Progress Report 12/26/16 - Last tabletop games of the year?

Happy holidaze are upon us! I spent the last week off from work but got very little accomplished on the modeling or painting fronts. I did go a bit nutty and decided to rearrange my whole first two floors starting with painting setup. Previously it lived in our sun room but I wanted to be able to use that room for my non-mini painting as well as hanging out in (cozy in the fall and winter and fresh in the spring and winter). After many hours of packing up and taking things up and down our treacherous basement stairs I managed this:

New basement dwelling for the basement dweller

Painting table (desk) all set up and ready to go again after carefully moving my entire miniatures collection. New set up has less (basically zero) natural light but I have a combination of about 6 other lights which keep it from being too dank. 

Pros

• No dogs in my painting area (so hopefully no dog hair stuck in my paint)
• Nice and cool year round (not too hot or too cold like the previous set up)
• Right next to my 4x4 gaming table (hopefully netting me more painted terrain!)
• I can talk to myself and not seem to crazy

Cons

• Less human and animal interaction (see last pro)
• A little basement-troll like
• No natural light

Painting with sunlights and plants

My current sun room painting setup is pretty modular (read temporary) with a folding chair and table though overall I am quite pleased with the change. I also rearranged my living and dining rooms to make things more open and easier to have guest over for entertainment (like hopefully playing games!). Speaking of having guest over - earlier last week Furry and I got in a quick Vanguard game of Age of Sigmar. It was his first game of Warhammer (of any kind?) and he did great! 

Table set up - Khorne Bloodbound vs Skaven Pestilence 

Plague Monks and Skrolk hanging out with the Plague Furnace

So many followers of Khorne! The wolves were stand in minis for Flesh Hounds

More rats equals more fun for the Plague Furnace! Shove off!

Line of topless barbarians is not impressed.

Cute little Korgorath wants a hug?

Plague Furnace managed to chew through topless men but got stopped by one with a whip.

This is all going according to plan...

I wanted to give us both a chance to try out some fun synergies with the two lists. Since I had not played either force there was a bit of guessing as to what would work well and what might just be for laughs. Big winners for Khorne and Furry were the Flesh Hounds. Two units of 5 each managed to chew through almost all of my foot slogging Skaven (Plague Monks and Censer Bearers). Add on their ability to shut down a magic phase and I really can't see why you wouldn't make room for them in any Khorne themed list!

For the forces of Pestilence the big winner was (literally) the Great Unclean One. He single handily managed to kill the most units between his magic, shooting, and close combat phases. Of course the Mighty Lord of Khorne probably could have killed him in one turn but Furry realized that a bit too late in the game (and yes I did tell him about his general's fighting skills!). 

Game ended as a draw on objectives but a win for points taken out (with just my Hero units left on the table and running away). It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to get these minis all painted up and more games going! 

Meanwhile in a galaxy far far away... 

Spent one afternoon at the FLGS getting a demo of X-wing from a player who has literally everything that has been released for the game. It was a bit daunting to be honest but I stuck it out and played through a quick tutorial and then short 35 pt game. Ended up just barely winning by taking out the Rebel scum in a desperate strafing run from my star pilot (the either Tie Fighter having been blown away quickly in the game). The game seems like a good time and I can see why it has such a following. The dog fighting and maneuvers are quite cool and the key gameplay of action economy and synergy between ships, pilots, and abilities is well done. Overall I am just not that excited by Star Wars in general and not in love with all the spaceships. A fun game but one I don't intend to dive in to. 

Now that we are living in a post-XMASSSS 2016 world it's time to dive into my basement painting den and get cranking on some minis!

Boxes, boxes, boxes...

Hello neglected blog! Life has been extremely busy as of late.. did I mention I bought a new house and moved into it? It's true! As all this has been occurring my hobby time has been reduced to zero. It has been 1 week since I began living in my new home full time and things are slowly progressing towards that "moved in" look. After some electrical work is done this week I hope to have my painting/hobby zone put together and complete. As of now it looks like this...

One view of the new painting sun room!

My S.O. was nice enough to let me, my minis, plants, and paints have this gorgeous sun room in our new home. Looking forward to getting some painting done in this damn near idyllic situation sometime soon! Until next time (hopefully later this week)...

Progress Report 3/11/13 - Necrowhat?

Busy! Still busy. Did I mention I am buying a house? Things are looking 99% likely at this time and we are hoping to hear something concrete this week. If everything goes as planned I will be moving at the end of this month!? What?! Gotta keep packing...

In the meantime I have decided to not paint anything too outlandish while I work on gathering my meager belongings and moving them all to a new space. The regular KUBBL lads are still interested in playing some Necromunda so things are moving (again) on that front. Been bit by the "terrain bug" a bit and having fun slapping some stuff together out of what I have laying around. The results so far..

A bunker of sorts.

The back side (and access ladder) of the bunker.

Slapped together bandit tower.

The other side of the tower with sludge pool.

A crater with debris and a crumbled wall section of sorts.

Pardon the dust on the top of my cabinet. Just moved some clutter off in an attempt to begin the "move" and didn't clean it off before photo time. The horror!!

