The Man with No Time

2017 has been an interesting year for me. There are a couple of big things that I achieved this year, but that didn't necessarily help with my stated goals. On the other hand, some of those stated goals now seem ridiculous, even though I tried to be more realistic this year!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas Eve, and looking forward to eating far too much tomorrow! I've taken some annual leave this festive period, so I've been off work for the last week and visiting my family. Fortunately, I had the foresight to bring a small portion of my hobby project pile with me, and have spend a productive hour here and there putting together some models. Most of the models that I've put together this holiday (though I found a few more hiding away since I took this picture) [Credit: David Brown] First up, Dropzone Commander . This is a game that I've had my eye on for years . I bought a Shaltari starter some time ago, but hadn't played a game with it until very recently. It gained a lot of popularity at the games club though, and now that Warmachine & Hordes have taken off a bit more I've been able to play a starter game, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As a result, I purchased a few extra bits from a clubmate, which...

It's been a long, long time since I made it to a Guardians of Tyr event. Over a year in fact. A few factors are responsible for this: the loss of the events in Milton Keynes this year means they're bimonthly, so if I'm busy there are fewer opportunities; a busier schedule for me combined with unfortunate timing of the events, and the Sunday dates. I keep my eye on the calendar, and always express interest, but inevitably something comes up and I can't make it. However, the latest event, which was last Sunday, I was actually able to attend! There have been some changes since I last went to Northampton for an event. They've moved to Deathclock (probably a plus), have moved from a slightly lower points value to the tournament standard (definitely a plus), and have standardised most of the events to be standard Steamroller (which I think is a shame, though the last event  is  a Who's the Boss tournament). Oh, and the both the new edition of Warmachine and the new...

Just a quick one today. Yesterday I had a productive day. Well, some would call it productive, others might disagree! I spent a large part of the afternoon working through the pile of unopened stuff in my games cupboard, building lots of models. First up was a little wind-up toy car that I was given for Christmas a couple of years ago. It's plasticard, and all the parts were push-out and push-fit. It looks cool I think, and runs quite well (though the front wheels are a little wobbly). Next up was a not-Mechano tank, received the same Christmas. This was quite fiddly to build, as the spanner to tighten the nuts and bolts was tricky to fit into some of the tighter corners. I also couldn't work out how to fit one of the pieces to the turret, the gun barrels work loose very easily, and the tracks weren't big enough to fit around all of the wheels without deforming the side pieces. But overall it looks quite good. Next up were some Warmachine and Hordes models....

Today sees the confluence of two unusual events - an actual blog post (!), and some models that I've painted (!!). Yes, that's right, I've actually managed to get some painting in. Actually, these models were all painted some time ago. But I've been lazy at updating the blog and am only just getting around to putting pictures up. All of them were painted as part of the "Paint the Target" series run by GdayBloke over at the excellent Lost Hemisphere blog (check it out). The first model to show off today is for my Circle Orboros army. It's actually an old metal Confrontation model that I use as a proxy Stonekeeper Unit Attachment for my scratch-built shifting stones. His more feral look goes well with the set of stones that I built from slate pieces, while the bulkier set of stones will get a standard Stonekeeper model. Proxy Blackclad Stonekeeper UA for my Circle Orboros army (Credit: David Brown) The second set of models are from my Co...

Last weekend, in what is rapidly becoming an annual tradition for me, I travelled to SmogCon. This was my third year in a row attending what is the UK's biggest Warmachine convention, and the only proper USA-style convention in the country (to my knowledge). Fortunately for me, this year the organisers had moved it to Birmingham, so I was able to save both money and time by making the short train ride to Birmingham International instead of driving to London, and by only staying for two nights instead of three. I really enjoyed both of my previous visits to SmogCon, and this year was even better in some ways. The venue, though perhaps less fancy, was in my opinion much better. There were more tables, and all of the miniature gaming space was in a single ballroom, with the boardgames area in a room just off to the side, so everything was easily accessible. Food service was much improved too apparently, though as usual I took my own. In fact the whole event seemed to be bigger a...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! It's part three of my traditional end of year set of posts. I've done my review of 2016, and had a look at how well I did with my goals (lets not call them resolutions) for the year. This time around I'll be setting a new set of goals for the coming year. After several years of poor success, 2016 saw an upturn in my completion rate for these goals. There was still a certain amount of over-ambition going on though I feel, so I'll be reining in some of the particularly unsuccessful categories a little in an effort to gain some more.