Category: Blog Page 9 of 49

2023 Charity Painting Marathon

As with most years recently, other than 2023, I am going to paint this weekend for 24 hours,this time to try and paint a Drukhari Combat Patrol in 24 hours!

I am aiming to raise £100 for the Willow Foundation, a charity that’s very very close to my heart.

I am going to be painting this weekend from 10pm on Friday night to 10pm Saturday night, so it would be great if you could drop by and hang out, and if you believe in the cause, drop a few quid in.

The Willow Foundation is an amazing charity that does special days for very ill young people, and made my friend Lees last days very happy, and his family and friends continue to raise money for the charity with LeeStock, an amazing festival in Suffolk.

But let me let the Willow Foundation tell their story in their own words.

At Willow we believe in quality of life and quality of time. Willow is the only national charity working with seriously ill young adults aged 16 to 40 to fulfil uplifting and unforgettable Special Days. This year we hope to fulfil 1,400 Special Days – a day to anticipate, to share and to remember when happy memories really do count. Sadly for some, it’s a last chance to fulfil a dream with the people that really matter. Thankfully for many more their Special Day is an important opportunity to put much-needed normality back into living.

To give to my fundraiser, visit this link, and you will be able to follow along on Twitch.

What I Am Modelling

I started off by painting the Catacomb Command Barge for the Necrons

Alongside an Overlord

And an Annihilation Barge too

I the. Completed a Big’Ed Bossbunka for the Orks.

I then finished up the Kill Zone Octarius to complete most of my Ork Scrap Town terrain box!

And finally I painted up the Primal Liar from Stormbringer, for my new Age of Sigmar terrain that I will be keeping at home.


So what’s coming up next?

  1. Swampcalla Shaman x 3 & Pot Grot x 2
  2. The Rashaar
  3. Gutrippas x 10
  4. Beast Skewer Killbow x 2
  5. Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10
  6. Soriatias Palatine
  7. Pink Horrors x 2, Blue Horrors x 4, Brimstone Horrors x 4
  8. Defkilla Wartrike
  9. Ultramarines Bladeguard Veterans, Bladeguard Ancient and Ancient
  10. Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun

What I Am Reading

I am still reading Sisters of Sorcery by Marsheila Rockwell, but plan to get that finished in the next day or so.

I finished listening to The Helwinter Gate by Chris Wraight, got to admit the trilogy started off rough, but was absolutely phenomenal by the end, I hope to hear more from the pack in the future!

I am planning on starting listening to Leviathan by Darius Hinks next and reading Compromised by Thomas Parrott.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I played a game of Horus Heresy on Friday, and weirdly I won!

It was against Russell’s Alpha Legion, and to be honest, I think taking Fafnir Rann and Sigismund in the same list may be a bit overkill!

And on Saturday I played a game of Blood Bowl for the league with my Skaven vs Shambling Undead, and the result

I took a lot of injuries in the game, like 4 players got taken out of the match in the end!

At one point I had only one players on the field!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Mostly The Witcher 3, I finished Hearts of Stone in it and am now working on Blood and Wine.

What I Am Creating

The latest episode of Edge of Empire has landed, both in audio and on YouTube!

What I Am Winning

Won a prize on Twitter, a new Western Digital 1TB M.2 NVME SSD, along with a Genshin Impact mousemat and a muscular bunny who looks a bit like my bunny Angron, Eater of Cables!

What I Am Backing

Still backing the GameFound project for the Firefly: The Game 10th Anniversary Edition, with the Veteran Pilots pledge level.

I am also backing the Jon Hodgson Backgrounds Book campaign, but undecided if I want to go with the Sci-Fi book or the original book, very torn on that one!

What I Am Spending

Bought a few more video games, i continued rounding out the Resident Evil series with Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil Revelations.

I completed the Wolfenstein series with Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein Cyberpilot.

Avengers was a bargain on Steam and I really want to play the single player campaign, so I picked that up, alongside 80s Overdrive, Garbage, F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin and F.E.A.R 3 and Necromunda: Underhive Wars.

I did buy some extra Termagants to bulk out some existing units to bring them up to 20 gribbly units!

And of course I picked up Leviathan from Gamers-at-Hart on Saturday!


UK Games Expo 2023

Ok this has been a long update, my health and metal capabilities have been in the damn toilet, but better later thane never!

It was a really fun weekend and I spent it demoing games on the Star Wars games, moving between being a stand greeter, Shatterpoint, Legion, X-Wing and the Deck Building game, all of which are a hell of a lot of fun.

Myself, Lindsay and Sean came down by car on the Thursday night, and got to Birmingham, around 9:30ish and we got a Dominos and hung out.

The hotel is fine, its not the best hotel, but it was okay, the biggest gripe was breakfast which had zero diabetes friendly option, but I was able to remedy that by buying some Wheetbix of my own.

