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Tale of Many Warlords – February

Swansong0930Leave a comment

Austin B.

New Year, Same Old Things

Unfortunately I was still rather busy through the month of January, so my progress then on hobby stuff ground to a screeching halt throughout that month. I only got done with a few figures, in sporadic bursts. And just as I was getting back in the groove, I fell ill in early February, putting another stop on painting plans. Only recently have I gotten back into the swing of things, and with these various hiccups, some plans have shifted, and new projects have sprung forth. But that does not mean previous ones were abandoned! 

On the MESBG front, while the Rohan has been temporarily shelved, I was able to finish the last dozen-ish models I needed to convert my completed Ugluk’s Scout’s over to being playable as Lurtz’s Scouts – including Lurtz himself! Twice over, actually! A second banner bearer and Captain join him, as well as all of the metal Uruks from the Amon Hen boxed set – including the lovely pair carrying Merry and Pippin!

I haven’t pictured all of the finished models. There were a few additional plastic Uruk-hai Scouts that needed to be painted up as well, to round out the numbers. In-fact, of the two total boxes I have of the Scouts, I still have about another dozen left to finish them all – plus some ancillary pieces. Maybe I will finish them all someday, if I ever feel so inclined to bring this army to a larger event.

Now what was rather interesting about this project was actually returning to it. I had completed Ugluk’s Scouts back in 2018 or 2019, following (with some edits) a painting guide on the GW website at that time. With the relatively recent website change, that article disappeared! And so I had to go through the painstaking process of reworking what the paint scheme was to match. Though interestingly, I did figure I was able to trade out the basecoat + wash for the majority of the brown cloth in favor of the Cygor brown contrast paint, and it worked! The newer models are by no means an exact match, but they look close enough, especially at a distance. Here I have my two captains. The one on the left is new, while the one on the right is the one previously painted several years ago:

Atop the MESBG progress, I was also able to put some more work in on my ever-growing Shatterpoint collection, putting paint on both the newer Veers box and the Chiss Grand Admiral himself. While I have yet to finish the Snowtrooper Lieutenant (he’s on the painting desk, waiting to get done), I did get both Veers and his two Snowtroopers completed. I had a lot of fun with the Snowtroopers in particular, trying to work out two different colors of “white” to differentiate different bits of cloth.

With Thrawn completed, that polishes off his box in totality. I’ve posted his other box-mates before – the ISB and Agent Kallus – but here they are again, together! Hopefully the Veers box can join them shortly in the vastly increasing list of completed boxes for Shatterpoint. 

After the Lieutenant, the plan is to return to the Rebels (and friends) I have remaining, especially with the newer releases about to hit in the coming months. I secured myself a full set of the Spectres wanted poster alt art order cards, so I do feel rather obligated to get the remainder of their members finished up now! And perhaps also polish off Lando’s box while I am at it.

And now speaking of the same old things,  I have taken another detour towards Battletech as a bit of a distraction, finishing some more models for one long-running project, and planning two (really three) new forces. Firstly, I completed another Lance of mechs for my 3rd Proserpina Hussars of the Draconis combine. I am not sure I have posted this force before here, so perhaps I will detail them in a later article. But it is a rather fun scheme to do. These four more Mechs join the 20 already finished in this color scheme, making for a nice even 24 for two full Companies. I am hoping to finish the full Battalion (40 mechs) here in the near-ish future!

Atop those, I did test models for two other forces I am going to be working on. The first is for the Scorpion Empire’s Omega Galaxy, and the second is for their competing element: the Hanseatic League’s Regional Defence Force 2. I know, what an inspiring name! But it is a fun little scheme with some influence from older German states – in this case, Bavaria. All of RDF 2’s mechs feature the diamond-checkered Bavarian flag on one of their arms. Meanwhile Omaga Galaxy’s tan and red provides are rather different-looking opponent.

Plans for Omaga Galaxy are rather large. I already have a little over 30 mechs in my possession earmarked for them – including many IIC designs, plus some IS mechs fitted with clan-tech, and other second-line clan mechs.. Plans for RDF 2 are comparatively smaller. A “mere” 16 mechs. Though It is reasonably likely I’ll end up with more than that, when all is said and done. 

This is all I have for now. I hope to have some more progress to show you all next month!

Joe R

The streak for 2025 certainly continues. Hmm… why would anyone desire a relaxing hobby and escapism in this day and age? Hard to say.

The Blood Bowl tournament scene is already in full swing in the Virginia area. We’ve already had three tournaments, but I have been unable to attend any so far. However, a crown jewel of our Blood Bowl scene is The Gritty Goblin Blood Bowl Games (often referred to as Gritty Goblin) which takes place at Gritty Goblin Games in Columbia Maryland. This is a Blood Bowl 7s event (which I still argue is the best way to ENJOY Blood Bowl) which has sold out every single year. I believe it sold out in less than a week this year. At this exact moment, assuming Jerry indulges me, I am planning to do a tournament recap. We’ll see if that happens. HOWEVER, the special sauce of this particular event is to complete actions with Goblins to gain goblin points. Whoever ends with the most goblin points earns the coveted Goblin Cup. I love the coaches that attend this event, I love that so many people play to the theme, I (mostly) love the organizer, and I enjoy the venue.

So, if you hadn’t guessed already, this month I have taken a short break away from Cowboys to focus on preparing a team of 8 Goblins + 1 Troll in about 3 weeks.

The Venison Beach Grindylow – Blood Bowl Goblin Team

While you, humble reader, probably weren’t desperate to know the details of how this team came to be… I’m gonna tell you anyway! Some people are called to play Goblins. I am not one of those people. In fact, Goblins are the only team I’ve ever quit mid-season. So obviously, I have two Goblin teams.

My first goblin team was part of the Star Bowl Indigogo from probably a decade ago. The team featured Star Wars Jawas as the Goblins, droids as the secret weapons, and Jawa-piloted robo-trolls. I call this team the Tatooine Technographers and they made an appearance at GGG ‘24. I don’t love this team. The sculpts are kinda funky and the pewter is garbage. The second is a pirate goblin team that I purchased from Big Child Creatives/Massive Dragon during their kickstarter a few years ago. STLs for these models were recently released, but I already had the whole team cast in resin. I actually had to go find the receipt for this team to determine what I had purchased in preparation for painting them. Always a good sign. This team had tentatively been named the Finneytown Foulers (after a Cincinnati suburb I used to live near) and were going to be colored Red/White. That has changed!

I had the exquisite pleasure of meeting fellow Blood Bowler, Seamoose, at the Amorical Cup last year. We had an amazing battle of the Halflings that might go down in history as one of the loudest Blood Bowl games on record. His team, the Venison Beach Surfing Birds, has lived rent-free in my mind ever since (Curse you Danny “Summer Lover” Zucchini!). When I failed to complete my own TMNT-themed comic-style Lizardman team for Chaos Cup, my friend Neil saved the day by offering his beach themed Sharks. I asked Seamoose if I could also have a team from Venison Beach. He agreed, and the Venison Beach Tidal Waves were born. One day I will paint my own version. The Surfing Birds and Tidal Waves faced off at Chaos Cup to crown the King of the Beach. This was the best match of Chaos Cup, hands down. I mean really, the Chaos Cup Championship pales in comparison to the King of the Beach.

That was quite the exposition dump. All that to say, the Finneytown Foulers have become the Venison Beach Grindylow. The main color is still red, but white has been relegated to an accent color.

In Pathfinder, grindylow are depicted with blue or aqua skin. I wanted to apply this to my goblins. After reading a few Reddit posts and watching a few videos about Tau skin I decided to try a contrast mix of 2:1:1 Medium:Tassalar Blue:Magos Purple. This was fine, but didn’t provide the “life” I was expecting. I may try this again by doing the Tassalar Blue first then applying full strength Magos (Update: I did this. Still didn’t like it). I had recently purchased the entire 6 paint series of Blue-Grey from the Army Painter Fanatic line and used this to highlight up from here. I largely tried to pick ideal highlight colors by eye. If the highlights became too stark, I would just glaze them back down. This generally worked well. I also tried starting with Vallejo’s Oxford Blue then highlighting up (my preferred method at the moment) and starting with Thunderous Blue and highlighting up. In both methods I used Magos Purple to “black line” the skin, which provided some purple “life” to the models.

I also experimented heavily with reds. I also purchased the entire 6 paint series of Warm Reds from Army Painter Fanatic (I was tired of trying to make my Reaper reds & blues do what I wanted). Initially I started by highlighting up from a dark red to pink. This was fine… but it didn’t pop. Then I remembered reading Figopedia V1 where Jeremie talks about this specific problem. So I eventually ended up highlighting with a red/orange mix. I liked the result. I had also tried applying a contrast “wash” with 2:1 Medium:Flesh Tearers Red. This works great, but ultimately wasn’t needed later in the process. Now, I move from Basilisk Red, up to Flat Red, then my red/orange highlights.

I also tried out some freehand on my punk rock ‘Ooligan. I was extremely pleased with the results, even though it doesn’t really pop on the table. This was the first time I had decided to try a checkerboard, but I had watched videos in the past about how to apply it. Applying “Punk” over it was not planned, but I figured one freehand experience deserved another.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with these models. I worked diligently to finish a model before moving onto the next. As a result, I only made it through 6.5 of the necessary goblins (the chainsaw is only basecoated and my pogoer was a non-starter) and didn’t even get the shark-Troll primed. I also didn’t get any bases ready (as you can see!). I did 3D print some beach bases (thanks Neil!) but I haven’t primed or painted them.

I varnished the heck out of the completed models (and even did a layer on chainsaw to save my work). I used Vallejo Ultra Matte Varnish through my airbrush in a roughly 2:1 varnish:thinner ratio. It feels like you’re spraying magic dust on your models because you can’t really tell anything is happening. I am pleased to report that my models made it through 5 games and suffered zero battle damage. Huzzah!

The siren smell of gunsmoke is calling me back to my Old West minis, but I think I’m going to finish this team (including the troll) just to say that I completed this specific project (even though there are 9 other models to paint for a full Blood Bowl team). Besides, it would be really nice to put something in my display case that I can officially classify as done.

The Contrast Paint Dropper Bottle Project

As mentioned last month, I have been using contrast paints again. I was inspired by these Warhammer Community articles (here and here) to revisit what I can make them do. However, getting the recipes consistent has always been a challenge due to the paint pots. So this month I decided to buy fifty 20 mL vials, some ball bearings, and 12 tiny funnels to transfer all of my contrast paints into dropper bottles. 

I didn’t realize how many contrast paints I had. Several came directly from the first formulation of these paints. I would casually transfer 6 or so bottles a night, clean the funnels (the contrast paints will leave a film! That’s their thing!), and transfer the labels. Overall, the process took about 2 weeks. My daughter even helped with a few. I think it was worth the added time and effort. The dropper bottles are much easier to mix (I’m looking at you Apothecary White!) and control. 

After working on the Goblins, I definitely prefer the layering approach to painting. That said, since my paints are so old, I’m not sure they are performing at their optimal level. I’ve been finding ways to use the paints to help with specific problems instead of using them as an “easy button” to finish quickly. As other folks have noted, they do provide a great foundation for a base coat (provided you can avoid touching it too much!). I will continue to experiment using the Old West models, but I have found myself repainting many areas that started as contrast.

Well that’s it folks! Hopefully next month I will show you a completed and based Blood Bowl 7s goblin team. Then I can get back to these horse bios (as my wife has taken to calling them).  

 Kevin C.

Genestealer Cult

As I posted last month, I assembled a Genestealer Cult Combat Patrol Box at the end of last month. I have never done Genestealer or Tyranids, so this was an interesting departure from my usual paint schemes, with lots of grey and purple.

It turns out that the reason I built and painted these miniatures, to use in our Necromunda campaign while one of my other gaming buddies used my Orlocks, ended up being moot – the friend in question has chosen not to participate, along my Red Belts to ride again into the Ash Wastes! That being said, the miniatures were assembled and ready, so I figured I should get them painted and done.

Vehicles

I realized early on that I did not have much experience with painting actual vehicles, aside from my Titans for Legions Imperialis. I chose to follow the tutorial Duncan Rhodes had posted all those years ago for painting the Atalan Jackals (https://youtu.be/pdUS0F8BJ3c?si=aMUDgLIZKdtpcRpn). It ended up being a great tutorial, and I was pleased with the result.

I ended up getting sick in the second week of this month, so it took me a while to get to the remaining Jackals. I eventually finished them, although not quite at the same quality as the first Jackal, using the same paint scheme as the first one.

Finally, I attempted to copy this same paint scheme to the larger two vehicles. These were somewhat draining, as painting large models tend to be. However, I did get some good experience with trying out some drybrush techniques that I plan to use on my Deathwatch later this year, especially the large vehicles.

I am reasonably pleased with how the driver’s helmet plate ended up working (Balthazar Gold → Agrax Earthshade → Sycorax Bronze → watered down Nihilakh Oxide). I plan on using that same technique on my Votann Scavengers, who all have helmets down. I find that personally more realistic.

