Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Greetings. Whilst "blog wise" October seems to have been a non-event; the hobby, as ever, continued quietly. In the background, whilst hectic home and work shenanigans try to disrupt the daily grind, my lead mountain sits and waits. Mountains are patient.

After the first eBay purge and consequent shopping trip I felt more focused, and as if my hobby was gaining some momentum. I tried to feel excited about 40K for a while, but beautiful models can only do so much. Each time I play, and hopefully enjoy, a game I often feel the renewed impetus and drive necessary to assail the hobby mountain once more and attempt to move my collection forward. I have seen the mythical foothills of my personal 40k mountain and frankly, at the moment, I'd rather paint tiny germans. Not a good situation but hopefully this may change.

After the arrival of Tank War the next big thing in BA is the Battleground: Europe book (20th of November). This should provide players with better, more accurate force guides for the theatre/region, special rules and scenario's. I have heard some initial chatter about it and so far it's all good.

I've bought most of the armoured support for my British and Americans (Just need some M4A3's and an E2 or some E8's). I've also made my Hotel complex and the moment the sun appears in south wales I'll put up some pictures (Easiest promise I know I'll never have to keep).

As part of my ongoing purge I partook in a table sale at my FLGS. I met some great gamers, caught up with others I knew but had lost touch with (See the post title!) and sold some of my stockpile to people who really appreciated it. It also helped by making me organise my stash (which will make future eBaying easier) so more miniature detritus can make it's way to eBayers around the world.

I believe my favourite opponent has finally started his blog and has also set up a forum for his gaming group. Soon I will start to electronically goad him. Excellent.

Thank you for taking the time, actual hobby stuff will be posted soon,

BALM.

What the %*@! GW? I thought we were friends.....

My BB Dwarves (I have nearly every original team) from childhood, that Blood Angel chap and a concept squat.

That's not totally what this is about but I am slightly worried about the future. To make everything better I've interspersed this with pictures of my concept models, early BB dwarves (painted in the early 90's) and some other bits.

Done overnight as a display piece in store (although the basing was done by a friend), he was returned to me as a thank you and now sits alone. Maybe he should get a touch up and head towards eBay.

More Importantly I've painted some FJ's (or at least block painted them). I'm taking a quick break from painting to write something in the effort not to ever really leave the blog empty. I've done about 16 of the 25 riflemen in base colours and when finished (hopefully tonight) will then wash them with devlan mud/badab black. They'll then be sorted into groups for colour variation in smocks/trousers/helmets.

I'm using a piece of cardboard with the groups marked in marker pen to keep on top of things and helps to visualize the final mix They're not that exciting to look at and thus I have no pictures.

 The base colour blocking part of painting is one I dread and frequently procrastinate about. After this point highlights, washes and all those interesting techniques make the miniature come to life; but up until this point I often find frustration. The moment I can 'see' how the model will look in my mind I find the whole process flows better and I enjoy it more.

My AHQ Witch Hunter WIP and a concept Necron.

Quick GW mention/worry first. I've now seen (as have most people) the pics of the upcoming 'Guard' miniatures (sometime in march/april/may/any minute now) and they are disappointing.

This is OK. I would have preferred it to look more like the FW one but I'm going to hack it up anyway and at least it will allow me to expose a squat gunner. Still the best of the lot.

Looking alot like Warzones Blood Berets. I like them but hope the kit has lots of useful parts rather than being build specific. Squats need stuff too.

It looks as if they have split the Stormtroopers away from the guard and put them in either a codex or dataslate of their own. Cunningly entitled 'tempestus' I believe the Taurox (ugly, too daft and just makes me sad), Scrap yard Ogryns (Why? and why like that?) and the stormies (but knowing GW some uber version or character buffs) will probably be available as allies to IG (or whatever they'll vainly rename them as) rather than be included as before in any way other than possibly the oft-overlooked , much competed for elites slot again. All I want is a decent guard codex. Doesn't have to be amazing, just usable and with enough variety and traditional flavour that all my painstakingly converted squats will have a place in.

This is the better Scrapgryn pictured. The other one has a ridiculous 'tache. Such a cool concept with such scope and plop..........that'll do. Let's hope the kit is more flexible than the pics suggest.

I'd like Ogryns to be available as a squad upgrade to provide muscle (read some early GW fiction) personally, I had high hopes for the new plastic ogryns but I'm disappointed so far. Hopefully the kit will be better than the PR photos make it seem but.....

It's as if they have taken their own ogres, slapped a bit of grimdarkery on it, added a upscaled bolter and gone to lunch. Nice.

They both look constipated and angry. The ripper gun as a scaled up bolter alike is a little lazy.

 So fingers crossed that GW won't ruin my favourite faction in 40k and I won't simply despair with them altogether because:

Yay! and possibly Boo. Wait 'til August to find out.

Now whilst I do have some/many problems with BA rules and more often the books and errata I do like the books. They're colourful, informative and when bought from the right place; good value. But they are full of mistakes more often than not. It doesn't matter as errata exist and you can use your own background knowledge (if you're lucky enough to have any) to adjust/fill the gaps. Complaining over, it's a fun game and has grown in popularity rapidly. Warlord has thus far done an excellent job and I'm excited about the forthcoming books Tank War and D-Day to Germany.

I've put up Tank War before but couldn't resist putting it again. I'm hoping it will just make armour slightly more complex and give them more depth, maybe a points reduction but not desperately. I've really enjoyed the bigger games I've played with infantry and armoured platoons. You end up having the armour fighting each other, surrounded by a secondary conflict with the supporting infantry forces. It worked very well. This is helped however by the increased table space provided by playing in 15mm on a large table.

Only Oct 20th or whenever after will tell if this release will redeem warlord rather irregular resource books.

This is more interesting. My forces are being made for BA and Chain of Command. Because of this and my own personal approach I'm trying to make them as realistic as any fictional WW2 units can be: in terms of resources and equipment. Anything with more information and more specific theatre selectors for BA will help greatly and this is a period I'm interested in. it's just a shame that I'm going to have to buy more books to keep playing. Warlord take a good look at the displeasure (often undeserved) that GW inspires in the flaming trolly world of the net and take heed. That path is not for you. Choose another and choose wisely. Also charge less for your Judge Dredd stuff; no one was buying it when mongoose was selling it for less, putting them in new boxes and charging more isn't going to help.

thanks

BALM