If it's not one thing it's another

Three months after moving into my new house and I'm still without an internet connection. I've been told that it should be up in the next two weeks. However as it stands when my broadband is set up I still won't be able to connect with my computer; it crashed big time 2 days ago.

My pc has a restore partition (i.e. no disks, it just restores to the original factory settings). When my wife was playing solitaire on Thusday it apparently crashed and booted the restore (this is what I can decifer from a non-computer person description). The default restore keeps the userfiles, but restores the rest. the computer tries to reboot, but fails and reboots again; over and over. I'll try a complete restore (basically formatting the work partition) and see if that fixes it. If not I don't know when I'll be able to afford to either fix or replace.....

If it's not one thing it's the other........

Moved In 2 – The Saga Continues

Officially I’ve moved in. Unfortunately still no broadband, that means keeping this updated has been difficult. However most of the unpacking, putting up, putting together, etc. is done.

I’ve been able to do some figure painting just not as much as I would have liked to. I’ve finished some Lord of the Ring units (Harad warriors and the Betrayer for example – pictures to come), but then tragedy; my glasses broke. They weren’t the greatest prescription and planned to order a new pair this week. Now I’m forced to wear an old pair, which is fine for general day-to-day, but horrible for detail work like painting, and my new pair won’t be here for 2 weeks. Then I’ll be painting ever night (yea, right!).

The big pain of all this is that now I’m moved in…watch this space. Will there be a Moved In 3?

I Hate Moving

You sometimes forget how one phone call can change everything. In my case it was three phone calls and four emails.

Call 1: Landlord says that they are moving back to their house. We have to move in two months.
Email 1: Official notice in writing.
Email 2: Please call me, you may not need to move.
Call 2: They may not be moving back, can I give them 4 days to finalise what they are doing.
Email 3: You don’t have to move after all.
Email 4: We are going to be moving back in the end and you will need to move out.
Call 2: Same info (in case I hadn’t seen the email).

So now begins the job of packing, finding a new place to live and moving house. I hate moving. I’ve been here 18 months and I’m still not even unpacked yet (I’m sure it’s years before everything is actually unpacked).

I had even gotten some figure painting done in the past couple of weeks to. I guess that’s on hold for a while.

2010 Gaming Goals (Final?)

Ok, I’ve given the resolutions from my last post a lot of thought (that’s a lie I haven’t thought about it much, but I want to finalise them). I’ve decided there more goals than resolutions, that’s the first tweak. I’ve also added a couple of more goals for next year. I won’t really comment on these if the goal hasn’t changed from my last post. These are in no particular order.

1. Expand my dwarf army to a complete, stand alone, army of 2000 points.
2. Finish painting the Lord of the Rings miniatures I already have before getting any new ones.
3. Build a playable Harad army (LotR), including a War Mumak. This is after goal #2.
4. Play
   It’s nice having completed miniatures, but the whole point is to play.
5. Complete at least one non-Games Workshop miniature.
   I’m starting to enjoy painting for the end result and I’ve started to discover some great figures out there.
6. Build at least one complete set of scenery.
7. Create a display miniature
   Not for playing but on a scene base.
8. Really work to learn to paint better.
   My painting skill is still very basic. I depend too much (IMHO) on colour guides in the source books, White Dwarf or on line. I need to understand what I want and how to achieve it more.

All in all I think I’m trying to be realistic while still trying to have a productive year. Fingers crossed.

2010 Gaming Resolutions

Just stumbled across this blog post where John reviews his 2009 gaming resolutions and he judges how successful he was (in his case a wide mix of epic successes and failures). It got me to thinking of what I want to get out of my gaming in 2010. What projects do I want to start, finish or avoid? So here is my first stab a a set of gaming resolutions for 2010. This is the first time I’ve tried something like this, so I may just crash & burn. I’m unashamedly inspired by John’s resolutions from last year. These are in no particular order (and may change be tweaked over the next 2 weeks).

1. Expand my dwarf army to a complete, stand alone army.
   When I originally played Warhammer (about 5-6 years ago) I collected a Dwarf/Kislev army. I loved some of the Kislev miniatures, so built my army based on that. This time around (got pulled back in <grin> in May this year) I’ve been collecting/painting Lord of the Rings. I don’t have a full Dwarf army and the Kislev figures aren’t ‘current’ so wasn’t in a position to enter a local tourney.
2. Finish painting the LotR figures I already have.
   I have a pile of Harad warriors, Rowan warriors, hobbits & Gandalf the White base coated ready for painting. I hate constantly seeing black or white figures.
3. Build a playable Harad army, including a War Mumak.
   My son got a set of Harad raiders to initially learn to paint, ruined most of them and then lost interest (he’s only 9, so this still time to corrupt educate him). I love the look of the Harad and just got to have a Mumak.
4. Play
   It’s fun painting, but got to start playing again and show off my completed figures.
5. Complete at least one non-GW miniature
   I’ve started watching the videos put out by Beasts of War  on YouTube. One of their regular features is On the Table where they look at some of the new miniatures being released. Seeing some of the non Games Workshop stuff out there I really want to get my hands (my brushes)  on some of them.
6. Build at least one full set of scenery
   I love to play or watch a game with a full set of scenery (i.e. not just random hills, trees or buildings, but a set of scenery that goes together to set a scene or mood). I have lots of ideas, just actually haven’t built even one piece yet.

At a glance, this looks like a good initial stab. I’ll look at it more next week I think. Don’t want to go overboard, but don’t want it to be too easy either.

No time to paint

The week before last I was on holidays; just from work, we didn’t actually go anywhere. My plan was to finish painting a set of goblin figures. I enjoy painting Games Workshop figures. Primarily fantasy, but my son’s gotten me into Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40K (sci-fi). Even when off, I still didn’t get much accomplished.

Here are a couple of my finished figures…

I’m not a great painter, don’t spend enough time practicing. I think one of my challenges is my eyes. At 47 yrs my eyes aren’t great, I wear glasses and am in desperate need of new ones. These means I strain to do detail work. I often joke that I’ve come to this hobby late in life, but I will get better.

I’m really starting to get excited about different techniques and non-Games Workshop figures and tools, so watch this space as they say. I will finish my Mines of Moria goblins and I will get better.

Oh yea, I also plan to play more; which is the whole idea of painting the figures…:-) I’ll be sharing some photos and articles on the hobby in my Google Reader (see the sidebar).

Ready for another week of leisure

I’m home from work over the next week, but with the kids still in school and with Christmas shopping (and the cost to go with it) still to be done I’m basically staying home.  A chance to catch up on some TV (have lots recorded) and to get some figures painted. Will I get to do this or will I put it off until “tomorrow”? I’ll keep you posted. 

Kevin