Games Day 2010

So last year I swore off Games Day after attending and being disappointed by 2 US Games Days in the same year. While both had high-points, I was overall very disappointed and disgruntled by how they went. I have been going to Games Day yearly (missing only 1 year) for the past 7 years and the 3 years previous to this have gotten progressively worse each year. GW reduced the multiple North American Games Days into 1 event this year, located in Baltimore. I decided to give GD one more chance, but was expecting additional failure due to my recent experiences with local stores and what not. I am happy to say I was pleasantly surprised and offer my heartfelt compliments and thanks to Games Workshop for a return to the glorious Games Days I remember.

I will say that it is the minor details about games-day that make it so memorable. This year there was multiple True Size Space Marine statues, a Giant Space Marine blow-up (see below), and incredible props through-out the hall. All the events appeared well organized, the tables were incredible, and the competitions were great. My wife and I spent the day walking around and enjoying ourselves.

The lead in picture for this article is a little of what I mean. The replica Eldar Scopion helmet was fantastic, and I was jazzed to see it. To add to that, here is a picture of the Giant space marine with my wife standingin front for comparison.

As for my overall games day experience, it was great. Funny enough, I spent most of the day walking around and chatting with numerous friends (both online and RL) who I ran into. I think that the combination of my recent involvement in local groups, along with the podcast and blog, added to my involvement with the NOVA Open have made me a fair amount more visible than previously. I am by no means an "Interwebz Star" but the minor notoriety I seem to have gained definitely made the day more fun.

Here are some great pictures of the day.

Waagh Teek Stompa:

and a closeup of the welding grot:

A nice Farseer from the Golden Daemon competition:

And for those looking for Spoilers, Forgeworld had the greatest spoiler of the day. Apparently while they have been working on the new Eldar Imperial Armor books to come in the future, they also had a stealth project ongoing. Thats right, all those new suits of Marine armor are for Books 1 and 2 of the Badab War. My friend Jay is in 7th heaven waiting to go broke buying the new stuff coming! According to the guys at the Forgeworld booth, both of these are expected out before the end of the year.

I do have to admit that the Huron model is much nicer (in my opinion) than the GW model currently out.

I know this has not been the most exciting post ever, but I wanted to give a quick update to all you readers. Its been a tough couple weeks as summer is drawing to a close. I did have a complete computer crash 2 weeks ago and just got my machine back on Monday of this week. I then found out my back-up software had gone on vacation back in March, so I lost about 5 months of data. Its a fun week trying to recover and figure out whats still missing.

I should be back on a normal schedule however, so look forward to more frequent posts. I have been doing a fair amount of work on my models, although the new Malifaux stuff is staying heavily in my hobby highlights. I do have my airbrush working and was able to knock out 5 solid pieces of terrain to table top quality in prep for working on my titan and tanks. The Titan base is nicely put together and primed, so thats next on the table. I also just recieved an Eldar Phoenix that is adding to the painting queue. I need to make a base for that as well, but the base will take more work than I was expecting.