An update on the last crazy five months!

Thought I was well overdue to do a catch-up post on what a crazy five months I’ve had since the last time I wrote anything. Without a doubt, this year has been one of the best hobby years I’ve had in over 25 years and I’ve achieved things that I wouldn’t have even believed possible. Sadly, one thing that has lost out is this blog, I started off really well but limited time and the despicable “real world” have kicked me in the nuts for getting anything new written. Thankfully the rest of the year does seem like it should be quieter – though time will tell!

So, let’s do a catch up on what I’ve been up to over the Crazy Five Months™

Legions of Nagash

My last few posts were on me getting together a Legions of Nagash (aka Death) army. Well I’m pleased to say that not only did I finish off that initial 1500 points, but I expanded to over 2000. The original intention was to add 4 Morghast, which annoyingly I messed up when it came to undercoating – getting that nasty grainy effect that not only meant they were hard work, but also meant I lost any enthusiasm for getting them done.

Thankfully Games Workshop released Nighthaunt as a brand new Age of Sigmar faction (along with a new edition of the rules) and a number of those units could be used in a Legions of Nagash army. This resulted in me painting up a couple of characters and a brutally effective unit of 30 Grimghast Reapers.

Age of Sigmar Open Day

The rescheduled Age of Sigmar Open Day was a really enjoyable event as I’ve come to expect from all Games Workshop Open Days. I did pop a couple of models into Golden Demon, getting a finalist pin for Neferata which I was quite happy about.

The biggest downside is that the event was about a month into an extended period of heat for the UK, though by some saving grace, I’d upgraded the hotel room to one with really good air conditioning 😀 It sounds really tiny, but an air conditioned Warhammer World and a decent nights sleep somehow makes the world a better place!

BLACKOUT 2018

Once again, my brother and I went to BLACKOUT run by Chris Tomlin and held at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. The weather was as hot if not hotter than it had been at the Age of Sigmar Open Day (6 to 8 weeks earlier) and there were times everybody felt they were going to melt (literally). However, it was an awesome event, I learned a lot and walked away with 2 wins and 3 losses – the same as last year, which I’m still pretty happy with.

Sadly, no painting nomination, so that’s something I’d like to work on for next year, I feel my painting is up to scratch, but the army doesn’t have something to catch the eye for that “wow” factor.

Warhammer Fest, Golden Demon and More

Probably the biggest achievement over the crazy five months was entering my Acastus Knight Porphyrion into Golden Demon at Warhammer Fest – somehow, I managed to pick up the gold demon for the Vehicle category. A hobby goal completely blown out of the water – not bad considering I almost didn’t enter the model… What was a bit strange was that I somehow struggled to find any focus on painting for a month or two afterwards, I think I was (and still am) super shocked by the win – but it just goes to show that it’s always worth putting a model into Golden Demon as you never can tell!

One thing that Games Workshop now does is to invite all the Demon winners along to a special winners day, where the participants get their own little Open Day style event, allowing them to meet a number of staff and being able to mingle with other painters. The winners day is held on a weekday, so required some time off work – as I wasn’t planning a holiday away this year I decided to take the week off and spend the Monday to Thursday in Nottingham. Best use of holiday ever!

The actual winners’ day was phenomenal, you had exclusive access to a number of GW staff, including the likes of Max Faleij, Aiden Daly, Mark Bedford, Guiseppe Chiafele amongst many others. There were also cabinets out where winners could put their winning entries so that you could actually see them without that horrible scrum you normally get. Afterwards the models got put onto display in the Exhibition Hall (you can see my knight there for the next few months!). The day was truly inspirational and humbling, being in an environment like Warhammer World, surrounded by amazing miniatures and talented individuals makes you want to up your game and improve.

The “wildcard” of my trip was actually the Wednesday, I’d come along with my brother and between us, we’d manage to lug two 1500 point armies so that we could get some games in. By pure fluke we managed to blag the awesome Soul Forge themed board and managed to get in a couple of super tight games. What we didn’t completely realise is that on a Wednesday, Warhammer World stays open until 10pm (I thought it was only 8pm) and from around 4pm, quite a few Games Workshop staff come down to the main gaming hall to play games between themselves and friends. So, with the extra time, my brother and I took some time to wander round the gaming hall (with a pint for some of it), seeing a massive Imperial Knight off including Guiseppe’s beautiful Knight household, Ceri of Warhammer TV fame playing against Knotley with his infamous Deathstrike army (meeting Ben Bailey at the same time) and winding up watching Andy Hoare playing a game of Necromunda which has really stoked me to get a Necromunda gang painted (many thanks to Andy for taking the time to explain bits to us)

The end of the Crazy Five Months

So that’s pretty much what’s happened since my last post and I’m pleased to say that my hobby queue is comfortably full once again (and I feel that I’ve some mojo for it too).  On the desk currently is a Van Saar gang for Necromunda and a my entry to the White Dwarf Winners Challenge (which will likely be top-secret until next year).  I’ve a one-day doubles Age of Sigmar tournament the first week of October so may need to quickly knock out an 80 point Hero for that, plus am off to the Kill Team Open Day this weekend and spending the Sunday & Monday gaming (two Warhammer World trips in one month!!!)