For The Love Of Blood Bowl

I have a strained and complex relationship with Games Workshop which has been going of for four decades now. Some of it is the old grognard thing, part of it is the great betrayal, some of its the money but most of it, well practically all of it, is they don't make games I want to play. I do like their paint and its easy to get hold of but they keep changing their range, which is a pain.

Over the years the one thing I have stuck with it Blood Bowl and some of the above issues apply. I don't have a copy of the first edition because it was cardboard standees but with one exception I think I have the later ones. I mean the broke my heart when the change the size of the minis, but the new ones, well they are very nice. The star player price gouging contines. I see a few star players going for as much as two  boxes of teams and you really do need two boxes of teams.

When the first season arrived I got two sets of it as it turned out it was the cheapest way to get the extra positionals I needed to fill out the team. It takes a third box to get as many linemen as you could possibly want but who needs that many linemen? Then up to a point I was buying two boxes of each team. I now have a lot of unpainted teams. 

One of my goals for the the Year was to paint a Blood Bowl team but secretly I am hoping I find the energy to do two. That said, I am on the up at the moment, but I will no doubt crash soon. The miniatures make a nice painting challenge. They are expensive enough that I will put some effort into the paint job. Probably not what I am capable of, but pretty close. I have to fill in the gaps between seeing my daughter. 

There is the whole subgame of team selection. What have you got? What is the best value for money? Whats going to score and what isn't going to die. If you have the extra cash are you going to take an inducement or a star player?

Then there is the game itself. Whilst the rules are simple enough the real complexity of the game is in the teams. Most teams have a strength and a weakness, whilst some may have neither or all weaknesses (I am looking at the Halflings as possible the weakest team , but I do love Hobbits, although the snotlings are pretty kack despite the ogres). This means that each team favours a particular play style, running, passing, bashing and grinding all play their part and there is always the opportunity for a breakaway play. Most teams have some form of counter to their opponents plays.

Of all of the GW games I think it is the most loved and not just by me. Even it its years in the wilderness there was a thriving global community of players. It balances better than any of the new games where some forces that are great in the main game, are never going to win.

I used to be part of the MAWS wargames club and this is where I first started playing with my lovingly hand-crafted, appalling looking undead team in the early nineties. It gave me a love of the game and an urge to have all the teams. Speaking of which I should probably get back to the paint table.

Life Vs. The Lifeless

So I woke with the urge to paint. I got a few things done and then sat down and started painting. Then I got hit by a massive migraine. My migraines are mostly a morning thing so I usually wait until they are done before I start anything. I thought I had gotten away with it. Still here we are. My ten minis for the week are not quite done but I am working on the detailing.

I get to have some family time on a Tuesday, or at least a close substitute so I am looking forward to that. 

The some Life Vs. The Lifeless by The Beautiful South earlier. "Optimism looks up and counts the stars, pessimism looks down and counts cracks" struck me hard. As did "That's what keeps you alive, the thought of undeserved death." I am struggling but feck it, you have to keep going. There is only forward, there is no going back.

Progress At Last

I feel like I am achieving something with the painting. To be honest I don't really have a plan and I usually do better with a plan. My ten figures for the week now have a base coat which is most contrast type paints. I have even manged to get some paint on the bases and a few colours gave had a second coat. Still a bit more to do but I am confident that I will get to ten figures or more this week.

This has been managed with a little bit of tinkering with the Blood Bowl skaven. I am not going out of my way to paint them but if I have some paint left over I can find something to do with it, As brown and black has featured on the palette a lot today and yesterday this means there has been some progress on the further and bits of metallic armour. I have even manged to paint the eyes. I still need to come up with a team kit colour. I usually do my teams in the colours of a rugby league team. I haven't found one that  does the skaven justice. I am think predominately purple with some green and a bit of yellow.

End of the week (13)

Despite the best of intentions, I haven't got much done. This is in spite of the fact that the weather here is a bit kack. It's currently 2c which is the warmest it's been all week, and I am struggling to see the house on the other side of the street because of the fog. So I was going out but have decided against it. On the bright side I haven't run out of mince pies yet.

 

So staying in isn't much better. I have got a bit done but not as much as I would like. Having been full pelt for Star Wars Legion I am beginning to get tired of it. So I was thinking maybe it's time to turn the Legion stuff into the background project and start something else. That said I have finished thirteen figures this week. This isn't start to finish but they have been hanging around for a while.

I have added some tauntaun riders into the mix although I need to find a few bits to finish them off. I am quite happy for these to be the Background Project.

