Hi again everyone,
I find myself on a cold Halloween night, brush twiddling between my fingers (not actually painting anything...), thinking about what the new year will bring for me and my hobby (not that this will be up on Halloween... my scheduling skills still need some work). I've begun to take stock of this year, what I have done and think, could it have been better? Did I manage to achieve everything I set out to do?
No. Hobbyists' never seem to reach the lofty heights of truly believing they have completed or achieved everything they wanted to. (I blame Games Workshop and all those damn fine models...). But in my case as in many other boring real life seems to get in the way. So it's time to prepare myself to trim the fat set serious goals for the year ahead. . To this end I've come up with a plan...
OK maybe not so cunning...
1. Set the target
I am provisionally down to attend a tournament in February next year being run by the brilliant Dave Weston over at Confessions of a 40k Addict (www.40kaddict.uk) (go check it out).
Dave first came to my attention when I started to attend the Blog Wars 40k tournaments run by Alex over at fromthefang.blogspot.co.uk (also definitely worth a read if you haven't stopped by). And with no word on whether Alex currently will be running an event until likely mid year, I've set my sights on Dave's event.
I love running different armies at each event I go to, and though not the most fiscally sound decision, I will likely need a new army to play for the event.
2. The Faction
Currently at previous events I have run Necrons, Dark Angels and Chaos Space Marines. I had intended to run Khorne Daemonkin at the most recent Double Trouble Event run by Alex at from the fang, but unfortunately real life scuppered that.
Though I didn't run my KDK at double trouble I'm ready for a new painting challenge, now I just need to decide what to do (which is harder than it seems with Thousand Sons almost all but confirmed and Sisters of Battle taunting us from afar...
So depending on what gets released between now and Christmas will determine what faction I will have a crack at.
3. Additional Tools
I have been flirting with the idea of getting an airbrush to try out. I am enamoured by the effects one of my regular 40k buddies, John Causton can achieve with an airbrush. His craftworld eldar, which he recently took to No Retreat in Gibraltar (run by SN Battle Reports), taking away several painting wins for single miniature and single vehicle, are at the level only some of us can dream to be at. . They look gorgeous to play against, and are deadly to boot across the table.
I am in no illusion that I will be able to reach these sort of lofty levels, but if it helps batch painting units it will go a long way to getting myself ready for February.
4. Other things to do
So with all of the above in mind I think it would be great to try some of the below as well, and might make for some interesting reading for everyone here:
- My Airbrush Journey; Day by Day entries on my experiences with Airbrush painting, and possibly some tips from other airbrush users.
- Faction Progression Log; Once I've a faction, small updates on how they are progressing and what I will be actioning next.
- Battle Reports; Dependant on availability I might get some test battle reports completed in the new year before the tournament, however depending on how long my army takes this might get pushed back to later in 2017.
- Thoughts on whether to run my own event...; This is a big one, and I've not put a lot of thought into it yet, but seeing Dave Weston running a birthday tournament makes me think about doing one as well, especially as I turn 30 this year and it would be great to see if I could do something mad like this too. Maybe I'm mad, maybe not, will have to see how the cards fall on this one. I have a good relationship with the owner of the local independent retailer so maybe I could sort something there...
5. The Hardest part of all
Paint one unit at a time! Don't get distracted by all the shinies!
So what does everyone think? Any ideas on my next faction to build and paint? Anything else you would like to see on the blog?
Let me know in the comments.
Until next time
Jonathan
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