Big update (very Pic heavy)...

I returned from my holidays to sunny Queensland with all my fingers and toes, settling back into home and work life well. The holiday was a good chance to get away from everything going on around here and relax, soak up some sun and have some fun.


The place is overrun with lizards of all descriptions from tiny gekkos to full blown croc's - the missus was not a fan. There is some beautiful scenery up there though, lots of colour inspiration to be found.


I managed to get to three of the five GW's up in Queensland including the pictured Maroochydore which is the tiniest store I have been to, the Carindale store and the Upper Mt Gravatt Battle Bunker which is the both the biggest in Australia and the hardest to locate. Big ups to staff at all the stores I got to for stopping to have a chat with us and showing me all the cool projects you had on the go. At each store I made sure to pick up something and came back to Adelaide with a Ven Dready, Sentinel, Snikrot and a dice cube.

Which segues nicely into what I have been painting for the last week or so.

I dropped by the Marion GW and got a spot of painting in last Friday. He is proving a bit of a contrast of love/hate. I love painting Ork models because they aren't Marines and are really cool mini's. I hate them because I don't do metallics very well, and with Snikrot, I seem to have forgotten everything from how I paint leather to skulls and Ork Skin. He is still very much WIP, and I am seriously tempted to rip of his backpack, simple green it and start it again. WASHES are the bane of this model - I just don't know where to stop. He has red boots after I read the short story Iron Inferno in the Fear the Alien anthology - even Commando Ork Kaptins know that red boots go faster.

I have also been plugging away in fits and starts at an Empire Captain Adz left us before he made of to Sydney.

He is a bit so-so at the moment, but I can see the finished product in my head so I will keep at him.


This chap is also eyeing me off every time I sit at my desk. I got him from my brothers for my Birthday a while back and I started him before I went away to be part of my WoC force. He is very much at the start of the painting process. What a great kit though - loads of options and bitz and gubbins for my box.

Just before I got away I finished up some more scatter terrain, and started on my next few pieces.


These provide a nice distraction from painting normal stuff, and look good on the table.

I've really slowed down with the hobby (at least the painting and playing side of it) the last couple of months. Not playing a lot means I don't have a lot of push to finish anything off so I spend more time flitting between single models or random things. While looking over my collection this morning, and reorganising my Marines, I realised that I was very close to having a full company.


The Command and First Company elements, with some really old gear lurking at the back (I have kept my first squad ever painted - from the old painting set - and some Termies and Calgar - 2nd version - in their original state for posterity purposes).

My main fighting forces - Troops, Fast Attack and my oft forgotten Devastator squad - cannibalised previously to fill out Tactical squads, and reintegrated with Missile Launchers.


And my motor pool and Techie department.

Now not a whole lot looks fully painted, but at my last Apoc game I mustered 3,000 points which seems like a lot. What remains shouldn't take that long to get finished if I could only harness some motivation like I used to have. To this end, I am going to start going back to store games at least once a week, work permitting. I am going to design a new army list, incorporating some of the things I haven't yet painted, with the aim to give me a purpose to paint again.

The observant amongst you will notice gaps on the shelf. I have plans to fill these gaps at a later date, which would see me have a full Battle Company (100 Tactical/Assault/Devastator Marines) with attached First Company and Heavy Support elements. Costing these missing things today sees an outlay of between $200-500 depending on if I took only what was necessary to fill the roster v taking what I would like to have in addition to the necessary roster.

Having just undertaken some Project Management training at work this last week, I looked at what I wanted to achieve, and placed some realistic milestones and accountability measures in place to help me stay on track in reaching my goal. I have two rewards planned if I can get this completed - 1. I have a fully painted, complete army. 2. The missus has said she is prepared to split the cost of a Titan with me. Rather than run out right now and get it, I have decided to delay the purchase until I have achieved some real results. Proper motivation.

Realistically there are some blockers to achieving my desired outcome. I have a short attention span and may just jump to a different project. I have other hobbies - xbox (not sure Halo/CoD is really a hobby), reading (currently reading the Brunner anthology - a better read than I thought - Well done Mister Werner), gardening (truly relaxing past time if the weather is right), the internet (got onto this little flash game courtesy of one of the other bloggers - its called mud and blood 2 - play at your own peril).

Anyway, I can only give it a try, and if it all fails miserably, try to learn from the experience.

There is some whispering amongst my old Dark Heresy group of starting Death Watch soon. Must get onto those minis too!!! Thinking of playing a Dark Angel character - always loved their flaw/secret shame.

That'll do for today. Lots to do, so little time to do it.

Happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom