Tag: Covid-19 Page 1 of 2

The Week of Covid

By

On 4th May 2022

In Blog

So Covid had lasted a while in this house, me and Megan are now testing negative and Lindsay is too, but swears she sees a very faint line in her test.

The law says we didn’t have to isolate, but we chose to until we tested negative, why, because it was the right thing to do.

My first bout of the disease utterly destroyed my lungs, the second bout has messed up my sleep and left me very fatigued.

Inflicting this virus on others, just cause I fancy a pizza is unacceptable, and I did crave a pizza all week.

We have to be responsible, I know most of us have been sensible and gotten vaccinated, but many have not done so, some of those because they medically cannot.

I think that from this point forward we all should be more responsible for health and keeping others well. So when you feel a bit crummy and under the weather, reach for a face mask and wear it when out, because it’s not just Covid that can kill, but things like the flu as well.

What I Am Modelling

Started the week by painting the Weirdnob Shaman for my Orruk Warclans.

He is painted in such a way to bridge the two parts of the army, the Ironjawz and Kruleboyz, with aspects and textures from both.

I then painted a pair of Medusa Guns for my Death Korps of Krieg.

And this was followed by the crew for the guns!

At this point I painted the ruined Factorums I got with my Forbidden Planet order.

Then I started work on some Blood Warriors for my Blades of Khorne army. Which have reached the stage of getting washed.

So what next to hit the painting table, note the T’au are on hold as my new Redgrass wet palette is hopefully coming soon.

  1. T’au Breacher Squad x 10
  2. Ork Terrain
  3. Blades of Khorne Blood Warriors
  4. Ork Burna Boyz
  5. Sicaran Infiltrators
  6. T’au Strike Team x 10
  7. Ork Nobz x 5
  8. Orruk Gutrippas x 12
  9. Blood Angels Assault Intercessors x 5
  10. Ultramarines Intercessors x 7

What Video Games I Am Playing

Put an hour in on Far Cry 3 and I made the noob mistake of not saving the game, and well it crashed!

I got a couple of hours in on Horizon Zero Dawn on Thursday which you can view here.

https://youtu.be/74adgDv0s9s

I got an updated controller family photo done, although considering I have now added a couple more, its already out of date!

I am currently watching a few auctions of some Stadia controllers on eBay, whilst it’s not exactly a controller that is particularly associated with any game, I am reliably told that at least two publishers use this when developing some AAA games, which has me curious as to see if those games actually feel better with a Stadia controller.

I also managed to finally get Neo Geo games running in Retroarch, which I am super happy about!

What I Am Creating

I published the latest episode of Edge of Empire on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night I published the 25th Imperium Battle Report.

On Saturday I filmed and published the issue 26 battle report.

The Wednesday report is also in the can and ready to publish too.

What I Am Spending

I bought myself a new controller, you know for the emulation joy, this time it’s a Neo-Geo controller, well not the amazing joystick from the AES console but the one from the Neo Geo CD, which is still a great controller.

Of course cause it’s a USB-C controller I had to grab some USB-C female to USB-A male adaptors, which is fine, I guess it’s probably something I should have lying around for future use as USB-C becomes more prevalent.

I also grabbed a couple of USB-A to USB-C cables to make sure I could plug in my Elite controllers charging dock permanently and still have one spare to charge the mouse when needed.

And finally, finally, my Hyperkin Duke arrived, I ordered this months ago and it’s taken this long for it to come!

So happy to have this as it’s a controller I remember very fondly!

And I did buy Lindsay a new keyboard, simply because the sound of her current keyboard, something that her work got that costs according to Amazon £7.99!

The sound just hurts the ears and she goes through keyboard so quickly because she just wears down the print on the keys in a few months, so I also grabbed her some pink double shot PBT pudding keycaps.

So here is the final look!

And I also grabbed a keyboard cleaning kit cause mine is in desperate need of a good clean, plus I needed a keycap puller for Lindsay’s one.

Oh and I won an auction on eBay for a Stadia controller and it’s only cost me £7!

I also got asked to do some game play testing for which the publisher wants me to use a DualSense alongside the Xbox controller, so they sent me one today.

Pandemic: Patient Zero

By

On 7th August 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Pandemic book Pandemic: Patient Zero by Amanda Bridgeman, 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 going to try my best to not let this cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What Is Pandemic

Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock, in the game you work together to discover the cure for several diseases rampaging though the world.

Players take on various roles, such as medic, dispatcher, scientist, quarantine expert etc and though the combined efforts, collect enough data and information to find the cures to save the world.

The game is incredibly successful and has three expansions for itself as well as numerous spin off games and variations. As well as the extremely popular Legacy versions of the game.

My personal current favourite is Pandemic: Hot Zone North America.

The Story

The story starts with a nun falling ill in Peru, and quickly the disease she later dies from starts popping up in Brazil and Columbia too.

It’s a new disease to which humanity has no immunity and it rapidly kills those it infects.

The Global Health Agency dispatches a team from its base in Lyon to discover the cause of this disease and hopefully find a cure.

We have a cast who roughly represent many of the possible roles within the Pandemic board game, and a nice mixture of nationalities and genders. There is also an interesting little bit of minor subplot about one of the field team finding it more difficult to traverse the world due to her being from Nigeria rather than the US, UK or Australia.

The story takes us on a hunt for the source of the disease, from Lima, into the jungle and down the Amazon river and then deep into a drug lords village as the team desperately search for patient zero and understand how this disease came into existence.

Conclusion

Look I need to be straight up here, I got Covid early on in the pandemic, it took a third of my lungs from me and has ruined my lungs to the point where I can’t climb stairs without an inhaler.

This book was extremely difficult to read because it quite often referred to Covid in the past tense, when Covid is still very much with us and killing people.

The book itself is well written, it’s a by the numbers virus outbreak kind of story, nowt ground breaking but well done and brilliantly written with relatable characters.

But it feels far too soon for a book to talk about Covid as being in the past, had I known this book would have done this, I would never have read it.

So it comes down to this, if you can handle many references to Covid and a new respiratory disease, then it’s a good book to read, but if like me you basically have PTSD when it comes to Covid, I would strongly advise giving this book a miss for now.

Just for now though, because it is a good book, but frankly it needs a trigger warning, I donMt know why I pushed myself to keep reading, I really shouldn’t have.

I don’t know how to score this book so I am going to ignore my instincts which are to refuse to score it because of how much it triggered my PTSD and made my chest feel incredibly tight.

It’s a well written book with a good story so I will give it a 4 out of 5 stars, but as I said, it desperately needs a proper trigger warning.

The book is published as an ebook on 7th September and will hit bookstores on the 11th November.

Covid, How Much More Do You Plan On Taking

By

On 27th November 2020

In Blog

I cooked both of the past two nights and it’s buggered me.

My stamina has been in the toilet ever since Covid, but this really has shocked me mentally.

I used to cook a lot more frequently than that, I love cooking, I am a good cook. It’s something I love, and it’s just horrid realising it’s yet another thing that Covid had limited.

I actually did very little today, a teeny bit of painting, played a little bit of Bioshock on stream and then cooked tea.

So yeah, even a full days rest is not enough recovery time.

Not much to say, I just needed to vent.

Be Prepared

By

On 22nd September 2020

In Blog

Not much to say this week, things have been quiet, just worried about what’s going to happen in regards to the virus, but then again I think every body is.

Living in the North East I am now under tighter restrictions due to the high R number. Tuesday night I was supposed to return to Durham Raiders for the first time since February for a game, but that has now obviously been cancelled.

We just gotta do as they say, wash out hands, wear a face mask, where we can and keep to social distancing.

I think I am better prepared for a lockdown than I was last time, and tomorrow I will be doing a paint inventory to identify any that need a spare purchased.

We have, and sensibly I think, purchased a few extra things for the cupboard, basically some extra tins of beans and chopped tomatoes and are buying a few extra little cupboard things in our weekly shops, just in case.

We aren’t panic buying, don’t want to do that, just instead of a packet of custard, we might grab two, and a slightly bigger bag of pasta than normal.

But this is something we have kinda been doing since the first lockdown, sounds daft, but it’s reassuring to know that we have enough to get by for a least a couple of weeks if the shops experience huge shortages again.

I wasn’t a Boy Scout, but right now I think the mantra is , Be Prepared.

So guys I guess let’s just be ready to bunker down if we have to, trust me, you don’t want to catch this virus, it’s horrid, and we most certainly don’t want vulnerable people to get it.

So stay safe guys!

What I Am Painting

Might sound like total common sense, but whilst I have been experimenting with airbrushing, I haven’t been using gloves.

Well Lindsay and Megan kept having a go at me about it, so I relented and when putting the first paints on my T’au Strike Team, Cadre Fireblade and Devilfish, I used gloves.

Of course they were right, it was far easier and far cleaner. I guess I like the look of hands covered in paint, but it will be better if I keep them clean.

So I tried a slightly different method with the T’au this time to see if it works better.