Showing this to the group, they made the perfectly legitimate observation that the vehicle color is a bit too close to the Ash Waste base. I was hoping the flame tufts would have helped to offset this closeness in color, but it did not quite achieve the effect I was looking for. Still, with the vehicles done, I moved onto the Acolytes.

Acolytes

These guys were far more alien than what I have usually painted, so it was a nice new experiment. That being said, I kind of rushed through this paint scheme, as I only had five days to paint these guys to get them done by the end of the month. Also, work has been kicking my butt this week (I’m writing this during my lunch break).

I ended up using the paint tutorial provided again by the great Duncan Rhodes (https://youtu.be/AWHtci5sSl4?si=awWAWFRnTPq68dRp), although I am not sure I am entirely pleased with the results. I feel like the color contrasts, especially on the face, were too stark (Slaanesh Grey → Pallid Wych Flesh), and I probably should have added a mixture first before the final highlight.

I tried using a smaller method of drybrushing for the blue armor scales, and I am pretty pleased with the results. It certainly made painting the armor scales a lot quicker.

Up Next

For my March project, I plan on continuing (?) with Necromunda miniatures. About a year ago, I received some Cawdor Redemptionists for a birthday present. At about the same time, I exchanged my Ash Waste Nomads with Austin for his old Cawdor miniatures. Apparently, it was a project that he was unwilling to finish. Heaven knows I have a ton of those.

So, I will be working to get this gang up to tabletop quality by the end of this month. I won’t be playing these guys in the new Ash Wastes campaign that we have planned, but I’d like to have this on the backburner for future use.

Until next month!

Jerry S.

Hello readers! Long time, no talk! I am sorry to have missed last month’s post but the start to this year has left a lot to be desired on the hobby front. I’ve painted a couple one-off characters but I’ve been struggling to really make any serious progress with any of my hobby projects. I’m hoping to turn the tide in March and really show some serious progress, but more on that later!

Starting with what I have accomplished so far this year, I’ve got a fun smattering of models to show you below

The Old West

Not to leave Joe alone out in the old west, I’ve also started working on a small gang of cowboys, I purchased a couple 3d printed outdoorsmen from Etsy in January and immediately got to work painting them! Unfortunately, 2 of the 5 figures I bought were either damaged in shipment or broke soon after arrival – VERY disappointing….

I was able to finish two of the gang though, a model based on James Caan’s famous character “Tex” and another, more regal woodsman that yet remains unnamed…any suggestions?

Warhammer 40,000

Next up, I’ve been sitting on an old deamon prince model from a Made to Order offering a few years back. I had the whim to start painting the old boy up earlier in February and you can see my Work in Progress below! I really wanted to use fun, vibrant colors on this model and really push myself to improve my blending abilities, I think its turning out pretty good so far but there is still much work to be done on this model. I eventually aim to have the sword completed with a nice orange glow effect. I hope to get this guy done soon!

Warhammer: The Old World

Next up on my Hobby carousal, a stop in The Old World. I had an old warrior priest that was waiting patiently for a couple paints of coat. He’s an ugly model but he’s got a great charm and I’m happy with him.

Next up we have the bulk of what I did in February, I won a nice little lot of used warriors of chaos with a chaos lord on steed. I’m really excited to get started on these guys in earnest, I rebased them all onto 30mm bases and managed to paint a couple test models before being called away to work on my Adepticon army. I’m hoping to get some progress on these guys in March, so long as I can finish my Adepticon force.

Lord of the Rings

In the realm of Middle Earth this month, I painted up a Fellbeast (soon to be ridden by the Witch King, parts on the way) and a group of Osgiliath Veterans to round out my Minas Tirith revitalization project!

The Month Ahead: “We March for Macragge”

The Horus Heresy is where I should’ve focused my efforts this month but as you’ve seen above, I’ve been quite distracted with all of the other fabulous items on my workbench.

I say this is where I “Should” have focused my efforts on because I am headed to Milwaukee Wisconsin later in March to participate in Adepticon yet again! The main focus of my Adepticon will be yet again on the Horus Heresy, playing in a variety of Zone Mortalis events!

For these events, I plan to bring an elite boarding force of Ultramarines, all armed with shields. I’ve always, loved the idea of shields being used in the grim darkness that is the Warhammer universe and the Ultramarines have the most options for shield bearing madness so This will be a great opportunity for me to live out one of my hobby dreams.

Below you can see the Work-in-Progress status of the army, I’ve got 17 of the 43 models done to start the month of February…not great! At least they are all assembled though, that’s a start!

The complete list of models is:

  • 1 Praetor
  • 1 Legion Champion
  • 10 Invictarus Suzerain
  • 20 Praetorian Breachers
  • 10 Breacher Marines
  • 1 Contemptor Dreadnought

To start the project off, I painted up the below Ultramarines Champion, an old 40k model, It was a great and easy conversion to be used in Horus Heresy! I look forward to watching this guy chop his way through enemy characters!

I’ve got a really long way to go with this army as you can surely tell but with 3 weeks to get these guys finished, I think I should have enough time so long as I can stay focused on the task at hand!

Wish me luck and see you next time!

A Tale of Many Warlords- February

Swansong0930Leave a comment

The weather is starting to better, the days are getting longer and it’s finally time for another installment of your favorite Warhammer blog series. This was the first full month many of us had our Warhammer: The Old World minis and as you are about to see, we made a ton of progress, if not a lot of painting progress….

Michael S.

This month I spent more time than I hoped assembling models.

The Stone Age

I am naturally a bit slower than most when it comes to the building and painting process. I absolutely HATE seeing mold lines on a mini while I am painting, so my excitement to build some retro models lasted about 10 minutes, or as long as it takes to trim horrendous mold lines from a single skeleton torso. Many years of building modern kits has spoiled me on what I consider a long clean-up job for a mini, so after crawling across the finish line for my first 10 skeletons, I knew I had to change something about my process.

The Industrial Age

Knowing I had to build another… checks notes… 62 skeleton warriors drained me of most of my remaining excitement. I was in for the long haul and there was no turning back.

One of the few redeeming qualities of miniatures made in the 90s/2000s was the ability to mix and match parts. Very few pieces were numbered, and all you had to do was glue some arms to a body and that body to a base. It wasn’t until somewhat recently that mono-pose kits became the norm much to the displeasure of kitbashers everywhere. Another bonus of these interchangeable parts was that there was ALMOST no way to assemble your minis incorrectly. With this in mind, I pulled out my heavy duty clippers and got to work clipping out all the remaining skeleton spearmen. After about 15 minutes of focused work, I was left with my very own homemade box of citadel skulls!

