Saturday 1 August 2020

The Hobby Table: August 2020







Hi folks,

It has been a while since I sat back and took stock of my hobby efforts. With one month left in the 2019/2020 Hobby Season, things on my hobby table are looking chaotic; it has basically become a dumping ground. 

Over the past couple of months I have entered two painting competitions at my local Games Workshop, both for Age of Sigmar projects that were not on my to To-Do list. At the same time, I have been trying to construct, prime and undercoat my remaining Space Hulk units, as well as prepare for a 2nd Edition army painting challenge. With all of that going on, my stuff has slowly been encroaching on family spaces. The grey tide has been eroding the shores of the wifey's patience! So, starting yesterday, I began sorting and tidying my gear in both the family/games room and the garage. In doing so I discovered some of my 40K books were on the verge of being damaged due to the conditions in the garage, so I moved them and their bookcase upstairs. It has also given me another space to display some 40K artwork (Captain Mikos of Lakodeme, by D Power, and a large version of my Hawk Talon/Barakiel Banner), as well as my two awards for the Age of Sigmar painting competitions.










To keep progressing through my 2019/20 To-Do list, I have moved some Terminators to the layering stage. I have also put together an extra six Deathwing Terminators, so that I can combine what I have to build up my 9th Edition Dark Angels list (10 Deathwing Terminators and an Apothecary). I am really hoping to knock over a lot of the Space Hulk painting this month, so that I am ready to go with a fresh To-Do list at the end of August, which will include a 9th Edition army and a 2nd Edition army!










The 2nd Edition army project I am going to work on started on the 1st of August, so there is a bit of overlap to complicate things. I have always included 2nd Edition models in my later edition armies, simply because Dark Angels have received very few new models for their principal characters for 25 years. I have taken a close look and made some hard decisions to shift some of the more rare models from one collection to another. It sounds like a very first-world problem; let's just say those in the 2nd Ed. collection will need some changes done to the bases. To really nail that project, I have purchased two models locally from Ebay, that I would have loved to have owned back in the day: a Dark Angels sergeant and a techmarine. Let's hope I actually get them sometime this week. The first model I will be painting is a Master of Deathwing (parts at bottom of photo!). If I get him done I am fairly well covered in terms of the challenge, which is aiming for 200 points a month, because the Deathwing squad I will do next month is closer to 400 points!











So, busy busy busy on the hobby front. In terms of blogging, I have been posting my #hobbystreak every day on both Instagram and Twitter. As I mentioned at the start of the year, I was hoping to post some really brief, diary type entries on these platforms to have a record of the little things I wouldn't usually include in this blog. Overall it has been a positive experience to get those things off my chest and I have met some great new (and old!) friends. The platforms themselves have deep faults though. Instagram really is a very shallow experience most of the time; it is much like flicking through a magazine. I did find an interesting group of folks on there, though, which I joined. I then discovered that they operate mostly through Discord, which has introduced me to a whole different society of positive hobbyists. 












Twitter is... unstable; a room full of mood swings. There are people who are really positive and doing great things. There are people really hurting and crying out for help. There are people waging war. There are people doing all of the above. I have lost count of the number of posts from people I just started following saying "I need a break from this: I am dying in a black current of molten tears" followed shortly by "hey I'm back: check out my new Primaris Marine Lieutenant".  I'm just going to make my little posts and be a port in the storm, come and find me if you will. 

Blog-wise, viewing numbers seem to be stabilising at around 3000 a month, though that has only ever been a secondary (tertiary?) concern of mine. At some point over the past couple of months, I passed the 200 000 blog views mark. Something I should celebrate, as I wouldn't have dreamt of that when I started. I'll keep posting for me and, if you are reading this, for you to enjoy.








See you across the table,

Marc




11 comments:

  1. Good to take stock sometimes and get a feel for what's the next project is going to be. I love those metal space marines and very much look forward to your progress with them!

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    1. Cheers, I have just received some more from ebay that I am really excited about!

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  2. I'm still lout here reading. I post final pics of projects on instagram, but that's about it. I get what you are experiencing about it though. It's great for seeing some random stuff, but that's about it for me.

    Looking forward to checking out the last month of projects. I'm now torn on whether to finish the season with 30k or 40 Primaris Dark Angels...

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  3. Is it normal to enlarge your bookshelf picture and try to run the numbers on how many books we have in common? :-)

    Your terminator builds look great, I'm guessing you combined Deathwing and Deathwing Knights parts?

    I know you've been at it a lot longer than I have but since October I haven't hit 3,000 views total yet so maybe it's all just a matter of perspective?

    Glad to be participating in the 2nd edition challenge along side of you, I can't wait to see all the great miniatures and Goblin Green bases that will come out of it.

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    1. It is totally normal ;-) I used Deathwing knight parts with some normal Deathwing wargear, just to give each model more of a character feel, to match the level of detail on the Blood Angels from Space Hulk. I try not to pay too much attention to blog stats, except when they really change dramatically, which is more of an academic interest to be honest. I am very excited about painting some more 2nd Edition models, they have been haunting my bitz box for too long...

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  4. Loving the conversion work and good to see the site is still strong. I try not to look at my site stats.

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    1. Cheers mate, good to see you still dropping by :-) I am looking at blog stats less and less these days. They just aren't that meaningful anymore.

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  5. I don't know why your wife is complaining. This looks like a highly organised and tidy workspace to me. I will post a pic of the cobwebs festooned above my hobby station one day. I have been cultivating them for 5 years. Also, wow! I did not know there was a Liverpool in Australia.

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    1. I think her complaint was more about the boxes and boxes AND BOXES of sprues in the kitchen. I was looking for bitz to send over to a mate and got a little carried away! Yes, we have a Liverpool here, and every other main street is called Queen St :-)

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