Home At Last

I'm home! It was another crazy drive and included locking the keys in my car, getting harassed by the police, and yes, even more detours. At least this time though I was actually able to follow the detour instead of getting lost in the Smokey Mountains. My hobby enthusiasm is totally fired right now and I feel very excited to get home and start some projects. I spent almost the entire drive home thinking about what I would most like to work on and have already started mapping out in my head how to go about it. There will be some totally new things, as well as a return to an old project that just never got off the ground. Now I feel inspired and am eager to get things rolling.

I've only been home for a couple of hours and I anticipate needing some time to recover from this trip. I will be writing up a description of my time at AdeptiCon, including a review of each of the seminars that I took, and hope to get it posted in a day or so. There might be some delay though as my wife decided to give away 80% to 90% of our furniture while I was gone and started some serious home remodeling projects. I therefore anticipate some additional demands on my time as we try to put things back into order that might keep me from getting to this as fast as I would otherwise prefer. I've also got more than six hundred (mostly blurry) photos to go over from the past eight days and I will try to figure out what to do with them as well. For now here's just a preview of a few of my favorite images from the con... enjoy!

AdeptiCon Eve

AdeptiCon gets underway tomorrow and I feel like I did as a kid on Christmas Eve... well, a kid who is going bald I suppose but you know what I mean. I've already seen tables scattered all over the first floor of the hotel, but what more will I see in the morning? I'm excited about the crazy display boards and dioramas and hope to see them as they get set up, as well as the potential for some early-arriving armies. And who will I meet over the coming days? I expect many of the writers and painters whom I've followed over the will be in attendance and if I can overcome my normally shy disposition, I think it would be fun to meet some of them.

For my first trip to AdeptiCon I decided to register for as many hobby seminars as I could. Despite being the main draw for many attendees, I'm not interested in competing in any of the tournaments primarily due to my acknowledged lack of in-game experience. Besides I already know that I want to come back for future AdeptiCons so there will still be more opportunities to play. So instead I thought it would make sense this time around to learn as much as I can about the non-gaming aspects of the hobby, and meanwhile just try to take in the scope of the event and all that goes on here. Fortunately I am spoiled for choice of hobby classes and was able to book a solid weekend of seminars. Here then is my schedule for Adepticon 2010:

Thursday, March 25th
WH40k Tactics Boot Camp (8pm-9:30pm)

Friday, March 26th
Live Flesh: Painting Skin and Faces (10am-12pm)
All the Small Things: Freehand Designs (12:30pm-2:30pm)
Here We Stand: Advanced Basing Techniques (3pm-5pm)
Metallics with a Shine (8pm-10pm)
Building and Painting Historical Armies (10pm-12am)

Saturday, March 27th
Hirst Arts Terrain and Casting (10am-12pm)
Painting Monstrous Faces (12:30pm-2:30pm)
Weathering with Acrylics, Dry Pigment, and Oil Paint (3pm-5pm)
Lose the Fear: Working with Greenstuff (5:30pm-7:30pm)
Moving Forward: First Steps to Advanced Painting (8pm-12am)

Sunday, March 28th
Stepping Up Your Game: Painting to a Competition Level (10am-12pm)
Airbrushing for Figurines (12:30pm-2:30pm)

I thought I had signed up for another one on Friday, Introduction to Miniature Painting (5:30pm-7:30pm), but I just double-checked my confirmation and it was not listed. Although there are some basics things I had planned on asking about, if I'm going to miss a class I'm glad it's that one. I imagine that might also be a good time to have off as one of my best friends of the past 20+ years, DrGabe, will be getting into to Chicago that afternoon and hopefully we can get some dinner together. Already I feel rejuvenated with regards to my hobby in a way that I haven't in a long time. I'm glad to be here.

