Hobby Chaos Abated

There comes a time in every person's life where they have to evaluate and make decisions about what they want to do, where their future lies. I recently had one of those moments. As a result several totes full of Warhammer are currently now packed up and in my garage.

For most of gamers I know, hobby space is limited and so you have always stored most of your stuff in boxes and army cases and kept a limited amount sitting out in the open. This is not the case in our home. Here we had a china cabinet and four Ikea display cabinets that were full of Warhammer in the living room/dining room area....the breakfast nook was converted into a painting area complete with space for two people to hobby at the same time, the bookshelves in my room are overstuffed with Warhammer rulebooks, army books, codices, FW books and Black Library novels. Plus we have the game room with the table with shelves and boxes of terrain and models.

After nearly ten years of it we both had enough of seeing Warhammer in every room and decided that it was time to box up anything that is not a current project. At first I was torn about this decision. We spent all that time and money over the years it feels wrong to put it away in a box.

Let me also tell you how freeing it is.

The first thing I see when I walk in my house is no longer the Marauder Destroyer atop a china cabinet brimming with Necrons and Guard tanks and Flames of War. Currently several of those shelves are still empty, but at the moment that suits me just fine.

It has also renewed my interest in projects that I hadn't considered working on in ages.

We'll get the boxes out of the garage eventually but at the moment we have enough projects to finish and models to paint that even my hobby butterfly of a husband can be kept happy

I'm heading back to work on the Wood Elf commission...this batch is nearly done...the Client got to sit on hold while I got a rushed order of 20 dice bags put together and ready for mailing for Cruisehammer (hosted by TSHFT) so I figure I owe it to him to get them finished now.

Article Research

I have decided that I want to expand my opinion base for my articles I write for Bell of Lost Souls.

When I have articles I am writing I am going to post here for thoughts and comments. If you have something to say please do, you might find your thoughts on BOLS.

Let's kick off with discussion about the Magic Phase...

Questions, opinions,  favorite lore,  lore combinations. ...

Update

While life has certainly dragged me away so has this Wood Elf commission I have been working on and the dice bags I have been making.

Here's the wood elf progress. I apologize for the quality of photos I snapped these with my phone. The photo booth will get set back up soon.

Still on the table (aside from the actual riders) are some wild riders, eagles and a treeman.

Latest Hobby

Recently I accepted...maybe begged for is a better wording...a painting commission.

I go through phases where I get all inspired to paint armies I don't own but I don't want to buy a new army so when my buddy Pete from Chumphammer announced he was buying a Wood Elf army I told him he needed to let me paint it. He agreed and after Wet Coast GT last month he handed me his army case....

They are far from done, but here's a WIP on one of the riders.

Yes I know green is a common theme with Wood Elves but I have a vision I am getting there....It is also because of this army that I have actually begun to learn to airbrush. There is a lot of cavalry (horses and stags) in this list that have inspired me to learn.

Wet Coast - Dale's Ogre List

The picture is the Ogre list that was  the only army to beat the Tomb Kings.

I will post about the herotitan and any more detailed battle report information I can get from Cody and possibly his opponents here, hopefully in the next few days.

Airbrushes are Scary

Recently I talked a friend into letting me paint some Wood Elves for him, I had this color scheme in mind for a Wood Elf army but I refuse to buy my own, so it was a great chance for him to get his army painted.

Then I got it home and sitting looking at all those stags and horses all I could think was how I needed to learn to airbrush because the paint job would look so much nicer.  I only ever used our airbrush once, the result was awful and I haven't tried since. My husband does though and had painted some fabulous tanks and buildings. Finally, yesterday I got out one of our older airbrushes (somehow we have would up with three over the years), and carefully spent an hour cleaning it and reading the instructions that came with it.

I knew my friend Mathieu paints minis with his airbrush so I messaged and asked him if he had any advice before I got started making a mess...he said paint terrain first. It was a lot less frightening to paint terrain than models, for the most part it was just one color. When I switched colors though I realized it's actually pretty tough to control the spray when you don't know what your doing.

