2026 Major Milestones

A very short post today with no hobby or games to share, but more of a personal celebration on three accounts. 

1. On the 1st of October, this humble blog turned 15! Crazy to think I've stuck with it so long. Many, many thanks to all who visit and who might have time to leave a comment on my poorly written posts. It's been said across many, if not most of the blogs I follow, that the connections made since I started writing here and sharing my hobby are the one thing that really do keep me coming back. 

2. As briefly mentioned in my last post, this coming Tuesday 20th of October will be my 50th birthday. As a younger man living (shall we say) a truly reckless and irresponsible lifestyle, I honestly could never in my then bullish mind image I'd live beyond aged 25, much less make it to become middle-aged. Yet here I am and somehow only a tad reckless and even less irresponsible in lifestyle than most of my similarly aged friends and colleagues. I'm constantly surprised that I'm not in some gutter or prison and instead a father, a husband and a long-time employee of 20 years here at my workplace. Funny how life works out. 

3. Lastly, the 11th of October was the 25th anniversary of my emigrating to the United States from the UK, a decision I've never once regretted. 

Current real-life situations restrict my ability to work on my hobby much these days, but I'm good with that and feel I still have a decent enough output from the hobby station and also amount of games played during the year considering that. Regardless, this humble blog isn't going anywhere anytime soon and I plan to update it as time allows until Blogger decides this format for recording our thoughts and hobby is no longer viable in their minds.

Thanks once again to all of you, especially those who read this post at all and even made it to this point! :)

- Dai

Another Year Incoming

Things here have obviously been quiet. 

As the none of you who've noticed, I haven't posted. There's been relatively little to post about in my hobby. Real life right now just isn't presenting many opportunities for hobby or gaming. I did not manage to get any more East Front scenery painted up as I'd hoped. 

I did manage to attend a 3-game Bolt Action event on Veteran's/Memorial Day last month with my goodest mate Densmol and finished middle of the pack. Fun three games with very pleasant opponents, two of which I'd never played against before. (No pics were taken though as I'd managed to guzzle a beer or two after meeting up with the estimable Stew from the Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth blog. - He's a very bad influence I tell ya!) 

 Here are two old resin minis from a game that was originally Kickstarted (1st Edition) in 2014, Relic Knights, then a 2nd Edition was Kickstarted in 2017. Neither Kickstarter project was run well and only the first was actually fully fulfilled by the creators who are now a bankrupt entity. (I even posted about hobby activity on those original minis back in 2014!) So where does this leave the game? (I hear you not ask) Well dear reader, a new (way) smaller but far better ran game company bought the rights to the game title and all of it's existing sculpts based out of Texas (Ignition Core Games) and they have very selectively, slowly and cleverly been releasing product for the game's 2nd Edition under their own banner. So far it has a small and enthusiastic following on Facebook and Discord and I like the way the new owners are so interactive with that following. I hope to be afforded time next year to work on a number of minis for this new edition of the game in 2026 and even to try out the rules. Watch this space!

These resin figs are from the Cersi Speed Circuit faction. The guy on the left is Asger Faust. I kept his paintjob simple as his game art shows some designs on his coat, but I was not in the mood to try freehanding such nonsense. The pink-haired filly on the right is one of the Pit Crew girls (There is a second girl of the team half-painted as I type this) and with that quite insane facial expression she has, I fully do not trust her intentions on where she thinks that huge wrench should be placed. 

As far as Real Life: I got a small promotion at work in August and am currently doing my best to pass a 12-month probation period, so I've had to apply myself rather more than normal LOL. This blog also had a birthday at the beginning of October, turning an impressive 14 years old. AND I turned 49  that month and found myself regularly dour at the realisation that this is my last year of my 40's. So things have happened, just not much hobby. I'm not sure if I'll even have anything blog-worthy to post up before the New Year; free time as mentioned is hard to come by and there are a LOT of seasonal gatherings coming up. But you never know, lady Fate may well smile upon this humble hobbyist and afford him 2-3 hours for painting before January and the peace he finds in it?

Regardless, with a new year on the horizon, I once again turn to hope for opportunities to reveal themselves so that I might be able to work on some of my unpainted mountain and even manage to get some gaming in. Wish me luck. I have tried hard to not add much to my pile'o'shame, but priorities for my hobby this year are looking like: 

1. Painting more armour for my WW2 Greeks (Picked up a trio of rubbish light tanks on a Black Friday sale just to have more options for list building in Bolt Action)

2. Painting my WW2 Late War Canadians, namely that pair of Buffalo transports, outstanding infantry squads and the new pair of WASP Universal Carriers that were also bought in the Black Friday purchase.

3. Relic Knights - me and J bought into some of this new stuff. It arrived at his place yesterday. We are both jazzed about it, so out came all the 1st Ed stuff from my storage to see just how many options we'd have including the new additions for future games. Yeesh... that's a LOT to paint up. 