It was a really fun if exhausting weekend, and once I get paid at the end of July, I am hoping to buy a Steam Deck, depending if its even in stock, cause that’s been a huge issue in the past few months 4.

I actually came away with the belief that this was the best UK Games Expo I have been to since before the plague, yes a few minor niggles, but actually really positive, probably helped by having an awesome stand manager and an absolutely brilliant team to work with.

Cannot wait for next year!

What I Am Modelling

I started off by finishing my scenery for the Imperium table, first up was the Haemotrope Reactor.

I then painted up three Ruined Factorum buildings

I then painted Tech-Priest Grombrindal who has been sitting in the pile of potential for a while now!

And then a squad of Ultramarines Outriders!

After that came Hedkrakka’s Madmob for Underworlds.

And finally I painted the Parasite of Mortrex for the Tyranids!

After that it was some Deathrunners for Silver Tower

And cause I thought I needed it for a game, I then completed a Rat Ogre for Blood Bowl!

After that I finally painted the Kairic Acolytes for Silver Tower

Followed by the ones for Shadows Over Hammerhal


So whats coming up next?

  1. Catacomb Command Barge & Overlord
  2. Swampcalla Shaman x 3 & Pot-Grot x 2
  3. The Rashaar
  4. Gutrippas x 10
  5. Beast-Skewer Killbow x 2
  6. Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10
  7. Soriaitas Palatine
  8. Pink Horrors x 2, Blue Horrors x 4 & Brimstone Horrors x 4
  9. Deffkilla Wartrike
  10. Ultramarines Bladguard Veterans x 3 & Ancients x 2

What I Am Reading

You can read my review of David Annadales In the Coils of the Labyrinth here!

I finished up Necropolis from The Founding Omnibus by Dan Abnett, and it was extremely good!

And I have now started on Sisters of Sorcery by Marsheila Rockwell and so far its quite canny!

I finished listening to The Lion: Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks, and thats an issue, cause now I want to start an army of Risen!

I also listened to Blightslayer by Richard Strachan, which is rather good, I had feared the loss of Maleneth but Amara isn’t a bad character, but I am still sad at losing the Witch Aelf.

I also listened to The Time of the Daleks by Justin Richards, which was ok, but not the best 8th audio so far.

And I just finished listening to Stormcaller by Chris Wraight which was great but at times a bit hard to follow

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Not much, but I did manage to get started with the local Blood Bowl league, and I lost my first match!

I lost 5-0 but it was a very very good match, and a lot of fun!

My team roster is as follows:-

Blitzer x 2
Gutter Runner  x 2
Rat Ogre
Skaven Clanrat Linemanx 5
Thrower
Re-Roll x 3

What Video Games I Am Playing

Bit more time on The Witcher 3 as I start on the DLC.

I also started playing Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun on stream, and that’s a lot of fun!

Also played a bit of Control on Stream too.

What I Am Creating

The second battle report of 2023 is out, and its Dropfleet Commander!!!

The new 40K podcast from the Edge of Empire team is here, its currently lacking a title, but here is our first episode!

What I Am Winning

Its been a minute, but I won these Govee gaming lights back in March, and they arrived this week, and will be getting installed on Megan’s desk in the next few days!

What I Am Spending

I bought Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun, cause hell yeah!!!

And as it’s Skulls, I got, Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron, Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition and Space Hulk Tactics alongside some DLC.

I got Winds of Magic, Shadows Over Bögenhafen, Back to Ubersreik, Grail Knight Career, Outcast Engineer Career, Warrior Priest Career, Sister of the Thorn Career and Forgotten Relics for Vermintide 2.

I also got Sons of Cadia, Legacy of the Weirdboy and Horrors of the Warp for Sanctus Reach, and the Chaos Campaign for Battlefleet Gothic 2.

And I decided to treat myself to a few bargains from my wishlist!

So I bought Euro Trick Simulator 2: Road to the Black Sea, Lost Planet 2, Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition, Metro 2033 Redux, Metro: Last Light Redux, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Wolfenstien 3D, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood and Resident Evil Revelations 2.

Grey Goo and Kingdom Rush came in a mini mystery bundle.

And Junes Humble Choice came out and I got the following:-

I got a mini haul at UK Games Expo, the only games were Elector Counts and Catan: Soccer Fever.

And I got myself a set of bases for Carinvale and some Monitors for the UCM.

I was silly enough to buy the Warhammer stamps from Royal Mail!

I finally got my hands on Kâhl Yôht Grendok, he took a bit to get made, but he is here now and I quite like him, cannot wait to get him built and painted!

And some Word Bearers objective tokens arrived, the person who makes them is slow, but they are worth it!

