100 000 Views!

Hi folks,

Some time during the past three days my total number of page views ticked over 100 000. I have said before that I am not much of a stickler for blog statistics, but hitting this milestone got me right in the feels. I have spent the majority of the week on school camp with my Year 11 students, in one of Australia's rare alpine regions. I have been working with these kids pretty closely for the past 5 years, so it was really special to share this experience with them. Having said that, school camp is always a brutally tiring affair.

After lights out at base camp, I was able to spend a bit of time exploring blog stats on my phone, something that I don't often do. My page views have been steady at about 4000 a month, following three years of growth. Considering that I used to be quite content with 7 page views per post (I knew each and every one of the readers personally!), I find this a bit surreal.

I know there are a lot of things I could be doing to promote the blog further, but I feel very happy with who it is getting out to at the moment. Primarily, it is a blog for me; I love having a record of what I have done and a space in which I can express myself. As I have mentioned previously, it is also for my friends, with whom I have always shared a love for these games. I count amongst them, now, a bunch of bloggers who have supported my efforts over the years, inspiring me with their own posts and insights. From the statistics, it is also clear that this blog has quite a few casual readers who have stumbled upon it in their travels. Thanks for dropping by and contributing to my little corner of grim/dark!

"He who stands with me shall by my brother."

Taking a look at my Top 5 blog posts, I can tell you that they are an eclectic mix, which kind of reflects the blog as a whole I guess. Here they are if you want to take a look:



5) Hive Fleet Numereji: Flying Tyrant TO-DONE!

I like to think that I was using flying Hive Tyrants before they were cool, but they have always been cool. I built this one using parts from a few different kits as an homage to Cloud Jumper from the How to Train Your Dragon 2 film. The head also look a lot like the beasts from Pitch Black, which suits me just fine.

4) Labyrinth: Miniatures TO-DONE!

"You remind me of the babe [What babe?] The babe with the power [What power?] The power of voodoo [Who do?] You do [Do what?] Remind me of the babe."

I painted these figures for a boardgame I bought for the wifey. The quality of the figures wasn't quite up to GW standard, but I painted some of the smallest detail I have ever done. Sir Didymus was an exercise in extreme brush control. After painting between breaths for hours I started to get heart palpatations and had to stop! Anyways, it was an epic adventure in painting and I am really chuffed that so many people have enjoyed it.

3) Deathwatch Overkill Review

GW has brought out a whole bunch of boardgames over the past couple of years, with quite a few successes. Deathwatch Overkill was great fun to play and I think a lot of people have hit up my review when considering a purchase. The mission we played ended in a really close battle and I was impressed by the game mechanics and figures.

2) 2017/18 To-Do List

I have been creating these lists for the past couple of years in order to focus my hobby efforts, inspired by the hobby season shenanigans of Dave Weston over at Confessions of a 40K Addict. This year's projects focus on my usual favourites: Iron Snakes, Dark Angels and Tyranids, as well as some new faces; Fallen Angels and Imperial Knights. I have been able to tick quite a few of these projects off already, most importantly, my Imperial Knight Warden "Perseus" Intrepedus.

1)  Van Diemen's World Devils: Battlewagon TO-DONE!

This is by far my favourite project, a re-looted Imperial Battlewagon modelled and painted as a homage to the ANZACs. Many of the parts were purchased from Victoria Miniatures, an Australian company run by Victoria Lamb, a previous Slayer Sword winner. The Battlewagon itself was exceptionally fun to convert and the concept of reverse engineering Orky know-wotz seems to have struck a chord with people :-)

Now, more than ever, I have found myself turning to gaming, modelling and painting to connect with my friends and maintain a work/life balance. That should give me plenty of fun stuff to share for the conceivable future.

See you across the table,

Marc