I don't so I wound up fully covering areas I didn't want to, and getting paint in spaces I didn't want it. Getting frustrated I stopped, read the instructions again and put it away for the night.

This morning I find the idea of airbrushing far less scary than I did yesterday.

Some thoughts I made note of:
-cleaning the airbrush between colors is important
-putting lubrication on all the parts makes it operate smoother
-wear gloves, at least on the hand that your using to hold or turn the model
-shake your paints like crazy to get the right consistency
-don't use GW paints in an airbrush, they aren't designed for it
-be patient and breath deep.

When I have made more progress I will share more, but for now that's it.

Getting Started & It's Time To Play....my BOLS article series

The request came that we have a post with all of my articles about Getting Started with Warhammer Fantasy and Learning to Play in one spot, in order. I will try to keep this as updated as possible as I write additional pieces.

Here's the list:

Getting Started...

Part 1 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/02/wfb-getting-started-part-1-lets-try.html
Part 2 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/02/wfb-getting-started-part-2-picking-your.html
Part 3 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/02/wfb-getting-started-part-3-choosing-best.html
Part 4 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/02/wfb-getting-started-part-4-paint-paint.html
Part 5 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/03/wfb-getting-started-part-5-basics-of.html
Part 6 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/03/wfb-getting-started-part-6-staying.html

It's Time to Play...

Part 1a http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/01/wfb-getting-started-part-1-so-you-want.html
Part 1b http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/03/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-1-switch-over.html
Part 2 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/04/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-2-basics-for.html
Part 3 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/04/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-3-setting.html
Part 4 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/04/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-4-choosing.html
Part 5 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/05/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-5-deployment.html
Part 6 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/05/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-6-turn.html
Part 7 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/05/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-7-scoring.html
Part 8 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/05/wfb-time-to-play-part-8-terrain-tactics.html
Part 9 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/05/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-9-tournament.html
Part 10 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/06/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-10-they-are.html
Part 11 http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/06/wfb-its-time-to-play-part-11-gaming.html

Other Articles

Kippers' Melee http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/12/wfb-kippers-melee-tournament-and.html

Did You Ever Notice http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/12/wfb-events-did-you-notice.html

Christmas Wish List http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/12/wfb-christmas-wish-list.html

Escaping Hobby Block http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/10/warhammer-escaping-hobby-block.html

Forgeworld Siege Giant http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/10/wfb-hobby-forgeworld-siege-giant.html

Summer Camp Bretonnians http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/09/hobby-wfb-summer-camp-bretonnians.html

Juggling Chaos http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/08/wargaming-juggling-chaos.html

One More Week

One week from today is Wet Coast GT. I am excited because it's the first of our season and means that from now until December there is a GT every month.

If I don't have a ticket yet get one quick! www.wetcoastgt.ca

I have still been plugging away painting empire, hoping to have it table ready but not sure I will.

Things have been busy at home, school strike has all the kids home for the summer already so we've been at the beach, drawing with sidewalk chalk, and generally doing everything we can to avoid sitting in front of a TV all day (which means I cut my hobby time by about half). Add to that the orders for dice bags that I need to finish up before Wet Coast....maybe it's time to realize I should brush up on my Brets and bring them next week.

I have to decide today, my army list is due to the organizer tonight haha.

The articles I have been writing for Bell of Lost Souls continue. The next few are about behaviors and etiquette...the feedback and comments should be interesting.

I am not very good at maintaining this blog do I do hope you're getting over to Bell of Lost Souls to read my articles.

I am off to settle on an army list for Wet Coast.

Escalation League Progress: Todd's Beastmen

Living in the same house as me means that he has no choice if I post his Beastmen progress hahaha

Escalation League Progress: FOR MARIENBURG!!

The Marienburg army is making progress...slowly considering it is a heavy infantry army with 100+ models once I am done.

1000 Point 40K Tourney

The second event Kippers' hosted for 2014 was in April, we had a 1000 point 40K tournament.

