It’s been a while and I fancied writing a little blog post, so here we are.
Personal & Work
This weekend me and Nat are staying at a little holiday house in Dunkeld, the first time we’ve managed to escape Edinburgh all year. It’s good! (Unfortunately the internet connection is very bad.) We went for a long walk today in the Tay Forest Park and got very lucky with the weather.
It’s a welcome break from work, which at the moment is a bad combination of difficult and slow.
It’s been kind of a weird year, to say the least, and it has made me tired. I’m always mega tired around October due to the changing season, but this time it’s been particularly crushing. Hopefully I’ll finish adjusting soon and be able to do useful things like get out of bed on time and stay awake past 6pm.
Tabletop Games
Board gaming has resumed a bit. Me and some friends have been playing Oath, a big fat political intrigue game with absolutely gorgeous art. It seems really complicated, but is actually quite simple, and works as a very effective storytelling engine, albeit not a particularly strategic one.
Over the past few months I’ve managed to play Age of Sigmar a few times at home. 3rd edition is… okay. Is it better? Maybe? It’s probably not worse, at least.
Hobby-wise I’m desperately trying to finish painting a whole new army for the Rollmodels meetup next weekend, which I’m very excited about. It’s got 3 Steam Tanks, lots of Drakespawn Knights, a big block of dark elves, and two ballistas. (I’m excited about the meetup, too, of course!)
For the past few months I’ve been working on a game of my own, a simple small-scale skirmish affair with a cool (perhaps unique?) magic system. It’s been a slow process of playtesting, iterating, playtesting, iterating… I wish I could speed it up but it’s quite hard to find the time and energy for it, especially right now. It’s definitely the furthest I’ve got with one of my miniature game design projects, however, so I can at least be pleased with that.
I do playtests using Tabletop Simulator with a small cult of folks who are willing to sacrifice a bit of their free time on the altar of game design. If you’re interested in joining said cult, please get in touch!
Video Games
I’ve been playing Enderal, a total conversion mod for Skyrim. It really is very impressive, managing to usurp Skyrim itself in terms of quality despite its sometimes amateurish trappings and zero-budget constraints. I’m not far in, having only just arrived in the big city (and been bombarded with a million sidequests), and it’s doubtful I’ll make it all the way to the end of the game’s presumably-epic runtime, but in the meantime I’m itching to get back to this weird German alt-Skyrim every minute I’m away from it.
I was playing Psychonauts 2, and loving it - it’s more Psychonauts, after 15 years, incredible - but haven’t found the time to continue.
Reading & Listening
I am reading Earthsea for the first time since childhood, remembering very little about it so that it is almost all fresh. Finding myself swept away, as I always am, by the understated beauty of Ursula Le Guin’s writing.
Meanwhile, I have run out of Genevieve stories to listen to. Maybe I should try Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula series, which allegedly contains a character who is basically just Genevieve, and has a similar storytelling and worldbuilding vibe which I can only describe as ‘dark Pratchett’. I’m worried it won’t be quite as good without the silly Warhammer backdrop, though.
Until Next Time
That’s all I can think to write for now. I hope I can get back into regular blogging, I do rather like it.
Did you know this blog exists? I didn’t! Yet for some reason I have the keys…
Here’s a couple of Warhammer Underworlds warbands I’ve painted recently.
First, Khagra’s Ravagers. These are Slaves to Darkness - warriors and wizards sworn to Chaos.
I love painting gold. I’m always eagre to paint some, to try a slightly different recipe - in this case I wanted to try to replicate the gold armour of my Iron Golems but using Vallejo Metal Color paints instead of Citadel ones.
I’m fairly happy with the result. It’s not a perfect match, but I wasn’t expecting it to be.
As for the blue-into-orange fabrics… I kinda wish I’d just kept it simple and gone with purple.
Secondly, the Starblood Stalkers, who are Seraphon (AKA Lizardmen). A bunch of cute little skinks and one gnarly old saurus.
Lizardmen were one of my first Warhammer loves, having been gifted a moderately-sized box of them and the army book as a tween. I barely painted any of them, and I lost interest in the hobby shortly afterwards, but they made a lasting impression. One day I’ll do an Age of Sigmar Seraphon army, but not until they update some of the old sculpts. If the models in this warband are anything to go by they’ll do a stellar job. I mean, look at this Saurus:
He’s so much better than the old ones (but notably he has no golden angle for photographs).
