Hello 2013

It was a slow blogging end to 2012. With December being the second busiest month (after wedding filled August) for work, I had little time to even get near a computer screen, let alone type anything of value. With the holidays now behind us, I have been reflecting on the last year, as well as looking forward to the next.

I'll warn you now, this one is quite wordy...

2012

War On Two Fronts- Our third tournament of the year in June 2012

It was a successful year for me in many respects- I took my career to the next step, ran 4 successful tournaments and set up a brand new local club with my friend Tom (Unite all action) O'Reilly, and spent a whole month in Edinburgh, chasing my other passion, comedy.

Messing about in Edinburgh with my comedy buddies Richard and Ruth...

My wonderful partner Jade made the bold move from Manchester to Northern Ireland, and after several months shacking up with my parents and siblings, we have finally secured our first house together...and yes, the man cave is included (more on this in a later post).

Hobby and gaming wise, having the new club operational has seen an increase in my gaming time. I have been able to play a good amount of 40k and have even enjoyed a little x-wing and that old classic; Blood Bowl. As for painting and modelling, I have been chipping away at those units that have remained unfinished for years, finally finishing my Marbo stand in, my rough riders and the Adeptus Arbites (again more in a later post). I have also begun work on producing a Hoplite tankette model, designed to be cast and sold by the famous Col. Gravis through his web shop curious constructs. If you haven't checked this site out, please view the link above!!!


Despite this hobby success, my goal for 2012 was to rebuild my failing Bretonian army, however this barely got off the starting blocks. I would give an excuse except I haven't got one, I can simply put this down to lack of inspiration I'm afraid.

So to the year ahead...

2013

With such a busy year on the horizon, I don't want to set out too many resolutions for myself. However I think it is important to lay down a few hobby goals.

Firstly, I have got to get a decent camera, as I am currently begging or borrowing one from wherever I can. Not really a hobby goal, but it does slow the blogging process down if there isn't a camera to hand.

Secondly I would like to revamp the look and layout of my blog. Whilst I like the simplicity, I want to tidy it up a little, fill out my blog roll (as there are many sites which I have been meaning to add) and also just update the banner with some new models.

Finally for the blog, I want to bring back the Lasgun conversions series, as I have a few more variants to show here. I also have several model reviews to complete. All held back by the lack of a good camera and decent daylight hours.

Modelling wise, I am keen to finish off the troop trucks and hydras. These still need a good bit of work with crew and the hydra gun shields to be completed. I also have a platoon ready to paint in the colours of fifth company. (Green Fatigues, grey armour).

The colour scheme I will use for the new platoon- These troops also sport the light pattern lasgun I created for Lasgun conversions 1

I want to finish the Hoplite tankette off fairly soon, before I start to lose my direction with this project. I'm pleased with what I have so far, but it is a real learning curve to build a model for reproduction.

Finally, I am just out to have a bit more fun with my hobby. With a couple of tournaments scheduled and a whole lot of gaming time planned at the club, this one should be fairly easy to fulfil.

So to conclude...

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday period, and wish you all the best for 2013. I'm certainly looking forward to see what both the hobby and Life in general has to throw at us all. Happy (belated) New Year!