On Tuesday the fates aligned and I was able to get about 50% of the Zone Mortalis stuff primed, at long last, but I lost the daylight before I could get the last of it primed, plus I didn’t have enough gunmetal spray so had to go to Wilkinson’s to get some more.

I was quite unwell for a couple of days so no painting got done for a couple of days 🙁

First model I got finished was a Devilfish for the T’au Empire Strike Team, so much better now I have figured out getting the base colour on with an airbrush.

The T’au infantry give me a lot of bother, I really struggle to get smooth coats on them, so I kinda did some research and ended up putting together a wet palette, and oh my god, it literally transformed my painting!

Was so much quicker to paint and a lot easier too, I will never go back to not using one!!!

I then kinda worked through late on Friday and into Saturday morning to finish the rest of the Strike Team and the Cadre Fireblade.

I also started and finished Mortarion for the Horus Heresy, very proud of him and can’t wait to get him on the tabletop, so he can reap some men!

I then moved on the Mortarions Daemon Prince form, along with the seven Space Marine Hero Death Guard Models.

The Space Marine Hero’s were finished first, these all felt like unique character models in themselves, I mean I guess they are actually!

But so much detail in them that required a lot of attention to detail on every model.

I then finished Mortarion for 40k, and what a job that was!

A solid 23 hours of painting over three days, finally finishing him at 0030 Tuesday morning!

I am so so very proud of this model, utterly amazing but now I am knackered from all the concentration!!!

So how does my painting queue look going into next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Nighthaunt Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, Spirit Torment, Guardian of Souls & Lord Executioner
  3. Adeptus Titanicus Titans (Warlord x 2, Reaver x 2, Nemsis Warbringer)
  4. Dropfleet Commander UCM Ships (4 Cruisers, 4 Frigates, 6 Corvettes, 2 Destroyers)
  5. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad x 5
  6. Millitarium Tempestus Drop Force Imperator
  7. Palanite Enforcers x 10
  8. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters x 5
  9. T’au Stealth Suit Team x 3
  10. Blood Ravens Hellblasters x 15

What I Am Reading

I read Curse of Honor by David Annandale, it’s at times difficult because I don’t get in the best with David’s sentence structure.

But once I got into it, it was difficult to put down, I got it finished in the wee hours of Thursday morning, and you can read a full review here.

I then moved on to The Doom of Fallowhearth by Robbie MacNivan, a novel set in the Descent board games universe.

I finished listening to Saturnine by Dan Abnett, blown away by it again and picked up so many more things that I missed first time round when reading it.

What I Am Playing

We had a session of Star Trek Adventures on Thursday, we boarded a damaged Cardassian space station to try and prevent it falling to the surface of a planet and causing an extinction level event.

Some mild torture of a Vorta was involved, and we will be picking up the game again in a fortnight.

What I Am Backing

Calico arrived, although it did so whilst we wet out shopping and thus we had to take in trip into town to grab it from the access point.

It looks really good and hopefully we can get it played soon.

What I Am Cooking

On Friday I made Indian Spiced Chicken Wings, which were lovely but a little bit spicer than last time.

But I think that’s because I didn’t toss them in the spice and sprinkled it on instead.

What I Am Spending

I got a £10 Amazon gift card from a competition, so put that towards a foam insert for Beastgrave, which is coming from Feldherr so will probably arrive early October going on past orders from them.

I did also buy a 24 pack of Carabao Sugar Free Green Apple, as I said a few weeks ago, I am struggling to make it through the day with an energy drink mid afternoon.

I know I need to get something like Sneak or Razorwire, but they are a big outlay initially.

Wear a Mask

By

On 3rd August 2020

In Blog

WEAR A FUCKING MASK!

I cannot put enough emphasis on this point, but listen to me when I say how vital it is.

My Covid-19 story is I am told quite representative of people who have had issues with it, so I will tell it.

I came down with Covid-19 about a week into lockdown, and I had a cough for about 10 days that then seemed to get better, but then I rapidly went downhill again and could at times barely breathe.

Now I wasn’t so bad that my doctor wanted me in hospital, and I have a CPAP machine which helped me a lot, and that avoid me going into hospital for more than a few hours.

But I had developed a nasty bout of post Covid-19 pneumonia, which took two course of antibiotics to clear, and even then it left my lungs in an awful condition.

Basically when I had an X-Ray and some tests in the hospital later on they discovered that I have lost a third of my lung capacity to Covid-19.

I used to be able to go up and stairs fine as far as breathing was concerned, I had pain issues, but that was something separate. But now if I climb the stairs I need a puff of an inhaler.

