe in the Marvel multiverse, I think this book, a bit like the previous Domino novel, offers a look at a character is a way the comics, simply don’t manage very easiy.

David has managed to connect me to Doom in a way, i didn’t think possible.

Now if you listen to Edge of Empire, you will know I am not the biggest fan of Davids writing style, but in this novel, he manages to take a huge leap forwards, perhaps its having an editor who knows how the get the best out of him, but its a much easier read than most of his Black Library work. His sentence structures has tended to be so short and sharp, but in this book they flow so much easier than they did in say Ruinstorm.

I know David is an established writer, but over the past three or so years, it feels like his writing has become so much better, I used to be a bit irritated if he got to write a story in a series I was enjoying, but now I look forward to them.

Conclusion

This book works really well, and you know what, one of its strongest points is that it doesn’t even bring in much of the larger Marvel universe, it focuses solely on Doom, with a few mentions of other stuff, I think Richard Reed is mentioned once, AIM gets a couple of mentions.

But this book stands on its own and really gets you into the character and actually gets you rooting for him, especially given that one of the Marvel Universes biggest villains stands for trans rights!

This felt like it could easily be adapted into a movie in the MCU, its a very strong story and very well written.

You can buy the eBook now, and the paperback is available in the US now and will be in the UK on 7th January.

Oh Lord Barrington

By

On 24th December 2020

In Blog

We have adopted a new cat, he is a black and white tom called Lord Barrington.

He has really been through the wars bless him, about 10 months ago he was taken in by the rescue and he was a real mess. He had been in an accident with a car in which he lost his tail.

And he recently had an eye operation to fix a problem with his eyelid, which delayed his adoption by a few weeks.

He is a very shy, very quiet boy and has spent a lot of time since her arrived home, hiding away and trying not to be a bother.

We know it will be slow going with him, but tonight he actually let us all strike him, and he gave us some purrs.

And until tonight he has refused to eat whilst we were around, but today he has accepted some treats and even came out for tea and ate with us in the room.

He has come so far so quickly and he is a wonderful little lad, I can’t wait to see how he comes along.

What I Am Modelling

Very slow going this week.

I started on a set of Meganobz for the Orks, I dunno they just took me ages to get painted.

And because after that I needed an easy win, I too on the Cairn Wraith for the Nighthaunt.

I then started on a Stormhawk Interceptor for the Blood Ravens.m, this one got finished incredibly quickly on Monday.

The Wurmspat were amazing to paint and I really enjoyed these models, and can’t wait to play with these.

I have now started work on the Death Korps of Krieg Death Riders for Niki and Hogthorns Mantrappers.

So what does that leave my painting queue looking like

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Death Riders x 10
  3. Hogthorns Mantrappers
  4. Blood Ravens Intercessors with Assault Bolt Rifles x 10
  5. Escher Gang x 10
  6. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Palladors x 6 & Knight-Azyros
  7. Blood Ravens Bladeguard Veterans x 3, Bladeguard Ancient, Indomitus Captain & Indomitus Lieutenant
  8. Sons of Horus Destroyers x 10
  9. T’au Y’vahra & Technucal Drones x 2
  10. Morgoks Krushas & Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven

What I Am Reading

Still slowly reading The Harrowing of Doom.

What I Am Playing

Played the Witcher 3 last week for two sessions.

I did get a session of BioShock 2 in, but have yet to upload the video to YouTube.

What I Am Backing

Nowt this week, but I have my eye on Steve Jackson’s Pyramid Scheme.

What I Am Cooking

Sadly nowt, my hands have just not been good for it 🙁

Musical Advent 2020 – December 24th – The Captain’s Wife’s Lament – Paul and Storm

By

On 24th December 2020

In Blog, Nerdy Music Advent

Paul and Storm are huge favourites amongst the nerd community and this is a very very funny song, and perhaps a little NSFW.

I wasn’t sure how to end this particular advent series, I wanted to end with something funny and Megan’s reaction to this showed me that I had it right!

Musical Advent 2020 – December 23rd – An Awful Lot of Running – Chameleon Circuit

By

On 23rd December 2020

In Blog, Nerdy Music Advent

This is a choice by Megan, and its a bit of Timelord Rock by a band made up of Dr Who Youtubers, Chameleon Circuit.

Its kinda about the one thing that all of the Doctors companions need to do a lot of, running, and they really do an awful lot of running.

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