Flying the ‘Verse

The other weekend we had our friend Iain, a fellow games demonstrator, down from Scotland to play Firefly: The Game, which is one of our favourite board games!

So we took the whole day had snacks planned out and we laid out our Whole Damn ‘Verse Mat, and set up all the contact and supply decks and just played a very basic game, in which the aim was to raise $12,000!

We love this game so much, we actually have pretty much everything made for it that’s not a cosmetic upgrade, so we were playing with the Card Pack, Pirates & Bounty Hunters, Breakin’ Atmo, Blue Sun and Kalidasa. The only expansion we didn’t use was Crime & Punishment cause we wanted an easy bit of misbehavin’.

For ships, Iain took the Artful Dodger, Lindsay captained Jetwash, Megan sailed on the Emeralda and I was lugging around the S.S. Walden from Pirates & Bounty Hunters.

So there were some interesting differences in our tactics, I went for slow and steady with lots of space for cargo and passengers, Iain went for speed and more crew space, Lindsay wanted a fast ship with some tricks and Megan opted for a ship that could carry people who didn’t want any Alliance entanglements.

We had a great time and played for a good number of hours, but in the end, of course Megan won, me and Iain were quite close with just $200 between us, and Lindsay ended up with no meney!

One more turn and I would have won 🙁

It was a great day and I really want to get the game out again for some solo play sometime.

What I Am Modelling

I started out by painting my Dwarf Fleet for Kings of War Armada.

Followed by The Guild for Carnivale

And then I moved onto the Ultramarines Repulsor.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsFJQC4NtWV/?igshid=MTIyMzRjYmRlZg==

Then it was a pair of Invader ATVs for my Blood Ravens.

And then the Annihilation Barge for the Necrons.

Along with the Overlord!

After that I painted up Xandire’s Truthseekers from Stormbringer.

Alongside a Stormstrike Chariot.

I am now working on the remaining scenery for the Imperium table


So what’s up next

  1. Kairic Acolytes x 18
  2. Hedkrakka’s Mob
  3. Skaven Deathrunners x 2
  4. Catacomb Command Barge
  5. Swampcalla Shaman x 3 & Pot Grot x 2
  6. Ultramarines Outriders x 3
  7. The Rashaar
  8. Gutrippas x 10
  9. Kabalite Warriors x 10 & Archon
  10. Beast-Skewer Killbow

What I Am Reading

I finished up In the Coils of the Labyrinth by David Annadale and expect a review shortly.

I am now fully dedicating myself to Necropolis by Dan Abnett.

I am listened to Blood of Asaheim by Chris Wraight, which was ok, but you can tell it was some of Chris’s early work.

I have now started on The Lion: Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks as an audiobook.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

When we had Iain over, as well as playing Firefly: The Game, we also played Firefly: Misbehavin’

We also played Firefly Fluxx, a few games of Just One and a game of Say Anything too!

And guess what, I didn’t win a single game all weekend!

I got to play a game of Warhammer 40K last night against some Eldar, and or course I lost!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Managed to finish the main game for Control: Ultimate Edition, which you can see on YouTube now!

I will be playing the rest of the side missions and the DLC in ad hoc streams over the next few weeks.

What I Am Creating

The latest Edge of Empire episode was published, and you can listen to it as an audio as usual, but now as a YouTube video as well!

And I made a vertical video thing on TikTok!

@biggeordiegeek Simple Light Leather Painting! #Warmongers #WarhammerCommunity #WarHamFam #PaintSlam23 #Painting #PaintingWarhammer #PaintingGamesWorkshop #PaintingLeather #MiniturePainting ♬ original sound – biggeordiegeek

The Assassin’s Creed II videos have now moved to BigGeordieGeek Plays now, so have been removed from my main YouTube channel.

And whilst I was at it, I uploaded the original game as well, so there is no more Assassin’s Creed left on the main YouTube channel!

What I Am Backing

My TTCombat Paints & Washes pledge arrived, which was a pair of paints to try out and a new painting mat.

What I Am Buying

I bought the Capcom Hero Collection at the £8 level and got myself:-

I also bought the Retro Rampage Bundle from Fanatical, which got me:-

I also grabbed the Bioware Mega Collection from the EA Steam sale, which got me:-

And I grabbed myself some objective tokens for my Drukhari!


Warhammer Fest & Pegboard

So Warhammer Fest, where do I start?

Well let’s be honest, there were a lot of issues, huge numbers of them, and let me be frank about the biggest issue, the shop.

The shop is something that GW should be able to and can do well, at the UK Games Expo last year they had a far bigger presence and more stock, what they had in Manchester was small and focused on a few stands.

The queue to pay was 90 minutes long, there was very very little third party licenced stuff, a few McFarlane and JoyToy figures, a small selection of the Cubicle 7 RPGs and a limited number of art prints.