4. I need more time.

This short post ends with "Merry Christmas", "Happy Hannukah", "Happy Kwanzaa" and enjoy whatever other holiday celebrations are important to you at this time of year with your loved ones; I certainly intend to do so with my own. Stay safe out there in this far too frequently frightening world.

Much love, 

- Dai  

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12 years and 400 posts (Well, almost)

 A swift post as it would seem I missed being on time to celebrate my 12th Blog-Anniversary on the 1st of the this month!

I know things around these parts aren't quite as lively as they used to be and that's lots to do with "life responsibilities" getting in the way of fool-proof hobby planning. But hey ho, at least I'm able to hop on from time to time and push out maybe a post a month and in turn leave comments on your own blogs. 

Many thanks to any and all who frequent this humble blog. As always, it's your kind words of critique and encouragement that truly helps to keep me enthused and on track with my projects. My next post even will be my 400th as well (!!!). Another milestone. 

Here's to lucky year 13!

Cheers,

- Dai

Milestones

 More than a month has passed since I’ve posted, apologies for those keeping track. All is well my end, life just got WAY more busy in general and so hobby opportunities have been next to none outside of an online purchase for my Burrows and Badgers project (cos I really needed more minis, honest!) and managing to find an in-scale taxi for my Zombie Apocalypse project at Target. 

October is a month for a few milestones for me in general and for this blog:

On the first of the month, this humble little blog turned 10! So very many thanks to those who stop by on any basis, regular or not, to see my posts and extra thanks to those who leave comments too. In this new age of social media venues for our hobby progress, blogging seems to be a dying art in lieu of an all too easy alternative, so it’s very much appreciated that you readers still stop by and regularly too. It all remains an encouraging aspect to my hobby and truly keeps me going. 

On the eleventh I celebrated my twentieth anniversary since I left the UK to emigrate to California. A LOT of adventures and misadventures have occurred during those two decades and I regret none of it. Moving here had me meet the best friends I’ve ever had and find and marry the love of my life. 

Lastly on the twentieth I had my forty-fifth birthday!  I am older, not much more to say about that. It was a quiet affair, just me and my wife and girls. Seems as we get older, our birthdays end up being less and less about us somehow. Lol

Any actual hobby in this post Dai? (I hear you ask) actually no. None whatsoever. Recall in the first paragraph that I have had no time? :) I promise tho there will be in the next post - the weather has gotten decidedly cooler down here in the California Central Valley so I am able to set up a game table and so will hopefully have a fun battle report to share as I fumble through the Burrows and Badgers rules set for my first game. I might even paint something new by then also! 

Watch this space! 

45 means it’s time to grow a manly and wizened beard! Where the hell did all that silver come from???

8 Year Blog Anniversary and the Start of Zomtober 2019!

A short post just to write about another blog anniversary, my 8th. Not bad. This year has been a little slow where posting and hobby in general are concerned, so my post count this year has been a bit rubbish. I'm hoping that year 9 of this little place of hobbying will offer more for you dear readers to enjoy.

During this 8th year of this blog, my personal life has changed drastically, I've moved out of the house my ex and I purchased together, seen my divorce from her go through, met someone new and now find myself engaged to marry to my lovely lady as of last month. Crazy times on  a personal level, but I've been enjoying the ride. :)

I still have lots of projects on-going and I plan to try to apply more effort in getting some of them finished by year's end. Between my multiple WW2 armies that require my attention, my Warhammer 40'000 Genestealer Cult, the Burrows and Badgers warbands and now Zomtober 2019 to try to work toward I can see myself potentially being busy these next few months. Hope my hobby mojo can keep up!

I've played no games since my last post and whilst I've done very little work at my hobby desk I do have some things in the pipeline that I plan to show off.

Many thanks as ever go out to my regular readers and commentors who without you lot, I'd have left this blog by the wayside years ago. I appreciate each and every one of you who take the time out to stop by and even comment on my meagre offerings. Please keep it up and I'll try to post more for your efforts.

Cheers and here's to year 9 of this blog!

7th Year Blogging Anniversary!

Another year rolled around and my wee hobby blog turned 7!

Rather surprised I've kept this going so long, but am glad to have it to log my hobby progress (And failures).

This is just a small post to offer my heartfelt thanks to all of you who read my posts and even more thanks to those who leave a comment. Your encouragement really helps keep me at my paint station and your own blogs reward me with wonderful inspiration.

Cheers!

I'll get back to posting regular hobby stuff!

- Dai

200th Post Competition Winners!

