Weekly Waffle #305
31st December 2022
I’ve had another break but it’s not been because I haven’t been doing any hobby but more because I just haven’t made the effort to do the updates. This is partly Brandon Sandersons fault because I’ve been spending my time on the train, when I normally write my updates, catching up on his latest books. And it’s fair to say that I have been absolutly captivated. So if you want a good read and don’t mind loosing yourself and forgetting about everything else I would highly recommend checking him out. I’ve also been spending a lot of time working on the web site. Although it’s fair to say it’s not something that will be immediately visible but It’s been a lot of work. I use WordPress as the framework but until recently all of the media on the site sits in a single ‘media’ folder which when you have over five thousand images on that site finding things gets a little complicated. So I’ve been able to track down a ‘Plugin’ that allows me to add some structure to the media folder. But this has to be done one image at a time so it’s taken quite some time but there is still a lot of work go do to get things where I want them to be. All the images are now in the correct folders but what I want to do next is go through all of the images that will be in my galleries and make sure they all have keywords, alternate text , titles and descriptions. But that is going to take some time to go through all of them. Having said that I will be adding all of this to any new images that are added to the site. The main reason for doing this has been because the galleries plugin I have been using is no longer supported and I’ve been starting to have issue with it and wanted to move to something else, that wasn’t going to cost a fortune in subscriptions. And I think the now look ok.
Now this will come as a shock to a lot of you but I’ve actually played a few games last few weeks. Corey kindly arranged a game of Carnevale to teach me how to play. We just had a basic one hundred docket game and what a lot of fun it was. It literally came down to the last throw of the game to decide who won with the two survivors having three health points between them. That was the Guild vs the Doctors so very evenly matched and a lot of fun. For me the MVPs were the Smuggler and the Fishermen who were just outstanding and will be included in my next list. The Smuggler has a blunderbuss which is a template weapon and if you can line it up correctly it can do a tremendous amount of damage. Whilst the Fishermen has the knock back rule but he can move the model in any direction not just push it away. This has so many colourful options it really plays into the Rule of Cool and was a lot of fun in this game. Pulling one of the Doctors Lions off a roof and causing quite a lot of damage. All in all it was a really fun game and I’m looking forward to the next round. Hopefully I’ll also try and get some pictures of the next game for you. Until then I’ll just have to tease with the only picture I got after I set up my Guild.
We have also been delving back into Gas Lands and been having a lot of fun in the process. For anyone who isn’t aware it is a basically matchbox cars, with guns racing around a track. You can shoot or ram the other cars in an attempt to win. The problem is that whoever is at the front tends to get shot by everyone else. And the faster you go the les manoeuvrable your car becomes. It is a really simple game but it’s so much fun to play that I would highly recommend giving it a go, and I’ll get some pictures from our next game.
On the hobby front I’ve been working on a couple of things over the last couple of weeks. The first is quit boring thing is that I’ve been building and painting some bases for a potential new project. It’s going to start with a build for Necromunda with the option of expanding into a new 40K faction in the form of Squats. Or if I’m being official the Leagues of Votann. But in my defence for going old school the Necromunda box does actually say Squats, so I’m going to stick with calling them that. Even if it does show my age. The bases are quite simple just using cork and texture paint which I think looks ok. I’m also thinking of adding some snow effect to them to add a bit of extra detail but I’ll see how that goes over time.
Next up is where I’ve got a bit carried away with myself and picked up something I’ve had my eye on for a while. I have had a couple of minis from Scibor in the past but I’ve pushed the boat out a bit here because this was on offer. It is essentially a Squat Dred. I really like just about everything that Scibor does but for the most part I haven’t really had anything I can use them for. Bases are always good but again can get a bit expensive if you need a lot. But this time I simply got this because it put a smile on my face. A lot of the thinking behind this purchase was to have a centre price, that won’t have any game value, for a potential Squat build. My plan is to start off with a dry brush to bring out the highlights and then use contrast paints to get a first pass at all of the colours. Then to spend a bit of extra time trying to add some extra pop. I’m not being defeatist but I know I won’t be able to do this thing justice but I’m going to do the best I can. And probably more importantly I’m going to finish it.
On the colour front I’m going to be inspired by the Trans-Hyperian Alliance with a blue and orange colour scheme. It’s not something I have ever even considered before but I think it has the potential to really pop. And I think it will be fun to paint. Although I only really have a plan for the orange at the moment. The blue is causing me a bit of an issue because I think it needs to be deep but also needs to pop so I’m not sure how to do it yet. But I have been digging out all the different blues I have so I’m sure I will find something that works. The real key will be finding a way to get the colour balance right as I think either colour has the potential to overpower the other if the balance isn’t right.
That’s it for this week and for this year but I will be back in the new year with another effort to be more consistent with my updates. I’m not going to make any real resolutions this year other than to try and enjoy my hobby time as much as possible. I do have a few things that I want to have a look at and would really like to give Dystopian Wars another try in its new version. Carnevale is also something I would like to play more this year and I have all the minis I need to field quite a few different forces. And there are so many really nice minis that the collection will probably grow in the not to distant future. So until next week I hope you have a great new year and if you go out on new years eve I hope the hangovers are light.