The rules were simple: if it is legal for use in this edition of Warhammer 40K then it is legal to bring. Items meant for use in Apocalypse were not allowed and I specified that I didn't want to see Warhound and Reaver titans (simply because in 1000 points that would have been no fun).

We wound up with 10 players ranging in how long they have played 40K. We saw a variety of lists and army types, with the closest to duplicates were the two Eldar players (Alex and Alex) but even they had variations due to allies.

It was neat to see a Knight being used, and blown up only two of the five games that day.

Final Overall results from the 1000 point 40K tourney are:
1. Alex Yuen - 25 pts
2. Alex McKenzie - 22 pts (21 +1 Fav Opp)
3. Todd Wittig- 17 pts
4. Jon West - 16 pts (15 +1 Fav Opp)
5. Todd Aspden - 15 pts
6. Marius von Lonhmann - 15 pts (13 +2 Fav Opp)
7. Brennan Collins - 14 pts (12 +1 Fav Opp)
8. Steve Gilson - 14 pts (11 + 3 Fav Opp)
9. Russell Martin - 13 pts
10. Jim Williamson - 9 pts (7 +2 Fav Opp)

Favorite Opponent was Steve Gilson

Here's some pictures from the day.

Astra Militarium...WOW!

So I dabble in 40k these days, learning Necrons of all things, but my husband has an extensive Guard (now Astra Militarium) army so of course that means we needed the new army book.

I am not the only person to cringe at spending $60 Canadian on an eBook version of an army book. But holy crap is this ever the first time that I was truly convinced it is worth it to buy the Enhanced version! Not only is the book full of beautiful pictures, the rules, and unit options but it has a Roster Creator built right in to the book!

So far we have only fiddled a little with it but in my humble opinion having a digital book that had the potential to update itself AND has an accurate roster creator....not only am I sold but this guarantees that I will continue to say "yes dear" when asked to spend $60 when the next Enhanced army book comes out. My fingers are crossed that fantasy books go this route as well.

Loving the modernization of this hobby even if my bank account doesn't!

Last Night Sculpting Session

I sculpted my first attempt about 2 years ago using tradition GW greenstuff making capes for some Grail Knight conversions I was working on.

My second attempt was little bits for Evie (my Bret caster on scooter that is running around with my army) and that time I tried Milliput.

Well now that I am working on this Empire army I got a hold of some models that needed some work and that meant sculpting.

I got this metal griffon or hippogriff model (not sure what, it had spots for wings and a beak) & decided to use it to make the fourth demi grif I needed in the unit. That meant covering ghastly wing hole slots, making a tail and giving the rider a place to sit other than the neck (where the old model would have sat). Because of the width of the body and the leg span of the kit bashed rider I created the "saddle area" could not be very thick and unfortunately would need to cover the entire back. So I settled on a padded blanket.

Now that part has set I am going to work creating more of a saddle area the rider will sit in.

I am certainly not the world's best sculptor, but patience and perserverance is resulting me with some alright results and if I had to make a recommendation: use milliput for sculpting, and make sure you have a good set of sculpting tools. I can't recall where I got this set but I love it and the rubber ends are much easier to use than the metal ones I was using before.

Will post more progress pictures when the saddle is done.

Been busy....

Meant to update everything and got sidetracked...at least I have been productive...
The sad part is that I am only about halfway done.

500 Point Tournaments Rock!!

After setting the rules for Escalation league I decided to run a series of tournaments as well. The first fantasy one just happened March 8th.

First off I live a 2 hour drive from the local store I was hosting the event at. They are the only game store I found on the Island when we first moved here that would actually talk to me (more and new stores have sprung up in the last few years) so I do tend to favor them for when I need stuff but more the point is that their store is pretty much the halfway point on the island so you get a good mix of people showing up.

Secondly: the weekend before I was hosting the 500 point event was GottaCon (three day convention on the
Island).

And last: my kids were coming with us (the oldest played his very first tournament, the youngest helped me run the event).

I didn't know what to expect honestly.

It was GREAT!

