This means I am now on 2470 points before the next edition drops!
Still to finish I have a couple of units of Squig Hoppers, some Squig Herds, a Dankhol Troggoth, Skragrott the Loonking and some Rockgut Troggoths.
Get My Drukhari To 2000 Points – 58% Complete
No progress, need to buy some more units, I have some more Helions and Reavers to paint, but that’s it right now.
Want some Wracks, but having issues getting them.
Complete My Video Game Geek Hardcore 10! – 60% Complete
This month I completed Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster, it’s one of the alternative three, so will only count at the end of the year if my main ten aren’t done
Since Insulationgate last October, at least one wall in every room of the house has needed a coat of paint.
And yeah it’s a bit depressing, due to disagreements between the insulation contractors, the landlord and the government, we decided to cut them all out and decorate ourselves.
It’s not that we couldn’t have just waited for them to sort it out, it’s more, we want to avoid massive disruption, so we are doing this ourselves at our own pace.
Megans room is the first to be done, we had to start with a mist coat, which was very runny.
That was done on the Monday, two coats overall.
The on Tuesday, we did three coats of Brilliant White, yeah it’s full, but it’s what the rest of the rooms are painted. When you rent it’s often easier to keep what the landlord had, so we don’t need to redecorate too much when we eventually move out.
It took three coats, but we got there in the end.
The next room getting done is mine and Lindsay’s bedroom and we may at the same time do the ceiling in my studio.
The studio is going to get a bit of a refurb at the same time, we are adding the 3D printer there, so taking the time to change a few things up, especially now that Lindsay works up there and I will never be using the gaming table again as a result.
So yeah that’s about it, gonna do Lindsay’s room next week, and that will be fun!
What I Am Modelling
I started off with the Von Ryan’s Leapers for the Tyranid’s Combat Patrol
And I have a box full of Stormcast stuff that’s never been touched, so I am thinking of painting them up as Hallowed Knights, I already have Gardus Steel Soul painted up.
So I used the Gamer Grass base I got from the UK Game Expo to paint up this test model, which I am rather happy with
So there is going to be an election, I don’t have much to say on the matter.
But get to know your candidates and vote for the person you think would do best for your area.
But what I would like to say is that right now, the UK is broken, schools are falling apart due to dodgy concrete, the roads are full of potholes, rent is stupidly high, the cost of living is out of control and things are just broken.
So with that in mind, I think we need to make a choice on who we think is best placed to fix whats gone wrong over the past few years.
What I Am Modelling
I started out with a Mega Boss on Maw-Krusha to join my Ironjawz
I then painted up some Glaivewraith Stalkers I had sitting in a box, they were in a weird state, a bit of disreppair, no idea how I came into ownership of them, but I didn’t build them, so there was a bit of work involved, but they give me a chance to try out some new rust techniques.
I had an Amazon voucher from a redund, so I grabbed Bayonetta 3 for the Switch, just need to hunt down a copy of the second game without being ripped off now!
At the minute my servers files are all over the place, we have 13TB of space but the files are spread out randomly with some films and TV series on each drive, audio books split into 3 folders, 8 different book folders and documentaries and kids stuff spread out all over the shop!
So we are struggling with managing what’s where, and thus, we decided to expand with another 4TB of space, by adding this drive from Amazon to it
So right now I have all the films transferring into this, which should mostly fill it, the last folder is currently transferring and will need a little over 20 hours to complete the move!
Then all TV Series will be moved to the 6TB drive, and other stuff, like documentaries, kids, concerts, standup, anime etc, will move on to the original 4TB drive.
Music has already been transferred to its own dedicated 1TB drive which it’s nowhere near filling as I have still transferred barely anything of our music collection over!
That will leave a 2TB drive, which is going to store things like books, comics for which I intend to install Kavita in an attempt to do for books what AudioBookShelf is doing for audio books.
