End/Start Of The Week - Forgive Me Father (25)(+47)

It's been four weeks since I last did one of these. This is mostly because I haven't had anything to update.

I have made a number of purchases (Forgive me Father for I have sinned, again, willingly and with forethought). I has after some BattleTech minis and some Blood Bowl stuff. I have managed to complete six goblins for my orc team. Reasonably happy with that. There are some in progress Skaven. I am less happy about that. I do now own all the minis I want for my Nurgle team. Varag is back there somewhere. When I start typing Varag the spullchucker seems to want to autocorrect it to Nigel. I ask myself if this is irony in action.

BattleTech is proving to be a pain in the arse. Which hasn't stopped me acquiring another 15 mechs. At least in the UK. Getting hold of it is becoming a pain. There is plenty of stuff that is just not available. What is available appears in batches. Intermittently. I am hoping that BattleTech Gothic dies on the vine as maybe they will get some regular stuff on the shelf. There is some work in progress.

Blood Bowl is not much better. There is a load of stuff that is unavailable on what appears to be a permanent basis. Unlike BattleTech, there is a fairly brisk second hand market. Like a lot of G Dub stuff, one box is not enough and two is not enough.

Star Wars Legion is back on the bench again. I had an unpainted Snow troopers ready to go. There are already a few in the collection but I wanted to finish these off. It's another game with stock issues. I am still looking for some dismounted scouts at the right price. So I have seven of these done.

There was one unit left for Sludge left to paint. For some reason I wanted hussars on the table. I don't have much cavalry for the game. The plan still calls for some more units. Heavy cavalry being one of the most important. This means another twelve horses and their riders. If I really pushed it, I wanted two of these units. This seems like hard work. 

Given the complex nature of some of the figures and the mounted nature of others, my complex calculations call this twenty five complete. I am wondering what to do next.

Forgive Father, For I Have Failed To Post For Two Weeks

A few weeks ago I was talking about my struggles with Blogger. This seemed like a lot of noise at the time. I haven't had a period that busy for some time. School holidays and all. I was wrong. That wasn't busy. The last two weeks was.

So I have had all the school holiday stuff, fun, well a lot of fun, but not conducive to the painting of 28mm miniatures. Then family happened. I had two tyres that needed attention, then other people have required four trips to hospital, two interactions with the police, additional dog sitting, a broken laser cutter, A new bathroom door (see dog sitting), two airport runs are the edited highlights. Then I had new cable fitted so I could get wifi. This took about a day off moving, tidying, fitting, moving and tidying again.

But yesterday I got some time. I have been working on painting quietly in the background. Even short periods have been causing me health problems. But I have made progress. I think I am up to twenty five finished this week. This sounds like a lot, but I have been working on them for over a month. My target for a thousand in the year is still just feasible, but seems less than likely.

So here we are. The holidays are nearly over. There are two more weeks and then its back to the normal routine. So should be resuming normal service soon. Ish. Maybe. I have been thinking about doing some terrain but I don't want this to detract from the figure painting. I guess we will see.

Frostgrave or Mordheim?

I got a freebie on Wednesday. The plan was that what I was getting was just going to end up in the bots box. What I got was some GDub Empire Free Company minis. A few had a rather heavy black base coat but most were just unprimed and a bit bashed up. SO with a quick base change I now have about eighteen free company, a couple of smaller, but similarly dressed minis, and a couple of zombies.

I play in a Warhanner RPG, I like Frostgrave and I have a mate that likes the idea of Mordheim. So lacking a project in mind, this was an easy distraction. It has managed to get in the way today. I;ve also had some British Winter Infantry turn up. Then I may have already purchased some more BattleTech.

Over Packaged And Underdelivered

A couple of weeks ago, in the midst of a Blood Bowl binge (I didn't order that much) I won an auction for Borak the Despoiler. He arrived today in a huge box. Well huge for the size of the mini. It made me smile.

I have Borak now. I blogged about him some time ago, so I must have wanted him. He was one of my faves in the old game. So a wish complete.

The Death of The Blogosphere

I was just going through my blog. Tarting a few posts up here, a spelling correction there. But I came to the point where I started looking at other blogs. What I noticed most of all was the Blogs I Like bit of the screen. 

Not every blogger has such a page. Every man likes the smell of their own farts I guess. Most still have it though. What we haven't been doing is culling the blogs that are no longer getting the love from their owners. I looked at Vampifan's page. A much loved blogger, who sadly passed n. But most are still hanging in there because people just given up. 

I can't really complain. There have been years where my post rate has dropped. Real life gets in the way. A lot. Something has kept me going. It's not the money. There is no money in it. Its about the love of the game. I guess it gets harder over time. Maybe blogging has had its day. I usually think about how involved I am with the blog at the new year. The usual time for reflection.

From the point of time I started thinking about setting up a blog, to the actual point in time it began, it took about two or three years. It was about time. The blog began when I had a bit more time and it thrived when I was spending more time at home. Its getting busier again as I have more time. So maybe thats what its all about, time.

So maybe its a time for a cull?  Or call it quits? I'm not that far gone. For me, my blog has had a resurgence this year. There is no way I am going to quite just yet. I haven't got to a million hits yet. According o the stats, I am stilling getting plenty of hits. Which I am assuming are real. So I will keep it going. 

Paint Stopped Painting

So I had another opportunity to buy some paint. It's not like I eed any more. Even at the pace I had been going at, I couldn't imagine needing, and I mean needing not wanting, in about ten years.

I am a bit of a paint whore. I don't care which range I use and I don't care who knows it. On the cheap. I've put some away already so I don't know the exact number. But it will be little over a 100 pots. So about £350 to £400 at full retail. Which cost me £4. Some have been used a little but are pretty close to full. So give or take ten pence each. 

So I have been sorting them out as they arrived at mine in a bag. I now need some way to store them. So this probably means even more paint racks. In theory I would like to put them all in dropper bottles. Which would cost way more than the paint. That would be in the region of £40. So maybe, maybe not.

There were a few MIG paints in there along with over dozen Vallejo paints. The majority of the paint is from the Foundry Paint system. This basically a triad system. There are a few incomplete triads, which if I like the range, I might fill out. I like the idea for layering colour and I considered buying into it at the time. There is a deal on the complete range, which costs as much as my first two cars. So I didn't bother. 

Still will give them a trial. Seems like the right thing to do.

Beware Of Geeks Bearing Bargains

To further ass to the queue I have purchased the BattleTech Clan Invasion box set. From a good friend, at a bargain price. I did this last night. So the set is now based alongside the last one of my unpainted mechs. Just the ugly ones.

The Clan Invasion was something I was never going to buy into. Oh well.