I never used to need an inhaler before, but I need one now just to be able to go up an incline, it’s crazy, as soon as I start using my lungs in anything more than a level walk, I struggle for air.

I have always harboured an ambition to once my head issues are figured out, try and get myself a bit fitter and try and do a 5km run. Yeah it’s kinda weak ass as far as athletic ambitions go, but for me that would be an achievement.

Anyway that’s now probably never gonna happen, I mean I can’t walk to the Co-Op which is some 20m from my kitchen without needing to use the inhaler a couple of times.

I have gone from someone with could happily wander to the Co-Op and grab a pizza for lunch, to someone who needs to plan his whole day around that same trip.

So why am I telling you this, well simple, I was shielding, I was told to shield, to not leave the house. But Lindsay and Megan brought Covid-19 into the house because they had to go shopping for us.

And despite my shielding I thus caught it from them, and it hit me hard. There are lots of other people up and down the U.K., including a good number of people I care for and love.

If you wear a mask, and socially distance, and wash your hands, you can prevent this horrid disease spreading to vulnerable people.

This disease would kill my nana, I don’t think she would stand a chance against it, her lungs are already buggered thanks to her pack a day cigarette habit, and this would ravage her.

I am lucky in that the building where she lives is taking things seriously, but if you lot don’t take the rules seriously, there is the risk that her carers could become infected and then pass it on to her.

So I am begging you all, don’t act all macho, stop banging on about masks being muzzles, end of the day, what’s the issue, you have to wear a piece of cloth over your mouth for a little bit whilst you do your shopping, that’s literally the worst case.

Best case, you actively save lives.

What I Am Modelling

I hit the Millitarium Tempestus Command section first this week, they have been on the painting table a couple of weeks so its about time they got finished.

I got them all finished and decided to promote the Blood Ravens Redemptor Dreadnought up the list so that I could say I have achieved something for them this month.

I have built this so you can easily swap out the Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon for the Macro Plasma Incinerator with relative ease.

I then moved on to the Stormcast Eternals Castigators which represent the very last of that side of the Soul Wars box set.

Another annoying unit, you get five of them, but you field them in threes, meaning that two of them are of no use.

I then placed on my desk a Tactical Squad for the Edge of Empire Podcast army, which is Sons of Horus.

Took a bit of wheeling and dealing to get the torsos but I am glad I got them as they really add something to the squad.

I then moved on to the T’au Empire Breacher Team and Devilfish, for which I picked up my airbrush for the first time tonight and put on a layer of XV-88 to start them off., and before I went to bed I added a coat of Tau Light Ochre.

So lets look at where this leaves my painting queue.

  1. T’au Breacher Team x 10 & Devilfish
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3
  3. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters & Knight-Zephyros
  4. Ultramarines Contemptor Dreadnought
  5. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  6. Blood Ravens Intercessors x 10
  7. Space Wolves Infiltrators & Ragnar Blackmane
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad
  9. Secret Heresy Project Unit
  10. T’au Strike Team x 10, Cadre Fireblade & Devilfish

What I Am Reading

I started to listen to Indomitus by Gav Thorpe last week, and it should have been in last weeks post but I forgot!

I finished Ghostmaker and I rather enjoyed that, just took me ages to read it, but it was well worth it.

And I started on Saturnine by Dan Abnett, the next book in the Siege of Terra series and I am really enjoying that.

And last night I started on War of Secrets by Phil Kelly as an audiobook.

What I Am Playing

Have not played anything all week 🙁

What I Am Backing

Not backing anything right now, and no activity is taking place on anything I have pledged for at all.

What I Am Cooking

On Sunday night we resumed our weekly wing nights now that Megan has returned from looking after her mum.

And we started with Coca-Cola Wings to channel our inner 90s Chinese teenager!

It’s a lovely sweet, spicy and sticky sauce and absolutely one I will be repeating again.

What I Am Spending

I did spot that Jus at Battle Bunker had a copy of No Respite for Blackstone Fortress in stock, and its out of print now, so I decided to pick it up along with a set of Open War Mission Cards, and Jus sent them to me in the post.

My good friend Pete also sent me over a few things for the Zone Mortalis board, a couple more Haemotrope Reactors and half a set of Galvanic Servohaulers, which was really nice of him and I need to send him the postage costs for that.

