Confessions of a Wargamer Butterfly

Okay, I admit, I'm a wargamer butterfly.  Or a squirrel.

The term generally means in the hobby "someone that darts from game to game", but now at the half year mark, I found my niche: MESBG.

You could read about that during the past year, and how me and Noshi enjoy gaming that system against each other, and hopefully expand it either in the club, or at least with some games in our new home once it is all finished.

But that also brings with it, a new sereen feeling of stability.  And a dedicated time schedule in which I migh actually get back to a regular paint schedule of perhaps even as simple as an hour a day (most of the days), which will mean my collections will steadily grow as I get round.  Noshi can re-emerge herself in her biggest passion, being online MMO's, but I doubt I myself will be spending much time on that.

You see, during all these months leading up to the restoration and moving in in the new place, I have been parting with a lot of figures, but also found some old treasures which in hindsight, I decided to keep.

I have been updating my "Armies" tab (see above on this blog) accordingly with everything I COULD field if I wanted to in game system wise, even though I haven't painted a lot of it (aka the majority) in any way.  But next year, starting with the Analogue edition X, I want to bring change to that, by slowly working through it all and star filling up all those empty listings.

All the while rotating with the mountain of LOTR models I have.

Now, I know quite a lot of those games aren't played at TSA at all, or only sporadically, but enter the lovely tool of T3, which list a lot of tournaments.  And in the coming years, I am going to be willing to travel for those, even though in all honesty it will be the nearby ones like Belgium, the Netherlands, or the "fringes" of Germany and France for example.  because I am a train person, lacking a driver's license.  As such, I'll be building "tournament sized", albeit not per se competitive but rather with models I like, forces for those systems.

And of course, I have my beloved who is always in for some gaming as well, so to that end if I have two forces of certain systems, I can host a game at our place as well if it is a skirmish sized game.

Deadman Wonderland

Now on Netflix, me and Noshi sat down to watch this 12 episode series that has been on my to watch list ever since 2011.

And it was worth the wait for sure!

When his classroom is attacked by a mysterious Red Man, Ganta, the only surviving student, is sentenced to death in the amusement park based prison Deadman Wonderland.  Here he has to try to survive in a series of cruel games, all for the amusement of the people.

He soon learns he has a special power now just like all the other "deadman", in that he can use his blood as a weapon, an ability called Branch of Sin.  A mysterious girl, Shiro, takes a liking to him and protects him in jail, but soon he remembers he knew her as a child and that they had a special bond.

In the prison a special project, called Wretched Egg, is being developped as well, and it seems Shiro is at the center of it for some reason, unknown to both her and Ganta.  While this project keeps developping, Ganta joins a resistance movement which tries to break out from the cruel place...

And unfortunatly there it ends for the anime, as it goes unresolved on many areas and leaves us on our hunger. Which, just like No Game No Life, is a truly annoying fact because this was a fantastic series, but no second season has ever been made...

Never the less, pop by Netflix and watch the series, you won't regret it at all!

The Keys to Paradise

Even though in the first months, I'll probably be more then likely cursing as renovations go around...

But here they are, the keys to the new place, and a small tour of the place.

The ballroom aka living room

The kitchen... and how she looked after the first trashing part...

The master bedroom

The dressing room, and the floors afterwards that have been removed already

Sanitorial relaxation rooms, depending who of us you ask...

And all this connected by a big hallway with a lot of build in closets for storage... yeas, that is my bag for work as well... I'm a colourful figure x-D

It also has two terraces, one in the front which has all day sunshine, and another at the back perfect for a grill place...


And this is the mancave room, which will be styled in a sort of Anime-decorated based room.  Now of course, this being a hobby blog, and the purpose of this post being to reflect on the effects for the blog for the coming months.

Well, obviously of course the amount of battle reports will be going down a little, as will the TSA clubnight posts.  This is due to the fact that if I can get one free friday to go to the club, it will be 'much', as that will be the fridays Noshi has her Heroquest game sessions.  However, I can't say yet what I will be playing then, because I have the League that I am in, but also the FWC mini campaign with Nemesis and the Dux "finale".

On the other hand, I do have normally two Lord of the Rings tournaments lined up in the second half of the year, so that will be a nice "off steaming" event as well.  But on the painting level, I guess it will drop down significantly as most evenings now I will be painting walls and ceilings.

The benefit is that once the place is ready, and I aim to have that done by the end of november, life can settle down after months both before and after the receiving of the keys.  And then I should be able to manage to get back in the yearlong rhythm of at least an hour of painting every day... and right on time for the next AHPC challenge.

Stay tuned, this little corner of the internet will be going on, but it just might not be with daily posts or a while!

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J.R.R. Tolkien

Or as it is fully titled: "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from The Red Book", an antology of short stories and poems, yet not all based around good old Tom.