So no board games, clothing, dice bags, posters, phone cases, mugs, notebooks etc

It felt very lacking in terms of that stuff.

There were a few gaming stalls and credit to them, they put on an amazing show, but because they were one of the few things there, the queues were mental.

Never got a chance to try Boltgun, but I am gonna preorder it anyway, the community lass from Tacticus convinced me to give it a go, and it’s actually pretty good.

Warpforge seems a lot of fun and Horus Heresy Legions is as good as ever.

There was one set of painted models on display for 10th edition 40K, in between the queue for the shop and the queue to try 10th edition, so you could barely get to take a gander at them.

There were 5 tables to try 10th on and a lad I know queued for 4 hours to get a turn at trying it, which if I am honest was ridiculous and a bit of stupid decision, at the Fest when 8th launched there were 20 or 30 tables if I remember correctly.

Its sad cause the last event was so good, and this was just a real let down.

But I still had lots of fun, but that’s cause I got to meet up with people I rarely get to see and play with and in that respect it was good, but still it shouldn’t have been so lacking in content.

Will I go again, depends, if I can get a tournament to play in sure, but if not, perhaps I won’t.

My Haul

So I got a bit from Warhammer Fest!

Here is the total lot!

It’s broken down into, the event exclusive Commissar!

Some dice for my Imperial Knights and *ahem* Kharadron Overlords 🙄

A Homunculus and some Mandrakes for my Drukhari

Lelith Hesperax and Drazhar for them

A Combat Patrol for them too

A Deimos Pattern Whirlwind Scorpius for my Imperial Fists

A Rat Ogre for Blood Bowl

And some general swag, which includes some Warhammer Fest objective markers, some badges, patches, a few paints, and a mousemat!

Pegboard

I went and got the Skådis Pegboard from IKEA, well I had them delivered to a local shop, IKEA want 20 notes to deliver to the house, but only £2 to send it to a shop 5 minutes away!!!

First up I had to remove all the controller mounts from the wall, then fill in the holes and paint over them.

This meant the girls insisted that I sort out the cupboard under the stairs, and I will have to take a trip to B&Q to get colour matched paint.

So I started with the cuboard sort, then filled in the holes with the filler and the put the boards up, the bits of filled wall need painting still, but B&Q in Hartlepool is now closed so it’s a trip to Stockton for that!

The pegboard went up pretty easily, I went with the black Skådis, I did consider the Uppspel board with the ROG branding, but that would have been an extra £20 I didn’t fancy spending!

The controllers are now all up, I went with the Skådis hooks to mount them, because it works, mostly.

I did get an Uppspel accessory kit, mostly for the magnetic strip, but the straps are great for holding the NES and SNES controllers, and I plan to get a couple more to hold the PC Engine, CD32, Neo Geo CD and SN30 Pro controllers.

Also, my future Steam Deck may be stored in the board using these straps!

The magnetic strip currently holds a pair of nice braided cables to connect the controllers to the PC directly, one cable is USB C and the other is Micro USB. The WaveBird receiver is also held on it too!

What I Am Modelling

I started out by painting the Imagifier for the Sisters of Battle!

And a Abhorrant Ghoul King for the Flesh-Eater Courts!

Followed by the Drukhari Raider for the Wyches.


So what’s up next?

  1. Kairic Acolytes x 18
  2. The Guild
  3. Ultramarines Repulsor
  4. Hedkrakka’s Mob
  5. Skaven Deathrunners x 2
  6. Blood Ravens Invader ATV x 2
  7. Catacomb Command Barge & Overlord
  8. Swampcalla Shaman x 2 & Pot Grot
  9. Ultramarines Outriders x 3
  10. Rashaar

What I Am Reading

No books read, but I have finished listening to Lukas the Trickster by Josh Reynolds.

And I listened to Embrace the Darkness by Nicholas Briggs.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Myself, Graham, Rob and Niall had a game of 30K at Element Games, which was a hell of a lot of fun, and my first time visiting Element in person, and its a really fun place.

What Video Games I Am Playing

A couple of hours of The Witcher 3 but that’s it!

What I Am Spending

Bought a few more video games!

Plus this months Humble Choice that got me

And I bought a copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection for the Switch too



Resolutions Update – April 2023

Build & Paint a 2000 Points Army of Drukhari – 18.5% Complete

I added the Reavers and Helions to the army this month, which almost competes the Wyches detachment for now.

Just a Raider to go and that’s almost finished!

The next detachment will be a Kabal, and for that I have bought the Combat Patrol!

Build & Paint a 500 Points Combat Patrol of Genestealer Cultists – o% Complete

No progress here 🙁

Build & Paint a 500 Points Combat Patrol of Tyranids – 38% Complete

This is still on pause until Leviathan comes out, but I have bought some 28mm bases as I think my Guants will need them.