I also bought a couple more issues of Conquest to bulk out the Zone Mortalis, first was a couple of copies of issue 13 to give myself a complete set of three Munitorium Armoured Containers, and a copy of Issue 71 to give me the second half set of Galvanic Servohaulers to complete that I got from Pete. So those should be with me in a fortnight

And I also bought the audiobook War of Secrets on Audible with a credit.

Ugh This Virus

By

On 9th May 2020

In Blog

This virus blows, I have gone backwards in recovery a bit, I am more tired, yet have trouble sleeping, and I am really struggling to get up and down stairs.

The doctors put me back on antibiotics and have given me an inhaler, but it’s still left me severely limited in what I am able to do.

I am still figuring out how to properly use the inhaler but it’s surprisingly difficult.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week off by building and priming my next ten projects, this way everything is ready at hand to paint.

Unfortunately the Grey Seer ran out part way though priming the Chainrasps, so they have been put aside to do once I get resupplied and their place in the painting queue has been taken by the Dreadblade Harrows.

I then started on Nikis Death Korps of Krieg special weapons Grenadiers and a Knight Questor for my Stormcast Eternals.

The Grenadiers represent the last of what I can do right now, until lockdown is lifted and I can see Niki to get a couple of parts I need for the last ten Grenadiers.

There are three Plasma Guns, three Meltaguns, three Vox Operators and a Watchmaster in this batch.

The Knight-Questor was finished at the same time, did him between bits of the Grenadiers, absolutely love the model, really cool to paint.

Then I placed onto the painting handles the last of the Khorne models from the original Age of Sigmar Starter Set from 2015, the Blood Warriors and Khorgus Khul the Mighty Lord of Khorne.

Mostly followed the standard painting guide for these, but made a few subtle changes here and there to better suit my personal vision for the Bloodbound.

And at the same time I also painted up Canoness Veridyan too.

I then put the Untamed Beasts from Warcry onto the painting table, a Warband I have been looking forward to painting for some time.

These had a lot of cool textures to work with, stuff I don’t normally get to paint and they were a real joy to get done.

So how does my painting queue look now?

  1. Tech-Priest Manipulus x 2
  2. Stormcast Eternals Celestar Ballista x 2 & Lord Ordinator
  3. Blightlord Terminators x 5 & Tallyman
  4. Chaotic Beasts x 12
  5. Dreadblade Harrows x 2
  6. Blood Ravens Scouts x 10
  7. Millitarium Tempestus Meltagun Squad x 10 & Taurox Prime
  8. Blood Ravens Landspeeders x 3
  9. Stormcast Eternals Prosectors and Knight-Venator
  10. Space Wolves Redemptor Dreadnought

What I Am Reading

I finished Tales From The Crucible and a review will come soon.

Haven’t started a new book yet.

What I Am Playing

My concentration hasn’t been there to play anything on tabletop but I have played a few games of Carcassonne and Warhammer Underworlds on the PC.

What I Am Backing

Nothing but gonna have another crack at convincing the girls we should back Lords of Vegas.

The Forgotten Chapters transfer sheet ran into a hitch, some of the original designs have been rejected as being too close to GW IP so they are being redesigned, but that’s cool, just means a slight delay.

What I Am Cooking

We had a pulled pork feast on Sunday, I couldn’t manage to make the pulled pork myself, but I did, with extensive help make some tangy BBQ Pit Beans.

Want to make a few changes before I put up the recipe however, but they were delicious.

I also mixed up a new batch of Cajun spice mix.

What I Am Spending

Now that GW is open I bought a few paints which got dispatched yesterday, so hopefully they will be with me on Tuesday.

I also bought a copy of Warhammer 40,000 Conquest Issue 48 from Hachette, I had a spare of this sitting around already, so when I have this, three of the bikes will be being used to make a squad of Swiftclaws for my Space Wolves and the spare is likely to one day become a Space Marine Captain for my Blood Ravens on a bike or perhaps as a Wolf Guard Pack Leader.

We also got the Asmodee Digital Play With Friends Humble Bundle which got us a number of awesome board games for Steam and gave some money to charity.

We do have a couple of games that we already own spare however, so if anyone wants Carcassonne, Small World 2 or Splendour, drop us a message.

Recovery is Slow

By

On 21st April 2020

In Blog

It’s been a hard week, think I pushed myself too soon and have struggled to keep doing stuff at even a moderate level.

The lungs still feel heavy and that is very scary and I am told it could be weeks until I recover.

But I am gonna try and think positive, I have been trying to do a bit more in the house and a few more hobby things.

Me and Megan are gonna do some sorting out of the spare room, mostly to make it habitable for our nephews and nieces and also so I can try and make room in the house for a 3D Printer!