Also spent some time getting together my Goliath gang. It's strictly out of the box type stuff so far. Thinking about adding a bit of detail stuff still. Gotta break out the green stuff. In the meantime...

Behold! The Skullkrushas!!

Gangers - Arak Jawcrusher, Nazagut Limbripper, and Ragreth Boneshaker

Gang Leader Sergat Leadbelly and Gang Heavy Bozutt Ironjaw

Juves - Yuzong the Baited and some guy we don't know yet...

Still have a handful of weapons I need to magnetize for options and some details to do on most of the bases, but I think they are coming along nicely. Looking forward to painting them! I think this will be the first "40k like" thing I have ever painted??

That's all for now. Dropped out of the running for the KUBBL 3 playoffs after losing to the league leader due to a dismal showing of dice disaster. Playing a consolation match against Elves again today. Is there a better consolation prize than the the opportunity to kill some Elves!? I think not.

Progress Report 2/25/13 - Homeward bound?

Holy crows it is already almost the end of February!? Where oh where has time gone...

This month I have spent very little time on anything hobby related. New Warriors of Chaos? Sounds rad but I haven't even seen the cover of the new book. Then new Daemons? Mneh... not really a DoC player or fan.Michigan Beer Fest!? Didn't get a chance to go this year...

So what have I been doing? Not much... besides buying a house!? Yeah. Started the process early this month and at this point (today) we have submitted all of our loan approval paperwork on a house we intend to buy and move into sometime in April. DAMN THAT IS CRAZY!!! Now it is the waiting game to see if our loan is approved and to work out some small details with the seller.

Freaking out a little bit but mostly in good ways. New house has tons of character, nice neighborhood, huge garage and attached shop (for woodworking or other stuff), nice yard with a fence, and plenty of space in the basement for nerd hideout pursuits like setting up miniature wargaming tables on a more permanent basis. Oh yeah and it's close to folks who brew beer and can help me get that rolling again here in my hometown. So... all in all it is damn fine news !

I had hoped to finish up my (long) drawn out Blood Bowl Orc team this month and if you asked me at the beginning of last week I would have said I had failed at that. Then... voila! I slapped some paint on them in record time this week. And they don't look too bad either? Still thinking about how to finish the details (numbers, bases, spot colors, decals?) but here is where they stand today:

The mob with just basecoats applied.

Blitzers! Really happy with how the metal turned out.

Black Orcs! The metal was a bit of a happy accident.. or instinctual?

Giant Orc (Troll) and Thrower! I like the poses here a lot.

I didn't grab photos of the Lineorcs but they haven't changed much from the test models I did way back last year. Still no Goblin for the team though I will keep my eye out for a good addition. That's all for now! Off to play one of the last regular season KUBBL 3 games now. Wish me luck!

In case you were wondering, moving isn't that fun.

Back in Kalamazoo in my new home but still in the process of unpacking. I haven't managed to do anything hobby related in a couple weeks with the exception of the WoC games I played right before I left Austin.

My time right now is mostly devoted to unpacking, moving boxes, finding a job, and setting up my new house. Which looks like this (in case you were wondering):

Yup. Still plenty of snow on the ground here, although the past three days have been really sunny and "warm" (around 35 to 40 degrees with lows in the 20's). Perhaps the sun followed me here from Austin?

My hobby area is still a major work in progress but I have staked out a space for it in the corner of my "man cave" (where my computer, comics, and music equipment also live). The natural light in this room is quite good and there is a ceiling fan and overheard light to brighten it even more. A major step up from the dingy back room I was working in before. 

So far I have yet to find any broken models while unpacking so I guess my shredded paper method of packing them worked alright. Now it is a matter of getting everything back in "order" so I can begin working on touchups for my Adepticon list. 

That's about all that has happened lately for me. Life = moving. If you are looking for hobby related content you could take a gander at a new blog I was reading today. It's called Dick Move, and the reason for the name should be pretty clear once you have read a few of the posts there. 

What do I think about the focus of that blog you ask? Well... I think it is important for anyone writing and "publishing" their thoughts on the internet to be aware of what they are saying and presenting, but it is also important for each blog to have it's own individual goals and focus. 

For example, I don't consider myself to be the "authority" on much of anything when it comes to WHFB. I created this blog to chronicle my progress in the hobby and to motivate myself when it comes to painting and modeling. I post the occasional "tactics" article and army list but I would never expect someone to take my ideas and win with them outright, nor do I profess my ways to being the "only" or "right" way to do things.

I do this blog 90% for myself, and 10% for anyone else who might be reading it. If you can take something from my work or writing and apply it to your games or hobby... great! I find inspiration on a variety of blogs and forums, and I am glad to be of any help I can for those who wish to receive it. 

Anyway... rambling now. I guess the point of all that is I am split 50/50 on the content and ideals of the Dick Move blog. If the focus doesn't rely on slamming other people and talking shit about their work I can see it being an interesting read. If the point is just being a dick and bullying other bloggers ... well I guess you could call that a "dick move".