Bring my Primaris Ultramarines to 2000 Points – 50% Complete

This month I added the Assault Intercessors to the army!

This means I still need to add

  • Repulsor
  • Bladeguard Ancient
  • Bladeguard Veterans x 3
  • Outriders x 3

The Repulsor is next getting painted for this list!

Bring my Orruk Warclans to 2000 Points – 53.05

I added some Manskewer Boltboyz to this list this month, two units of them, and I purchased a Beastskewer Killbow.

I need to make a proper list for this and at the minute this is gonna be it!

+ Leader +

Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof

Orruk Megaboss

Orruk Weirdnob Shaman

Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot

+ Battleline +

Gutrippaz: 10 Gutrippaz, Musician, Standard Bearer, Wicked Hakka

Gutrippaz: 10 Gutrippaz, Wicked Stikka

Gutrippaz: 10 Gutrippaz, Wicked Stikka

Hobgrot Slittaz: 10 Hobgrot Slittaz, Musician, Standard Bearer

Hobgrot Slittaz: 10 Hobgrot Slittaz, Musician, Standard Bearer

Orruk Brutes: 5 Brutes, Boss Choppa, Gore-choppa, Jagged Gore-hacka

+ Other +

Man-skewer Boltboyz: 3 Man-skewer Boltboyz

Man-skewer Boltboyz: 3 Man-skewer Boltboyz

Man-skewer Boltboyz: 3 Man-skewer Boltboyz

Orruk Gore-Gruntas: 3 Gore-Gruntas, Pig-iron Choppa

+ Artillery +

Beast-skewer Killbow

Beast-skewer Killbow

Build & Paint two Gangs for Carnivale

The Guild are now build they are getting painted this month.

Need to buy some more bases before I can build the Rashaar!

Get My Weight to Under 100kg & Sustain it Below That

I am currently 115kg so gone a little backwards

Publish One Battle Report a Month

My aim to get caught up in April was spoiled by April being super busy!

Stream Twice a Week

Failed due to a busy April

Complete my 2023 VideoGameGeek Video Game Challenge

None finished yet, but I hope this is the month I get some added to the complete list!

Read 40 Books – 25% Complete

Currently at a total of 10 books read!

Get Edge of Empire Running Like a Well Oiled Machine

Yeah this is going well, no real issues here

A Bimonthly RPG Night With the Polycule

Every time I mention it, the subject is changed so it ain’t happening

Abi’s Wedding (and Pauls too I Suppose!)

Last weekend we went to my beautiful sister-in-laws wedding to my brother Paul.

It was a wonderful day and much joy was had.

The ceremony was lovely and the food was divine, and my nibblings were all little terrors!

It was held at Kersy Mill, near Haverhill in Suffolk and the surroundings were really nice, the building was a converted mill and was pretty nice.

It was just a really awesome day all round to be frank.


On the Sunday we popped into Ipswich, had dinner at Prezzo and saw Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, but we missed the last 5-10 minutes as there was a fire alarm and the cinema was evacuated.

The long stairs out of the cinema left be too exhausted to return to the screen, so we kinda gave up and went back to my parents, curse my lack of spoons!

Film was awesome though!

What I Am Modelling

I started out with the Necron Triarch Stalkers

Followed by some Triarch Praetorians

After that I painted up my Helions for the Drukhari, two units of them!


So what’s coming up next?

  1. Kairic Acolytes x 18
  2. Imagifier
  3. The Guild x 8
  4. Ultramarines Repulsor
  5. Hedkrakka’s Madmob
  6. Drukhari Raider
  7. Skaven Deathrunners x 2
  8. Blood Ravens Invader ATV x 2
  9. Necron Catacomb Command Barge
  10. Swampcalla Shaman x 2 & Pot Grot

What I Am Reading

I finished Squirrel Girl: Universe and you can see my review here.

I have now started on David Annadale’s, In the Coils of the Labyrinth which is so far pretty good.

Still listening to Lukas the Trickster by Josh Reynolds, about 4 hours into that now.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I had a game of Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 at Warhammer World, which was won by Lindsay!

And on Wednesday my DnD group met and Graham tried to knock someone out, by throwing a knife in their neck and rolling a nat 20!

What Video Games I Am Playing

More Witcher 3 is being played, currently working on side missions and Witcher Contracts to level up!

And my playthrough of Control: Ultimate Edition has seen me upload the videos from the week

What I Am Backing

I backed the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game Monster Seeds project by Steve Jackson Games, I would have loved to be able to back it at the physical level, but alas they are no longer doing any physical rewards for people outside of the US, which is sad.

What I Am Winning

I won a copy of The Curator by Owen King, so that’s going on the TBR pile.

What I Am Spending

I did add a small package of Star Wars games to my collection with a little bundle, those being:

I also got a PS5 controller charger, the PS5 is gonna move downstairs so we need an easier way to charge the two DualSense controllers that are moving with it.

I won a £25 voucher for Amazon from a KFC competition so I used that to buy a £15 PlayStation voucher to get Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, and some LED lights for the pegboard I am planning on buying next week. Still awaiting delivery of the LEDS.

I ordered the Abhorant Ghoul King with Crown of Delusion from Warhammer Middlesbrough on Boxing Day (or the day after) and he finally arrived, and of course he is now built and ready to paint!


Star Wars Celebration

I spent the other weekend in London at Star Wars Celebration, where I demoed Star Wars Legion, and the upcoming Star Wars Shatterpoint!

I didn’t get to see all that much as I was busy working, but I have uploaded a few photos to Instagram you can see.

The hall did go kinda mental when the Ashoka trailer dropped with a lot of cheers when Chopper appeared on screen.

The weekend was utterly exhausting and the autistic train geek in me was super happy as I got to ride on the Elizabeth Line!

Shatterpoint is an amazing game and the only thing holding me back is the price tag, because its very very high!

What I Am Modelling

Whilst away in the hotel I built a couple of Warhammer Underworld’s warbands.

When I got home, I painted some Assault Intercessors for my Ultramarines

And then I painted the Man-Skewer Bolt-Boyz for my Kruleboyz!


So what’s up next?

  1. Triarch Stalker x 3 & Triarch Praetorians x 5
  2. Kairic Acolytes x 18
  3. Helions x 10
  4. Imagifier
  5. The Guild x 8
  6. Ultramarines Repulsor
  7. Hedkrakka’s Mob
  8. Drukhari Raider
  9. Skaven Deathrunners x 2
  10. Blood Ravens Invader ATV x 2

What I Am Reading

Slowly making my way through Squirrel Girl: Universe by Tristan Palmgren, need to make sure I pick up the Kindle over my phone when in bed!

I listened to The Chimes of Midnight by Robert Shearman and Seasons of Fear by Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox as part of my Doctor Who Monthly Adventures relisten.

They are two particularly good 8th Doctor audio dramas.

I am now listening to Lukas the Trickster by Josh Reynolds!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Played a lot of The Witcher 3, really want to try and get that done.

Got a couple of hours in on Control, and I am gonna try and get a few more in before we go so I can start on Assassins Creed Revelations.

I was having a few issues with OBS, seems to have been the last version update that was the issue, so I rolled back to 29.0.2 and that resolved the issues I was having.

What I Am Winning

Won a competition on Twitter for a copy of Star Wars Rouge Squadron 3D and Shadows of the Empire on Steam to celebrate the Star Wars Celebrationz

Played these games a lot as a nipper so will be nice to play it as an adult on a much better system!

What I Am Spending

I bought myself the Star Wars Deckbuilding Game at Star Wars Celebration, and got with it Star Wars Storycubes, the GameGenic sleeves, and a pin for Fennec Shand.

I also had a second Fennec Shand pin, that I swapped with Forbidden Planet for Chopper!

And although I didn’t spend the money, I did get a poster for the “Strike Me Down” promo along with a shiny promo card for Shatterpoint from Atomic Mass Games.

Also the Nvidia Shield Controller I was potentially getting was sorted and arrived, all I had to do was pay postage!

So all that’s left on my to buy list of controllers is a Luna and the Hyperkin Xeneon and the collection I am after is completed for now, although I must say a DualShock 4 is tempting!

My copies of issue 83 of Imperium turned up, which is great as that now gives me two full squads of Paragon Warsuits!

Now this is a funny one as I didn’t actually spend anything!

I have a Dwarf fleet for Mantic Armada game, it’s part of a project for the Tall Ships coming to Hartlepool in the summer.

Given that most of the ships, are in face tall sailing ships, the plan is to build a community of players and paint up our ships, displaying them in June publicly!

The T’au Objective markers I ordered also finally arrived, and will look great when used with that army!


London Calling

This will be a short one, I am in London spending the weekend showing people how to play Shatterpoint and Legion.

We woke on Monday to find the leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition outside, which was weird!

But my sleep has been all over the shop so I expect this weekend to be difficult.

Some Studio Remodel Plans

Ok the controller holders look pants, mostly cause I put them up so badly, so they are gonna come down next month and I am replacing them with some pegboards from IKEA so the controllers can be mounted and look great.