So for the change I have dipped into my primed and based queue. This is a long queue. So entering the foreground is a bit of a mix of modernish / sci-fi in 28mm. Some  of it is Stargrave, which for some reason is on my mind. There is some stuff from Scotia. I mainly brought these because I think Mark Copplestone created them. There is a solitary Crooked Dice post-apocalypse mini. Then there is one guy that I have no idea where he comes from. I will be sticking with contrast type paints in the main so confidence is high that I will manage to complete these, start-to-finish, this week.

At the New Year I promised to paint a Blood Bowl Team this year. So I found my Skaven team. Well some of it at least. As the Star Wars Legion stuff is the background project, these are even further back. I haven't even settled on colours for the kit. Still I can paint the flesh fur, boots and the like. I had kind of promised myself that I wouldn't add anything else to the bench until I had finished some more stuff. What can I say, I am a week person.

Anyway, this is my bingo score card for the week. I am happy with my results so far but I am beginning to think some of my choices are a little ambitious.

End Of The Week (30)

Christmas and post Christmas are usually quiet weeks for me. The holidays have a way of getting in the way. To be honest if it is a choice between spending time with my daughter and paint, she wins everytime. In the time that I have had I have been finishing off some minis. Mostly Star wars Stuff I started in December.

I realise that I haven't done the rims, but I still need to figure out what I am doing with them. So I am calling them done. So that's thirty figures this week. Technically I can call it fifty five but I am not sure I want to push it that far. If I could keep up this pace without real life getting in the way I would be very happy indeed.

Next week will be more Star Wars Legion. I have a few more figures to finish. Some are a lot less finished than others. My evenings look busy but the tail end of the week should see some progress.

 

The First Day OF The New, New Cruelty

I started out with the idea to do bingo to keep me motivated for the year. It works for other people, so why not give it a try. So I woke up and got on with it. I was looking at a good way to kick start the year. I have had a tin filled with work in process minis stuck on old GW paint pots which have sat there for at least two years. Some of them have taken a little bit of a bashing and they were all covered in fluff. 

For the last month or so they have been the background project. To the uninitiated this is something on the bench that isn't my primary project but is  something I started to paint with my usual gusto that has gotten lost with the appearance of the new shiny. Generally they only get touched when I have some spare paint on the palette.

So as per the rules of bingo, I have finished the backlog, painted ten minis and have achieved a bonus by painting ten more. As the rules call for figures completed in 2025, with the emphasis on finished, I am claiming three boxes. I can claim 106 items so if I keep up this pace I will hit my target by early February. Ah got to love the hubris of a New Years resolution.

Just to annoy myself I have lost a Wookie. Not a full sized one obviously. There should be four and I can only find three. There is more Star Wars Legion stuff coming. I think tomorrow I will finish a good chunk of these done.

Happy New Year or 2025: The Plan

 Well this is the first time I have done this for a few years. Fatherhood I guess. My little darling is with her mum and I have watched all the Christmas TV I can stand. So it's the end of another year and a chance to reflect. This is about the eighth attempt at trying to get this done. Fatigue is not fun. 2021 was the last time I managed this sort of post and I figured I have more direction when I have a plan.

I have done a bit more on the blog this year than I have done in the last few years. The blog has been on a bit of a decline since 2019. I will blame my health and the real world being slightly more important to me. I have found a bit more space and time towards the end of this year. Soooo...I think I will keep in going. This year will see as many posts as I managed in the last two years and I've done the highest number of posts since 2019.

I haven't made a huge amount of purchases in 2024, in terms of cash at least. I found a lot of figures for almost nothing. Mostly 28mm medieval stuff but a lot of random frames as well. Most was planned for Sludge or Turnip 28. It came with a load of extras. Then there was some Battletech and Star Wars Legion purchases and aside from some 3d printed oil barrels. I brought a couple of board games from charity shops and spent nothing on RPGs at all. The total is probably closer to £300 than £400. Spending in 2025 is dependant on my Bingo plan for the New Cruelty. There is scope for a change of plan.

I've been ill and this has really affected everything I do. I've been without a work space since 2023 and it was only in September this year that I had the energy to do anything.  Then it was October before I started painting. Historically I used to aim for ten figures a week. I guess I am closer to ten figures a month. Well not quite. I hit round abou fifty five. Still most were big figures such as Battletech mechs.

The biggest (and some of the smallest) were the Battletech mins. I've never painted Battletech before but I guess I have painted some stuff like it before. Something different I guess. Battletech is something I played back in the 80s. I was a bit meh about it then. Now I have two mates that are into it and suddenly I have played it a bit more. Enough that I have started to like it. I have some mechs in the queue that are primed, based and on the bench. I have kind of decided that I won't buy any more until I have painted what I have or are pretty close to finishing them. I might buy some more terrain.

