Year One

I am already looking ahead to the release of the announced ITS 2014 rules and scenario. With that in mind and the coming holidays affording me more than normal free time a reboot of sorts I think is in order!

Bad Joke.. even Bob thinks so!

In all seriousness I have made a few goals for this year (including keeping this blog updated on a weekly basis to track my progress in modeling, painting, miniature photography (yeah that is something I want to work on too!)) and whatever I happen to stubble into along the way.

GOALS

• Paint one model a week or more: My main goal going forward is to completely paint one model a week. It doesn't matter what model I paint, it can be from the dozen or so miniature games I play or just a random display model of the many I have accumulated over the years.

• Enjoy the Above: I find myself thinking of painting over the last few years as a chore more than something I enjoy doing. Easing back into painting after more less zero brush time (other than the various spurts of muse that hits every few months) needs to be a process.

• Photography: This is topic that has always frustrated me when it comes to miniature painting and trying to show off, but also ask for constructive criticism online. Conveying what you have painted, without covering up mistakes with the camera, but also no taking pictures that reveal flaws the human eye has little chance of seeing. I have upgraded my camera (not for miniature photography, but for general use) to a Nikon D3200 DSLR, now learning how to use it will be fun!

• Improve My Painting Area: This is another thing that really needs work, I am lucky enough to have a dedicated space for my hobby. I utilize it poorly and the lighting conditions suck (I have one Fluorescent desk lamp above with white light and a clamp one with warm-light.) My plan is to add an additional desk lamp like the one I have throwing light from the opposite direction to get more even coverage. Over the year my eyes have gone from being able to stare at things 6" from my face for hours, to generating headaches after 30 minutes concentrating on all the detail present in modern metal/plastic/resin miniatures.

• Maintain the blog: Keeping this blog is my only way of self policing what I need to get done. Generating these posts is my reward of sorts, I could spend hours discussing all things modeling.

• Play more Consistently, don't just play: This speaks to how I go through spurts of availability for gaming and then what I do when I play. Having a goal in mind when playing with various lists (Mainly for Infinity..) I lately just toss a list together and roll with it. Trying out things I normally don't use (I have used AD: Combat Jump exactly once in 1.5 years of Infinity)

• Bat-Rep: This has been another topic of discussion among my player group and we never seem to have the stamina (or the memory) to get a good battle report together to publish online. I would like to do one monthly at this point.

Beyond the above goals I will be working on various lists for local player and for NOVA 2014 (9 months seems like a long time, I said that last year and barely got all the models I wanted to use based with my overly complicated plasti-card bases.) I picked up the basis for a Tohaa Army at NOVA 2013, and I own a large majority of the Nomad Line at this point. My Local lists will mainly consist of Sectorials for Nomads, concentrating more on Bakunin and a Tohaa Gun Line list (lots of spitfires *GRIN*) which may or may not get actual use for the upcoming ITS season.

Another area of interest that has come and gone are the GW (*GASP*) games; Mordheim and Necromunda. 

Mordheim is the game that started it all for me way back in 1999. A local GW (since closed) and a demo of Skaven VS Humans is what sparked my interest in this hobby. I still have my Skaven Warband that I have used for years, but never actually painted, until now. These are the models that I have been using to rebuild my painting technique on over the last few months and what I am going to use for the month of December to learn about my camera. That said, I have painted one model to date and am about 40% complete on a second model.

The other game (and miniatures) I am going to dabble in (to paint human skin mainly) are my Goliaths for Necromunda. I have the more modern set, not the old style plastics. I named them all after gun manufacturers and will go through some of the conversions I did to represent some of the antics that happened during a half dozen campaigns over the years.

To close, the model I am most proud of (and since has been knocked around by my cat, breaking it :( ) The Cold Zombie:

Another Model I have stuck away for a game called Foresaken that was developed locally:

The next installment will be centered around my Skaven warband; All things painting and updates on my goals (To keep myself honest, the weekend of December 14th being the goal for the blog update)