We had 14 say they were coming and 4 maybes. Of all the names on the list I knew half. Of that half i did know three had only played two or three games of Fantasy. Of the half I didn't know I soon discovered another three had only played a couple games.

When I announced the event the rules I set were simple:

• Out of the box Warhammer, if it is legal according the way Games Workshop wrote the rules and FAQs, it was legal to bring, including Forgeworld/WarhammerForge
• it was supposed to be painted

We mixed everyone up, played 5 rounds and came up with a great experience for everyone.

My son that played had a great time learning to play. He was thrilled with how accepting everyone was that
he knew so little and needed so much help and patience as he kept forgetting things. He was playing Skaven (painted them all himself) and we had only played about 6 games with him the week leading up to the tournament so we were glad to hear him come away at the end of the day having lost every game but still having a giant smile on his face.

I was happy to see a mix of armies, we had 2 Skaven players, 2 dwarf players, 2 Warriors of Chaos, 1 Empire, 1 Dark Elf, 1 High Elf, 1 Wood Elf, 1 Ogre & 1 Tomb King. Those that were duplicates were a huge variation of armies too which was good to see.

In the end we awarded prizes of store credit to the top three players overall having only scored wins and losses and voted for a players' choice favorite opponent.

Our Top 3 were:

1. James Downie (Ogres)
2. Scott James (Dwarves)
3. Cody Jensen (Tomb Kings)

Favorite Opponent was Josh Stewart

The end result was that they were all quite happy with the 500 point event and asked for more stating that it was a fabulous way to learn what different units could do and a great way to learn how to play the units.

I look forward to running the next one in May!

Inconsistent Blogger Alert!

I have been terribly inconsistent when it comes to writing for my own personal blog.

Over the next few days I will get everything updated with pictures from the Escalation tournament, Escalation status updates, pictures of my Empire models and the other armies I have pictures of for Escalation, upcoming tournament plans....and I will try to make myself a schedule to make sure that I keep the personal blog going better.

I drafted 6 articles in the next series of articles I write for Bell of Lost Souls today so I am a bit exhausted from all the writing and picture finding tonight or I would make more effort to do it now.

I will leave you with a picture of my latest dice bag next to my Bretonnian bag. I made it to go along with my Marienburg army...now I just need yellow dice!

GottaCon

I didn't get to go this year to GottaCon. The event grew and in the expansion they had to change the date to this weekend. Unfortunately for me that meant I missed it for the first time in three years.

My fellow gamers seem to have thought I was joking that I couldn't be there and I laughed as I had to retell them over and over this week.

It made me realize something though. As a parent and a gamer sometimes you have to make these decisions that are hard but I think I made the right one to stay home with my kids, celebrate their birthdays, attend concerts and generally just be with them. They were sure happy about it and it has allowed us to plan for the 500 point tournament we are going to as a family next weekend, where my oldest child will play in the event for the first time.

So never look at missing an event as a bad thing, its an opportunity.

Return with a vengence

Been so busy shovelling snow, hosting kids birthday parties and painting models I figure it is tine to show off what's been in the works.

These have been a lot of fun to paint. I still can't believe I am managing to keep the yellow so close and giving every model some character by throwing in a color that is unique to only one or two models in the unit is keeping me from losing my sanity with all the yellow.

I love the bright colors and am very happy with what I am seeing. Just the unit standard left for this first batch then on to some assembly.

Much needed Break

It's been a gross week of everyone being sick around here. Aches and pains and coughing and sneezing...I am so done with being sick. Part of life I know but I am tired of it but then who likes being sick right?

I am going to have to take a brief break from writing and hobby. Life provided us with some upheavals over the Christmas holidays and we haven't completely finished sorting back through our house so our hobby area is currently buried under three feet of Lego and tools and things that need to find a proper home.

When I get it all done I hope to be able to invite you along on the journey of building and painting a landship.

So for now keep watching for my articles on Bell of Lost Souls but until we're finished fixing the upheaval I won't be updating here.

See you soon!

Time to start...finally painted some Empire

As promised I started painting my empire.