At the moment the controllers I want displayed are:-

  • PC Engine
  • Stadia
  • CD32
  • GameCube
  • Xbox 360 (Gonna replace this with a Xenon when that comes out in the summer)
  • Switch Pro
  • SNES
  • NES
  • Wavebird
  • Xbox Duke
  • Saturn
  • Tribute 64
  • Neo Geo CD
  • Dualshock 3
  • PlayStation Controller
  • Mega Drive
  • Mega Drive 6 Button
  • Steam Controller
  • Xbox Core
  • DualSense

Plus I think I have found a cheap NVIDIA Shield Controller, and I hope to have this in my hands by late next week, meaning all I want beyond that is a Luna controller. Actually I am not sure on that, it looks cool, but it doesn’t seem to have even the same interestingness as the Stadia controller.

I’d also like to display one of my SN30 as well if I can, that’s currently away in a drawer, its place having been taken by the Steam Controller.

I am thinking of getting two black Skâdis boards and mounting them one on top of the other above my desk, which should get me enough space to store the controllers, and hopefully eventually my Switch JoyCons and Wiimotes.

Plus I am gonna get a nice braided pair of USB A-C and USB A-Micro B cables to hang up there for use with the controllers when I want to use normally wireless controllers (I prefer to use controllers in wired mode for the lowest latency possible)

I am going to mount a RGB strip around the border of the whole thing to make it really gamery!

That said, its more expensive, but there are the Uppspel boards which whilst £10 more expensive, do look quite a bit cooler with that ROG branding. Either way the Uppsepel accessory kits will be getting used for some stuff as they are compatible with the Skâdis boards, and the magnetic strip would absolutely have some uses.

Thinking the straps might be a good way to store/display the Steam Deck when I get it.

Also I am hoping my Govee prize will come soon which could add some more coolness.

And finally, I am considering a clock, I know I have one on the PC, but I think I want a physical one, oh and a couple more fake plants.

What I Am Modelling

I started out by painting the second Firestrike Servo Turret for the Space Wolves.

After this I painted a pair of Lokhust Heavy Destroyers for my Necrons.

A bit of scenery followed with a set of Thermic Plasma Conduits that I got from Imperium to add to the house scenery box.

Then a Praetor Prime for the Strormcast Eternals.

Followed by a Knight-Arcanium for that army.

And finally some Reavers for my Drukhari.


So what will be up to paint once I am, back from London!

  1. Ultramarines Assault Intercessors x 10
  2. Man-Skewer Bolt-Boyz x 6
  3. Necron Triarch Stalkers x 3 & Triarch Praetorians x 5
  4. Kairic Acolytes x 18
  5. Drukhari Helions x 10
  6. Imagifier
  7. The Guild x 8
  8. Ultramarines Repulsor
  9. Hedkrakka’s Madmob
  10. Skaven Deathrunners x 2

What I Am Reading

I finished Echoes of Eternity as an audiobook, and yeah, what a story, really blows my mind away!

I listened to The Eye of the Scorpion by Iain McLaughlin, which was fairly good, would have been great if it had been made into a TV serial, but alas. Anyway that brought me 2 years into the Monthly Adventures series!

I then listened to Colditz by Steve Lyons, which as well as being an interesting story of growth for Ace, is also the Doctor Who debut of David Tennant, in a villainous role, which in my opinion is just as insidious as his portrayal of The Purple Man!

Then I moved on to Primeval by Lance Parkin, a bit of a sequel/prequel to the first Nyssa story, The Keeper of Traken. Very good story and I loved how it expanded on that story and established a deeper understanding of the culture and history of Traken.

After that it was The One Doctor by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman, which was an awful lot of fun, Christoper Biggins really made that a fun listen!

After that it was Invaders from Mars by Mark Gattiss, which was very good, especially with Simon Pegg camping it up as the gangster!


I finally finished processing my Big Finish Doctor Who audio stuff on to the audio book server, and oh wow that was a slog that has taken over six months to get sorted!

Mind you its a complete collection dating back 25 years, so yeah its a lot of stuff to sort out, would be easier if the software could scrape data from Big Finish, but sadly it can’t so I have to enter the data in manually!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Played a bit more of The Witcher 3, have transitioned to using the Steam Controller, just to really give it a go.

But alas the game still has major crashing issues, and I get maybe an hour and then it crashes to the desktop 🙁

I tried to play Control on stream on Tuesday night only for OBS to keep crashing so I gave up, edited what videos I had together, and then uploaded them.

I have now transferred the gameplay videos for Horizon Zero Dawn over to the Big Geordie Geek Plays channel, so you can find them there, if you want mind-numbingly bad game play videos!

What I Am Spending

I bought Vampire Survivors, it looked alright for a few quid and well, it did win the BAFTA, the bundle I got also came with its expansion, Legacy of the Moonspell.

