GENERAL: Checking out and shutting down

I have now cancelled my website contract with 1&1 so sometime in February my three blogs will disappear from their webspace. They should still be floating around on Blogger though! I have no firm idea if and when I will return to them, and if I do what I'll be doing on them.

Things still aren't great for me at the moment. I have no stomach for gaming in any way, shape or form. My latest White Dwarf lies unopened, I haven't bought the 'Nid codex, I haven't followed the Blood Angels rumours and I haven't listened to a single podcast or visited a gaming forum since December.

I had already fallen out of love with the playing games side of the hobby some time ago, and now the painting has stopped too. I might return to the painting, but if I'm not playing the games, why paint an entire army? Would I not be better served concentrating on painting a handful of models to a good display standard?

Given that I am also skint, it therefore makes sense to sell off the majority of my collection and keep a handful of models I still want to paint.

The only other aspect of the hobby I can foresee maintaining at the moment is my reading.

So, that means my blogs may become a medium for reviewing Games Workshop fiction, showing off the odd paint job and selling my models.

Anyway, that's for the future.

For now, adieu!

GENERAL: Moving on out

Okay, if I've done everything correctly I should now have moved all of my posts over to the new blogspot addresses across all three of my blogs. I think I'll leave the old blog addresses active for a little bit yet before I cancel the custom domains just to be sure that everything is okay and also to give people a last chance to move to the new addresses (which you can find in the post below).

Thanks for your patience!

Ch-ch-ch-changes to my blog addresses

Thanks to everyone who has offered sympathy over the past few days, it has been much appreciated.

Given that my finances are an even bigger issue for me at the moment I thought now was a good time to make good on one of last years New Year resolutions. I resolved to take my blogs off my paid for web hosts and put them onto free blogger accounts.

This morning I finally got around to picking out some new names on blogger, so I thought I'd post them here with plenty of notice for people to bookmark them if they want to stay with my blog.

So:

My main blog, lone pilgrim, was at:

http://blog.lonepilgrim.co.uk/

and will now be here:

http://lonepilgrimredux.blogspot.com


My battle reports blog was:

http://battlereports.lonepilgrim.co.uk/

and is now:

http://lonepilgrimbattlereports.blogspot.com


My Blood Bowl blog (which I started but never really added much to) was:

http://bloodbowl.lonepilgrim.co.uk/

and will become:

http://oldalbionbloodbowlleague.blogspot.com

Sometime over the next few days I'll transfer all of the content over to the new addresses. Once I'm satisfied that that has all gone smoothly I'll be contacting my webspace providers and cancelling my contracts.

Good night, and good luck

Some of you may be wondering why I suddenly haven't blogged over the past three weeks.

The reason is that I have broken up with my long term girlfriend. The fallout (selling the house, finding somewhere else to live, etc) means that I have had to put this blog on an indefinite hiatus. I might return to lone pilgrim once everything settles, I might not, I just don't know at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who has read my rambling thoughts, looked at my photos and commented on the blog over the past three years.

GENERAL: Starters orders

I have a day off work today and with my eBay auctions finished I can now concentrate on hitting my painting points target for the year. Priority is to finish off my Aeronautica Imperialis Imperial Navy wing (two Lightnings and two Marauders). Also on the workbench are dozens and dozens of Grots. If I get bored of painting I might put together my Khorne Lord on Juggernaught.

Expect a flurry of updates and photos throughout the day.

GENERAL: Just sayin'

A few days ago I posted up my first Aeronautica Imperialis battle report.

What I really wanted to do was familiarise myself with the game rules, but rather than dryly run through them I decided to actually play through a game. I came up with some basic solo rules with half of my painted forces; two Thunderbolts versus three Fightas.

Check it out on my battle reports blog here.

GENERAL: Tracking my progress

If you scroll down the blog a bit you'll notice I've added another widget to the right column. It's called my unfinished project list and it is a visual representation of where I'm at with my various painting and modelling projects.

I've felt a bit overwhelmed in the past few weeks with the number of different projects I've been juggling so I hope that this will help me a) see what plates I have spinning at any one time, and b) let me see I'm making progress, however slowly.

I've just put the most obvious projects on there at the moment but I plan to add to the list over time as I rediscover my various plans and schemes. Of course other projects will drop off the list as I complete them.

