Pain

You may wonder why there is a picture of my house at the top of a post on a hobby blog.  That is because my house is what I’ve been working on the past week, rather than hobby.  Look in particular at the roof.  I spent a week with my father-in-law roofing my house.  Yes, my in-laws are up for a visit too.  More on that in a bit.  Just a tip for those thinking of doing renos on their house, if someone tells you that they know exactly how to help you do something, don’t just take their word for it.  My father-in-law spoke a good game about how to roof this house.  However, when the rubber hit the road, it came out that he hadn’t roofed a house in over 20 years and then was only helping someone else.  So, a week full of sore backs, knees and legs ensued.  I was too tired at the end of the day to do any hobby.

My other hobby problem is the visit of my in-laws.  As you would expect, I can’t just disappear into the Man Cave whenever I want when you have guests.  I do find myself down here as a respite on occasion, though.

I hope to have an unexpectedly positive update on the Summer Surge in the next day or so, however.  Stay tuned.

perfect balance

As I mentioned in a recent post, I used to play Warhammer, but fell out of love with it.  One of the things that always baffled me, was how players of Games Workshop games had such a love/hate relationship with the company.  Whenever something new came out, be it rules or models, there would be an orgy of teeth gnashing and ripping of hair because the new thing broke the game again or was too expensive or…whatever.  All this while the same people were on their way to a local shop to buy said new thing that they must have.  GW “fans” are unbelievably critical of the company, it’s business practices and its’ games. I’m not saying the criticism is unwarranted, but the fans don’t really act like it.

Contrast this with the players of Privateer Press games.  This company could drop a turd in the middle of the road and the fans would find something good to say about it.  The shape would be complimented and the location on the road would be perfectly balanced.  It is hard to find anyone in the Warmachine/Hordes community that has much bad to say about Privateer Press, its’ games or its’ models.  I was reading a blog post last night that showed off some horrific mould lines and gaps in the fit of model pieces.  The author thought that the mould lines were not too bad and the gap was pretty good.  Let me tell you that those imperfections would have been ok 20 years ago when I started building models, but not now.  When I recently ordered a bunch of models to start my Retribution army, I had to order replacement parts from PP three times in the first week due to missing or miscast parts.  I read a lot of Warmachine blogs and nobody addresses these issues.

Don’t get me wrong.  I would not like to see the flagellation party that GW “fans” engage in, but I think it’s dangerous when people don’t question what is happening and don’t hold companies more accountable.  There has to be a balance between appreciating the things a company has done well and calling them out when they are not hitting the mark.  The only way companies improve is when their customers demand it.  I love Warmachine and Hordes and I think Privateer Press is a great company, but I think they are short changing their customers in some areas.  In the future I’ll be pointing these things out.  I just wish that others would take off the rose coloured glasses and start talking about both sides of the story.

vinny!

I managed to squeeze some hobby in the past couple of weeks.  I managed to get the main floor spare room turned back into a spare room from the craft room it was for the past four years.  Lots of painting, installing trim and a new closet organizer.  It was also 30+ degrees Celsius every day I was working on it.  This far North, we don’t usually get a lot of hot days, so air conditioning is uncommon.  Suffice it to say, I sweat A LOT.

I did manage to pump out Vindictus.  I’m happy about getting this guy done, because I think he has a lot of potential.  I also want a second unit of Bastions and I think two units of Bastions and True Path may be a thing.

I also finished the Bastion Seneschal tonight, but haven’t got to taking pictures yet.

Sorry, it’s a cell phone picture using my handy Foldio.

book recommendation

I just finished reading Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia.  The book is about a regular guy who gets attacked by his boss who turns out to be a werewolf.  The main character, Owen Pitt is then invited to join Monster Hunter International a private monster hunting company.  It turns out that Owen is really good at killing stuff.  It also becomes apparent that Owen is not a “regular” guy.  His father drilled him in the use of multiple firearms and Owen is a meat mountain.  Oh, he also has some special connection to an ancient artifact and a creepy monster called The Cursed One. The Cursed One wants to end the world and allow the bad interdimensional beings called the Old Ones to come to Earth.  That would be bad for humans.  Owen and his monster hunter buddies need to save the world!

