The Not Quite a Year in Review Post

Slightly jumping on the bandwagon (late, again) with this post but thought it better to use it to define a few new goals for the next year.

I've been back into the "hobby" for a little over 6/7 months and it's been a wonderous voyage of (re)discovery. LOADS of new models, some amazing rules for anything you can mention and the blogging of others have kept me stoked throughout. There have been a few dips in motivation and the tedium of painting similar models has got to me once or twice, but I'm still amped on getting things done as best I can. (Except maybe those plastic Skaven, those guys sucked).

Gaming wise - there's only been some rather sad solo games of SoBH and 2ed 40k, and while a blast it's not quite the same as facing off against someone. My scenery needs a bit of work but it's a millions miles away from the stuff I made as a teenager, if I even bothered at all back then!

Orks n Arbites on the rad Deep Cut mat (with my iffy scenery).

Anyhows, a few things I want to do in 2016.

• Keep painting 40k stuff. This past year saw me finish small 250pt warbands of Space Marines, Orks and Adeptus Arbites. I've got a Pirate group coming together but next on the list and (currently in progress) is a small Stealer coven using the Macrocosm minis. Ideally I want to expand these to 500pts and then possibly upwards from there. I snaffled some later age Ork figs from t'bay which should give me a good base for a potential 1000pt army. I'd like to end with at least that and an opposing force by the end of the year.
• Get back into Epic. I have a ton of this stuff and really enjoyed playing it so it's probably about time to dig it out and get it properly painted. I've knocked up a few 1500pts army lists to begin with so I'd like to get those done at least and see where I'm going from there. There is a very active scene for this out there too, and a lot of it in Bristol it seems, so who knows maybe I'll get adventurous and check it out.
• Warbands, warbands, warbands. SoBH is still a great game and I want to keep chipping away at various fantasy stuff until I've got a decent collection that I can pull out at any time and run off a game. I may even learn how to paint Skeletons properly this year too.
• Post Apoc stuff. Get started with this, it a loose aim and will probably end up as a project I work on when I'm sick of the others.
• More Goblin Quest! As the boy nears school age I'm hoping to get him a bit more interested in some gaming stuff. Keeping his attention long enough is tricky. I may have a look at simplifying (even more!) the SoBH rules and see how that goes. Either way more gaming with the boy in 2016n would be rad.
• Play against real live people. Unsure how much of this I will do, it may help if I bite the bullet and sign up to the Oldhammer forum to see who is out there, or just get along somewhere and maybe try a few demo games of something. There has been an idea thrown about of meeting up with Mark and getting a few games at the end of Feb so fingers crossed that will happen.
• Check out some new rules. Not really too important but I do like looking about. Frostgrave is getting plenty of attention and it does look fun, Infinity might be interesting but looks like it gets really involved really quickly.
• Get better with the painting. Again one that will come with time. I need to expand my paint collection a lot more and learn what to do with it (especially yellows). More reading and video watching there I feel.
• Lose weight. Personal one this but I turn 40 in 2017 and I'd like to not be rounder than I am tall by then. Diet fun!

So thats that, it'll no doubt mutate over time but it's a good start. I'm thoroughly enjoying delving back into all this stuff and hope to get deeper in the rabbit hole this year!

Happy New year everyone!

Dems kneebiterz

Well it appears I've knocked off one of the targets I've set already and completed some warbands ready for SoBH. Not a massive amount of miniatures to paint but I realised that doing 5 at once is quite a struggle, but lesson learned for that one.

Onto the figures and the warbands - first up is Garg Urkls Goblin Kneebiterz. A collection of some of my old Citadel miniatures, a new Goblin archer from Ral Partha (by Kev Adams of course!), a Reaper Bones Troll and the 2 "character" figures are from Black Tree Design. Also apologies for the pictures, taken on my phone camera and forced into the blog via photo bucket hence crappiness.

Garg Urkles Kneebiterz in "attack" formation "Clobba em ladz".

Urkl Wolfhak astride his mighty wolf Chuckles, ably backed up by the ever grumpy Shaman Harsk Dedhan

Smalt Furbak and Snurk the gobbo stickas backed up by Humk Lumpnbak the (semi) tame Troll

Der Kneebiter Boyz - Firgl, Kirgl, Shuk & Glunk

So there you have it, pretty much the first miniatures I've painted in 20yrs! Still a lot to learn, expecially basing and highlighting, although I don't feel these pics capture some of the shading I attempted and make them look a little flat. However I am pretty stoked on getting (most) of the paint in the right places, trying out a few new techniques and actually completing a small project.

These fellas will be used in my first few games of Songs of Blades and Heros to get a feel for gaming again. I've put together a little warband list for those of you interested in that sort of thing - there were a few liberties taken with the personalities but I wanted to shoehorn a Shaman and a larger miniature somehow!

Garg Urkl Kneebiterz

Urkl Wulfhak - Goblin Commander - Personality
Points 59 Quality 4+ Combat 3
Special Rules Fearless, Leader, Mounted

Hasrk Dedhan - Goblin Shaman - Personality
Points 50 Quality 4+ Combat 3
Special Rules Magic-User, Stealth

Smalft Furbak - Goblin Elite Archer
Points 26 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Shooter: Medium, Unerring Aim

Snurk - Goblin Archer
Points 23 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Good Shot, Shooter: Short

Firgl - Goblin Warrior
Points 20 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Gregarious

Kirgl - Goblin Warrior
Points 20 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Gregarious

Shuk - Goblin Warrior
Points 20 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Gregarious

Glunk - Goblin Warrior
Points 20 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Gregarious

Humk Lumpnbak - Hill Troll - Personality
Points 62 Quality 4+ Combat 4
Special Rules Big, Fearless, Tough

Little bit here...

With the restarting up of my little person obsession it was pretty obvious there would be a lot of painting involved. My history with the brush is not a glamorous one, I'm definitely from the school of "slap it on, slap some more on, slap some silver on the weapon/pointy bits and go play" school of things. In fact the models I have left that are painted are pretty shocking, even the ones I thought were pretty good.

So it was with some trepidation that I bit the bullet, invested in a Vallejo paints starter set and some brushes. Then it was just a case of what to start on. A good rummage through the pile for something simple and fun turned up this chap.

Simple enough to paint yeah? Bit of green, bit of brown, bit of green to cover up the bit of brown that's gone on the bit of green I painted before.

In fact I seem to have developed a good bit of patience this time around, and actually found the whole process enjoyable rather than a chore or something to be rushed through. I've got an awful lot to learn but I'm pretty stoked on how ol' Snurk the archer turned out.

Now what is next....

Whaa what is this?

Hello....hello...is this thing on?

So where to begin? I'm Bob and this is a lovely little blog about my return to tabletop gaming and painting after a 20yr absence.

I'm not quite sure what has happened in that time bit my guess is space marines are still here (and a bit boring) and goblins are still green and smelly. Guess theres only one way to find out...

I'm hoping to use this corner of the interwebs to chart my progress with painting and gaming, I have already had a few forays back into it but my major aim is to hopefully provide an outlet for ky mobility hindered (I.e. wobbly) 3yr old to find something fun we can to do together.

More waffle soon.