Blog Wars!!!!

My hobby mojo has taken a severe beating over the past couple of months, but whilst surfing FTW I spotted just the thing to give me a kick up the backside and get my hobby mojo moving again.

BLOG WARS!!!!

No, it isn't an almighty slanging match between all the various bloggers out there, it's a tournament being organised by Alex from From the Fang that he's setting up for 40k bloggers. So, I've signed up and committed myself to attending it. Hopefully, this commitment will get me off my backside and back into painting.

So, to all my fellow bloggers, check it out, come along if you can and get ready for a botty whooping!

Who am I kidding, it's been that long since I've played, I'm going to have to relearn the rules! As long as I roll some dice and have a laugh, I'm happy.

Going Tactical - thoughts on the future

I've been thinking quite a lot about the future lately, and what I actually want out of this hobby. I've had a great year so far, especially the six months I've been blogging but looking back at my posts, I realised something. I've had very little gaming this year, and that's a shame as I've always considered myself a gamer first and a painter second.

It isn't easy for me to get games, I don't like to play at GW stores, not until they start running veteran nights again. My local club is good but they get together on Fridays, which is often a busy time for me. Having kids ties up quite a bit of my leisure time and my gaming friends live over an hour away and have families, so getting time with them is tough.

All this has led to me getting very few games in, and it's something I want to rectify. I don't think I can really change any of the above, so I need a new avenue to explore and after a bit of thought I came up with tournaments. My lovely wife doesn't have a problem with me taking a weekend out every so often and I get quite a few games in a day or two.

The only issue is that in the past, I've always avoided them because of the competitive nature of these events. Now, I don't think I'm going to find any non-competitive tournaments and I can't expect other people to change, so it looks like I'm going to have to.

If you're going to do something, you'd better do it as well as you can - it's a phrase that's served me well over the years. I'm not going to become a power gamer using hardcore net lists, rather I want to try to use a themed guard force as well as I can. This means learning the game a lot more, learning the other armies and their play styles a lot more and learning how to use my army a lot more.

For those that follow my blog, don't worry, it's not going to become a tactical advice blog. I'm still going to posting my models, wip pics, the odd tutorial and an occasion thought or two but I'm also going to be posting more tactical and game reports. This actually works out quite well, with my upcoming 2010 special ops force, I'm going to have to put a lot more work into sculpting and converting and therefore more time between modelling posts.

So, here begins a new journey into a new aspect of the game that will hopefully end with me winning the grand tournament at warhammer world - Hey, you've got to aim high to hit high - lol.

In the current style of asking questions at the end of a blog to encourage discussion, I ask this - What are your favourite UK tournaments?, and if you don't have any, then why are you not into the tournament scene?

Demolisher added to 152 AAC

I've been busy these past few day, busy adding more armour to 152 Armoured Assault company. Vehicle number 4 is a demolisher. It's an old pattern demolisher that I've had built for a while but never got round to finishing.





I'm not sure what sort of Russ variant I'm going to do next, I've got the standard model along with a FW vanquisher and executioner turrets. Any suggestions are very welcome.

TOEMP

Along with a few other bloggers, I've embarked on 73rd's painting challenge. Although I was too late to take part in the first challenge (I joined quite late and was already working on the demolisher) I'm ready for the second. We've been challenged to paint 125pts worth of elites by the 27th!

So, I've dug out my codex and Marbo and six ratlings come bang on 125pts, it must be fate as I happen to have the perfect Marbo model and six cadian snipers. Yes, I know they're not ratlings, but there's no way those ulgy RT kickbacks are making it into my army, basically, I just don't like the models.

I'm planning to sculpt a cloak on Marbo, but this is going to be my first bit of real sculpting. If anyone knows any good tutorials on scultping cloaks, please let me know. Must admit, it's a bit daunting, but the whole point about me taking on the challenge was to challenge myself, not sit in my comfort zone.

Tournament

I never been to one before but with my local club closed for the summer (don't ask) I'm a bit staved of gaming. When one of the group sorted an impromptu tournament, I thought what the hell!

It's on Saturday, 1750pts, 4 games and I'm taking guard. That might be a bit obvious but I know the guys at the club frequent my blog and I'm giving nothing away ;-)

Finally, Stowage

Not the sort I plaster over my Russes, but the sort we store our models in. In an ongoing attempt to keep my nearest and dearest happy, I'm been sorting all my boxes and bits into stack and store boxes.

Well, if you're in the UK, I'm found a blinder, Morrisons are currently selling two 25ltr stack and store boxes for £7. It was such a good deal, I got eight for less than the new Russ kit. They're the green topped boxes in this pic.


That's all for now folks, WIP pics of Marbo and the snipers coming soon.