GENERAL: Plans and schemes

My seven year old nephew came by today to have a look at his uncle's models and terrain. He was absolutely blown away by the stuff I now take for granted, and some of his boyish enthusiasm rubbed off on me. Going through my drawers of finished models and terrain, some of which I haven't looked at for years, made me itch to get stuck back into this fabulous hobby with gusto.

Fortunately my new resolve coincides with a window of opportunity. My better half is out on Monday, Tuesday and Friday night, while I also have a day off work on Friday. That means I can probably throw about 18 to 20 hours at my various projects this week versus the 5 or 6 I usually have. But which projects to concentrate upon?

With my Ork army built, the obvious choice is my Planetstrike terrain. I'd like to build all of the plastic kits I have first, just so that I can see it all together in one place. I'm sure that would inspire me to paint everything too.

The other wildcard option I have is Aeronautica Imperialis. I have an Imperial Navy wing and an Ork wing unbuilt at the moment and just seeing my desert terrain earlier today made me want to use it as an AI battlefield. I think the Navy planes would look so cool with a desert theme and I could potentially complete the building and painting of all of the models in the time I have available this week. The Orks would be easy too, and by the end of the week I could have a new games system to play!

Whichever I choose I also plan to paint some Orks for my Warseer Tale of 40k Painting pledge. I've jokered the first two months already so technically I only have a week to paint 150 points of models or I'll be thrown out of the tale. With the deadline tight I think I'll paint the Killa Kans or Deff Dread rather than a twenty Ork mob.

So what do you think? Should I start my Planetstrike terrain or should I finish my Aeronautica Imperialis wings?

GENERAL: 23 down but 35 to go!

I'm done for the day and my tally stands at 16 Slugga Boyz, four Stormboyz, a Nob and two big shootas I found but hadn't mentioned this morning.

That means my constructed Ork army looks like this at the moment:

• Ghazghkull Thraka
• 2 Meganobz
• 13 Nobz
• 5 Big shootas
• 3 Rokkits
• 31 Slugga boyz
• 4 Stormboyz

I have also partially constructed the other four Stormboyz, three Killa Kanz and 16 Shoota boyz. I still have a Warboss, 3 Deffkoptas, 8 'Ard boyz and a Deff Dread to put together from scratch.

Once I've got that little lot done I'll go digging in the rest of my lead pile to see if there are any more usable Ork models for this army. The ones I can't recycle I plan to sell on eBay; models like the second edition mono-pose Goff Orks and Grots.

While I'm doing that I need to write up a 1500 point army list and see which gaps I need to fill by buying extra models. At the moment likely candidates are at least one more meganob to give me a legal unit, a box of plastic Nobz to give me lots more weapon options - my existing Nobz are virtually all slugga and choppa wielding - and a box of plastic Stormboyz to pad out my current models. Ideally I'd also like to add some vehicles like the Trukk and Battlewaggon to help the army in the game but I may find that I can't squeeze them into 1500 points.

I'd also like to include some models for aesthetic reasons like Kaptin Badrukk and some Kommandos but again this may not be possible due to time, points or money.

I'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

GENERAL: Orks mob up!

I have a precious day off work today and I can use a lot of it for gaming stuff. My plans are to put together as many of my Orks as possible; I have 16 Shoota Boyz, 16 Slugga Boyz, 8 'Ard Boyz, 8 Stormboyz, 3 Deffkoptas a Nob and a Warboss left to do.

While I'm scraping off mould lines and waiting for glue to dry I'll be listening to podcasts. They will include Podhammer, the D6 Generation, World's End Radio and maybe listen to Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode reviewing films on Radio 5 from 3.00pm.

If I get bored of that I may take an hour out to read the Siege of Vraks part VII which I have started but stalled on finishing.

Finally, if I get the time I may start preparatory work on my Sekrit Projekt which will start in the New Year.

Okay, here I go...

GENERAL: Whaddaya mean ya didn't miss me?

It's been nearly a fortnight since my last blog entry. The reason is that I've been on holiday in Cyprus. It was hot, and because I'm from northern England I got burnt. I've still got a few days off from work to recuperate and I'll be using some of that time to get back up to speed with my gaming and blogging.