I aim to paint more than I buy in any given year.. Failed at that. I found a guy on a car boot sale who was selling stuff off rather cheaply. This was mostly boxes. I guess I have had about thirty kits and a lot of random frames. I worked it out and I was pay a little over 10%. Most of the boxes are in a bigger box which has been hidden in the boiler cupboard. I have a good chunk of bits for bits boxes and a substantial Sludge army out of it. 

Oooh Sludge. I now have a substantial army glued together and a good chunk are primed. I need some more bases. I would hope to get this finished in 2025 and maybe get a game in. I like the aesthetic. Not sure anyone else does. 

Having acquired a 3D printer and a wash and cure station I think this will have an impact on what I do in 2025. The wash and cure needs a new motherboard but that shouldn't be too expensive. I might need to find the right project. I suspect I will aim more at terrain than minis. It is however half buried at the moment.

Over the course of the year I got two pots of paint, both for Battletech. By and large I don't actually need any more paint. My paint racks are pretty much full so I would have to laser cut some more. I have enjoyed using contrast and the original speedpaints. I might dip  my toe into the newer range of speedpaints. I did buy my first purpose built wet palette. I have been using a homemade one for years but couldn't find it. It wasn't going to cost that much more than making my own, so what the hell. Then I got some stuff to make my own transfers. I suspect I will make more of that in 2025.

Then there is The Damned from Atlantic via Game found. The current ETA is March 2025. So about two years from the time I backed it. I am giving my screen a Paddington Bear stare as I am typing.  It's five boxes and around another four boxes of loose frames. I wanted this very badly as the time. I think that time has passed. I am sure I will paint some but we will see. This was another reason not to back stuff online.

Star Wars Legion looks like it will play a part in 2025.  Probably at least as big as 2024. I suspect this will be a bigger deal as a 3D printing. About two thirds of what I got done this year was SWL. The new year looks like it has some releases of stuff I will like. So watch this space.

Every year I tells myself I am going to paint a Blood Bowl team. I have my Skaven team ready to go. I have actually played a couple of games this year and nearly spent some money on Star Players. I might just proxy them as I was looking at £100 for four figures. I have the dwarves ready to go and a lot of stuff still on the frame. It would be nice to get one or two teams done.

My Viking game got played a bit at the beginning of the year. I have painted a couple of dozen minis for this and worked on my background. In the round I could have done a bit more but I have almost everything I need. There is still some stuff I want in terms of figures. I still don't have dark age zombies in my collection. Now there is an idea I can get behind.

In terms of spending I am using the Bingo sheets to determine what I spend. I expect to spend more if I am doing more anyway. Given that I expect to be doing some 3D printing maybe I will spend less. This meant need to have a printing plan and not get distracted by new releases or old habits.

I usually allow myself one spending blind spot. As long as it reaches a particular objective. So one of my gaming goals is to have a figure for every fantasy trope class, of both genders for all classic fantasy races. There are always a few missing because, oddly, nobody does this in a single range. So I wait to find stuff that is about right or can be kitbashed. I can't face any more elves (or the people who habitually play them). Mostly good for male dwarves and adding to the females as I find them. This leaves halflings. Halflings are a bit of a bete noire. I get some minis and then I find something I like better. My role playing figures need to be kept in a broadly dark age theme. This may yet turn into Celtic Dwarves.

I finished about half a dozen Stargrave figures and some stuff for Frostgrave. No games tho. It would be nice to have a few games next year. I don't suspect I will be buying much in 2025. We will see what comes out of Northstar.

Whilst I like the idea of painting more figures than I buy. Some of what I bought was already painted but even with what I have this wasn't going to create a positive balance. And I am not thinking about the random purchases. Even at the high end of output, my backlog just found enough figures to keep me busy for something to three years. I look at it in terms of having the biggest pile of kitbashing bits of anyone I know. Do I count the Damned as this year or 2023? The plan says if I paint I can buy.

I want to do some more hex terrain this year. I already have a substantial number ready to get painted. I need to get some more hexes cut. I have some thicker foam and the plan is to do some trenches, tunnels and alien hives. I should really be doing some desert stuff to. I will actually have to use it. I do have the space available to do a couple of big terrain projects in the shed. Just need the energy to do that. And maybe a slight rise the the temperature

In the round I am hoping that 2025 will be a better year all round. I can see a couple of hurdles, but will will see. 2024 hasn't been a bad year and there have been a couple of high points but I am not sad to see the back of it.