Mountain Crossing

After more than 21 hours in the car, I have arrived! It's been a weird drive and I am very grateful to have made even if it did take several more hours than anticipated. I hit a bunch of detours and argued with the GPS navigator quite a bit, resulting in more than three hours of wasted driving on just the first day. Other than getting lost, there was nothing out of the ordinary during the day, but once the sun went down things got weird. I left the foothills and entered the mountains just as it was getting dark, going first through the Cherokee Reservation and then the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. I was stressed out just getting through the reservation with it's twisty, sharply curving roads, and I had no idea just how much spookier the drive would be going over the mountain range. Going up the mountain was bad, but coming down was nerve wracking to say the least. There was still a lot of snow and ice at the higher elevations which added to the surreal experience, as well as my stress. It was eerie and beautiful in the mountains at night, but on the way home I will be sure to cross during the day.

Since being detoured off of Highway 40 and into the park, I was going without the assistance of my GPS and so I had no idea what was coming next or how much further I had to go. I was very relieved to finally return to civilization when I left the park and entered Pigeon Forge, and what a weird welcome that was. I had spotted Gatlinburg during the descent and assumed Pigeon Forge would be just another little mountain town. Instead everything is lighted and flashing and it has a very Branson type of vibe going on with some crazy attractions and architecture. It all made sense though once I realized that it is also home to Dollywood, so that explains the gaudiness and spectacle.

As tempting as it was to stop and take in the sights, I pressed on last night to Knoxville, Tennessee. Taking into consideration the time I lost while driving toward Charlotte instead of Asheville, I thought I would be arriving in Knoxville around eight or eight thirty. As it turned out, I did not pull into the parking garage until 11:30. I was exhausted and my ankle is still sore from having to ride my brake pedal so much thanks to the mountains. I didn't leave this morning as early as I had hoped, but still managed to get on the road just after 10. Knoxville seemed pleasant enough, though almost immediately after leaving the hotel I hit yet another detour and got a little tour of the University of Tennessee campus. Other than getting turned around and lost a bit one more time, thankfully today's drive was a lot easier as it consisted of long, straight roads and seemingly endless farmland. I arrived at the hotel just before nine, got checked into my room, and have now started to gradually bring in all the stuff that I packed. Damn, I need to go to sleep. It's been a long ride and I am tired, but I am so excited to be here. Woo-Hoo!

Crisitunity

After careful consideration, it looks like my best option for getting to Chicago will be to drive there. I still have plenty of time to book a flight, but at this point I would just rather not. Being abused by the airlines is simply not worth it to me right now even though it would be the quickest way to get me there. But since I have the luxury of time on my side, why should I bother? My wife is okay with me taking an extra day to handle the additional travel time, so I think this will end up working out so much better for me. While I'm not thrilled by the 15+ hours that it should take me to get there, I have at least taken measures to make the drive as painless as possible and plan on splitting it into two days behind the wheel.

This means though that I will be leaving tomorrow instead of on Wednesday, and so I have a lot of packing to do! The good news is that I don't have to be nearly as careful in my packing now as I do not have to worry about the myriad airline luggage restrictions. Also this completely resolves my quandary about whether or not I should take any miniatures with me. Last week I had gotten to the point at which I was not going to take any of them onto the plane, but now I will be hitting the road with three or more army transport cases! Who knows, I might even take my painting lamp with me if I feel like it. This takes care of so much, I'm a little surprised that the possibility of driving to AdeptiCon had not occurred to me sooner.

In the meantime, there is much to be done. I need to get the car emptied out and cleaned, then get all of my gaming paraphernalia packed up and loaded. I will also be spending a good part of the day on laundry so that I can stuff a week's worth of clothing into my bag. Plus I'd like to be able to spend as much time as possible with my wife and baby today... leaving them is the one thing to which I'm not looking forward. Oh yeah, I also need to learn how to use the GPS navigation system in the car, as well as figuring out how to get music loaded onto my phone. Also I would like to go shopping to stock my wife up on groceries and whatnot to hopefully make things easier for her. So enough with this writing, I've got things to do! I'll try to post some updates over the course of the coming week, although I really have no idea what type of opportunities I will actually have for this. I'm going to be very busy once things truly get underway on Friday, but I will check in here when I can.