I read several gaming related books while I was on holiday so I'll be bringing you a bumper bi-monthly book update very shortly.

I'll also be finishing off my Mighty Empires tiles. I was very close to doing so before I went away so they should be complete by the end of the weekend.

I have just taken a load of Orks out of the Dettol bath they have been sitting in while I've been away and I've dumped my latest, and last, batch in there. Over the next couple of weeks I plan to glue all of my Orks together and write out a 1500 point army list for them prior to painting them for the Tale of 4ok Painters pledge on Warseer.

I've already played a joker and missed the first month and it's looks like I will play a joker again for September. I can only play two in the whole tale so I'll have to get something painted by the end of October (Orktober). I'm a tad worried I'll be knee deep in Planetstrike goodness at that time so my cunning plan is to paint a relatively expensive model with an easy paint scheme to buy me time until later.

A character model would fit the bill but I wouldn't want to rush the paintjob on such an integral model to the army so I think the Deff Dread will have to do. It will come in at around 100 points and I reckon I could finish the model in about three hours if I had to.

If I'm still struggling for time the following month I can repeat the trick with the three Killa Kanz. They will come in at about 150 points and will mean I could paint just four models in two months to stay in the tale. Of course that means painting a horde of Ork boyz in the latter months, but that's just the price I'll have to pay if I want to paint my Planetstrike terrain.

Righto, I'm off to slather on some more aftersun cream.

Ouch!

GENERAL: My head is spinning

I feel like I am spinning a lot of plates at the moment, even though I've already dropped a couple. Although I have finished painting my Blood Angels for the moment, and I've finished re-writing my battle reports, I am busier than ever on the gaming front.

I have 36 eBay auctions running at the moment. Once they have been packaged up and posted I'll have some space to start putting my extensive Planetstrike terrain together.

While I was waiting for the auctions to finish I decided to start pulling my Ork army together. This included clipping the Assault on Black Reach Orks from their sprues and stripping my old Orks of paint. I need to scrape all the mould lines off and glue them together to see what actual models I have. I'm sorely tempted to assemble and base the entire 1500 point army before I even put any paint on them. If I do, it'll be the first time I've ever built an army this way and I'll be interested to see if it feels any different.

I also started painting my Mighty Empires tiles. I bought this campaign system when it was release but it has languished on the shelf for months as I have never returned to Warhammer Fantasy Battle. With the recent release of Planetary Empires I dug out the box. As the two sets are compatible I decided to paint them all in the same colour scheme so I could use them as one big map if I wanted. I'll post pictures of my progress as I go.

Space Hulk is also on the horizon. I'll want to paint the models for that, especially the Blood Angels Terminators which I'll try to squeeze into my 40k army.

Not only that but I have my Aeronautica Imperialis planes crying out to me as I walk past their box every day. It wouldn't take much effort to paint up my Imperial Navy and Ork planes to be able to play this game so I might try and finish them before I start painting my 40k Orks in earnest.

When I think about all that lot I feel overwhelmed.

This is fun, right?

GENERAL: The battle at the end of the world

If you read the ninth battle report of my Destroy the Gargant campaign yesterday you will have discovered that it was the last game of the campaign. You can read my round-up post here, where I talk about my thoughts on how the campaign went.

And that's it! All of my battle reports have now been ported over to my battle reports blog. The only things to be added to it from now on will be current games, as and when I play them.

As I'm a geeky nerd I may return to my battle reports and work out some stats. How many time have I won? Or lost? How many times have I been crushed by Gary? How many times have I beaten him? What is my win/loss record like with Tau, or Blood Angels, or Daemonhunters? These are all questions that no-one wants answered except me!

Still, I'll only have to calculate the stats once and then keep adding them as I play more games. Maybe I'll add the stats as a column on the battle reports blog. Hmmm...

The good news for this blog is that I will now have more time to dedicate to other things, like painting, modelling, reviewing products and maybe working on some background material, instead of editing battle reports.

Hurrah!

GENERAL: Back of the net!

I was at the Newcastle match last night, our first at home in the Championship, and watched Shola Ameobi score a hat-trick(!) to give us a comfortable win. I just don't know what to expect from NUFC day to day, match by match. One thing is for sure - it won't be dull!