Last week I had reinstalled Windows on my PC and annoyingly and update bricked that installation, not sure how but it just wouldn’t start up again despite several attempts at repair.

So I did a bit more and actually hoovered out the dust from inside the case and installed a 2TB HDD I salvaged from a broken Sky + HD box.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by painting six of the twelve Gryph-Hounds I have. I got these in the Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Brotherhood, not sure I will ever need twelve but I have the option. I meant to paint just one Alpha but managed to grab two Alphas so the next batch won’t have an Alpha as the one form these will do the job.

I also painted the Gryph-Hound from the Easy to Build Castigators, whom I have painted up as Archibald from Roll Models.

On the side I was also working on a bit of terrain, mostly getting them sprayed, given the contrast colour and then drybrushed, mostly getting done between stages of the other stuff.

The first of that stuff to be completed was the pack of Azyrite Ruins I got from Elelment Games, these are super simple as easy to do with my scheme for Esassa, and give me a bit more variety as now I have one if each possible combination of parts for the scenery box.

I then started on the Vanguard-Raptors, I already have three of them painted up with Longstrike Crossbows, so these are armed with Hurricane Crossbows.

At the same time I painted the Mortal Realms exclusive Knight-Incantor Xandria Azurebolt and the store birthday Knight-Questor Larissa Shadowstalker.

The Celestial Vindicators are my Stormhost because I absolutely love the colour scheme. I won’t lie, Hallowed Knights were in contention, but the teal colour of the Celestial Vindicators is just stunning.

Next up I began work on the Vanguard Hunters and a pair of Baleful Realmgates getting the Realmgates finished first.

The Vanguard-Hunters were a lot of fun to paint and that completes the Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Warcry warband.

And whilst they were being painted I finished off a Magewrath Throne.

So how does this leave my painting plan, obviously I am getting back into that after interrupting it for the Warcry Warband.

The Blood a Ravens bikes arrived on the painting desk now and I will be consulting with Niki on how to arm his command squad dudes for his Death Korps of Krieg.

  1. Blood Ravens Bikes x 3 & Attack Bike with Multi-Melta
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Weapons Men x 10
  3. Glaivewraith Stalkers x 8 & Thorns of the Briar Queen
  4. Blood Warriors x 5 & Korgus Khul
  5. Cannones Veridyan
  6. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Weapons Men x 10
  7. Untamed Beasts x 9
  8. Tech Priest Manipulus x 2
  9. Stormcast Eternals Celestar Balista x 2 & Lord-Ordinator
  10. The Dolorous Strain & Tallyman

What I Am Reading

I am still struggling to concentrate to read very much.

What I Am Playing

Myself and Megan got a game of the amazing Moon-Bots in one a Sunday night.

We played in the two player variation in which we each control two robots each and I won, although it was by the skin of my teeth as I had a single energy left on my last robot.

I really love this game, it’s a lot of fun, reminds me of King of Tokyo but with a cool card drafting mechanism.

What I Am Backing

The Forgotten Chapter – Purity Seals and Parchment Transfers successfully funded and these are gonna come in handy for my Sisters of Battle.

What I Am Cooking

I am still struggling a lot, but I did help plan this weeks meals, well those from Thursday onwards.

We had Pizza takeaway on Thursday, then on Friday we had chicken wings with cheesy garlic mash and roasted broccoli and green beans with garlic.

Saturday was a lovely chilli that Megan made a few weeks ago and froze, Sunday we had roast beef and tonight we had macaroni cheese with salad.

I have never been a fan of macaroni cheese before, but the girls love it and so we found a recipe that I would hopefully like, and it worked I rather enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we are having Cajun Chicken Burgers and Rice and then on Wednesday we are having Cheesesteak Hot Dogs.

On Sunday for our nice breakfast I attempted to make sausage and egg bagels. I took the sausage meat and formed it into patties which I then fried, but I couldn’t manage much more than that and Megan had to finish them off for me and Lindsay fried the eggs.

What I Am Spending

My order from Magic Madhouse arrived at last, they are understandably running a bit behind so it took a bit over a week for it to be dispatched.

I got in this package a Magewrath Throne, three paints, Gal Vorbak Red, Word Bearers Red and Barak-Nar Burgundy, and two Army Painter paint brushes, a Monster and a Regiment.

I also made a small order from Leodis Games because I noticed they had an Ophidian Archway in stock, and I also got a Knight-Vexillor for my Stormcast Eternals.

And I managed to get hold of a couple of paints I needed from Board in Brum as well which I needed for a few upcoming projects.