My gameplan here was to streamline the process by building them all at once in an assembly line.

  1. Clip out all the parts
  2. Use a sharp hobby knife to cut away any extra material left from the sprue
  3. Use a dull hobby knife to scrape away any mold lines
  4. Use some fine sandpaper to smooth out any harsh lines left by previous steps
  5. Assemble

With a plan in place, I wasted no further time. I trimmed each piece, and moved it to the other side of the bin. Each step only used a single tool, so I didn’t have to worry much about picking up and putting down the same tool hundreds of times over the course of the whole kit.

This was the most time consuming part of building, but if you want great looking models, you have to start with a cleaned miniature. This is even more important for older models where the molds aren’t in great condition. The images below show a before and after of some pretty severe mold slips. That’s definitely going to leave a mark if not addressed in assembly. You’ll notice a few mold lines on the spine that just aren’t worth the effort, but the legs trimmed up nicely.

Mold lines that follow sharp edges on the model are often missed. I find taking a few seconds to clean these adds a lot to a mini’s final appearance. Edge highlights on super sharp edges (Like the shield on the right) have a tendency to be unnaturally thin compared to even a razor thin edge highlight on more rounded corners. Making sure all of your “sharp” edges are similar in shape makes it easier to get a good consistent edge highlight. Since the shields are going to be a major focus of these soldiers, it pays to take a little extra time now to prep them.

Once I took my final pass on all the parts, I sorted them as I went into small bins to keep parts of each type together. This made the assembly stage fly by. All in all I was able to assemble the other 30 spearmen in about 9 hours from start to finish. While it is by no means blazing fast, I am reasonably happy with the amount of time I spent given I was able to make all but a few mold shifts completely disappear.

From here on out, the rest of the process felt like assembling a lego kit.

The Information Age (Learning From My Mistakes)

Don’t play tomb kings.

Just kidding! Despite my desk being covered in a fine dusting of plastic shavings, ranking up my first two squads of warriors brought back all of my excitement and more. With larger projects, it easy to lose sight of the end goals, so breaking it down into smaller chunks really helped me stay motivated.

Tools For Retaining Your Sanity

Flash Scraper

Throughout my build of my Tomb Kings army, my most valuable tool has been a very dull hobby knife. A dulled blade is the perfect tool for scraping at mold lines, and is much less likely to damage a part then a sharp blade is. I have tried several other tools, including some dedicated micro deburring tools and have yet to find anything that is as easy to use and effective as a dull hobby knife.

Extra-Thin Plastic Cement

Some textures are just plain awful to clean if a mold line runs over them. In particular, plasma coils and rib cages come to mind. My preferred method for quickly tackling these is a quick light scrape with my dull hobby knife and some extra-thin cement. Brushing over just a tiny bit is usually enough to melt any shavings stuck in the detail and help hide the join.

Rubber Bands

Another useful tool was a handful of rubber bands in various sizes. Some parts, particularly the Skeleton Horses, just don’t want to stay together. Snapping a rubber band around parts as they dry helps speed up the assembly line process of building immensely. The Necrolith dragon also benefits from the added pressure to keep the ribcage together as it dries.

Other Projects

I sadly did nothing else this month except clip, sand and assemble tiny small skeletons.

Austin B.

February Progress?

Unlike the others, I have had to build fairly little this month. Between the fact that my army is composed of primarily of the mono-pose, single piece Night Goblins from Battle of Skull Pass, and I’d already done a fair bit of building last month, all I really had to do this month was rebase… checks notes… 90 goblins! Not really the most exciting process, but a far cry from removing mold lines from and assembling models nearly as old as I am. A simple afternoon and that was done. So now it was time to paint them, right?

Nope! Unfortunately I had some rather personal issues arise that tore through the first three weeks of this month, leaving me both short on capability and motivation for anything hobby related. While I have now begun the long process that is painting a veritable horde of goblins within the past few days, I am not even close to where I had hoped to be. Still, the process has been started, and I hope to have all or most of these basic bobos (gobos?) done by the next update.

C:\Users\austi\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\20240221_225823.jpg

Shush on the desk. It’s organized clutter, damnit! Maybe… Now, where did I put that pot of Nuln Oil again…?

Now, progress wasn’t on a complete standstill during the tumultuous early weeks of this month, and I was able to assemble a few further hero models and some unit fillers, mostly comprised of spare bits and the Looncourt models from Warhammer Underworlds. I won’t show those off quite yet though, as I still have a bit of work I want to do on them.

“February” Progress

Now, despite what was stated above, I am not without any work to show off! Between the time of our last post in January, and my unfortunate incident in early February, I was able to get a few more miniatures painted. Firstly, I finished up four more members to join the Squig Hopper unit for the model I showed off in the last update. The other five will come in time…

Furthermore, I was able to get ten Squigs done for a Squig Herder unit. They’ve been let loose! Where are their herders? Well, you’ll hopefully see them next month, so they can round off (or round up) the unit.

And last, but not least, I was able to paint perhaps one of my favorite models from the new Gloomspite Gitz range, the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig. While he cannot lead my armies in the Old World, he’s still certainly an intimidating presence! The sickle-blade, the mask, the giant squig tongue… Ugh, I just love everything about this model.

Well, that’s it from me! Hopefully I have more to show you all next month. Much more…

Kevin C

So, as this is being posted, I am currently out of my house due to asbestos abatement, so my hobbying availability has certainly taken a hit in recent weeks. That being said, I was able to assemble the entire boxed set of Bretonnians before I left. Here are my thoughts:

The first thing that came to mind was just how much the sprues have changed in the past 20 years. Compare and contrast the two sprues, Men-at-Arms basically unchanged from when they were released back in … checks notes… 1998, and the Lord on Pegasus that was just released.

The tightness of the Lord on Pegasus sprue is definitely more in fashion these days, I assume thanks to the significant advancement in CAD software over the intervening years. I do appreciate the lack of waste that the smaller, tighter sprues offer, but at times they make it hard to cut pieces off the sprue cleanly, due to the weird angles. I have definitely had this problem with some of the newer kits, like the kill teams and this Lord on Pegasus. More on him later…

Knights

The knights were delightfully simple to build. I chose to keep the rider and the shield removed from the horse until after I have painted them, so that I can get to the hard to reach spaces while painting. 