Anyway, I went out to celebrate, got totally smashed, fell asleep in the taxi and woke up this morning with a raging hangover. To blow the cobwebs away I'm going to walk into town and pick up a copy of Planetary Empires and hopefully the Battlescape scenery piece with wrecked Rhino.

Before I set off, though, I wanted to point you towards a couple more of my Destroy the Gargant campaign battle reports.

The first game, game 5 of the campaign, saw the Daemonhunters surrounded by Orks and trying to break out of an ambush.

The second game was twice the size at 1500 points and had the Daemonhunters making a bunker assault on the Ork bastions.

GENERAL: Blood for the Blood God!

I've just posted my third and final Gauntlet tournament 2005 battle report here.

I had already won the first two games handily so I was in the running to win the whole tournament. Of course, my opponent had also won his previous games too, so he wanted to win just as much as I did. I was using regular Chaos Space Marines while his Chaos Space Marines were all Khorne worshippers. It was a great game to end the day.

GENERAL: Pointy eared gits!

I had hoped to do some painting tonight but I'm shattered so I haven't picked up my paintbrush.

Instead I have transcribed my second Gauntlet 2005 tournament report over on my battle reports blog. It was a good scrap against a Dark Eldar army and it brings me another step closer to finishing off all of my battle reports.

Ciao for now.

GENERAL: Busy, busy, busy

This is just a quickie to let you in on what I'm doing at the moment.

I've done a lot more work on my Land Raider Crusader. I've hinged one of the doors, assembled and painted the hurricane bolters and put together all of the hatches on the tank. This morning I undercoated it in Chaos Black as I have run out of Blood Angels Red spray. I hope I can get the Crusader to look like my other vehicles. Photographs will follow soon.

I'm also working on finishing off my battle reports. The first thing I've done is update my introduction to the Gauntlet 2005 tournament to include my army list which I forgot to add initially. I'm now putting together the battle reports themselves and I hope to blog them over the course of the coming week.

I'm tinkering with a few other blog posts too. With six months of the year gone I will be looking back at my New Year resolutions and checking on my progress. I've been reading voraciously over the past few weeks so my bi-monthly book update will be bursting with reviews when it is ready for late July. Of course I add each book as I have read it and I have already written about three titles - I'm sure there will be many more to mention too.

That's all for now, I'll be back shortly.

GENERAL: Tournament aftermath

I've worked a six day week this week so I haven't had much time to blog recently.

I thought I'd swing by now to point you toward the Gauntlet 2004 wrap up I've posted over on my battle reports blog.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and it whetted my appetite for more in the future. I'm sure it won't be too long before I'm venturing down south to Nottingham for a clash at Warhammer World again.

GENERAL: Tournament battle report

I've been writing up the third and final battle report from the Gauntlet tournament 2004 in between constructing and undercoating the Hurricane bolters on my Land Raider Crusader.

The game was a clash against an Iron Warriors army - a common sight in 3rd and 4th edition 40k tournaments. See how my Imperial Guard fared here.

I'll write up the aftermath in the next couple of days and that will wrap up my coverage of the Gauntlet tournament 2004. That means I'll have just one more tournament to cover, the Gauntlet 2005, and then I can move on to my Destroy the Gargant campaign battle report.

Once that is done all of my battle reports will be up to date and I'll just have to record them as I play them.

GENERAL: I'm orf

This is me signing off for the day. Where has it gone?

I've tidied up the central island of my games room ready to photograph my growing Blood Angels army tomorrow. I've stashed my Orks from the Black Reach boxed set which have been lying around for weeks and I've also hidden my undercoat and varnish sprays away. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

• DONE - Wash my stripped models to get the Dettol off
• Write up more battle reports
• DONE - Paint Land Raider
• DONE - Put transfers on Terminators and Dreadnought
• Photograph my Blood Angels for Warseer
• DONE - Tidy my games room
• Read some more Imperial Armour 3 and/or Dark Apostle

While I was putting my Orks away I had another look at the marines on the sprue and decided it would be too much hassle to get rid of the tactical arrows on the shoulder pads to turn them into Blood Angels. Given that I'll be collecting Orks as my next army it might be more sensible to simply swap them for Orks. Hmmm, I might check out the trading threads on some gaming forums.

Anyhoo, I'll be back tomorrow.