Update for the Last Few Weeks

It’s been a whiles since I last posted, in that time I have been to Warhammer World, been to a wedding and done very little else really, oh but we did put up the Christmas tree, a bit early, personally I prefer to wait until after my mums birthday partway through the month.

So here is a general update on what I am up to.

What I am Modelling

Gotten through a bit of the to do pile the past few weeks so let’s look at them project by project.

– Ultramarines 

Got painted up three squads, a squad of Cataphractii Terminators with Lightning Claws, a squad of 10 Legion Breachers including a Vexilia, Nuncio Vox and two Graviton Guns, and finally a Legion Heavy Support Squad all armed with Ryza Pattern Lascannons. I am a really big fan of these Lascannons, the MKIII arms needed a little shaving before they fit, but they look really good and look like a nice step from the shoulder mounted Lascannons of the Great Crusade to the 40k Lascannon.

– Word Bearers

I painted up the rest of the Legion Veteran Tactical Squad for the Word Bearers and their Rhino. The two special weapons guys from the squad were armed with Proteus-II Missile Launchers. Now originally when Forgeworld first revealed these I thought they looked a tad daft, I just didn’t think they looked right and swore I would never use them.

That was up until I decided to do a MKIII Veteran Tactical Squad with Missile Launchers, and well the MKIII pack doesn’t come with its own Missile Launchers like the MKIV kit. In my mind I headcannon this as the ordinary MKIII armour isn’t suitable to carry shoulder mounted heavy weapons. Now I could have gotten a pack of MKIII Heavy Support Marines and a pack of Missile Launchers, but that would have been rather expensive, and a bit wasteful. So I went to eBay and bought two of the Proteus-IIs and when I actually have them in my hands, they aren’t too bad. They remind me of the Space Crusade Missile Launchers, and when given to a Veteran Squad, it seems like yeah, this could be the variant of the Missile Launcher that a Suspensor Web is easily fitted to.

The Rhino had been long in the making, when Dark Vengeance came out, I was all for doing Word Bearer Chaos Space Marines, and I bought three sets of Word Bearer Rhino upgrade kits from Forgeworld , anyway, bar two squads and a Dark Apostle, my Word Bearers then never amounted to much because life got in the way. But I am glad I ordered the doors as Forgeworld no longer make them, and I think for my Calth themed Word Bearers they look so much more appropriate than the Legion upgrades do.

– Dropfleet Commander

Now I have my Commodore Pledge for Dropfleet Commander I have been slowly building up some of the starter fleets for it. I have built and painted three out of the four starter fleets, those for the UCM, PHR and Scourge. I am actually going to be playing my first game of this at club this week, where Ken, our regional Hawk Talon will be showing me and Madison the ropes.

I am currently thinking that UCM and PHR will become my main fleets, I just found them so much nicer to paint, but even then, my paint jobs were really basic and terrible.

What I am Reading

For some reason I couldn’t actually get myself to pick up my Kobo for a few weeks, but a few nights ago I did so and finally at long last finished the Ahirman series, and I have to say I found it a little anticlimactic. Which is a shame as I enjoyed the rest of the series, but that said the ending was actually rather hopeful and uplifting in a universe of Grim Darkness.

It just feels like there is more story to tell, in a way because this was more of an ensemble book and you spent a lot mor time amongst the supporting cast than you did with Ahriman himself, and that’s no bad thing, I enjoy Ignis and Cetsias, they are very interesting characters, especially Ignis who is very unusual for a Thousand Son, and to me seems to be more like a member of the Iron Xth than the XVth. I do hope we get to hear more about Asteroes though, I hope his story is not at an end.

I have however had better progress with audio books and have smashed through Scars, Know No Fear, and Mark of Calth plus various shorts set around these books, this evening I just started on Garro – Oath of Moment, which features the awesome Garro and Rubio and I am enjoying that so far.

What I am Playing

Not much as seems to be the usual these days, every time I arrange a game at Club it falls through, which is kinda getting me down, but I am looking forward to playing Dropfleet this week.

I have started a game of Dark Heresy 2nd Edition of Heaton Games Society, I have had l the books for some time and have been meaning to start up a game for a long while.

We have just done character creation, and will be meeting every two weeks, my character is a Seeker from a Garden World who previously served in a Rouge Trader Fleet. I don’t know what the GM has in store for us, but we have been told that initially we are being sent in by the Inquisitor to investigate irregularities with the worlds Imperial Tithe and taxation records.

What I am Backing

Nothing, I was backing Ogre Minitures and Ominoes, but alas money is tight and I have had to abandon this pledges.

The Teenage Mutant Nina Turtle board game is apparently going to be shipping to me in the next couple of weeks, I backed that back in February, it was meant to be delivered in the summer, but there was a perfectly reasonable delay, the only negative is that the Yanks have had the game for over a month at this point, and I am a bit annoyed they couldn’t have gotten the boat for the States and the EU on the water at the same time.

What I am Spending

Mostly just buying Christmas presents, but I did but Blood Bowl, Death Zone Season One, the Skavenblight Scramblers and the Skaven Dice. I also ordered a UCM Battleship to add to my fleet.

Although I had to think long and hard about that purchase. After sharing a photo of my unopened projects (there are a few), I got a bit of a backlash from friends, many of whom were annoyed that I appear to spend more on the hobby than them.

I, as many of you will know, don’t work, due to disabilities I am paid the benefits ESA and PIP to support me while I am physically unable to work, and it was said that I shouldn’t be able to afford these things whilst on those benefits.

Well I don’t really drink, I don’t gamble, I don’t smoke or do drugs, I live in a three adult household with rent that is quite cheap, even for the north east, and I have no debt payments bar the mortgage on the flat me and Lindsay own in Newcastle. I have no children to support, just four cats and a rabbit, and on occasion I get paid to demonstrate board games and stores and conventions. My wife also earns a decent wage for the region and takes on the lions share of bills for us. I have a disabled persons bus pass so I don’t pay bus fare to get anywhere.

So yes I do have a reasonable amount of disposable income each month, and I spend that mostly on things for my hobby or books, and I am told I should feel guilty for that. 

I don’t feel guilty, why should I, just because I am disabled doesn’t mean I should live a life like a monk. I don’t get a huge amount of money a year, just £9,807.20. Okay so I also get a car which if I took the cash instead would be another £2,987.40 a year, so as you can see I don’t get the full time equivalent of someone working full time on the National Living Wage would get, and that’s quite right, why should I get what someone who works gets.

But I am good with my money, I manage to make the £65 a month I spend on my hobby stretch quite far, sometime I add some money from my weekly budget and not go out that week, but generally that’s all I spend. 

I get that’s more than some others, but then again it’s less than others, but just because some of my friends who work feel like I get to spend more on the hobby than they, should not affect me. It’s gets to me emotionally when I am told that I should not be so shameless about claiming disability benefits and buying what are luxuries, it’s like I am being told that I don’t deserve the money I am given. 

I have been told before that the disabled should only be given food vouchers and bare minimum to pay utilities before, because we are scroungers, and that hurts. I worked all my life, ever since I was 13 and got my first paper round, and bar 7 weeks of unemployment I worked continually right up until I got ill, I paid my taxes and national insurance. So why should I not be able to claim now when I need it? And why should I be punished and penalised because I can’t work?

I got kind of lost with this rant, but this is the kind of thing those of us who are disabled have to put up with all the time, we are judged and abused constantly because of general assumption by some people, encouraged by the shit-stirring ultra right wing gutter press, that disabled people like me sit around all day drinking, watching Jeremy Kyle and raking in the money for it.

For the record, Jeremy Kyle is rubbish.