Don’t mind the reindeer water mug…

I like keeping helmets on all my models whenever possible. Not because I am bad at painting faces (or, not only because I am bad at painting faces), but it helps to build the uniformity of the unit. I will be differentiating them in different ways, however, mostly through heraldry.

Archers

Don’t get me wrong, I like archers. However, they definitely have the peasant, unclean look. I actually prefer the older monopose archer models from the early 1990s which always looked … healthier to me? Anyway…

It is a good thing we have those stakes and braziers – they are a must for any Bretonnian player. That being said, even though there are tons of stakes with these archer sprues, there are only two 100x25mm bases for them to go on, meaning you can only construct a single unit with stakes. I’m going to see if I can procure more long narrow bases for more stake emplacements.

Men at Arms

So, I’ll be honest, I don’t like the look of these guys. Filthy peasants. That being said, I am so glad Games Workshop made the decision to move all infantry to 25mm bases. These guys can actually finally rank up cleanly. Well, with the exception of the banner knocking the guy behind him in the face. You know, the banner that doesn’t count for VPs for your opponent? Yeah, that one…

Similar to the knights, I have kept the shields off these guys, in order to be able to reach the rest of the miniature behind the shield. On the table, I will probably run these guys as a single large unit, but I ended up building two command sets, just in case.

Duke on Pegasus

Alright, now I’m really going to gripe. This was easily the WORST kit I have ever had to build. The instructions were bad, but I’ve had that before. What really made this kit terrible was two-fold: the miniature itself is hollow (most likely to reduce cost of plastic), and the joins were flat. This means that I have to hold the pieces together, often at weird angles, and they did not want to stay together.

Even after completing the model, instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment of a job well done, I just lifted my hands in disgust and said “good riddance”. I am not entirely confident it will stay glued together through the painting process, namely because the joins are so flipping precarious. As I said, I hated building this model.

Putting It All Together

Well, despite delays in shipping thanks to freak weather in Memphis, and having to deal with unexpected home repairs this month, I was able to build the entire army in the month of February.

My hope moving forward is that I will be able to finish painting a unit for each of our future updates, and given that, should have the entire set done by mid-summer.

Now to wait until nice, low-humidity weather, to be able to prime. Meanwhile…

In Other Hobby News

I was able to finish the rest of my Legions Imperialis miniatures, as well as a pair of Baenblades. I still do not like painting the infantry, but having them all complete is a nice feeling.

I put everything I currently own for Epic together (that has been painted, at least). What kills me is that, it is 20 tanks and 88 infantry bases, and the whole of it only adds up to 1850 points. Still waiting on those aircraft to get back into stock, as well as those support boxes…

I was able to get a good game of Legions in against my buddy Pox a few nights back. He has been printing terrain almost nonstop for the past two months, so he’s got a pretty sizeable and impressive table. I still lost, mostly due to my own mistakes, but it was good to finally put a fully painted army on the table.

Jerry S

February was one of those months in my hobby journey where it felt like I was getting nothing done. Looking back at the pictures of what I worked on this month however, nothing could be further from the truth. While I wasn’t spending my hobby time painting, I was certainly still moving my project(s) along.

After finally getting (most of) my Tomb Kings kits from Games-workshop, I was able to start the long and arduous process of building my skeletons. Michael detailed that terrible process more eloquently than I ever could up above so I will spare you the details.

My goal for the month was to get my “Battleline” built and ready for the painting booth and I am happy to report that I was successful! I actually was able to sneak in a couple Sepulchral Stalkers and some Ushabti as well(not pictured).

All told I’ve assembled 40 skeleton spearman, 20 archers, 20 Tomb Guard, a Casket of Souls and several different character models.

I still have a pile of models to build but I thought this was a good launching point to begin the painting phase. I’ve always been a sucker for teal tomb kings livery. To me, it just works perfectly with white and I had a ton of fun painting different shield designs on each of the warriors. This something I haven’t often done in my hobby history so I took every opportunity to vary the shields here. I already have some more ideas for the second and third batches of spearmen as well so we all have that to look forward to!

While this first block isn’t perfect (I already have some ideas for improvements I want to make), I am happy to have locked in my scheme and I am sure to refine it over the next…100 skeletons….

In other hobby news, after many years of wishing and wanting, I finally decided to snag a PLA printer. I grabbed the P1S after seeing the incredible results one of my friends was getting from his and I am absolutely in love with this machine. I’ve only had it a week but I have been testing and printing at a furious pace.

The main reason I bought this printer was to print terrain for my various game systems and to test it out I printed the below tower and cottage. As you can see the detail is outstanding and the setting I used were more “fast and dirty” than I would use going forward so I have high hopes as I learn how to use this amazing tool.

One of the main draws for Legions Imperialis for me is the ability to create the truly epic landscapes that we all imagine our battles to be fought. The next couple pictures are some proof of concepts for an industrial spaceport board that I plan on printing, building and painting ahead of a Legions Imperialis campaign this summer.

While I did not get as much final product done this month as I would’ve liked, there is no denying that I got a lot of work done. I hope to get some more finished minis out in March though. My goal as of today is to get my block of 20 Tomb Guard finished, quickly followed by a character or two from my tomb kings. After that I hope to get some paint on some Legions Imperialis titans as I wait for jetbikes to release.

Finally, I am hoping to keep up the pace with printing, I have a ton to learn with CAD and I hope to get some epic terrain pieces out here in the coming months.

Mike P. – https://www.instagram.com/middleearth_mike/

An Epic Saga of Mike’s Miniatures

Oldhammer Heroes

It’s been quite the month, albeit with precious few hours to dedicate to my hobbies. Work, life, you know how it goes…

However, amidst the hustle and bustle, I’ve managed to make some progress on my builds and put paint to a few models. In today’s article, I’m excited to showcase some of these creations along with the meticulous steps from inception to completion.

Currently, my focus lies predominantly in the realm of the Old World. There’s a certain charm to those aged metal GW sculpts, each one brimming with character even after two decades.

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Following the assembly of the models—admittedly less labor-intensive with metal ones—I embark on a methodical assembly line process. Any gaps within the bases are deftly filled with green stuff (special thanks to Jerry for supplying me with this same line of green stuff a few years back). This meticulous step ensures a seamless finish, ready for the application of texture, typically sand, onto the base. Once the green stuff has set, I meticulously apply a uniform coat of PVA glue onto the base before plunging it into my sand pit. Though this entire process can span about an hour, the crucial point lies in allowing ample time for the sand and PVA glue to fully cure before progressing to priming.