Once again I had fun painting the gold on these, this time going for a more aged, but not weathered, style.
It’s been a while since I painted any Seraphon. I might make room in my schedule for more soon…
Since these two warbands, I took a brief trip into Reaper-land to paint up an Ogre and a Basilisk (which were both a lot of fun) and am now making inroads into the Stormcast half of the Dominion boxset.
Phew! January has been a productive month, hobby-wise. After painting a worm, some netters and some spider riders (detailed here), I painted a big ol’ spider:
This is my 3rd Arachnarok, and first with a howdah (cool word!) on the back. The howdah, by the way, is detachable - my debut magnetization attempt - so that I can run the spider as another Skitterstrand if I want to. I’m pretty certain I built the whole thing correctly, but I can’t get the howdah to sit straight, so it looks a little wonky. Oh well!
I’m now up to about 1300 points of just Spiderfang goblins.
Khorne Dogs
Following that, I did some Flesh Hounds:
Aren’t they cute? I’m not doing a Blades of Khorne army (although I do have a handful of them from the old starter set) - I’m not even planning a Warcry warband - but I just had to have some Hounds. Iconic and quick to paint.
Gitmob Grots
I painted 30 very old goblins from the 1992 Warhammer Fantasy Battles starter box. They don’t look like Moonclan Grots, so I needed to come up with a lore reason why they fit into my Gloomspite Gitz army:
The sun-scoured steppes that border the Gloomwood are populated by a multitude of Gitmob Grot tribes. Though they are numerous enough to be a constant menace to the Plainstrider peoples who share the region, they are too disunited to stand up to the might of the Moonclan and Spiderfang grots who dwell in the Gloomwood. As a result, they often find themselves drafted into their armies as auxiliaries whenever the Dankroot Dastards march to war - be it against their external enemies or, more commonly, against themselves. Here they fulfil a useful role to their overlords, either as mere extra bodies to bulk out the teeming hordes, or as scouts and advance guard, roving ahead of the main force while the Moonclan gits cower away from the daylight in hidden caves and grottos.
I’m very pleased with how they came out. Some of the shields are from North Star kits, but the rest were designed and 3D-printed by a friend. Thanks, friend!
Sneaking in behind them came 10 last-gen Night Goblins. These models are SO different from the current equivalent, with their huge heads and enormous hands. The ‘Kev Adams’ look. As with the other grots, I discovered that highlighting with yellow is a pretty neat trick.
Finally, I painted the rather problematic old Forest Goblin Standard Bearer model:
He will be joining my Spiderfang as a Webspinner Shaman. He didn’t get the yellow skin highlights - I like my Spiderfang Grots to be pale and pasty.
Next Steps
I’m planning to spend most of February just getting models ready to paint. All sorts of different models are gonna be stripped, built or fixed, based, and primed by the end of February. This means I probably won’t be showing off a lot of painted models for next month, but it will be a productive one nonetheless. The payoff will be huge: when it’s time for me to paint a particular project, all I will have to do is grab it off the backlog shelf.
I’ve already begun this process and it’s very satisfying to finally give these miniatures a bit of the attention they deserve.
So far 2021 has been a goblins-and-bugs year. I’m okay with that. I like both goblins and bugs.
Netters
First up are 10 Moonclan Grot1 Netters. These are old metal ones, I’m not sure quite when they were sculpted, but they must be out-of-production for at least 15 years? I picked ‘em up on Ebay, scouring the listings for good deals over several months. I didn’t particularly want to have metal Netters, but alas: I have no way to get enough of them without picking up multiple boxes of Stabbas/Shootas (from which you can build 3 with nets) or converting/kitbashing my own. This is the problem with starting a Gitz army using old Battle for Skull Pass miniatures, sadly. I look forward to watching all the paint chip off over time.
To tell the truth, I started painting these a few days before the end of 2020, but only finished them on New Year’s Day, so I’m not sure which year’s count I should include them in.
This hateful creature is the first Reaper Bones miniature I’ve ever painted. I was a bit apprehensive when I ordered it, worried that the quality would be low, but my fear was unfounded - the plastic is great for chunky medium-sized creatures like this one. The Bones miniatures come pre-primed but I just primed straight over the top of it and it was fine.
It was mostly painted using washes and drybrushing. I picked out the nasty nodules and cracks in the skin using Volupus Pink Contrast paint.
I ordered a handful of other beasties along with it - a tiny Basilisk, a bigger Dracolisk, an Ogre, a Yeti and a Werewolf. Hopefully I’ll paint them soon, as I’m quite excited to see how they turn out.