This book was a fun read.  It is ridiculous at times and even nonsensical at others, but fun all the same.  If you’re looking for a book to read on a long flight or on those long summer days, this is it.  I had to skip a few paragraphs here and there due to excessive details about specific firearms and their special features, but that didn’t detract from the book.  The author is obviously a gun nut.  The action is non stop.  Think of it as a Michael Bay film with a story.  I enjoyed it and I’m now reading the second book in the series.

Image copyright Larry Correia

where’s the warhammer?

Those of you who used to follow this blog under its’ former name, may be wondering, “Where did the Warhammer go?”  The real answer is that I don’t rightly know.  I started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles about six years ago.  It was my first miniatures game.  I was brought into the miniature wargame fold by @beahealthygeek.  Three or four years ago I picked up Warmachine because of big smashy robots. 

The two games peacefully coexisted for a year or so.  Then Warmachine started to take up more of my painting and gaming time.  Slowly at first, but gaining momentum quickly.  For about the past year and a half, I have not played WHFB or had any desire to.  After pondering this development, I have come op with a few reasons for WHFB’s disappearance from my gaming pantheon:

1. Painting  Even more than playing the games, I love collecting and painting the miniatures.  I will be the first to admit that Games Workshop produces the most beautiful, well engineered and produced minis on the planet.  In comparison, Privateer Press products look to have been produced in someone’s garage.  However, when I paint some Warmachine minis, I only have to paint a few of any given type before I can move on to the next best thing.  The largest unit I have had to paint since starting Warmachine has been 12 members.  A small unit for my elves was 20-30 minis.  I found painting the large units soul crushing.  I avoided painting for long stretches, just because I couldn’t bear to look at the mound of plastic awaiting me.  And no, I couldn’t just speed paint or wash my models.  That’s not my style.
2. Model Count  This sort of overlaps with what I stated above, but it matters when it’s time to play and transport your models.  I hated having to transport mountains of models and then set them all up in their nice little movement trays. 
3. Game Time  A large game of Warmachine can be played in an hour or two if you gab a lot (which I do).  A standard game of WHFB would easily take three hours to play, not including set up and clean up.  Maybe I just have a short attention span, but that was too long.
4. Brain Power  After a game (or two) of Warmachine I feel great.  I’ve had a fantastic time, win or lose.  After one game of WHFB I felt spent.  My brain hurt from following millions of little rules that were often contradictory.  Remembering to hit tables and saving roll numbers.  The enjoyment just wasn’t there.

I want to make it clear that I am not a GW hater.  Yes their stuff is expensive and they continually jigger with the rules so that you have to buy more of it, but that’s just part of the package.  I have simply moved on.  Warhammer and I simply grew apart.  It was an amicable divorce.  Unfortunately, I’m left with boxes of it’s stuff in my basement.  Anyone want to buy a partially painted High Elf Army?

Did you ever have one of those models…?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have had the Vessel of Judgment on my table for an eternity.  I finally finished it today.  I am convinced this model is cursed.  I had two miscast parts that I had to wait on replacements for.  The fit and assembly of this model make garage producers look high quality.  I had to fix multiple chips from the characters as they rolled around on my desk regardless of which safe place I put them.  When I finally finished painting it the other day, it was late and I got lazy and used Purity Seal from a can I had around.  What I should have done is load some sealer into the airbrush.  Alas, I did not and ended up with a cloudy hard coat.  I tried to doctor it up with some gloss coat and a recoat of (another type) of flat coat.  The results were underwhelming.  Finally, while trying to glue the final pieces together they wouldn’t go smoothly and I ended up with glue all over my base.

In short, I’m not very happy with the results of this model.  I was so excited to get this piece and to paint it.  Now I am just happy to be done with the miserable piece of sh*t.  I certainly hope that the Vessel gives my opponents as many problems as it gave me over the past couple of months.