Fine cast is here

I'm trying to decide whether I'm excited by this.

on the one hand GW are improving the reproduction quality of their models and new sculpts for finecast will take advantage of the changes.
On the other hand, Price rise? Resin dust? and worst of all- the loss of the iconic blister pack. I love the blister packs. Opening them I am transported back to the early nineties and No1 Dalling Rd. They have such nostalgia value for me. The little rubbish bit of foam and the backing board. I will be sad to see them go.
I remember all the complaints about the price rise with the introduction of White Metal. Lots of people saying that it would end the hobby for them. I still meet up with them to play warhammer. Because the games are good we will keep playing and therefore buying Citadel. It would be fantastic if GW top management treated its players with a little respect instead of wringing them dry so they can get that new yacht.

  RIP Games Workshop 

Metal Miniatures

in Blister Packs

More on game 3, the mission we were playing was Blood and Glory, where the aim is to capture standards and destroy generals. Our tactics were flawed and we went in piecemeal rather than with supporting charges. Both of their command units had a lot of staying power. We also had a lot of bad dice rolls with a big miscast wounding the my sorcerer, his bunker and Matt's giant on a spell that didn't really need casting.
We were thinking about staying round in the evening for open gaming and the pub quiz /duel of heroes but thought it might be better to see what Nottingham had to offer. Jim told us about the Trip to Jerusalem, a pub in the walls of Nottingham castle that the crusaders went to before setting off for the holy land.
We went back to our hotel and got showered and changed as a hall with over 200 people playing games can get very hot and sweaty. Walking from Bugman's into the main arena there is a wall of stench that slams into you. Its not pleasant.
Showered and refreshed we headed into Nottingham again. We had to go past Warhammer world so we popped in to see if they were still serving dinner. They were so we ate there and then set off for the Trip to Jerusalem  The Trip is a lovely pub with very nice beer and really full of history. but Saturday evening is not the best time to visit it. there was one group of lads playing a loud and complicated drinking game and another group in typical boys night out fashion. It could just be that I haven't been to a town centre pub on a Saturday night for millennia. We then went to see what else the city had to offer. The castle is nice, the meat market (night club) across the road was grim. We wandered past various Restaurants including "The Cumin" which we wondered if the food would be salty and a karaoke bar. We headed back to the car. 
I remembered passing a marina on the way into the city so we thought there might be a nice pub overlooking the river. We found the Hungry Horse, it was not a nice pub. 
We sat and chatted by the marina for a while then headed back to the hotel.

Sunday
Avoiding the £13.50 that Novotel wanted for breakfast. we headed off to warhammer world for a sausage bacon and egg cob and a coffee. the food at Warhammer world is excellent!
Our fourth game was against Paul and Andy. There was no way we were going to win it. Paul had high elves and Andy had dwarves. this shut down our magic phase meaning we had a long trek across the battle field while being shot at with out doing any softening up before we got within charge range. we did manage to do some damage but were left with no models on the table with an hour and a half to spare.
We went to the bar then to the shop where matt was eyeing up some ogre cavalry. After lunch we went back to the shop and I got some weathering powders and Matt got the ogres. While i was getting the weathering powders, Jim came up behind me and said "You don't need those, your weathering is fantastic already." speaking to the guy behind the till- "You should see his nurgle Knights, they're as good as anything the studio can do" :-)

Warhammer doubles

Last weekend was Warhammer doubles at Warhammer world. Its the first time I've been to a tournament and Warhammer World.
My weekend started very early (5am) on Saturday morning with a hurried cup of coffee then a drive to collect my team mate Matt from his house. We then bombed up the M1 with a quick stop at Watford gap services for a double sausage and egg mc muffin. We got to Nottingham and Warhammer world at 8:30am, registered our team and got our first table. We were up against Ben and Jen, who were playing Ogres and Lizardmen respectively. They had done a fantastic job of painting and themeing their army mixing parts from the Lizardmen in with the ogres. I'm pretty sure they got a nomination for best painted army and scenery. We got set up and going with a nice bloody crunch of ogres in the middle. My knights swept up the left hand side of the board crushing the scrap launcher and a unit of skinks. on the other side of the board I had a unit of 15 warriors with a mark of Khorne. They got stuck in with a stegadon. It was a fun battle and we won also gaining two points for our secret missions.
Our second game on Saturday was against Dan and Adam with Khorne Demons and Beastmen. this game was hard. fortunately my Sorcerer of Slaanesh rolled ecstatic seizures for his spell. which was cast several times with devastating effect on Dan's Bloodletter horde. It took out half of them before battle was really joined. We did quite well, wiping out Dan's demons but Adam's minotaurs proved too tough. Dan and Adam left about 4 of our models on the table at the end of the game as they chased them into the hills. We had finished that game ahead of schedule so we went off to the bar.
Bugmans bar is really nice, you could almost forget that you were sat in a warehouse on a trading estate in Nottingham. The beer is good. the seating is comfy and the staff are friendly. we also had a wander round the Games workshop. The stock is much better than the regional hobby centres but they still didn't have all the models on show like I had hoped. Matt and I drooled over forge world models we shouldn't afford.
Game 3 was against Jim and Alex with warriors of chaos and ogres. It turns out that Jim and Alex go to a games club in Hammersmith. We had a really friendly game and didn't mind losing at all.

More tomorrow

This week has been a little manic on the hobby front. My friend Matt gave me tickets to the Warhammer doubles tournament this weekend at Warhammer World in Nottingham. We've decided to play Warriors of Chaos and Ogres.
My Warriors of chaos were built with 7th edition in mind so Monday was spent with a trip down to GW in sutton to get some advice on competitive lists then a trip to GW Kingston to get 3 more chaos warriors.
Tuesday, I repainted 30 chaos warriors in 15 strong units.
Wednesday, I finished off the Sorcerer and the hounds then started on painting a temple of skulls with an airbrush. I think I'm going to be set for saturday morning but we will have to wait and see.
I'm going to do a bit more to the temple of skulls now.

My 31st started very early this morning, A&J came in at 5am to say happy birthday. I got a really cool Miskatonic University pendant from my wife as I'm a big H.P. Lovecraft fan and Mega snake dvd from J and Dinoshark+Octoshark from A
I love cheesy creature features, so looking forward to watching these.
Going out for dinner this evening. It will be the first evening out with just my wife in at least 2 years. It will be odd to sit in a restaurant without having to keep children under control.

I've just finished work on the space marine scout.

heres some WIP shots

In the shadow of my 31st birthday

In the next few days I'll be 31, I'm feeling quite chilled about this. I was thinking about what others have accomplished by this point and I think I'm pretty well set up.

I don't have a "career." My life has taken a different route, I trained as a gardener and groundsman but I gave up work to look after my wife and children. This means I get to spend time with my kids that other parents just don't.
I'm happily married and I'm not sure how many of my contemporaries can say that.
I have two wonderful sons. A is 5, J is 2. Its great to watch them grow up, A is obsessed with football at the moment and has a memory that just blows my mind. J is so cute and is just starting to pretend.
the house is full to bursting with little bits of plastic, what with my Warhammer armies and the array of toy cars, dinosaurs, Lego and Playmobil.

In the next few weeks I'm going to be learning how to paint with an airbrush. My parents have got me an airbrush and compressor for my birthday.
I'll be posting my progress with that here.

thats probably enough for now