Spider Riders
Following the worm, I did 10 more Spider Riders for my Spiderfang Grots contingent. These came from a friend for cheaps (thanks, friend!) and are from the old Skull Pass starter box, like my other Spider Riders.
Quite pleased with how these turned out. They look like sour gummy sweets, and contrast nicely with my other spiders. The recipe is, more or less: Terradon Turquoise, drybrush Scorpion Green, drybrush Flash Gitz Yellow.
Currently on the hobby desk is a BIG spider (an Arachnarok) - this time one I’ve had to build myself instead of being pre-built. Stay tuned for buggy updates!
2020 is not a year I will look back on fondly. I doubt many of us will! It started off so positive and energetic, but over the hill came a big bad pandemic. The time since has felt simultaneously short and long - a year that would never end, and yet also a year of which I have very few memories.
Nonetheless, I should write down some of the things I did and thought.
Working from Home
In March we all got kicked out of our office, about a week before the whole UK went into full lockdown. It was the right decision, even if it was a bit late. Thanks to a massive effort by the IT team we have all been able to work remotely ever since. Sure, there’s a bit more friction, but the technical side of remote working has been alright.
The personal side of remote working, however… I hate it!
It’s really hard to concentrate. I feel lonely. Isolated. Desperate for attention and stimulation, I distract easily. Home is where I do fun things and chill out, not get exasperated at work problems. By this point I’ve gotten okay (ish) at managing my issues but it sure has been a slog to get here, and there isn’t really an end in sight until perhaps the late Summer? (Please?)
On balance, however, working from home has kept us safe from COVID. It’s also meant a bit more time for hobby, gaming, and generally-not-paying-close-attention-to-work (one of my greatest talents). I’ve really appreciated having the whole flat to me and Natalie - it’s been a good time to live in a spacious abode. There are worse things to be in a pandemic than a comfortably middle-class programmer.
Love and Friendship
Me and Nat are doing well. She is so, so great, and we make an increasingly great team. I am intensely grateful for our relationship. Certain parts of 2020 would have been unbearably lonely without it.
Not being able to see much of my family has been a major bummer, especially as my brother and his wife had a baby this year. My first non-step- nibling, living in the same city as me - and I haven’t been able to spend any time with him yet. Meanwhile I haven’t seen any of my grandparents since February, and I miss them a lot.
Someone I like a lot moved to Edinburgh in the Summer and we’ve been going on nice, but distanced dates together. I want to kiss her! But alas.
I’ve appreciated my friends a great deal in 2020. Meeting up for walks, catching up over voicechat or IM, having quizzes and playing games over the internet - these moments have been beacons of light for me this year.
I feel like when things are better I’m gonna spend a lot more time with family and friends and going on dates. I’ve a major soul-deficit by this point.
I Live in a Failed State
I really don’t like the government of the UK! (Or even the Scottish government that much really!) It has handled the pandemic almost the worst in the world, making all the wrong decisions and fucking up the right ones at every opportunity. On top of this, nobody powerful is holding them to account - certainly not our weak-piss opposition and definitely not our sycophantic journalist class. We are in an incredibly awful situation.
It’s now very clear we should have pursued an elimination strategy, seeking to reduce cases to zero. Then we could have had slightly restricted, but otherwise normal lives until the vaccine arrived. Now even with the vaccine being rolled out, it’s going to be a long time before we can live normally again. Man, I just want to play Warhammer and hug my friends and drink a beer in a pub, you know? And not be afraid my country’s health service will collapse.
Meanwhile Britain’s anti-trans bullshit has really ramped up this year. Along with the rest of the bigotry. Do I really want to live here my whole life? Is living here worth dying for? I’m asking myself these questions a lot.
Hair
I have short hair again for the first time in like… 10 years? Feels good! And it makes me realise I was perhaps not a very convincing man back in the day, in spite of what I might have believed.
In January I had a fairly drastic cut to about neck length. Then it grew until, at some point in the summer, too wary to return to a hairdresser, I snipped it myself. At first I just made a ponytail and cut it off. Then I had to fix the mess that was left. Over the weeks and months I kept coming back to it, trimming a bit here and there until I had a properly short haircut. While I am proud of my personal haircutting efforts, I’d still like to see what a professional could achieve.
Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope 2021 is okay for you. No, scratch that - I hope 2021 is fucking great for all of us.
