As many of you know, I am not in the best of health and haven’t been for a few years. I have been suffering with some brain damage I sustained in a car accident with chronic pain and fatigue.

The fatigue is something that has been bothering me a lot, I am always tied and can fall asleep very easily, and I really want that to improve. So to help me the doctors are sending me for a sleep study to see if there is some sleep apnea going on, which is great bar one thing. The sleep clinic doctors want me off some of my painkillers for six weeks as they can interfere with the study.

And so for the past week I have no longer been given codeine and Tramadol, which has been a real nightmare. My body is in agony and I am struggling to move, I never appreciated how much the much the pills were doing for me.

On the one hand it’s solved part of the sleeping issue, the pain is now keeping me awake, but by the time exhaustion wins out over the pain, it’s very very late and I end up sleeping through much of the day.

Just having a general moan really, I have to do this for another 5 weeks, and I am not sure how I am going to be able to manage it.

What I am Modelling

At the beginning of the week I completed the Khorgorath from the Age of Sigmar starter set.

The skin was interesting to do and it’s a very challenging model to paint, now to let him loose on the mortal realms.

After that I set myself to work on the last six human players from the Blood Bowl starter set, the Reikland Reivers, although I found these fairly hard going this time.

I also do the Mighty Zug whilst I was doing those, although I might redo his trousers, I did them in off white to match the rest of the team but I am concerned that it makes him appear rather dull.

The Grav-Chutes and second set of Reivers arrived, so I did a little bit of work swapping some arms around on the two additional Reivers I built and now have a full squad of 5 Reivers equipped with Grav-Chutes.

In between the Bloodbowl players having washes drying I also quickly did the promo ships I got for my Dropfleet Commander UCM at the UK Games Expo, the two Athens Class Light Cruisers which are equipped with two UF-6400 Mass Driver turrets which allows them as a group to put out 8 shots locking on a 4+ with a 10” thrust, which is a nice little package for something only costing 86 points a ship.

Now I have started work on a squad of Intercessors for my Blood Ravens to give me a break from Fantasy based models. Last night I got down the base colours for the red and bone and gave them a wash and then tidied up the red armour, next up I am going to edge highlight the armour.

What I am Reading

I have been listening to Deathfire by Nick Kyme this week, a story which so obviously is inspired by Homers Odyssey, it might as well have a flashing neon sign proclaiming as much.

I do struggle with Salamanders stories, the names don’t do well with my brain damage, they are just really unfamiliar, but I am finding that with the audiobook I am following it much better.

I am going to listen to Sons of the Forge next, and that was a book I really struggled with, hopefully it will be better as well by listening to it.

What I am Playing

Haven’t played a game of anything this week, but I am playing Arran tonight at club with my Word Bearers and taking on his Salamanders

What I am Backing

No new projects this week but Steve Jackson Games have launched a Kickstarter for an Ogrezine this week so that is something I have decided to back, I am always wanting more content for Ogre.

Founders of Gloomhaven has a few days left on it, I really suggest you take a look at this one as it promises to be great!

What I am Cooking

This is a new section, so let me explain, since I got the brain damage, cooking has been very difficult for me.

I used to love cooking and I did it a lot, but these days I simply can’t cope with it, I am too forgetful and can barely manage to make a meal in the microwave.

So with the support of Lindsay and Megan, I am now going to try cooking one night a week, and this week I made Cowboy Beans in the slow cooker.

It’s a recipe which is basically like a BBQ chilli, and that’s how I approached it, I cooked beef, onion, chorizo, bacon, tomatoes, Pepper in the slow cooker with some beans and sausages (traditionally the dish uses Pork n Beans, but you can’t really get that in Sainsbury’s) butter beans and chilli kidney beans, along with some chilli, paprika, cheyenne pepper, Worcester sauce, brown sugar, BBQ sauce and a healthy dollop of American bourbon.

I let this cook for 6 hours and then served it up on cheese on toast. Was really quite nice, and I was rather proud big doing that, there was even enough left over for mine and Megan’s lunch the next day. We had Emily and her daughter Tilly over that day, and although Tilly declared she hated it before she tried it (well she is three), Emily, Megan and Lindsay all decided I can make it again.

What I am Spending

I overspent a bit this week, I decided to take a plunge and get some more bits for my Blood Ravens Primaris Marines, specifically a Redemptor Dreadnought and a Repulsor Tank. This means that for the 2000pt list I have written up of all Primaris Marines I now only need an Inceptor Squad, which I plan to pick up when they go up for preorder.

The Datacards for the Chaos Space Marines and Grey Knight have been preordered, I have a habit of collecting the Datacards, just in case I decide to start up those armies, in the case of these two, I am currently playing Chaos Space Marines and I do have a couple of Grey Knight models.

I also bought Sons of Anarchy the board game, it was s bargain from Buysend at £14.62 on Amazon. No idea why this hasn’t sold better, it’s a cracker of a game. So I will also be picking up the expansions at some point too.

I was tempted by and gave into some Santiago Class Corvettes for my UCM Fleet for Dropfleet Commander, I only wish that these came in sets of 3 rather than sets of 6, I just can’t see myself ever needing more than 3 in a game.

I want to get a few more ships for my UCM, specifically I want to build a squad of 4 Taipei’s which would require a Frigate box, and a coupe of Madrid’s which I could build out a Cruiser box. I also fancy building a St Petersburg, which would mean I need another Cruiser sprue, and then I also want a Beijing Battleship to finish off my UCM before I move onto the Scourge.

Of the things I have cooked in the past, Lindsay and Megan really like my pulled pork made with a BBQ sauce recipe I learnt at LonCon3, and I have been researching ways to improve the pork itself, so next week I am going to try cooking it in a different way, and for this I bought some Liquid Smoke. Something that’s a bit peculiar, I ended up getting it from Amazon, but then learnt I could have gotten it slightly cheaper from Waitrose, although our local Waitrose is quite small so not sure they would have stocked it.

And finally I spent £3.75 on a small Lego set of the Joker doing some battle training from the Batman Lego movie.

  • Mood: Tired
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 2
  • In My Ears: I Don’t Care – Fall Out Boy
  • Game Last Played: Warhammer 40,000
  • Book Last Read: The Crimson King by Graham McNeil
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Big Bang Theory
  • Current State of Projects: Intercessors Started