The Warmonger Pledge

Today I was involved in a Twitter conversation with @wartrader who referred me to an article he’d written last year about his efforts to manage his backlog of shiny.  You can read it here.

To sum up you basically aren’t allowed to buy new products until you’ve successfully cleared your backlog, however you can have some exceptions.  Here are mine:

• An offer I can’t refuse.  If I see a genuine bargain, such as products being sold at a significant discount, I’m allowed to indulge within reason.
• I am allowed to buy an occasional miniature, no more than on every six to eight weeks.  If I do then it has to be painted immediately so as not to increase the backlog.
• In the two months starting from the release of the 6th Edition of 40K I’m allowed to pick up the odd whatnot provided that it’s painted immediately as detailed above.
• Scenery and terrain is allowed but only after all my existing  backlog of these model types is cleared.

Hopefully I’ll do my best to stick to this, I hope I do since my backlog (particularly my Dark Eldar) is immense.

 

Rumoured 2012 40K Release Schedule

Blood of Kittens have published what they think is GW’s  40K release schedule, you can read the full article here for their full analysis but the gist of it is below:

April-May: Dark Angels/Fallen

June-Aug: 6th Ed/Box Set DA vs. CSM

Oct-Nov: Chaos Space Marines/Fallen

Hmm, what to make of this…  I suppose it’s possible but I can’t see GW neglecting the Xenos armies quite that much, especially since the last time the Tau received any love I still had a full head of hair.  On the other hand it can be argued that both the Dark Angels and Chaos Space Marines codexes are showing their age more than the Tau.  I’m not buying it.

The Shell Case Shorts Winner

The first winner of the Shell Case Shorts has been announced. Click here to read it in full.

Pets and Wargaming

For a while the wife and I have been thinking about adopting a cat.  Yesterday we popped over to sunny Fife and met a lovely and very affectionate black and white gentleman named Roady who’d been abandoned on the A92 by some imbecile.  With any luck we’ll have him in our lives in a couple of weeks.

Now, my problem is this.  While my wife has had cats before I haven’t and I’m still trying to figure out how best to protect my shinys from feline-related damage.  Our flat is very small so it’s not really fair to leave a room permanently out of bounds for our new family member however when I’m gaming he’ll be kept out of the main room.

Does anyone have advice as to how best to cat-proof one’s gaming stuff?  Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Making the Beatdown a Reality

The Shell Case has posted an update on plans for the Shell Case Beatdown, if you’re in any way interested in being a part of wargaming history please click here and fill in the form!

The Officially Unofficial Not-6th Edition of Warhammer 40,000

Woops, well this is embarrassing.

It turns out that there’s a good chance that the leaked sixth edition of Warhammer 40K that I and others decried as a hoax may turn out to be, while not the official sixth edition we’ll see later this year but rather little more than a brainstorming exercise carried out by the GW developers early into the edition’s gestation.  Right now The Shell Case has a few more details  here and I’ll try to find some more links and info for you good folk soon.

I still feel that the views I expressed in my previous post on this subject are still valid however.  This rule set appears to have been misrepresented as something it is not; while this could have been done in error, and with the best of intentions, there is the possibility that it was released maliciously by a person or persons who knew that this was not the finished article it pertained to be.  If that is the case then I hold those responsible in very low regard.

Anyway, rant over.  Whatever the sixth edition holds we’ll all know soon enough and I know I’m looking forward to it.

UPDATE 01/28/12 12:58

You can read more about this on the Beasts of War website here and also a good summary on Miniature Musings of a Bear here.

Movie Marines

Over on Miniature Musings of a Bear, Doc Bungle has posted rules for Movie Marines which first appeared in WD300, you can check these out here.

As the Great Bear says, these are Space Marines as they should be!

3D Printing

Bell of Lost Souls has recently posted a brief article regarding the potential effects 3D printing will have on the hobby.  You can see the article, along with what is apparently a printed Space Marine Dreadnought here.

Now, for my two pence.  While the advent of 3D printing is a remarkable achievement, I don’t think anyone need worry any time soon.  I feel that there will always be a market for ready-made high quality miniatures in whatever material is best at the time, however this technology has the potential to revolutionise the bitz market.  This will of course require a substantial review into exactly what is covered by the various copyright law which are currently in force.

In any case, as the article rightly points out.  The lawyers will have a field day.

Gaming Tattoos

This evening I was browsing various gaming sites and came across this article on BoLS regarding gaming tattoos.

While they’re interesting for the most part, none of those shown will possibly beat this piece of marvelousness:

I’ll come out and admit that I don’t have any tattoos and, without wishing to pass judgement, I don’t think were I to have one I’d go for a gaming motif. That said, I admire the passion and commitment of those who decide to do so.

Do you have one, or know of any who do? Please feel free to comment.

Blessings of The Omnissiah – A study into alternative car maintenance

My car is very much like me.  It looks good for its age, it could be in better shape but occasionally it’s still capable of bursts of brilliance.

Like me, it’s also has a somewhat perverse sense of humor now and again. For example, three months ago I noticed that the engine was occasionally registering heat spikes.  In this situation I did what every modern, virile, 30-something man does.  I called my father.  Now this isn’t as pathetic as it sounds, my dad is a car salesman and indeed he sold me the car.  He believed that it was just a faulty internal thermometer, any dealership should be able to replace this part for around £70 he said.

With this in mind I took my car to the Mazda garage near my work.  After some prodding of its machine spirit it turned out that my water pump had failed and in it’s death throes it has taken the timing belt and tensioner pulley with it.  Cost to replace all this: £512.71.

Since the alternative was to wait until my engine decided to pack in, which I suspect would have cost significantly more to replace, I had little choice but to have the work carried out.  This left me wondering, is there anything hobby-related I could do to ensure that such an unfortunate event doesn’t happen again?

Well, rationally the answer is a resounding no, however to make myself feel better I decided to insure that the Omnissiah imparted its blessing onto my humble six year old Mazda 2.  So I made this:

The Omnissiah Protects!

I used Blu-Stuff to take an impression of the Mechanicus symbol from the Manufactorum kit then made two mouldings using Green Stuff.  After removing the flash I stuck them back to back, drilled a hole for the chain and painted it.  Fairly simple and you never know it might protect my car for a while!