Right then, time to get cracking! If anybody reading this is also going to be at AdepitCon, feel free to let me know. I'm excited about getting to meet lots of new gaming friends so there's no need to be shy. Even with the tight schedule I have, I'm sure there will be time to raise a few glasses at the hotel bar... cheers!

Oops, WIP

AdeptiCon is officially one week away and I'm supposed to be in Chicago five days from now. Well, I just realized about twenty minutes ago that I don't have plane tickets. I had researched a bunch of options months ago, but then never got around to actually purchasing any. My wife was growing suspicious over the past several days that we had overlooked getting the tickets, and after searching around in my inbox this evening it seems that I currently do not have a way to get to the Con. But this is no time to panic, I'm sure I'll be able to work it out... it will just make things more interesting.

I'm still working away on the Lord of the Feast. He's a creepy dude and has some sort of bad mojo going on. Even though I like him a lot and think he is a cool miniature, I'm looking forward to having this one wrapped up and done. I keep finding little areas of skin that need to be painted and this has been slowing me down. Also I've made a few color mistakes and have had to go back several times to redo an area, so maybe I'm just being influenced by these delays and frustrations. Or maybe it really does have something to do with him being the embodiment of entropy as a force of nature. Who knows, perhaps I should blame the Devourer Wurm? Check out the WIP photo above to see where I'm at, meanwhile I'm still updating the Color Guide as I go along. I apologize if the picture is too dark, I'll try to get a better one in the morning to replace this one.

Regardless of whatever voodoo he might be working on me, I've got more painting to do. I expect to finish him up in a day or so. After that, I'm not too sure what to do. I'm starting to get the itch to paint something 40kish in anticipation of AdeptiCon. I should address that Chaos Sorcerer if only as an exercise in painting discipline. There are just so many other things I would rather work on, and right now there's not a whole lot of time left. It would nice to at least get the Tharn Bloodtrackers assembled, or perhaps some of the Minions that I plan on taking with me to AdeptiCon. Oh yeah, and there's the matter of actually getting to Chicago... nope, I do not want to forget that again!

Lord of the Feast WIP

Okay, so I said before that it was time to work on some units for my Circle Orboros army, but here I am posting about another one-off sculpture, the Lord of the Feast solo. I took Monday off from painting and instead opened up a blister of Tharn Bloodtrackers to see what would be involved in assembling them. I decided that I wasn't quite ready to begin on them and would rather do the Lord of the Feast first. I wasn't sure how I wanted to divide up the Bloodtrackers and realized that if I had the solo done, I could next paint the first six of the Tharn to give me a 25 point usable army. After that I can finish off the unit before moving on to the unit of Druids, thus bringing up the points total to my current goal of 35, which I believe to be a relatively standard size for most games.

As for the Lord of the Feast himself, I initially struggled to find the right skin tone to use on him. I want to convey a sense of unwholesomeness and a sort of general ickiness that I get from the miniature and his fluff. Although I like the soft grey colors that I've seen him done in before, I'm nonetheless happy with the progression of colors that I ended up using. For a skin tone, I think it looks pretty gruesome, although I won't know for sure if this was the right way to go until I can see how it looks with some other areas painted up. Getting this guy assembled was fairly tricky and challenged me enough for the day so I don't feel like pressing to get much more painting done on him tonight. I'm also not sure how I want to paint all those different areas of animal skins so I think I'll leave him alone for now. As can be seen in the WIP photo, I've already managed to break the raven off of his arm within the first few minutes of painting. I'm worried that this forebodes some durability issues but hopefully he won't prove to be quite as delicate as I now fear. Oh well, time will tell. I really like this miniature and just hope it all turns out okay.

