Bolt action league results

So last night I won my bolt action league! Here is the proof: 

I went 7 wins with 1 draw and 2 losses over the last couple of months. Very pleased with the overall result obviously, but also since I've not really played bolt action prior to this term, exstatic to have a the juggernaughts trophy for a short while. 

You can watch my latest vlog about bolt action here:  

Jump jump jump!

Another day, another blog article. Just kidding - sorry it's taken so long for an update! I've been quite busy, party with work as we get a new bishop, but also I really have just been enjoying reading my book! So there is a couple of good-ish reasons. 

 

I wanted to update you on my Jumpmaster painting progress. This is my second, and as you can see its now painted! The beady eyed amongst you will notice that it's not the same as the first one 

(viewable on this vlog here) and in fact uses a whole new paint scheme. As before, I ummed and arrr'd about what colour to paint it. However, this time I decided to go the purple and bought about 4 different colours of purple paint before really deciding on a style!

I eventually went for something not to dissimilar to my first Jumpmaster, with some vertical patterns and lines that corresponded to where the rest of the ship meets the crescent. However, this time the base couloirs were different, with a bleached bone crescent and central column, whilst the other bits were a gun metal grey. Brought together through a bit of washing and drybrushing, they are subtly different tones without being to obvious.  

You should also be able to see from the above picture that I went for a reflection on the windscreen. First time I've tried that, and I'm really pleased with how it worked out!

 

I wanted to try something a bit more freaky for the freehand design, and ended up going with this. It took me a couple of decent sessions to get this nailed on. It's not a flat area, but it also goes up and down at different places. So trying to do justice to that whilst also making a believable pattern was hard work! However, I'm very pleased with the result :)

I also painted the engine glow again. This process was a lot smoother second time around as I've learnt at which angle to hold (and not hold) the brush so that you don't get paint where you don't want it!

 

I'm actually more pleased with the other side (below),  it's a much smoother transition of colours and shape. From this angle you can also see what I meant about the bone and grey contrast. 

 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this guys turned out. It's not airbrush quality, but I don't have an airbrush! The next step is that I'm going to start magnetising the ships onto new bases. That'll be good fun. I've never done it before, but I have a friend who has and he's been kind enough to help me understand what I need to do it! It's hard to explain but basically they will be at dynamic moveable angles and look super cool. 

30,000 page views!

Hooray! Sometime over the weekend I broke through the 30,000 page views mark :) which means I'm now officially in the age of crusading across the blog-o-sphere. Soon half my blog will turn away from me and be tempted by the sultry calls of other blogs such as STand wargaming or from the Horus Hersey to infinity and beyond. 

In all seriousness, thank you for reading my mumbling thoughts! In the last month I've had an influx of traffic, and I'm hoping to keep that up. I know my blog has become much more focuses on X-wing at the moment, and I hope you'll beat with me!  I'm hoping over this weekend to get some painting done (hopefully the new ghost or the jumpmaster 5000) so I'll share that when it's done. 

Until then, fly casual!

Achievement unlocked: win a tournament

You may be able to geuss what this blog post is about due to the title. Whilst it's not a goal on my hobby resolutions, it's been an overarching goal for some time. Indeed, on the "mr & Mrs" video that my wife and I did for when we got married, it was one of my stated aims, instead of things like kids and the like. One thing at a time I say!

In summary, yesterday I went to an X-wing store championships at Titan games in Lichfield. I ran the 4 scum ywings with tlt and unhinged astromech. For this that don't know, that means each ship has a turret that fires twice a turn, as well as being making the ships much more manoeuvrable. 

I went undefeated in Swiss, (despite having 1 z95 take out 2.5  ywings on its own!) and then went all the way after the cut. In my semi final/ top 4 game I was very fortunate, and got the drop on my oppenant, who should have had me dead to rights. And then in the final, I played a Biggs/wes/keyan build that is beaten in round 4, and successfully managed to broadside them one at a time. 

Further in depth reports will follow as well as a vlog, but I couldn't contain my excitement and had to blog about it! 

X-wing store championships tomorrow

Just a quick update! Tomorrow Aaron (from Webway Lamentations) and I are off to a store championships for X-wing at Titan games in Lichfield! 

I won't be running the three kwing list. Not this weekend anyway. It's good fun, but isn't quite what I'm looking for. I'll be taking my 4 tlt ywing list, but this time I'm going to try the scum version, which makes all my 3 speed manevuers green. I'm hoping to vlog the experience as well :)

Wish me luck! 

Space Marine Bike HQ: Complete!

Huzzah! Knocked another little milestone on its head. I've finished what was one of my modest hobby goals for 2016. My space marine HQ choice. 

Hardcore power gamer that I am, this guy is modelled in a way that makes him ambiguous. Is he a captain? Is he a librarian? Could he be a chapter master? Or maybe even a high elf prince riding a dragon?* Who knows. 