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Once the sand has fully set, the model is primed and ready for the next stage. For priming, I rely on “Stynylrez” primer applied through an airbrush, ensuring a flawlessly even coat. Gone are the days of struggling with old rattle cans, where achieving the pristine flatness I desired seemed like an elusive feat. Given the material of these models, multiple layers of primer are essential to guarantee a solid coat, a meticulous process that demands patience and attention to detail. I can’t count the number of models I’ve had to abandon due to botched priming attempts, underscoring the importance of taking the time to get it right.

Once the primer has fully cured and every layer is meticulously covered, it’s time to dive into the exciting realm of painting. My approach to painting involves a blend of simple yet labor-intensive techniques, including basecoats, washes, layering, and highlights. It’s a methodical process that demands patience and attention to detail. With each miniature, I find myself investing hours, ensuring that every brushstroke contributes to the final masterpiece. While this meticulous approach may result in slower progress, the end result is undeniably worth it.

In the past, I’ve experimented with prioritizing quantity over quality, rushing through projects in an attempt to churn out as many miniatures as possible. However, I’ve come to realize that the depth of my affection for a model is directly proportional to the time and effort I invest in it. The miniatures that receive the full extent of my attention and care hold a special place in my heart, each one a testament to the passion and dedication poured into its creation.

Introducing a recent addition to my painting arsenal: the two thin coats paint range. In fact, I dove headfirst into this new venture, acquiring the entirety of wave two and half of wave one without hesitation. Let me tell you, these paints have exceeded my expectations in every aspect. Their smooth consistency and vibrant pigmentation seamlessly complement my existing Citadel paints, resulting in a harmonious blend ideal for layering and highlighting techniques.

After numerous painstaking hours of meticulous brushwork, I proudly unveiled the final iteration of the three models I had been diligently working on. The culmination of this laborious process revealed a level of detail and depth that truly surpassed my initial aspirations.A figurine of a person with feathers Description automatically generatedA figurine of a viking with wings and a cape Description automatically generatedA figurine of a person with a sword Description automatically generated

As you can see, we are all hard at work over here at Urban Cowboy Hobbies and I can honestly say the best is yet to come for each of our warlords. Stay tuned as each of us keeps moving forward with our hobby goals and I hope that we have motivated y’all to get after it yourselves.

Adios,

Jerry

Who is the GOAT? Dave Thomas deep dive

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Here at Urban Cowboy Hobbies we take great pride in our research team and for good reason. I’m not sure how many other research committees would come up with such a curve-ball answer for this question. Yet even with this off the wall attitude, Dave Thomas is undoubtedly a contender for the title of GOAT.

For the uninitiated, Dave Thomas is the founder of the best fast food restaurant around, Wendy’s. Adopted as a baby, Dave lost his Adoptive mother at the age of 5. Surrounded by tragedy, he and his Dad hit the road, traveling the country, eating burgers and finding work wherever it could be found. At the age of 15, Thomas dropped out of school and started work at a restaurant named The Hobby House in Indiana, falling in love with the restaurant business.

Unfortunately for Dave, the Korean War broke out and he joined the army, becoming a mess sergeant in Germany, feeding thousands of people a day. The knowledge this prospective GOAT earned in Germany went a long way in his future as a fast food Mogul.

After the war, Dave Thomas returned to The Hobby House where he met two people that would change his life forever, his soon to be wife Lorraine, and the iconic Colonel Sanders. Working with The Colonel, Thomas moved to Columbus, Ohio in an attempt to turn around some failing restaurants. Even in the face of The Colonel’s doubt, Thomas pulled off a miracle and saved the restaurants and earning a hefty stake in KFC in the process.

Selling his stock in KFC, Dave Thomas was able to open his own restaurant, Wendy’s, named after his youngest daughter. The company was founded on the simple motto, Quality is our Recipe. A motto that has stuck to this day. The people of the 70’s and 80’s knew quality hamburgers when they had them, and as such Wendy’s exploded in growth, opening 1000 restaurants in 100 months, and then another 2000 in the two years to follow.

As the 80’s drew to a close, Wendy’s sales began to dip and the long retired Dave Thomas was called back to the plate to rescue our beloved Wendy’s. Bringing his “Mop bucket Attitude” this GOAT appeared in over 800 TV ads, a record that still stands today. These ads brought Wendy’s back from the brink and to brand new heights.

After this legend of fast food had finished building and rebuilding his empire, he returned to high school, finally getting his degree almost 50 years after he began. An American icon, a testament to hard work and conviction, Dave Thomas undoubtedly stands as the Greatest Restaurateur of All Time. Dying in 2002 at the age of 69, the world still enjoys his tasty hamburgers to this day. In fact the UBH team went to Wendy’s last night and enjoyed a Nacho Cheese Burger, something that I doubt any other fast food chain could pull off half as well.

Editor’s note: Dave Thomas was a legend, a titan of American Fast Food. But is he the GOAT of GOATs? tune in next week as we dive into our next subject, American President Bill Clinton.

A simple question? Who’s the GOAT

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In the MMORPG Old school RuneScape there is a quest named “a simple favor” in this quest the player must perform a small favor for a character in the game. This small favor turns out to be more than meets the eye as the player is led on a wild goose chase around the world in order to complete this “simple favor”.

Like the simple favor in RuneScape, i ruminated on a simple question this morning on my run. Who is the GOAT? The question was born when Kenny Chesney’s “When the Sun Goes Down” started playing on my headphones. My initial thought was that Kenny Chesney must be the GOAT of country music. This thought then grew to another question, who is the GOAT of all musical artists? Then, who is the GOAT in entertainment? The natural conclusion of this series of questions was the simple question I aim to answer with a series of blog posts I call GOATuesday. Every Tuesday, please tune in as I try to answer the question: Who is the GOAT?

The format of this series will be simple, I’ve asked the members of the UrbanCowboyHobbies executive research committee to provide their answer. I intend to dissect these research findings weekly, going over each candidate’s résumé for GOAT.

This series will start this Tuesday with our first subject still up in the air! To decide who we cover in our first deep dive, I have opened up a poll below to my loyal readers to vote!

I chose the 2 below candidates as I thought either would be a great starting point. But you can rest assured because while these two titans may seem untouchable, many of the other candidates we found in our research are just as worthy of the title: GOAT.

Closing remarks: look forward to the first installment of this series on Tuesday. If you have any other picks for GOAT that you feel need consideration please comment below.

Meg 2: The Trench Movie Review

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This movie man… not often in my life have I walked out of a movie completely shaken to my core. I’ve seen hundreds, maybe thousands of movies in my life and unfortunately 2 of those movies are a part of The Meg franchise.