Color Guide - Lord of the Feast

Basecoat: Chaos Black, Bestial Brown drybrush

Skin: 30A, Ogryn Flesh, 30A, 30B, 30C

Chainmail: 35A, 35B, 35C, Badab Black

Eyes: 4C, Gryphonne Sepia

Stockings: 11A, 11B, 11C, Devlan Mud

Leggings and Straps: 45A, 45B, 45C, Devlan Mud

Skirt and Hood: 12A, 12B, 12C, Devlan Mud

Satchel: 7A, 7B, 7C, Devlan Mud

Belt: 13A, 13B, 13C, Devlan Mud

Severed Arm: 5A, 5B, 5C, Ogryn Flesh, cuts done with Baal Red

Bracelets, etc.: 36A, 36B, 36C, Devlan Mud

Pendants: 32A, 32B, 32C, Badab Black

Skulls: Bestial Brown, Devlan Mud, 9A, 9B, 9C

Trophy Skulls: same as above and finished with Devlan Mud

Antlers: Bestial Brown, Devlan Mud, 9A, 9B, 9C, Devlan Mud

Sword Blade: 35A, 35B, 35C, Badab Black, Ogryn Flesh

Sword Grip: Bestial Brown, Devlan Mud, 9A, 9B, 9C, Ogryn Flesh

Mane: Scorched Brown, Dark Flesh, Red Gore drybrush, Ogryn Flesh

Trophy Hair: 34A, 34B, 34C, Badab Black

Raven: 34A, 39A, 39B, 39C, Badab Black twice

Base: watered Bestial Brown, Devlan Mud, Graveyard Earth drybrush, Kommando Khaki drybrush

Stones: 57A, 57B, 57C

Base Lip: 34A

Birthday Skorned

I mentioned about a week ago that my family gave me some pretty cool gifts for my birthday, including a variety of gaming items and miniatures. I wrote last week about how touched I was by the Daughters of the Flamer box and the warlock blister from my wife and on behalf of my own little girl, but that wasn't all by far! Pictured above is a complete 35 point Skorne army for Hordes given to me by my wife, with only a minimum of selection input from me. There's even an extra warlock in the form of Archdomina Makeda to give this force additional flexibility! She started off by giving me the Warpack for Valentine's Day, then got the rest for me over the following few weeks. To round out the army, my wife included a pair of Minions blisters, the Totem Hunter and a Swamp Gobber Fob Bellows crew. I'm particularly pleased with the faction-themed items as she tracked all of them down herself and I'm a sucker for these types of things. I forgot to include the Skorne paint kit and a blister of Praetorians, but everything else made it into the photo.

The rest of my family also got in on the Hordes-action and decided to add Trollbloods to my collection. In total I was given a Trollbloods Warpack, a Pyre Troll, a Fell Caller solo, a full unit of Pyg Bushwackers, and an Alten Ashley model. This means I've now got more than 25 points worth of yet another faction! They also gave me the Trollbloods paint kit and a set of Trollbloods tokens so I should be all ready to go with them.

I am very grateful that my family would go out of their way to get me such cool birthday presents. Even though I did help out by providing some ideas, I really had no idea that I would be receiving this many awesome new toys. I am still quite shocked by it all! I anticipate being very busy this year painting them. Also it is fortunate that my birthday didn't come a month earlier or else I might have ended up with a lot of Games Workshop stuff right before becoming interested in the Privateer Press games. Good timing, indeed! As it stands now, however, I benefited greatly and now have a huge jump on my Hordes collection. It was an awesome birthday and I had lots of fun with everyone, so again, thank you!

Shifting Stones WIP

I finished up the Gorax last night and thanks to some great weather, I was able to get him sealed earlier today as well. This means I now have a fully painted 15-point army for Hordes! I know that 15 points isn't much, in this case being just one extra warbeast added to the Circle Orboros Warpack box, but I am proud of the accomplishment regardless of its scale. I just realized however that I don't have any pictures of the completed miniatures posted here, so that all I've shown off have been WIP shots. Fortunately I am still working on a solution and hope to have some showcase photos added in the coming week. It turns out there is an internet cafe even on my rural island and so I plan on going there to do all of the uploading necessary to launch a picture gallery... my internet is just too slow for me to do it from home.

Having gotten to this point with my Circle Orboros collection, I feel it is now time to begin painting some units. It's been fun painting the individual miniatures, but I am now ready to branch out into new territory for a different experience. The first unit I'm painting is a batch of Shifting Stones, which are pictured above in the WIP photograph. I anticipated them being a fairly easy project and one I could get through quickly. I got them assembled and primed today while the baby was sleeping and had thought I might be able to take them from out of the packaging to completion in the span of a single day. Although I stopped painting tonight with them incomplete, I'm still pretty sure that another day of work should see them finished. Considering my usual pace, I would certainly be happy about getting a unit done over the course of a weekend.

As per my now standard practice, I have listed below the colors that I am using in painting the Shifting Stones so as to help me keep track of them.

Basecoat: Chaos Black

Plinth: 34B, 34C, 57B

Relief: 41A, 41B, 41C, 2 parts 41C mixed with 1 part 2B, Thraka Green, touchups with 41B

Plants: Knarloc Green, Ogryn Flesh, 28B, 28C

Stones: 57A, 57B, 57C

Skull: Bestial Brown, Devlan Mud, 9A, 9B, 9C

Base: Bestial Brown, Devlan Mud, Graveyard Earth drybrush, Kommando Khaki drybrush

Base Lip: 34A

Papa JJ on My Battalion

I registered today for the social network site My Battalion under the username of Papa JJ. Look me up if you're on there. I don't really know what to expect from it, but hey, why not? After spending some time on there over the past few days I think it looks like it could become a very useful resource for gamers, although that will probably depend on whether or not it is embraced by the online community. I hope it continues to grow a strong base of users and that it really does catch on with people. Although blogging is quite satisfying for me, there is something of a "splendid isolation" quality to it and so I appreciate the opportunity to connect with other hobbyists in a more interactive way, while hopefully still avoiding all the pitfalls that can be found in online forums. I would be surprised if you were to find anything like the hostility, vulgarity, and general nastiness which is unfortunately so prevalent in the forums. I think My Battalion could be just the thing for which I've been looking, and I am eager to see it realize its full potential.

Gorax WIP

I started work on the Gorax this past Sunday and even got to do a little sculpting to fill a gap with green stuff. The rope connecting the Gorax to his stone did not fit exactly together, it being a couple millimeters too short and left a noticeable area lacking depth and detail, so that is where I focused my attention. I'm uncomfortable with sculpting but I am satisfied with how it turned out, although that might change once it's been painted. Regardless of how it looks, though, it will have to do as I am not going back to work on it anymore.

As for the painting, at first I thought I wanted to try out a more unusual color scheme for the Gorax and decided to go with Slate Grey (32) for his body and Moss (29) for his mangy hair and fur. I quickly felt like this might not be the right way to go but continued to build highlights until I pretty much finished with those two areas. Something still seemed off about the Gorax and he just did not seem to fit in or belong when viewed with my other painted Circle Orboros minis. So Monday night I reluctantly started going back over the previously addressed areas, though this time I feel much better about his overall appearance. I'm now confident that I have the color scheme worked out and like the way he is starting to look now. If all goes well, I hope to have him wrapped up by the weekend. As with some of my other WIP posts, I'm keeping track of the paints that I've used in the following color guide. I will be updating it as I go along.

Basecoat: Chaos Black

Body: 32A, 32B, Devlan Mud?, 11A, 11B, 11C

Mangy Fur: Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown drybrush, 3 parts Bestial Brown mixed with 1 part Kommando Khaki drybrush, 3 parts Kommando Khaki mixed with 1 part Bestial Brown drybrush, Badab Black, Scorched Brown touchups

Claws: 9A, 9b, 9C, Devlan Mud

Teeth: 10A, 10B, 10C, Devlan Mud

Armor Plates: 41A, 41B, 41C, Thraka Green, touchups along edges of armor with 41A

Metal Collar: 35A, 35B, 35C, Badab Black, Devlan Mud

Straps: 45A, 45B, 45C, Devlan Mud

Eyes: 4B, Geyphonne Sepia

Big Rock: 32A, 32B, 32C, Devlan Mud

Rope:55A, 55B, 55C, Devlan Mud

Base: Bestial Brown, Devlan Mud, Graveyard Earth drybrush, Kommando Khaki drybrush

Stones: 57A, 57B, 57C

Base Edge: 34A

Check It Out, I'm 33!