Apologies, this draw was a couple days later than originally planned. Add Halloween prep and then the obligatory massive hangover suffering on Dia de los Muertos (Yesterday) and I was rather overburdened in real life - but here are the results of the draw, all applicable names were entered into Random.com and the three winners, in order, are:

1. myincubliss

2. Chico Danks

3. Mad Tin Hatter

Please email me @ deadestdai at g mail dot com with your choice of prize in order of preference out of the three and your mailing address and I'll try to get them out to you in the mail this week, work schedule allowing.

Congrats to the winners and thanks again to all who follow and comment on my humble blog, I reached 119 followers over the weekend, which is also amazing!

A regular post is to follow!

200th Post! (And a competition.)

As I sit here about to watch Wales versus England (AND WIN!!!) in the group stages of the Rugby World World Cup, I realise that I've been at this blogging business almost 4 years and am now writing my 200th post. Not as much as some, but certainly impressive for a lazy sod like me. So with me averaging almost a post a week and at the writing of this post having 111 followers on my widget-thingie I'm rather chuffed in this blogging effort of mine.

20 year old jersey still holding up. :)

Enough going on though. Meat and 'tatoes-wise, this post is a bit weak on substance as this week has been a tiring one at work and I've only managed to get the remaining 3 skeleton warriors finished of my original 10. Same recipe as the other seven and all together they do look rather splendid and Harryhausen-esque if I do say so myself!

Quick and dirty bone-boys

These chaps ain't got no back.

Group shot! Heroquest sorceror is happy cos he finally is seeing some action!

Now. With 200 posts and seeing other bloggers doing similar, I thought I'd put back into the blogosphere some and offer up a small contest for the occasion. So here are three prizes I plan to send out to three lucky winners, announced on.... oh... maybe Halloween (So my feeble memory doesn't have an excuse for forgetting.). All you have to do to win is be a follower of my blog, leave a comment and let me know just how much better the Welsh game was in the 2nd half compared to the Saesneg fumblings. You didn't have to have watched the game, just get creative. :) I'll pick three winners at random and will ask for email addresses once picked. Prizes will be one each and selected in the order that the names are picked out by those three. If you somehow feel you'd like to advertise this competition elsewhere, then leave a link in your comment below to said advert and I'll give your name a 2nd chance for the draw for these "fabulous" prizes. (I'll cover shipping, though I'll not cover any customs fees that might, but shouldn't, arise.)

1990's Ral Partha Ghost Dragon

A complete set of WEG Storm Troopers from the original d6 Star Wars rpg.

This book chronicling Abaddon's 13th Crusade or some such.

Thanks all for following, reading and commenting on my posts. The pleasure through these 4 years has been all mine.

2 years

It went by and I didn't even realise but on the 11th this blog turned 2!

That I'm posting on a semi-regular basis is pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

It's been about the most productive year in my hobby's existence. Since beginning my collection for Flames of War 11 months ago, I've gotten a load done for that 15mm madness and also a little GamesWorkshop stuff too. (Well, a lot for me in any case.)

Just to re-cap, (Mostly for me really.), I managed to completely paint:

1. For my 15mm WW2 British Commonwealth

2x Infantry HQ stands plus a Command Character stand
2x Stands of Snipers
2x Full Infantry Platoons
1x Platoon of 6-pounderAT guns
1x Platoon of 6-pounder AT Portees
1x Full Platoon of Heavy Mortars
1x Full Platoon of regular Mortars
1x Full HMG Platoon
2x Platoons of 4 Sherman/Firefly tanks
2x HQ Sherman tanks
1x Armoured Car Platoon
2x Universal Carrier Patrols
1x Full Platoon of Canadian Land Mattresses
1x Hawker Typhoon aircraft
1x Staff team for my still primed 25pdrs
2x 15CWT lorries
2x Jeeps
4x Loyd Carriers
4x Random other Universal Carriers

With all this, I can field two whole Flames of War forces at the same time. I guess I could even count that as being fully painted twice over? That's a flippin' first for me. :) I've still plenty left though to get done and a nasty habit of shinies-itis (Recently picked up some 15mm dogs that me and Densmol are planning to split for extra fun pieces to further differentiate command teams, etc.). I'm still putting together a diagram/list thing to show what is painted and what's yet to be tackled for all this. (And it's not pretty....)

2. For my other projects

1x Dreamforge Eisenkern Kickstarter Special Ada
Rogue Trader Company Command Squad and Commander Creed
Random super-heroine for a Charity thing
Custom Herald of Nurgle
... And a bunch of Fantasy or Sci-fi stuff put together or sat primed. Which I guess shouldn't be on this list really afterall. :)

Have to say, that's a longer list altogether than I was expecting.

Thanks goes out to all you chaps and chapesses who have supported my efforts and offered encouragement and kind words on my work. Your own blogs are an inspiration to me and a large part of what keeps me going in this hobby. Let's see if I can keep this going for a 3rd year.