After staying busy throughout October, my family and I then hit a rough patch at the start of the current month. Nothing too dire, mind you, but stressful enough to kill most of my hobby and blogging motivation for the past few weeks. Normally painting is a great relief for me but I was in too much of funk to even pick up a brush for a while. Fortunately everything seems to be working out for the best now and I've started to get my hobby-groove back. Yippee!
Thus with the will to paint having been restored I finally got down to business and began working on my Sea Dog for the charity auction Project: Orange Crush (Hunger), part of Foodmachine 2011. (You can see my original post about getting involved here if you like.) I finished painting my pirate this past weekend and I'm really pleased with how he turned out. I had planned on keeping this under wraps until the auction goes live but I'm simply too excited to wait that long. Therefore I'm going to hold off from showing any further photos for the time being, though I cannot resist presenting at least one shot of my contribution to the effort. I'll have plenty to say later on about painting the miniature and the project itself, but until then here's the first look at my Sea Dog:
While painting my pirate I also spent some time thinking about the hobby in general and what I would really like to be doing with it. To help me out I reconvened my war council so as to determine the best use of my hobby time. After some discussion concerning various army projects and the different game systems with which I've been experimenting, it became apparent that I have not adapted to my new environment and instead I have continued on as if I were still living in a hobby wasteland. Despite moving more than six months ago to a much more gamer-friendly city, I have been slow to take full advantage of these new opportunities.
Once again I had allowed side projects to take precedence over my painting time, neglecting what I had initially intended to focus upon after moving to Asheville. While I am still very keen to get deeper into Dystopian Wars, Infinity, Malifaux, and Flames of War, there is just no way these other games can compete locally against 40k with regard to the availability of opponents and the potential to play games on a regular basis. I was starved for gaming in Charleston, yet now it would be no problem at all for me to play a few games of 40k every week should I choose to do so. I have been dissatisfied however with the state of my armies for quite a while and so, in order for me to get back into proper 40k-gaming form, I have decided to rededicate myself to working on my Raptors Space Marines.
Ideally I'd like to have 1500 points worth of Raptors painted by the end of this year. From there I will continue to expand the army with the goal of having significantly more painted in time for the release of 6th Edition. I always feel like I'm caught flat-footed whenever a new edition comes out and so this time around I want to be prepared as much as possible by having an army I'm happy with painted and ready to go as soon as the new rules drop. And in the meantime, if all goes accordingly, I'll have something I can take to the FLGS so as to enjoy these waning days of 5th Edition. That's my plan for now at least and I'm starting off by painting a squad of sniper Scouts.
The last thing I want to mention for this update is that starting tomorrow I will be doing another little giveaway for those of you Following my blog. I'll most likely post the details sometime tomorrow night (November 24th) though I'm not exactly sure when due to it being a holiday and the potential for post-turkey lethargy. At this point I just want to give everyone a heads-up in case you're interested. It's going to be a simple random drawing so all you'll need to do is check in occasionally to find out if you've won.
Okay, that's it for now. I hope everyone is doing really well... happy painting and gaming!
Good to hear you're still around.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you got through the rough patch. I know from personal experience it's tough to do.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Looks great :) I got mine shipped on Monday!
ReplyDeleteSometimes shifting gears is just needed to keep interest up.
Love the paint job :)
ReplyDelete@ The Angry Lurker - Thank you, it's great to be back!
ReplyDelete@ Loquacious - Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, Loq! Best wishes to you and your family!
@ Dave G - That's awesome to hear that you were able to send your guy in already, I can't wait to see how it turned out. I'm really glad you like the way my pirate ended up looking. Sorry I couldn't wait but I plan on highlighting as many of the minis as I can from the army when they launch the auction. Thank you again for volunteering, I'm excited to see how all of this comes together. Cheers, Dave!!
@ Fnurgn - Thank you, I really appreciate that!
Hi Papa, really good to see you haven't dropped off the face of the hobby entirely. Also glad to hear you're through your rough patch. Life's hard enough as it is at the moment without having extra things to deal with on top of all that. Loving the pirate by the way!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Frontline Gamer! I know you've had your share of hard luck as well recently, I hope you're doing better too. Solidarity. Hope you're not too disappointed that I'm putting Infinity aside for the moment... I'll hopefully get back to it before too long. Thanks, buddy!
ReplyDeleteNot at all Papa JJ. Any hobby is better than no hobby right? Besides, you'll just have to become the early adopter or pioneer for your area. ;)
ReplyDeleteSeriously I was in a similar position to you for so long. Where I live is a veritable hot bed of 40k. For years I tried to convince others, mainly to no avail. I had to make trips all around the UK just to get a game sometimes. Thing is 3 or 4 years ago I started to notice a distinct change in attitudes.
At first I thought my friends were humouring me. Then they started buying stuff. Slowly at first, mainly Warmachine. Then after 8th Edition Fantasy that became a flood amongst some. I now find it easier to get a game if Infinity, Malifaux, Dystopian Wars or Warmachine than I do say fantasy. True there appear to be a lot of people round by me who 'collect' 40k still, but not so many playing it. Build it and they will come my friend.
Thank you, FG. It's really encouraging to hear how you were able to get your friends over time to begin playing those other games that interested you more. I've been in that role as well in the past but never had much success, especially those times when I've lived in areas without a lot of gamers to begin with. Now however I am much more optimistic about being able to broaden my gaming horizons. In the meantime I'm just really excited about being to play games again regardless of which set of rules I'm using. As you say, any hobby is better than no hobby. Thank you, Frontline Gamer, it's always great to hear from you!
ReplyDeleteYep I say go to any local community be friendly. welcoming and willing to give games a go, really get stuck in and eventually people will want to play you at game no matter what they are. Offer intro games and people will more than likely say yeah, if they like you. The hobby world is changing right now, and more and more people are branching out from GW's hegemony.
ReplyDeleteThat's great advice, thank you! I agree wholeheartedly with you. The attitude you bring to your gaming and hobby interactions has a tremendous effect on how others respond in kind. No matter how cool a game is or its minis, who's going to want to play if the guy pushing it is a jerk? I think these are very interesting and exciting times for us gamers as more and more well-crafted alternatives become available. I'm glad there are good people like yourself in the vanguard of this movement. Thanks, Frontline!
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