It's That Time of Year

It's the time of year when we give in to our desires for drunken midnight passion, then drinking a little more, then drinking a little more, then waking up between midday and 3pm resolving never to do that again.

Happy New Year

 Now on to my resolutions for the coming year, well for the hobby at least.

1. Maintain this blog: It is keeping me motivated and drives me to improve my painting skills. In the last 5 months since starting this blog I believe I have painted more miniatures than in the previous 5 years.
2.  For each miniature I purchase, I will paint 3: I am hoping this reduce my reckless impulse purchases.
3. For each miniature I aquire through gift or trade I will paint a single miniature. I am negotiating a large trade at the moment and I will not be able to paint 3:1 with the number of miniatures in the trade.
4. Complete a 1750pt Warhammer 40k army
5. Complete 1000pts of elves for my Wood Elf army, plus characters: I have a sizable amount of tree spirits but not many elves painted.
6. Complete a 50pt Warmachine or Hordes force
7. Post a picture of at least 1 painted or WIP miniature in each post, starting with the scribe above.

Well that's not a lot to ask of myself,  lets see how many of these I break before years end.

Until next time .......

Mark

These Smurfs are Epic

 I have been cleaning out my back room over this holiday period in order to and came across my Epic Space Marines, I was given these a few years ago after helping out a friend. I can't claim to have painted the tanks in the pictures above. I'm told that they were painted by Dave Taylor while he was editor of White Dwarf Australia, my friend was working in the GW warehouse at the time so it does give this some credibility.

This is my favorite one from the "pre-painted" vehicles, I'm not game to even try to paint the very small marines let alone paint chevrons, checks and squad markings.

I did have a shot at painting a couple of Rhino's. I think I may stick to the larger variety though, while  because quite frankly the predators scare me.

Until next time ......

Mark

A Plesant Suprise

While tearing open gifts under the tree this morning I was, well surprised and delighted to find a double action airbrush in hand. I have been toying with the idea of trying out painting with an airbrush for a while now but haven't been in the position to sink the money into a brush and compressor. The compressor is not yet in my possession, (curse you rural Queensland with your lack of local suppliers) but one is apparently on the way.

Now I am of the understanding that GW's paints are not really up to the task of airbrushing, if anyone who has experience with airbrushing could point me in the direction of a line of paints and thinners I would be greatly appreciative.

I hope all your Christmas's were as awesome as mine.

Until next time .........

Mark

Prancing Dancing Elves

I thought that I would keep in the Christmas spirit with these Wood Elf Wardancers that I have recently finished, there are two more batches to come after this to give me a full unit of 15.

Merry Christmas everyone and a safe and prosperous new year.

Until next time

Mark

Dark Angel's Chapalin and Friends

Here is my work for this week, I quite like the way he turned out. I was hoping to finish off the squad he runs with but unfortunately things got a little hectic towards the end of the week and I wasn't able to get them done.

I did however manage to get an earth elemental, pathfinder goblin #8 and a grey ooze finished for my role play collection.

Until next time .......

Mark

I Think I May Have ..........

I think I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew, since starting this blog four months ago I have painted more miniatures than I had in the previous four years. I have resurrected a lot of old projects and started a couple of new ones, and have found myself in a bit of a jam as I become a little overloaded coming into the holiday season. I have been working on my Circle of Oboros which was the whole reason I started this blog, working on a couple of Warhammer Fantasy and 40K army's, working on miniatures for Role Playing, looking at rules for a couple of new games, running a local wargameing club, laying the ground work for 3 tournaments and a Warmachine/Hordes campaign, participating in a campaign run by Trev from Triple Helix and starting a new job ........ deep breath ........ I have just started working on Skorne for Hordes and teaching some newer players the game of warmachine at the other local gameing club.

Warmachine / Hordes
The game has not grabbed me in the way I thought it would, don't get me wrong it's tactical, challenging, balanced and fun, but for me fun really needs to come before the rest. I will be honest I much prefer running tournaments than playing in them (I would say that I'm insane, but my shrink said I'm not) so I'm not really in the target audience but that has never stopped me in the past, I am going to keep painting and playing it just won't be at the top of the list. I'm also going to put the Skorne back on the shelf I don't have th inclination or the time to work on them along with my other projects.

Warhammer Fantasy
My game of choice at the moment, despite the problems inherent in 8th edition the fact that fun rather than competitive play is at the forefront of the current rules wins it my vote. The only problem I have is settling on an army, of late I have been spinning my wheels while working on my Ogres, Wood Elves, Skaven, VC and WOC all at the same time. I really need to settle on just one project and see it through to the end in order to get some traction and start finishing some miniatures. The Ogres have the whole new and shiny thing going for them at the moment but that is starting to wear off so I will probably start looking at one of my old faithfuls. I have a dwarf army sitting in bits at the moment as well but have so far resisted the urge to start on them as well.

Warhammer 40,000
40k hasn't received much love from me over the last couple of years, but I can't deny that I still love the miniatures. I have shown the results of my work with the guard in a previous post but I have been working steadily on my Dark Angles as well touching up some old work and starting on some additions as well. The other projects I have worked on recently include CSM Word Bearers, CSM World Eaters, CSM The Reborn (pg21 CSM) , Dark Eldar, Craftworld Eldar Blood Angles and Space Wolves. This is another case where I am going to have to sort out my priorities and find a single project to work on, at the moment I am leaning towards the Dark Angles but I have a soft spot for the guard as well.

Role Play
I have a lot of fun GMing a Pathfinder RPG campaign, at least I did while I could find a large enough group of players. With the release of the Beginner Box that may be changing There has been a lot of interest generated by the simplified rules. It also means less miniatures to build and paint due to the reduced beastery, with the added benefit of the cardboard pawns that come in the box that cover all of the monsters in the book. This will free up a bit of time to spend on other projects, as much as I would prefer the miniatures.

The Clubs
Other than the time spent at the venue the clubs don't take up a whole lot of time, things can get a little stressful dealing with the various issues you get between people that deal with each other on a regular basis. This wouldn't be much of an issue in a larger club but we quite often only get 4 or 5 people at a meet which means everyone is in close proximity and dealing with everyone else in the room. To date we have been able to sort things out relatively quickly between ourselves. Unfortunately rumors have been surfacing that there is a bit of a feud between the two clubs in the area, Kingaroy Wargamers which I have a hand in running and the other club that can't seem to settle on a name. Now that I am working in Kingaroy on Fridays I have started droping in having a chat and helping out a couple of guy's that have recently started playing Warmachine and Hordes. Unfortunately know one I have spoken to knows what this feud is about, I am sure it is simply a misunderstanding and could be sorted out quickly if I could find someone that knows what the issue is.

Tournaments and Campaigns
Each year I organize a Warhammer Fantasy tournament called Tricksters Blade and this year will be no different, I am also running a 40k tournament in mid January in order to catch the locals who are off at University and Boarding School during the year. I am planing a Warmachine/Hordes tournament for late next year that might go by the title Movember Melee if I can pull everything together. And I'm putting a Warmachine/Hordes campaign together as well, this won't start until our current Warhammer Fantasy campaign comes to an end sometime next year. The Claw and Iron campaign pack is available on scribd for anyone who wants a look.

Well I think I have rambled on for long enough now and I am impresed if you have made it all the way to the end. I am hoping this will be able to help me get my head together and sort out which projects I want to work on which should in turn increase both turnout and quality of my painting. Here's to future succeses.

Until next time

Mark