The gravest sin a movie can commit in my eyes is to be boring and following that, this movie is certainly going to hell.

The movie was completely baffling. All the criticism that the first movie had seemed to be amplified in the second installment. Almost like it was purposeful! Again the characters seem completely bored by the prospect of fighting THE HUGE PREHISTORIC SHARKS. There are exceptions of course, Jason Statham is perfect, he is England’s greatest treasure and should be protected as such.

I could write pages of criticism for this movie but I will just keep it to 3 main points which you can see below.

  • They killed the female lead from the last movie off screen between movies?!
  • This movie seems to be a critique of billionaires as again the villain is a rich greedy capitalist, the only problem is now we have a rich Chinese Jason Statham-esque billionaire on the good side
  • They should’ve just made a full movie of the dinosaurs in the opening scene. Just give me Jason Statham fighting dinosaurs that’s what the people want

This movie is a 2/5, some good scenes save this movie from a 1 but this is one of the least interesting movies I’ve seen in years. My life is worse now that I’ve watched it.

Wargaming Update Mid-May edition

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Well it’s been awhile since I’ve written about wargaming. I wish I could say that was due to my time being taken by painting and gaming but honestly, I hadn’t gotten anything done until last week. Being WFH really does give me so much more time to get personal tasks done…

Some big stuff has happened since I last spoke to y’all so let’s get started!

Rebuilt Warhound Titan #1

I’ve decided to put this as first for one reason. This was the easiest task I did and it resulted in the most visible progress of all. The ruined hill of my Warhound titan has sat in my display cabinet since NOVA of last year. The victim of my rushed attempt to get it onto the field of battle in time for the event. A 20 day sprint to build and paint the model forced me to cut some corners. This hack job inevitably meant that I used no magnets for ease of transport and during event transportation the model crumpled at the waist and arms. Going back to remedy this issue, i magnetized the waist, feet, and arms of the wounded behemoth, making it stronger than ever, ready for anything that could be thrown at it.

While I can now say that the titan is standing strong, I need to work on the paint job. Originally painted in the colors of the Sons of Horus, I have since grown to think that my titans should wear the blue of Legio Astorum. Keep on the lookout for the inevitable blog post where I detail the repainting of this massive “miniature”.

Hit the halfway point on my 10th edition Tyranid army painting journey

A little update here for the folks at home. I finished painting my 36th gaunt and have fully built the models (other than the hive tyrant that arrived this weekend) I have for this army so far! Having a ton of fun painting these models, the color scheme I’ve picked is absolutely awesome.

Half the gaunts down, another 36 to go….

Return of The Independent Characters

Really excited for this one. I started back into the hobby during my junior year of college. A time when I didn’t know anybody in the hobby. This podcast made me feel apart of their group like none other. The energy and enthusiasm that these guys radiate motivates and excites me like no other podcast has been able to replicate. Missed them for the last 3 year, glad they’re back and looking forward to listening to them on my morning commutes for the foreseeable future.

Hype for 10th Edition

Man, this is an obvious one. I didn’t play much of 9th and honestly the barrier to entry to learn and keep up with the new rules was too much for me to overcome. I’ve been playing 40k off and on for 15 years now and I’m not going to lie, I’ve been missing it. The universe, the models and some good ole nostalgia has me yearn for a return to 40k being a staple of my game nights once more. Whether or not 10th is a return to form for this wargaming flagship remains to be seen, but I cannot deny my excitement.

New list building add on tool

Found this sweet tool that converts BattleScribe rosters into readable unit cards. This is the change I’ve been looking for, making rules recollection easier than ever.

https://nilsueter.github.io/fancyscribe/

Zone Mortalis Mania!

The update I am most excited for. Forgeworld dropped Zone Mortalis in 2012 when I was in high school. I was instantly hooked, the stories of the Badab war supplements along with the incredible tiles output by forgworld just had me hooked. Only problem was I couldn’t afford it, a full table costing more than my car at the time. For the last 11 years I have thought about, dreamed about, and yearned for the chance to own a Zone Mortalis Board of my own. Well dreams do come true boys and girls. With the popularization of 3d printing, the chance to own a Zone Mortalis board of my own has finally come into being.

I ordered this board last October, finally arriving 7 months later, I can finally claim that I own my own zone mortalis board. Hoping to break it in soon, in the meantime, bask in its glory

Absolutely over the moon for this board

Let me know what you guys think in the comments below! Hoping to get some more hobby time in the weeks to come. Hoping to post more frequently as well!

The Beginning of Baseball Season

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I know, I know, Opening Day has come and gone. Opening day for me is just this week though as I get ready to attend my first game of the year featuring the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles. In honor of this, and the fact that some of my most loyal readers are looking to make some money off of my super dope baseball picks, I’ll post my first picks.

The Season so far

What can I say about Baseball that has not been said a hundred times before? A baseball game is the greatest way to spend a summer day and we all know it. Inspiring incredible movies like Baseketball, Bull Durham, The Rookie, and The Benchwarmers. All of which I have watched recently to get back into the Baseball mindset. Here are my thoughts so far, and then my picks for the next week or so.

The Highs

  • What a crazy start to this season! The Devil Rays of Tampa Bay have exploded to a 14-2 start, absolutely triumphant return to form for these guys.
  • My Milwaukee Brewers have also had an incredible season so far, winning their opening series against the Cubs and then maintaining a first place position in the division. Great start, lets hope we don’t fall off like years prior
  • The Nationals are terrible…Why is that a good thing? Its means that I can go to my local MLB games regularly as the tickets are cheap. Even though it will be bad baseball, $30 for 2 tickets is an easy Friday night that I cannot complain about.

The Lows

  • The Phillies have come off of their World Series appearance with a whimper, not a bang. I feel for the city of brotherly love, it has been a tough year for them. I hope to see them come back but I’m not holding my breath.

The Picks

  • 03/17/23 Reds +1.5 over The Devil Rays
  • 03/17/23 Mets Vs Dodgers Over 8.5 runs
  • 03/18/23 Nationals +1.5 over Orioles
  • 03/18/23 Twins Money Line
  • Season Long bets- AL winner- Blue Jays
  • Brewers to win NL Central
  • Brewers to win NL
  • Mets to win NL East
  • Angels to win AL west
  • Aaron Judge to as HR leader

Lets check back in a couple days to see how our picks do. Next up we will be looking at Hockey and Basketball Playoffs. Let me know what y’all think about the above picks and let me know how much money you win.