Instead, we get an inside look at all kinds of short stories Tolkien wrote for his children and grandchildren, and how they get slowly fitted into Middle-Earth lore.

One of the most intriguing characters in the The Lord of the Rings, the amusing and enigmatic Tom Bombadil, also appears in verses said to have been written by Hobbits and perserved in the "Red Book" with stories of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and their friends.  The Adventures of Tom Bombadil collects these and other poems, mainly concerned with legends and jests of the Shire at the end of the Third Age.

This special edition has been expanded for the first time to include earlier versions of some of Tolkien's poems, a fragment or a prose story with Tom Bombadil, and comprehensive notes by acclaimed Tolkien scholars Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond.

Ow, and Harry Potter fans, sorry, but in 1930 professor Tolkien already wrote about magic users called "Dumbledore"...

De Quaye Werelt 2019: Anno 1477

The Quaeye Werelt is a large medieval camp re-enactment, taking place in Deurne (near Antwerp) since 1999.

During the event, people can witness how the medieval life went about, and buy things from specialised merchants.

There are also demonstrations of re-enactors, like this medieval swordfight tournament.
 

But the highlight is definitly the battle for Antwerp, as the Burgundy army came to our beloved city to quell the rebellion on taxes.

We did leave the battle a few minutes before the end, to beat the masses on the drinking lines.  And at 30 degrees, there was no way i wanted to wait a moment longer then needed.

This was also Noshi`s first time at the event, and she found it a truly wonderful experience.  And one I can recommend to all you people as well to pass by and have a stroll in the wonderful park, transformed during this medieval fair in one big encampment!

Finishing The Dead of Dunharrow... for now

I painted up 4 more Dead of Dunharrow, but this time the old metal variants of them for MESBG.

This brings my regiment to 24 and the King of the Dead, nicely enough to line them out on War of the Ring sized trays of 8.

Whom I duly painted up as well for them, so that presents them a lot nicer in the miniature cabinet now.

Now, the splitting and filling out of the units with their equipment is perhaps something I`ll do in the far future, when the Pelennor plastics start showing up cheaply on second hands and bring and buys, but for now I prefer to keep them as a "mass" like they where in the Return of the King.

So with that force for the moment ready, they can be put aside and I can turn my attention to readying another one, slowly building up the collection and reducing lead and plastic mountain as we go.

The way is shut!

TSA Spring Clean-Up 2019

Okay, so that "year" in the title might be an exaggeration, because cleaning up our old and used terrain and the likes, well, doesn't happen frequently.

But the weekend of the 1st of june, we did it big time.

A handfull of volunteers gathered at an unearthly hour, together with a container to toss the trash in, and set out to look at all the old stuff we have lying around.  Terrain that was to badly damaged would be tossed away, that what needed minor touch ups could be taken home for repairs by intrested members, or would go out as well.

So 30 degrees outside, and the brave few made the tactical decisions and deployed their cleany hands (hey, it might not be one, but it has to sound like a wargame after all).

The main target me and Jo had set for our part was the small chatting room and the large storage scenery room, both prime examples of men "orderly stocking" things until no one could pass anymore.  Gandalf would havebeen proud of what we made of it over the years.

The club boardmeeting room also was tackled and ordened, and a lot of old stuff thrown out over the course of the day.

And with a lot, we do mean, a lot...

But the result is something to be proud off.  Most terrain is now either in large plastic boxes underneath the bigger gaming tables, or ordened on the shelves of the storage room.

But in the end, we can be proud on what we achieved, though we where a bit knackered (by this time, we already had burried Eddy under the soccerfield outside, collapsed from total exhaustion)...

The Haul Report 183

Next tuesday, the contract is signed and the appartement bought, so that will be the biggest haul ever on this blog, aka a full man cave et all...

But for now, we keep it a bit more modest :-)

The beginning of the week, a small parcel dropped in from eBay, containing an Easterling captain as well as a sprue of Galadhrim Warriors.

More Lord of the Rings fell in the mailbox with this Bilbo model from The Hobbit range

Something totally different arrived as well, the first of a batch of cellphone covers I ordered for my phone, depicting Athena and her Saints.

See you next week!

On the Painting Desk 96

The ultimate one before we get the keys now tuesday!

And as such I tried to get some odds and ends still finished...

One thing that has gotten completed, where some Dead of Dunharrow and their movement trays, only needing some flocking now and they are all done.

I also worked on some 6mm models to give my FWC Marine Corps much needed armoured support, and hope to finish those soonish in order to get them into scenario 2 of our mini-campaign.

But outside those?  I frankly have no idea how my evenings will be looking the coming months, where and when I find a painting "hole" to do some stuff and the likes.  So your guess will be as good as mine...

So that was it for now, I can't promise a lot of things will be shifting in the coming weeks as a result though...