Anyhoo, there are a couple of things with this guy I'm reasonably pleased about. The first is his cloak. I took the time to put a couple of extra layers of highlights onto his cloak. It's not amazingly different, but you can tell the difference when you see the model up close. 

The second is his elevated position. Whilst you can't tell because of my mad skillz, his front wheel isn't touching the ground. Not a lot, but enough that it raises his profile when compared to other bikers:

This has been achieved by a small clear piece of plastic, the type that are the sprue for flying base stands. I've covered it up with grass, but because it's clear plastic unless you actually know it's there it's really hard to tell. 

And finally, the sword. To indicate that it has "power" of some description (be that otherworldly or just a power sword - like i said I'm a wannabe power gamer) I painted several thin white coats in a lightning like motif across the blade. What's more, I then went back and put gloss varnish on just the lighting strike. A small detail to catch the eye, but one I'm pleased with. 

So there you have it! I'm giving myself a completed stamp for this bad boy! Hooray! Now, if only I knew people who played 40k......

*not this one

2016 Hobby Resolutions

It's 2016! I wanted to set down some goals for my hobby. I've been really looking forwards to this post, because people keep asking me about what my resolutions for 2016 are and I don't have much to say that isn't related to war gaming. So hopefully this post will be good!

Bolt action 

I received some flak for my dismissive comments about bolt action. So I thought I'd better put it on the to do list for 2016! For my brits Id like to conservatively aim for the following:

1. Having painted the 20/30 models I have assembled (inc 1 tank)
2. Assemble the commandoes that I have (should take my army to around 50 men)
3. Become competent at the game. I've not played very much and I'd like to have a reasonable grasp at it! 

Not much to aim for, but at the moment I've only played 2 games and haven't painted a single model. Part of me is really tempted to paint them all wrong. Eg pink and purple, or with American squad markings. My hope would be is that it would be to much for the historical pedants. But I don't know if I could take them being to far off the beaten track!

40k

A lot has changed for 40k in the last 12 months. What can we expect in the next 12?! In all honestly it makes me a bit nervous. Games workshop's approach to 40k at the moment appears to be something of a blender that you put your debit card in. And can only pick out whilst the aforementioned kitchen applicance is on. Heaven forbid you ask to adjust the speed (ruleset) or to mix it yourself (trying to balance the game). 

With that badly mangled metaphor in mind, here is what I'd like to achieve in 2016 for my 40k:

1. Attend at least two 40k tournaments (should be easy with fluffagedon and double trouble). 
2. Sell my space wolves. An odd goal, but with the vague prospect of games workshop blowing up 40k in the same way that they did with fantasy, I don't need 4 full sized 40k armies. 
3. Paint some stuff (see below). 

X-wing 

Yes, X-wing. Pew pew pew. I've really fallen in love with X-wing over the last 12 months. It flirts with being my primary hobby system, which is something I never thought would happen. How nieve of me! Here are my X-wing goals for 2016:

1. Attend at least 3 weekend warlord events this year. 
2. Attend 1-2 store championships. How refreshing that the games developer supports structured tournament play!
3. Start an imperial fleet. Dangerous, (especially for my wallet!) I know. But I think I'd quite like an imperial fleet. I'm thinking triple ace or tie swarm. I'm sure I'll be terrible at flying it!
4. Run a version of the outryder cup between Leicester sabres, weekend warlords and somebody else. It's basically a team event where you pair against other stores/clubs. (More on this in another post)

Vlogging

It's going well! 10 so far. I'd like to get to 50 vlogs this year, and 200 blog posts. That's about 2 posts a week of some nature - I'll be signposting the vlogs on here so in terms of content it's not to daunting. Hopefully more painting, more tourney reports, and maybe branching out to the other areas of my life occasionally as well! 

Everything else

I've got a blood bowl tournament on my birthday weekend that I'm really looking forwards to. But to compete, I still have 9-10 men to paint. Better get a move on with that then! I don't know how good I'm gonna do, but being wood elves I'm aiming for 16 touchdowns over 8 games. And being wood elves, not end up with my whole team dead!

Painting

So, instead of listing the stuff in each of their areas I thought I'd do a list here:

1. Paint my whirlwind
2. Complete a second thunderfire cannon & techmarine
3. Paint more bikes for 40k, so that I have enough to field 10 bikes plus a captain/ librarian. 
4. Paint my bolt action stuff
5. Paint IG-88s for X-wing (a specific goal within number 9)
6. Paint my old models that I've found
7. Paint my blood bowl team. (Needed by the 16th of January!)
8. Paint commissar yarrick
9. Get up to date with the Horus heresy stories. (Possibly a laughable goal, we'll see!)
10. Have all my small and large base ships painted for X-wing by the end of the year

So, that's all in all a good collection of things to aim for!