So to summarise what we have right now is
4TB HDD – Movies
6TB HDD & 1TB HDD – TV Series
1TB HDD – Music
4TB HDD – Other Media (Anime/Audiobooks/Documentaries/Kids etc)
2TB – Books/Comics
The last stuff being transferred is the final TV Series stuff from the original 4TB HDD to the 6TB HDD
The process is allowing me to do some long overdue data hygiene as well!
Long term a dedicated device for the server will happen, with bigger hard drives running in RAID and offering NAS functions, but that’s gonna happen after I decide what to do about upgrading my PC next.
I am torn between replacing the mobo, CPU and RAM and moving to an AM5 CPU, or upgrading either the GPU to a 4070 Super or perhaps even just the CPU to a 5800X3D, just got to figure out what’s gonna give the best result for my meagre £s
What I Am Modelling
I started with an Aleguzzler Gargant for the Gloomspite Gitz.
Lindsay and Megan wanted a better way to use Apple Fitness +, so we got an old and cheap, Apple TV HD, in cosmetically bad condition (but works great) from CEX
Due to family issues, one wasn’t published this month, but I plan to upload two in April, starting with T’au vs Adepta Sororitas and followed by Dark Angels vs Daemons of Chaos
Its been a tough few weeks, we have had a death in the family and some other stuff that’s caused some challenges
I have been feeling my depression quite deep and its really doing a number on my life, I am really finding it very hard to even leave the house.
I know I need to try harder, so I am going to try and have a better month in April now that the worst is behind us, I mean that is all I can do right, just keep going and try to be better.
I had a particularly bad instance of doing my normal rushing ahead last week, and it hurt some of my friends, so I need to watch myself and keep an eye on my tendency to just rush ahead and not stop to check things are sound.
I am organising a Heresy event as part of my getting back on top of things, and tickets sold out right away, gonna try and have my Zone Mortalis table finished by then so I can set it up and try and convince someone to come play on it with me whilst I EO.
I finally finished sorting out all the metadata on the Audio Book Shelf server, and oh my word, that was a lot of stuff to deal with!
I still have to sort out the authors and series, but we will get there!
I am currently uploading my BBC Doctor Who audio books, which is a sizable pile, still need to buy The Church on Ruby Road by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, which is the latest release, might spend my next Audible token on it!
What I Am Modelling
Its been a bit of a weird period of time, but I have painted up two squads of Vigilors for my Celestial Vindicators.
I also listened to Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge by Gary Kloster which was pretty good, but I kinda expected the bad guy to turn out to be a Fallen, but it wasn’t and that was still cool. It actually humanised the Dark Angels quite a bit.
What Video Games I Am Playing
Finished up with Yakuza 0, and I have to admit, the story was phenomenal, really good.
I also sold my old iPhone 12 and was able to afford to buy the Solar Auxilia Battlegroup as a result, which you would have seen the unboxing for video earlier.
About a month ago, I realized that the geniuses behind Audio Book Shelf had released a native Windows version of the application. Until then, I had been running it in a Docker install. However, this method was slow and could only allocate 2GB of RAM, greatly impacting performance.
So, I decided to switch from Docker to the Windows version. Unfortunately, this transition resulted in the loss of all metadata due to differences in how Linux and Windows file structures operate.
Consequently, I find myself having to re-add all the metadata. While this isn’t an issue for much of the content, as Audio Book Shelf can scrape data from Audible, it’s a manual task for Big Finish, which constitutes the majority of my collection. Thus, it’s quite time-consuming.
Currently, I’ve managed to complete the metadata for all titles up to those beginning with ‘O’. Although it’s taking time, the effort will certainly be worth it.
Furthermore, I’ve adjusted settings so that metadata is now stored with the files rather than in a central database. This change aims to prevent similar issues in the future, particularly if I decide to switch my server back to Linux from Windows.
What I Am Modelling
I started off by painting a Loonboss on a Giant Cave Squig for my Gloomspite Gitz
We did add Blood Angels to the painting pile, for these the Librarian and Aggressors have previously been painted, so those models will join the Dark Angels.
So we now have 2 of the 6 Combat Patrols I wanted to get done this year done.