Now if you know me well, you know I am a bit of a tea snob, I can’t stand crap tea like Tetleys, PG Tips and Typhoo etc, Yorkshire Tea is the minimum acceptable but even that is at a push.

My favourite tea merchants are Bewleys of Dublin and Ringtons of Newcastle, Pumphrey’s is ok but they are mostly a coffee merchant so thier tea whilst nice is not quite as good as the other two.

Normally we get our tea from Fenwicks in Newcastle but they are understandable closed, so we ordered from Ringtons a preprepared package of goodies called The Monty, which had in it, 200 tea bags, 20 Chocolate Mallows, a jar of instant coffee, ginger snaps, triple chocolate cookies, shortbread and some rocky road bites

Easter and Lindsays Birthday

By

On 13th April 2020

In Blog

My recovery from Covid-19 is going well, the CPAP is helping a lot.

We also had Lindsay birthday today and we had a nice long weekend of doing stuff she enjoys taking into account my current limitations.

We watched The Fellowship of the Ring on Saturday, we had hoped to do all three films in one day, but my inability to go more than a few hours without having to have a nap put paid to that.

Today we had planned to have a BBQ over FaceTime with Lindsays sister Jane, her boyfriend Rob and her three sons, Willem, Brandon and Jonah, because Lindsay would have lived nothing more than to see her nephews and nieces, siblings and grandad today.

But the weather was not good for Jane and Rob so we are doing that on Wednesday but we still had our BBQ food for lunch, only because it was so cold Lindsay and Megan insisted on doing it in the oven because I wasn’t well enough to use the grill.

Our afternoon plans were changed because Willem developed a temperature which put Jane into quarantine and prevented her getting shopping so Lindsay had to rush out and grab some essentials she needed.

So it’s been a bit of a funny day, but we will do something nice to celebrate when the crisis is over.

I finally wiped my PCs hard drive and reinstalled Windows 10, after putting it off for ages.

There were a few little juggling issues with it, VLC refused to load at all, a friend had logged into their iCloud Music Library which meant I couldn’t play any music from mine for 90 days and in general it was running a bit slow.

So I wiped my SSD and reinstalled Windows, and upgraded to Office 2019, Lindsay keeps saying she wants to get Office 365, but I admit I am a bit unsure about software I need to subscribe to use, hence why I still use Adobe CS6 instead of Creative Cloud which is quite expensive for what I need.

I also took the time to install a few games, I don’t play enough games on my PC and I have a fair sized Steam library that I have expanded through the years thanks to Humble Bundle.

What Am I Modelling

Things have been slow, I am slowly getting myself able to sit at the desk for longer and longer periods without having to go back to bed.

I started off by finally finishing up some bits for Niki’s Death Korps of Krieg, specifically his Grenadiers with Heavy Stubber and Meltagun and a Death Riders Ridemaster.

And this was followed by the Quartermaster and a Retinue, these were a little intimidating as I wasn’t sure about how to approach them.

I then turned to some Nighthaunts for myself and painted three sets of Myrmourn Banshees, and at the same time as painting those I also painted the Tomb Banshee and Briar Queen as they both use a similar colour scheme.

I made a change to my painting plan at this point and slotted in the models for a Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Chamber Warcry warband, so that’s some Vanguard Rapters with Hurricane Crossbows, Aetherwings, Vanguard Hunters, and some Gryph Hounds.

So I started by priming them all obviously, the Stormcast with Macragge Blue, half the Gryph Hounds in Grey Seer and the other half and the Aetherwings in Mechanicus Standard Grey, I also had the Gryph Hound from the Easy to Build Castigators already primed in Black.

I also stupidly decided to complete my Edge of Empire hobby pledge and started painting a Predator for my Heresy Death Guard.

Sunday I was able to sit at my desk for three hours, the longest in nearly two weeks, it felt good to have a long undisturbed session of painting.

It allowed me to get the Aetherwings to the stage of having the feathers washed and the tree trunks dove, and the Predator to the point that the hill colours were complete.

And Monday I got them competed, the Predator first.

And then finished off the Aetherwings.

Now on my desk are 6 Gryph-Hounds and the single Gryph-Hound from the Easy to Build Castigators.

My painting plan has changed slightly, due to what I have built I have taken the Chainrasps out of the plan and replaced them with the Glaivewraith Stalkers I have built and the Thorns of the Briar Queen.