First Ultra in Review…and Beyond

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I’m a little over a month post race at this point which I cannot believe. Was truly the hardest physical challenge I’ve ever attempted. Though giving myself only 2.5 months to train was not the path to greatness I originally hoped I did get the job done, not with a good time but with a finishing time nonetheless.

Above-Thundering ahead, nearing the 28 mile mark

How did it go:

Frankly, the veteran Cross country runner in me is not happy with my time. I averaged a 13’22” mile for the race with a final time of 7:25:38. While I can blame the hilly course, the foul weather, the mud and the extra 2 miles added to what was already the longest race I’ve ever run by a 25 mile margin I have to blame myself first and foremost. I was undertrained and under prepared. That being said, I finished a race that many people will never even attempt, this brings me great pride.

The finishing proof

Lessons learned:

  • Hydration- My camelback, full of water was far too heavy for a long distance race like this. Especially on a 40 degree winter day. In the future I’ll underfill the bag or find a smaller water bottle that can be filled up at aid stations
  • Training- 2.5 months is not enough to go from couch to trail 50k. Not with a good time, and not on hilly terrain like this at least. I needed more mileage, and more hills in my training program
  • Clothing- I actually nailed this part. Had a variety of layers that I was able to switch between as the temperature changed throughout the day.
  • Keep your mind sharp- after 7 hours of running I really lost the mental game, with just a couple miles left I felt my will falter. Only way I was able to get it back was by keeping a positive attitude, and cracking jokes. At the final aid station, after over half of the 100 finishers, I asked the volunteers “you guys know how far in front I am” to a couple motivating laughs. Pic related

The Future:

My ultra career is just beginning, of that I am sure. The first thing I said as I sat in the car, writhing in pain to my Girlfriend was “I’m doing this again”. Now whether that was due to my masochistic desire to destroy my body or due to the fact that I know that I was capable of more I cannot say. What I can say is that I’ve signed up for a 50 mile race on October 14th in Chicago, a race that promises to be flat, and with ample training time, I am confident that I will finish with a strong time.

That brings me to how that applies to this blog. With a 50 miler comes hundreds of miles of training, over scores of hours split between dozens of workouts. This will not be a fun journey, but it will be an interesting one, for me at least. Stay tuned to learn, grow and sweat with me.

Stay Loose -Jerry

Spring Wargaming Updates: Adepticon, old friends and Titanic Tales

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As march fades into April, and April into summer I look back at this year’s building, painting, and gaming. Catching the blog up for what promises to be an exciting year for my tabletop wargaming career.

This Year So far

Let’s start with a recap of this year’s progress:

Last year Gamesworkshop (GW) made the decision to remake their whole Imperial Guard product line… a line that some of you may know is what got me into the war gaming scene. This, combined with my discovery of the old Imperial Armour campaign books, proved disastrous for my saving account as I quickly became inspired to build, and paint an airborne desert recon force. This force’s main objective being to participate in a campaign against my longtime hobby-homie Mike (you’ll hear about and from him a lot I reckon). This army was quickly assembled and promptly wiped off the table at every game they fought in. No matter, guardsmen are meant to die.

As the new edition of Warhammer 40k looms in the not distant future, expect to see these guys often as I bolster their ranks in the coming months.

The Tallarn so far

The second, and more important project was the completion of my Ultramarines Horus Heresy (aka Warhammer 30k, or 30k for short). A labor of love over the past 2 years I managed to finally compile the 3000 points necessary to participate in all of the Adepticon events I was interested in.

My Completed Adepticon Ultramarines

I’ve got a feeling there will be a large addition to those ultramarines coming in the next couple weeks…

Adepticon: The big show

For those of you that don’t know, Adepticon is the largest wargaming convention in the world. Widely regarded as a holy pilgrimage for the biggest nerds in the country. This was my second time making the trek to Chicago for this massive event, and while I lost my usual gaming partner due to work commitments, I was determined to make the best of it.

Day 1

The opening night of the con is always exciting, Games workshop again bringing an exciting preview of the months to come. Whereas last year we got to see the trailer for the new edition of Horus Heresy, this year’s headliner was 10th edition 40k. The crowd was absolutely electric this time around, and as an added bonus I ran into a group of guys from Philly that I ended up spending most of the con hanging with.

The first vendor as always, always a good place to score rare models

Day 2

Day 2 was my big game day, with 2 Horus Heresy games and a massive game with dozens of titans on the table-only problem was I had no titan of my own… In steps my main man Mike. His first, but not last, legendary act of weekend being his purchase of the below Reaver titan.

Absolute beauty, the first of the two Reavers that would be headed home with me this weekend.

Day 2’s games proved to be as fun as previous cons, the event organizers doing a bang up job with the event.

Game one, my massive Falchion tank chewed through his armor with the highlight play of the day.
That’s a lot of titans!

Day 3

While days 1 and 2 were fun, day 3 proved to be the high water mark of the convention.

Restarting his own wargaming Journey, one of my oldest and best friends Sam came by to see what Adepticon was all about. After taking a couple laps around the convention floor, we settled down and had our first 40k game in nearly 10 years.

I can confidently say that Sam used his decade to prepare for our rematch a lot better than I did. The game was a total slaughter, wiping my Imperial Guard right off the table.

The setup.
This brave Guardsman held the line for 3 turns against Sam’s Chaos scum

With almost perfect timing as our game ended. In flew my main man Mike. Escaping from the prison of his old job, he made his way straight to Chicago. Once our twosome was upgraded to a threesome, the night only went uphill from there. With the drinks and stories flowing, we tied one off. I even managed to muster the courage to challenge Sam to a rematch -which I promptly lost. Better luck next time!

Look at these Studs

I know this was a total ramble but I just wanted to get everything down before I forget it

PS- Mike’s Reaver Titan will NOT be the only Reaver we see on this blog this year

The Beginning

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Hello to all that visit, I’ve found that the older I get the more hobbies I seem to acquire. While some might call me a Renaissance Man, I think I would prefer to be called the El Camino of people. Not too good at any of the hobbies I pursue, I try to improve a little every day. Not sure how often I’ll be posting, my goal is at least once a week for each of the main topics so if you see me lacking, hoot and holler at me to keep me honest.

In the beginning I intend to focus on a couple main topics, Fitness, Tabletop Wargaming, Sports and Cooking. These are not the only topics I intend to cover but they are the meat and potatoes that consist the meal of my life. If none of those topics interest you, don’t fret as I intend to cover many other things including but not limited to Cars, Trucks, Lego, Movies, Music, Camping and Fashion.

Happy to have you here and hopefully I can keep you entertained for a couple minutes each week. Adios for now, I have some posts to write.

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