//Authors Edit: This was going to be a quick 'Hi, I've not posted in a little while. It turned into something else. Please keep reading and share your thoughts on the subject.
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| Sexy Marines are Sexy |
I’ve been making slow progress with my hobby stash as of late. I’ve been thinking about it and there are many reasons:
a) Firstly, No Mojo: You have to be in the mood to paint and play. If the drive isn’t there, then it isn’t there. Forcing yourself to do something that is supposed to be your relaxing hobby makes it neither relaxing, or a hobby. I’ve been finding more and more of late that I’ve been treating my hobby more as a chore. Creating TO DO lists and telling myself I need to finish X,Y, or Z before I can start something new. Whilst there is merit in making sure you actually finish stuff, it needs to be because you want to see that model completed and on the board doing what it’s supposed to: be a fun gaming piece. You shouldn’t be finishing stuff for the sake of finishing things. I’ve been very bad by telling myself ‘NO! You can’t get a Mutalith Vortex Beast because you haven’t finished that Ork side project yet.’ Am I currently excited by Orks? No. Do I need to have them done? No. Are they best kept safe and sound until you are excited by Orks again? Absolutely. Would the Mutalith be a fun addition to what has become your main 40K army? Yes. So why am I pressuring myself to do something that I’m not excited by and suppressing what I am excited by? Well, see point ‘f’ below.
b) A Health Thing: Ok, so I’ve been having a shoulder thing for a while now. It’s a combo of several injuries picked up whilst cycling and exacerbated by playing bass guitar lots for the last 20 years. It only effects my left shoulder/arm. It does however make holding a model steady for long periods difficult as it causes shaking, numbness, and twitching in my arm/hand. I am currently seeking professional help for it from a physio. It’s still early days but we’ll see how this goes. It does mean that I’ve not been able to put in the hours as I used to. This also drains the painting mojo as I can’t paint as well as I want or for as long as I want.
c) Not Keeping up with the releases: I can squarely blame both time and Gdubs for this one. I’ve totally not been keeping up with the FAQ releases, with the Chapter Approved suppliments, and the various expansions because there have been so many of them. For example, my Thousand Sons collection, if going by the Codex, comes to a stately 2345 points. Going by the latest points values released in Chapter Approved they come in at a still respectable 2051 points. That’s a 293 points difference which is huge. Charlie and I recently played a simple 1000 point game, where I had a handicap of just over 100 points without knowing it. Along with minor rules changes and the new rules for bolters that I wasn’t aware of, it meant that game against Charlie left me feeling that my list and my playing were inadequate until we realised the reason for the discrepancy. If you don’t pay attention to every little release in White Dwarf, or are unwilling to pay up for the supplements, it leaves you really lagging behind and can leave you with the feeling of ‘why bother’ when you are simply being outclassed each time without knowing why. I do however understand and approve of the adjustments. It keeps the game balanced whilst allowing for updates and new things to be introduced. It is a living rule set and I’ve not been treating it as such. Which I admit this is my fault, I will state, however, that if you are going to update the point values every year, make them a free PDF and don’t punish those without deep enough pockets to pay the annual update tax (or those of us who just weren’t paying attention).
d) Work: Yeah, we all have real world lives out there. Mine just happens to be weird shift work so I’m not around at normal times and as such, my social and gaming life suffers. Plus, it is hard to do a 12 hour shift, come home, and then do some painting. There is not enough brain juice for that.
e) Lack of playing: As mentioned with the work thing, lack of regular playing means less painting mojo. Nothing refills the mojo meter like a good game, but as mentioned above I lack regular gaming and I keep missing out on updates so when I do game it’s not always as satisfying as it might be. What I will say is that when I have a bad game, it is not due to my opponents. We have an excellent gaming group and they make it fun to play. I suspect that I simply wouldn’t be in the hobby without them. What does normally spoil a game for me is either my own stupidity (which is infinite) or those damn dice (see here - A Series of Unfortunate Dice Rolls).
f) Too much dabbling: Slightly contrary to point one. Having too much started without making any progress and finishing is just as killer to the mojo meter. I’m currently sat with 11 in progress units/models around me. it was 13 until just very recently. With another 8 units/models in boxes waiting for any love at all. When you have limited capacity to paint/progress, where do you start? Too much choice can be bewildering. Some times your hobby butterfly wants to just crack on and build something, but that would just be adding to the pile of unpainted plastic, which causes further problems. I guess knowing when to chase the butterfly and when to apply some discipline is what I’ve been struggling with for the last year.
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| Blood Raven's HQ |
All in all there are many factors draining my hobby mojo, some within my power to change. It’s totally up to me to sort out more gaming for example, or read the damn Warhammer Community blog once in a while. Then there are some that are out of my control - general physical health and a relentless release schedule to name a few.
So I think the point I was making here was, I’ve haven’t posted in a while because ‘reasons’.
What I have managed to do is to make some progress, even if it is slow progress. So I’ve managed to self apply the rod of painting discipline and finished two units. One is a second unit of Rubric Marines. These are identical to the first unit (aside from some posing) so I’m not going to bother photographing them, just go look at the Original Squad and pretend it is new. The second thing is the Blood Raven Hellblasters. These are new (to me at least, and I think the first unit of them finished by anyone here at the Bunker). So here they are:
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| New Plasmablastyboys Squad |
Done in the normal way as previously described. With my maximum effort basing. This also marks the major milestone of reaching 500 points. It’s currently unlikely I’ll be expanding these much further, partly because of point ‘c’ above. I’m fairly certain that I’m a codex behind for Space Marines and can’t/won’t splash out on another £30 book just for a patrol detachment. Also I want to properly focus on the Thousand Sons. This edition is getting very complex, with all the layers of special rules and amendments and stratagems blah blah blah. I simply don’t have the brain juice to learn multiple factions anymore. The Thousand Sons are at a decent size and of good enough quality, so I’m happy slowly adding to those rather than starting a dozen different smaller projects.
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| Everyone Say 'That Belongs in a Museum" |
These Blood Ravens will be joining my somewhat larger Imperial Guard forces as their Primaris spearhead, so Charlie and I can reenact the Dawn of War video game, in person! If I can get my head around the rules for them, like what is this Tactical Mode nonsense anyway?