Bring My Gloomspite Gitz to 2000 Point – 56% Complete
I added a Loonboss on a Giant Cave Squig this month, and next up I am going to be painting two more units of Stabbas next along with a couple units of Fanatics
The chest is feeling better, I am coughing less and I am able to climb stairs without needing my inhaler halfway up.
But the fatigue is another thing, I think I have spent more of the last couple of weeks in bed asleep, than awake, and its pretty annoying.
It having a marked effect on my memory as I am forgetting so much, and I have become a real burden on Megan and especially Lindsay as she has family stuff going on right now.
Hopefully I can push though it, and I will try as much as I can, that’s all I can do right.
What I Am Modelling
I started the week with a Nexus Syphon for my Age of Sigmar terrain box
A couple of games of the 40k league, but the third one I was due to play today, I utterly forgot about cause of the aforementioned issues, utterly unfair on my opponent and I feel like such a dickhead for it.
a bit more of Yakuza 0, its a weird game, but I am loving the story.
I also returned to the Halo Infinite campaign, the last time I had fired it up until last Thursday was the day Mary passed away, so I guess that explains why I didn’t pick it up again, especially as we moved house shortly afterwards.
What I Am Creating
I published the next battle report of Combat Patrol, this episode features the Drukhari taking on the Vangaurd Space Marines of the Ultramarines Chapter!
What I Am Backing
Nowt new, but I realised I forgot to pay for shipping on the Firefly: The Game – 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition project, so we got that done, and I cannot imagine we will get it until later on in the year and not in the main wave!
But back in the day, Space Marines were the default starter army, S4, T4 and hitting on 3s with a 3+ armour save, they were decently tough, and didn’t need a lot to make them work well.
Plus they were really easy to paint and make your own.
But these days, they are not a good starter set, they have a bloated list that half the time makes little sense.
Here is the thing, how would you recommend starting a Space Marine army, its always been to recommend the Battleforce/Start Collecting/Combat patrol as they always included a Troops/Battleline, that you could build your army around.
But today, the Combat Patrol doesn’t contain a Battleline unit, the Infernus Marines aren’t one, and its a pretty elite force, simply not one that its easy to build an army around.
And even then, look at what is available, its so many units that its hard to actually look at the list as a beginner and figure out how to start an army.
A kid I know who wants to play Ultramarines was genuinely confused, because, they simply couldn’t figure out how to build an army, what they absolutely needed and how to synergise the army.
Look I am not saying Space Marines are now crap, its just really difficult to build a list as a beginner, and there is no starter box that represents the army as the very basic units which can form a decent core.
How would I fix it, well I would love to see a Combat Patrol with Intercessors at its core, the ETB Redemptor Dreadnought, and a Lieutenant.
Heck, why not release the sprue from Dark Imperium which had the Intercessors, Ancient, and two Lieutenants, then throw in an ETB kit, perhaps the Invader ATV, or as I suggested the ETB Redemptor Dreadnought.
Here is the crack, I ended up recommending the Dark Angels Combat Patrol, or the Blood Angels Combat Patrol, as these have generic units, one of which is an Intercessor Squad, a HQ and a couple of other interesting units. Actually, if you can, get both, they synergise well together, and just sell the upgrade sprues!
What I Am Modelling
I started the week by painting a unit of 10 Gutrippas for my Orruk Warclans
Followed by Snazzgar Stinkmullett the Fungoid Cave Shaman for the Gloomspite Gitz, which means I have now painted all four of the Harbingers of the Malign Portents!
I started to listed to The Talon of Horus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, it’s a book I have started a couple of times, but never gotten past the first 30 minutes cause I get disturbed then forget about it.
I was horribly ill on Sunday, so played through Portal on my Steam Deck for the first time since 2007, I want to play Portal RTX but my 3070 struggles with it!
We needed a KVM for the studio to allow easy switching between the media server and Lindsay’s laptop. This Ugreen one was on special offer on Amazon, so we grabbed it and it does what we need.
