Hobby Update

It appears to be hovering around the two week (plus) mark which means time for a Hobby Update. It’s been an eventful and fun, but also busy, time in the real world lately. I’m incredibly thrilled about that, as well as the individual things that have made it so, but that does leave little time for the less meaningful dalliances involved in the business of toy soldiers and games.

On the Warhammer front, I’ve gotten in two games, which I split with a win and a loss. More details on that to come in a future post. In the more specific realm of hobby, I’ve gotten one of my drop pods to the point where one of the five facings is finished, and the other four are close. I have begun to question why anyone would ever choose to pair red and white in a color scheme, but I am persevering through. The bigger mental block right now is the thought of having to detail the interior. I know I should have kept the pieces separate to make painting them easier, but I didn’t because I’m, you know, an idiot. I would be tempted to glue the hatches shut like every other vehicle I own, but it would make no sense when it gets put down on the battlefield, so again, I press on.

I have managed to attend the last two “dork nights” as my fiancé calls them. Smallworld has been trending and a number of discussions have ensued about how to make it more modular and re-playable. It seems the biggest fascination with it is the solid and interesting mechanics. I have played, and it seems fun, but I think it has illustrated my own preference for a certain style of components. Not that Smallworld has bad components, but coming from a miniature wargames background, aesthetics drives a lot of my opinion of a game. It’s why I like Torres, Race for the Galaxy, and Space Hulk. It’s why I really want to try Rune Wars, Horus Heresy, and Merchants and Marauders.

Ironically, my game of choice also lacks “componentiness”, but satisfies my desire to avoid conflict when gaming. Two of the Dominion expansions, Seaside and Intrigue, have seen a fair bit of action, and honestly, they are far more subtle than the original. They still follow the basic premise of logically following what your card says, but the way you build a deck requires a defter touch, with more attack cards, the addition of cards that stay in play for a turn, and most of all, the dead card island. I don’t know if any card changes the way the game plays on a fundamental level as much as “Native Village.” It’s a tough mechanic to exploit as perfectly as you intend, especially if you can’t spam the card, but it’s functional in a variety of ways. I don’t know that anyone in the group has a perfect handle on it yet, but I think we all agree that it’s worthwhile.

After finishing our last pathfinder campaign, we’re all itching to play again. Sadly, again, real life is getting in the way. Hopefully soon.

Hobby Goals

- Finish Drop Pod 1

- Assemble the Land Raider

- Work on rebasing the Khorne Warriors

Hobby Accomplishments

- Not much. Did a little work on the Drop Pod

- Acquired movement trays that will actually fit my Chaos Warriors

- Played some games

Hobby Update

Drop pods. What isn’t awesome about a bunch of super soldiers screaming towards the ground at incredible speed, slamming into the battlefield, and then bringing the pain? It’s an exciting bit of imagination.

In reality? Both to paint and in game, the model doesn’t do as much for me. In game, I put it down, roll the scatter dice, then I move it to clear space and it just sits there, immobile. It doesn’t produce a lot of excitement, but for a largely foot army that wants to put pressure on the opposing force early, it’s a necessary set of pieces to deliver these bad boys:

The model is boring because it’s essentially five identical pieces with large flat areas. There’s just enough detail and lines to mean some fine lines and edging, but not anything to make it interesting. Unless you’re willing to do some serious free-hand work, I don’t know that you can do so much to make each of them different, and I just have too much in the queue that I really want to get to. I will have to settle for a few small things and some variation in each paint job.

Thankfully, I am motivated. I’m not making leaps and bounds, but rather slow steady progress that will see the pods done at some point, hopefully in the near future. In the meantime, here’s a look at the progress on the first one:

Still some work to do, but getting there. The hard part is going to be when I get to the interior.

I also snagged some magnetic bases this weekend. I’m not satisfied with the way my homemade metal pieces are performing. They’re falling off the contact points and don’t have the precision I want. I also needed new movement trays, since all mine were set up for 20mm bases, so I’m doing the full scope of the project. I figured if I were rebasing my Warriors anyway, I might as well do some work on scenic bases, so I’m working on some white marble, but we’ll see.

Hobby Accomplishments:

- Got my Land Raider doors in

- Got a coat of red on each drop pod

Hobby Goals

- Finish the pod I’m working on

- Scrub the release agent off my resin doors

- Get my Khorne Warriors all on magnetic bases