Update and Ramblings

Jay and I have discussed our perception of how important a picture is to lead into and break up a blog post. It keeps readers eyes from straining while looking at a wall of text, and also gives blog-rolls that link via Blogger a picture to post within the blog-roll. Unfortunately, this is the best I could come up with today, after looking at a number of images and what not on Google Images for a while, trying to find a good image to use as a lead in for this post. Mmmm, mini-fail.

Welcome to the update post. I have realized that I am sitting half way into the month of October and I have slipped a bit behind on my hobby overall. Well, lets be honest, not too much behind just a bit further behind than I had planned. I am having trouble reconciling my hobby activities vs my hobby queue sitting and staring at me downstairs. So whats been going on you ask? Here is what I am looking at.

Lets look at accomplished first, because thats supposed to make one feel better about themselves! So, in the past 6 weeks I have:

• Run a Malifaux Tournament
• Created 2 fully built and painted Malifaux tables of "fixed" terrain (3'x3')
• Created 4 flocked "no-fixed-terrain" tables (3'x3')
• Taken part in the founding team of a new Gaming Club
• Become a Wyrd Henchman (basically the same as a GW Commando or a Privateer Press Pressganger)
• Painted up 3 new models for Malifaux (Scales, Francisco, Nino)
• "Finished" the base for my Titan
• 75% painted my Forgeworld Phoenix (Eldar Flyer)
• Built and Primed my Titan
• Base coated 2 Eldar Night Spinner tanks
• Built and painted 3 objectives for Malifaux
• Played ~14 Malifaux games
• Played 2 40K games
• Recorded 3 podcasts

Looks pretty damn productive on the hobby front when I look at it that way. All listed out  and bulleted and actually looks like a lot of stuff accomplished. Here are the things that drag me down a bit:

• Malifaux painting tray - Santiago, Perdita, Papa Loco, Sam Hopkins, Essence of Power
• 40K Painting tray - Titan, complete my Phoenix, Weapons for my Falcons, 2x Night Spinner Tanks,
• Malifaux to do - Lilith's Brood box (5 models), ~6 guild guards, Kirai Crew (~28 models)
• 40K to do -  10x Harliquins, Phoenix Base, 10x Storm Guardians, 9x Dire Avengers, 4x Winged Seer Council, 5x Fire Dragons, Fire Dragon Exarch, 5x Scorpions, Scorpion Exarch

Funny enough, listing it out like this does not look that bad at all. It feels a bit overwhelming, and I need to figure out how to manage through that. I have enjoyed tracking my progress with the paint tracker and queue on the blog (look to the left) as it has been helpful overall. On the other hand, it was a bit of a downer when I realized that while I did a lot of things during the last 6 weeks, it was not really accounted for in my  hobby tracker, only incrementing 3 points for painting 3 models. Perhaps I need to look at adding into the paint tracker points for terrain and terrain boards. Something to consider. Ok, time to break up the mini-text-wall with a quick picture. This picture is not great (I took it with my iPhone), but here we go.....

According to a couple of my regular opponents, these guys look much better in person. I was not really a fan of the Scales in the pictures, but I like him now that I have one painted up. I actually painted him up based on the recommendation of one of the Podcast listeners and DTP reader, Lord Shaper. I recently started following his blog, its good reading for those who are interested and I recommend him. I need to add that to a separate post!

Adding into the shameless plugs and self promotion, some of my feelings are probably coming from a state of burnout I have been in lately. Its something we discussed on one of the recent Gamers Lounge episodes. I have really gotten into Malifaux lately, but have been completely burnt out on GW games. While I have enjoyed my last 2 40k games, they just have not been scratching that gaming itch like Malifaux has. I assume this is adding into my overall malaise on painting models. I did get motivated a bit the other night and went back to touch up my Phoenix. I know, there are no pictures posted yet, but it has gotten better. I went back over several sections with my airbrush to even out the paint coverage and then touched up the whites. I will need to finish up the white (I am now considering going more ivory/bone) and then reapply the transfers.

Toward that end, the local store (Huzzah Hobbies) is running a Tanksgiving event that will directly compete with the GW event usually run the same weekend. This will be interesting, as GW games have not really taken off at Huzzah. On the other hand, most of the regulars at Huzzah have lost interest in going to the local GW and have shifted their support. I an intrigued to see how many people show up for the Huzzah Tank event. The owner is running a full weekend of Tank events, with a Flames of War Tanksgiving event earlier int he weekend, then the GW event on Sunday. I have committed to showing up with my Titan and my Phoenix, hopefully with both fairly close to complete. This gives me about 6 weeks to get them done.

Ok, so after airing my thoughts and ramblings, I need to look forward and get on track. Running events recently has begun to get me re-energized for painting and modeling. I am also feeling the push to "complete" my eldar army and move to the next phase in the hobby for me. I am not sure what that will be, as I have a couple options:

• I still have lots of Malifaux in my possesion and coming up
• I have a LARGE box of High Elves for WHFB (well over 6K points with no equipment) and an idea for a theme 
• Dark Eldar are being released, and I love the new models

Here are some of my recent thoughts for next steps. I have an idea for a theme for my High Elves, but am having some difficulty wrapping my mind around how I will execute the theme. I also need to settle on a decent color scheme for the army that will fit in the overall theme. On the one hand, these two hurdles are making me hesitate when it comes to considering starting this project. On the other hand, the box of models in my closet keeps yelling at me to get started and knock it out.

Then we come to the new Dark Eldar. I know I will not be building these before the end of the year, so I am in no rush to purchase the models. I expect that in the first couple months of next year (2011) I will go out and make a massive purchase of as many models as GW releases, then put them in a box and store them next to my other future projects. On the other hand, I really like the models as they are, which has given me the idea of just painting the models as they are with no conversions, or at the most limited conversions. For a paint scheme, I will be using a fairly standard black/purple/silver scheme I used on my original dark eldar.

That brings me to Malifaux. I actually had the thought the other day of completely switching over to Malifaux, and placing my 40K models in the cabinet for a while. There is some irony to this thought. On the one hand, I have pretty much done that already, when you look at the amount of Malifaux games and painting I have accomplished vs how much GW I have done. On the other hand, I still have my Eldar in a bag ready to travel to a game at short notice. I also am making an effort to discuss 40K and 40K related ideas on the podcast. Clearly I am not ready to switch over yet. That thought aside, I did just get in fair number of blisters for my next crew (Kirai), with a couple of the missing models coming soon. I feel I have a fair grasp on the Lady Justice crew I was playing, and have switched to Rasputina as my primary crew until I get the hang of her. I have taken the approach (so far) of playing one crew exclusively until I learn it, then switching to the next. I say that's the approach, as I have had the Rasputina crew painted the whole time I have been playing Lady J, but only just started playing with her last weekend. I am still finding the Malifaux models more compelling than GW's models, resulting in a stronger draw to paint them up. It might be good to take a break from GW after completing my Eldar army and focus on playing Malifaux for 6 months or so.

I guess only time will tell, as I am becoming increasingly fickle as I age.