  1. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Chamber Warcry Warband and Death Guard Predator
  2. Blood Ravens Bikes x 3 and Attack Bike with Multi-Melta
  3. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Weapons Men x 10
  4. Glaivewraith Stalkers x 8 and Thorns of the Briar Queen
  5. Blood Warriors x 5 & Mighty Lord of Khorne
  6. Canniness Veridyan
  7. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Weapons Men x 10
  8. Untamed Beasts x 9
  9. Tech-Priest Manipulus
  10. Stormcast Eternals Celestar Balista x 2 & Lord Ordinator

What I am Reading

I am still making my way through Tales from the Crucible, it’s hard going because the app is so utterly dreadful on my phone.

What I Am Playing

On Sunday we played a couple of games, we started with Alhambra, the first time we played with the Designers Edition Mega Box, and it was a lot of fun, although I came last and Megan won by a country mile.

Then we played a shirt game of Blank, which Lindsay won despite being forced to mime for the whole game!

What I Am Backing

I backed the Forgotten Chambers project for some Purity Seals and Parchment transfers, which I think will be brilliant for my Sisters of Battle.

It’s down to ship in June, but given the Covid-19 crisis, I don’t expect it to ship until much later as printers are not an essential business.

What I Am Cooking

I did cook something, a sausage stir fry for lunch on Sunday, it was quite nice and is a real comfort food for me.

It’s something my dad used to cook to cheer me up, but his usually had bacon lardons in and used a pack of savoury rice. I didn’t have lardons, and I am hardly gonna send Lindsay it Megan out for them in this crisis, and I used microwave rice instead of savoury rice.

What I Am Spending

I needed some paint so I hit up Jus at Battle Bunker and got a Rukkatruck Squigbuggy at the same time, which means me and Megan have all six Ork buggies to paint up at some point.

Some stuff I had ordered from Element Games was finally delivered, on Easter Monday, which is weird, but I got some Azyrite Ruins, Baleful Realmgates and Nurgle Daemon Card’s for Warcry.

Corona, Oh My Corona!!!

By

On 8th April 2020

In Blog

This past week and a bit I have been quite unwell with Covid-19. I first fell ill a week ago Sunday and it since developed into mild pneumonia.

It was a horrible cough and my fever was only slight and only for a very short period, but my lungs have taken a beating and I am now on antibiotics. The doctor said under normal circumstances that I would be admitted to hospital, but that’s the last place they want to send me right now.

So I am at home being looked after by Megan and Lindsay, the CPAP machine helps a lot and they moved a TV and Sky Q mini box into mine and Megan’s bedroom so that I can watch TV in bed, because sitting up is really hard.

I understand now why I am supposed to be shielded, and annoyingly because without testing me they can’t be sure it’s Covid-19, I still have to do the whole 12 weeks.

I really don’t want anyone I love getting this, it really did a number on Megan with her asthma, Lindsay was mostly better in a couple of days, but I dread to think what would happen if this ended up in Geoff or my nana.

Anyway guys, stay safe!

What I Am Modelling

I did get some painting done, specifically the Age of Sigmar and Warcry terrain.

I started with a few test pieces, specifically the bell tower and a few bits of small pieces from the Warcry core box.

Then I finished off the rest of the scatter terrain and two of the core box ruins.

Then I finished off the ruined city and the statues form the two other sets of terrain, as well as the first bit of the Stormvault terrain.

Then I finished the Defiled Ruins buildings and the columns for the Shattered Stormvault.

And finally I painted the two Stormvaults.

I have been slowly working my way through a few bits of Death Korps of Krieg for Niki and hope to have those finished tomorrow.

My current painting plan looks like this.

  1. Death Korps of Krieg Special Weapons Grenadiers x 4, Death Riders Ride Master, Quartermaster and Retinue
  2. Myrmourn Banshees x 12 & Tomb Banshee
  3. Blood Ravens Bikes x 3 and Attack Bike with Multi-Melta
  4. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Weapons Men x 10
  5. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  6. Blood Warriors x 5 & Mighty Lord of Khorne
  7. Canoness Veridyan
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad Special Weapons Men x 10
  9. Untamed Beasts x 10
  10. Tech Priest Manipulus x 2

What I Am Reading

Reading has been very hard but I have read a couple more short stories from Tales from the Crucible.

What I Am Playing

I managed an hour on Fallout 4 this week before I had to return to bed.

What I Am Backing

Sadly nowt

What I Am Cooking

I haven’t been in any state to cook 🙁

What I Am Spending

I did treat myself to a few new paints that I needed, some from Magic Madhouse and some from Battle Bunker, and a few other small bits and bobs, just waiting for them to arrive now.

12 Weeks Lockdown

By

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.

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