I also bought a few bits of DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2, the Wheel Tuning Pack, Heavy Cargo Pack, Special Transports, Vive la France!, Beyond the Baltic Sea and the High Power Cargo Pack.

For a £1.46 I bought a LucasArts Adventure Pack, which came with The Dig, Loom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, all classics from my childhood!

And cause it was super cheap, and I really fancy playing it again after having last done so on the Sega Saturn, I bought Resident Evil HD which came with Resident Evil 0 HD.

My Humble Choice also came out this week for April, and that got me:-


Resolutions Update – March 2023

I will be honest, I have been pants this month, but next month probably won’t be that much better as it’s ram packed!

Build & Paint a 2000 Points Army of Drukhari – 10.25% Complete

We got the Wyches painted up, next month I intend to compete the Wych cult combat patrol.

Build & Paint a 500 Points Combat Patrol of Genestealer Cultists – o% Complete

No further progress made, need to pick a colour scheme I think first, then prime them!

Build & Paint a 500 Points Combat Patrol of Tyranids – 38% Complete

This is now on hold, I want to see if the units I have will be changing base size before I even think of building them.

Heard a rumour that Genestealers are moving to 32mm and Gaunts to 28mm.

Bring my Primaris Ultramarines to 2000 Points – 27.75%

This month I painted up the Eliminators and Eradicators!

I have left to paint for this list

  • Bladeguard Ancient
  • Bladeguard Veterans x 3
  • Outriders x 3
  • Repulsor
  • Assault Intercessors x 10

Get my Weight to Under 100kg & Sustain it Below That

I am at 112kg, which means I need to do some exercise!

Publish One Battle Report a Month – 8.33% Complete

Blah, I need to get this dealt with promptly!

Stream Twice a Week

I need to create a proper schedule for this to keep it on track!

But it’s mostly going ok.

Complete my 2023 VideoGameGeek Video Game Challenge – 0% Complete

No games completed yet, but here is the current stats!

Read 40 Books – 22% Complete

This month I haven’t finished any books, so boo hiss!

Get Edge of Empire Running Like a Well Oiled Machine

Still going good, but something else is in the works!

A Bimonthly RPG Night With the Polycule

I think this isn’t going anywhere sadly 🙁

A Busy April

April is going to be a very very very busy month!

Next weekend I am off to London for Star Wars Celebration to show people how to play Shatterpoint, and I am really looking forward to that!

Then its Lindsay’s 40th birthday, so that is gonna be fun, especially when the dread of turning 40 hits her as it did me!

After that its my brothers wedding, for which I am serving as Master of Ceremonies.

And finally Warhammer Fest!

So I am gonna have a lot of time travelling and doing stuff over the next few weeks, I shall be exhausted at the end!

What I Am Modelling

I started by painting my first Ultramarines for #MarchForMacragge with a squad of Eliminators.

Then a Squad of Eradicators.

I then turned my attention to some Firestrike Sevo Turrents, and painted two for the Blood Ravens.

And one for the Space Wolves.

After that I painted Kainan’s Reapers, my first Bonereapers models


So whats coming up next week?

  1. Drukhari Reavers
  2. Ultramarines Assault Intercessors
  3. Man-Skewer Bolt Boyz x 6
  4. Triarch Stalkers x 3 & Triarch Praetorians x 5
  5. Kairic Acolytes x 18
  6. Drukhari Helions x 10
  7. Imagifier
  8. The Guild x 8
  9. Ultramarines Repulsor
  10. Hedkrakka’s Madmob

What I Am Reading

I listened to Project Twilight by Cavin Scott and Mark Bright, a great little audio which starts off a little bit of a larger story.

And then I started listening to Echoes of Eternity by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and I have about 3 hours left to go on that!

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

We made our very last visit to Meeple Perk before it closes due to ridiculous energy prices, and we played three games.

We started with Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice which I easily won!

Followed by The Tea Dragon Society, won by Megan, and she loved the game so much, she bought it!

And finally a game of Ticket to Ride San Francisco which was won by Lindsay.

What Video Games I Am Playing

Played a bit more The Witcher 3 this week, not much but a bit.

And I also streamed some Control Ultimate Edition as well!

What I Am Creating

The latest episode of Edge of Empire was published in which myself, Rob and Chris all talk mini Titans!

What I Am Winning

I won a copy of The Button Be Mizzle on PlayStation.

And for Steam I won a copy of King of the Castle!

What I Am Spending

I have been after a Steam Controller for a while now, they took them off sale literally the day I was gonna buy one, grrrr!

I managed to grab this one for £15 which is a super bargain considering what they often end up going for!

In terms of controllers, I am still after a Shield Controller and Amazon finally brought Luna to the UK so one of them would be great!

I also picked up a cheap copy of Fallout 4 on CDKeys in preperation for getting a Steam Deck later in the year!


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