Today is my birthday and am turning thirty three years old, so happy birthday to me! I don't really know what to say... I think it's going to be a great year and today was an excellent launch into this new age. I've had a lot of fun today and even got in some painting here and there. I received a bunch of cool gifts including some awesome birthday gaming surprises, no less! My wife went so far as to brave a trip to the not-so-friendly local (actually it's an hour's drive away) gaming store to pick out some miniatures herself to give to me. I'm really touched by her having taken that upon herself. In honor of our little daughter, she got for me a unit of Daughters of the Flame! Hmmm, I have been increasingly interested in the Protectorate of Menoth and so this could be the start of something exciting. Additionally for my growing Circle Orboros collection she also got for me a new warcaster, Krueger the Stormwrath! I still feel shocked by the thoughtfulness of it as I now know she really has been paying attention to my hobby beyond the painting itself, not to mention the courage it took to walk into such a den of nerdiness and dorkitude. I'll detail the other gaming stuff I was given sometime soon, I just wanted to express my thanks while I'm still in the moment.

I have good news to report from the painting front, too. Tonight I finished work on Kaya which means my Circle Orboros Warpack is now done! Woo-Hoo!! I had so much painting these miniatures and even though it was only four models, because of the nature of the game, they actually do represent a decent sized chunk of an army. I therefore feel like this was a real accomplishment for me and am encouraged about the prospects of getting some playable armies painted in the near future. I plan on paining the Gorax light warbeast next, then probably some units or solos. As for Kaya, the gold ended up being a pretty big pain in the rump but ended up looking good I think. The eyes however were really tough for me to get right and in fact I think they still look sort of jacked. Her right eye looks okay but the left one is not pretty. Is there anything more frustrating than botching the eyes on an otherwise well painted figure? I'm just glad the way the miniature is posed should keep her face hidden most of the time when seen on the tabletop. I suppose they're not all terrible bad and do look better than many of eyes I've painted in the past, but I am far from satisfied with my eye-painting abilities right now. Maybe I'll spend some time searching around for tutorials on the subject... let's see if this internet really is good for something!

Third Kaya WIP

I painted for close to another four hours tonight and got a lot more done on Kaya. No transcendental experiences like the last time I stayed up to paint, but still a good night nevertheless. Plus I feel like I ran out of steam earlier as well... it's been a long day for this dad. Other than the usual touch ups, all that remains to paint is her hair and eyes, her cloak, and finally all of that gold. Apparently people in the Iron Kingdoms like their bling. It's late and I'm going to sleep. The picture above was taken after I stopped painting for the night around 12:30 or so. If I can get to sleep quickly, I just might be able to finish tomorrow. Goodnight!

Another Kaya WIP

So after taking the past two nights off from painting, today I got back into the swing of things and returned to work on Kaya the Wildborne. The baby's nap this afternoon lasted about an hour longer than usual and I tried to make the most out of that little bonus hobby time. I really do prefer painting during the day rather than at night so I'm appreciative of these opportunities for to paint while she sleeps. Few things calm my spirit as much as quiet afternoon spent with my paints and brushes... oh yeah, and miniatures too.

Check out the photo above to see how I am progressing on my Circle Orboros warlock. I haven't put a whole lot of time into it since my last WIP picture, although there certainly is a lot more color in place now. I tried to hide it with the angle of my camera but you can still somewhat discern the overly thick paint buildup on Kaya's abdomen. As I mentioned before, I noticed this as a problem area while still working on it but there wasn't anything I could do to reverse the effect. The best I was able to achieve was to smooth it over a little by applying additional watered down coats of the final highlight followed by a wash of Ogryn Flesh. Fortunately this flaw appears to be a lot less noticeable when viewed in person until you put the figure right to your face. I don't know if it's me or the camera, but in the photos however I can't seem to not notice this. Room for improvement I suppose. Nonetheless, I continue to be happy with how she is shaping up and I'm excited about seeing the Warpack completed.

Second Month Slide

Hail Mars!

Woooo-Hoooo, it's March! Can you tell that I'm excited about the new month? I'm expecting great things for March, which began with a full moon no less, and I really want to make it a strong month for my wargaming hobby. My birthday is less than a week away, then at the end of the month will be my trip to Chicago. Plus I've got all sorts of great times in between with my wonderful wife and daughter so I'm starting this next year of my life happier than I've ever been before. I'm a very fortunate man and I am truly grateful.

Having said all that, I do have some unfortunate news to report. Like so many other people who made resolutions this year, I followed my good first month with a not-so-good second. February was a rough one for keeping resolutions. In the past I always thought that once a resolution was broken, that was it and there was no reason to not regress to whatever that pre-resolution condition might have been. I now have a different understanding, one which I anticipate will not be quite so defeatist and instead perhaps even encouraging. I now see that because these are resolutions to be kept for the whole year, I can still make up for falling behind in my goals. I didn't do as well as I could have this month, but that should not justify throwing out the goals themselves. I just need to do better, and it really is as simple as that. So let's review the resolutions and see how I'm doing.

1. After finishing the Dreadnought in January, the next three weeks passed without painting anything. Once I decided that forcing myself to paint those sniper scouts wasn't worth it, I was able to quickly get back into painting and was having fun again. I don't know how many hours I painted each week this month but I know I easily made up for the initial lack of painting.

2. I've thrown this one out as I no longer want to take my nascent Dark Angels to AdeptiCon. My new goal is to simply have my Chaos Marines ready to go with me should I choose to.

3. I'm not sure about this one as I do not know if my current lack of interest in 40k will persist. With further consideration, this resolution may need revision.

4. This resolution also may need to be altered to better suit my changing tastes in wargaming... seems like an Iron Kingdoms terrain set might be more useful. I'll be thinking about this more over the coming days.

5. I'm not drinking enough water, for which there is no defense.

6. A couple of weeks ago I was given copies of the HORDES Prime rulebook and the WARMACHINE MkII rulebook which will be essential to successfully completing this resolution. Thus far I've mostly just been reading background stuff in these books, though I have recently started reading the rules for Warmachine. By the way, I really like these games.

7. I've been filling out my Circle Orboros collection, adding my first units and solos. With the help of iBodger, I was able to pick out miniatures that would allow me to field a 35 Point army and added to my collection a Gorax light warbeast, 10 Tharn Bloodtrackers (one boxed set and two blisters), 3 Shifting Stones, 6 Circle Druids of Orboros, and a Lord of the Feast. I spent on these miniature $100.93, so I was therefore pretty close to my target, though I also got to help pick out some birthday presents which mitigated somewhat the shopping I might otherwise have done.

8. I did not do well on this one and need to make healthier decisions.

9. I still am yet to play any games this year, although this should be a good month for rolling dice. I'm really hoping I get the chance to play some demonstration games of WARMACHINE and HORDES when I am at AdeptiCon.

10. This is the most important to me and is one which I hope to be improving upon daily.

That's it for the resolution review... I knew February had been a bad month for some of these and I had actually been worried about reporting on them. I probably should revise my hobby goals for the year to make sure that they accurately reflect what I hope to accomplish this year. There is really no sense in forcing myself to play with a particular set of toys just to satisfy an arbitrary goal, especially if it ends up having an effect opposite to the original purpose which was to help me stay motivated. Although I want to honor my resolutions, I see value in modifying them to keep them useful and encouraging rather than obstinately leaving them as they are and just having them go unfulfilled. Something for me to consider, at least.