1.5 million

It was November 2016 when I hit one million views, that's an impressive milestone I think one all bloggers aspire to. However, I'm probably not alone in thinking at that time we'd been having a lot more visits from our Eastern European bot friends so what this stat really meant was anyone's guess. Subsequently I didn't think I'd do many page view milestones, unless it was a big one. I was perhaps thinking 2 million, but 1.5 million became a bigger deal because page views have dropped significantly over the last two years.

I've said many times that these arbitrary milestones feature only to serve as a thank you for those that visit the blog and as some justification that the effort is all worthwhile and, if so many get pleasure from my ramblings, to keep on doing it. I also think us bloggers aren’t really courting numbers, afterall we’re not YouTubers constantly saying “Guys, hit the subscribe, like the video and click the bell”. Where those sorts of metrics actually mean something to their success as a channel, we get by whether we have a view or not [Dave adopting the moral high ground 😉]. For us it’s just nice to have folk come along for the ride, but they don’t have to contribute to the journey.

Interestingly though, January had a spike of 20,418 pageviews, well above the 12,641 of December and six year low of 10,197 of November [although with the hiatus in effect that's understandable]. It's all just numbers really but for us bloggers they are some interesting statistics to ponder over, if not fully comprehend. And for those that are interested that traffic also generates between 1p or 2p a day in AdSense, regardless of clicking [for which I received a princely 6p off 2 clicks the other day!]. I don't even know if the adverts are even an issue now and I'd say it doesn't really matter but it's made £195 over the past 8 years and got me some interesting extras I wouldn't normally have bought.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.

Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Steelhearts Champions - TO DONE!

Second of my completed Shadespire Warbands - Steelheart's Champions.

And I know it's now Night Vault and the actual game is Warhammer Underworlds but these technically were Shadespire warbands and the name is just altogether better.

Just a reminder I [loosely] followed Rob Paint's Model's base guide for these.

And I also followed his painting guide for the Stormcast Eternals themselves.

He obviously did a much better job and I threw in some battle damage too but I'm more than happy with the result.

2 things about steelheart: 1. I love the blending on his sword - I wish I could do black like this ALL the time. 2. The pupils for his eyes or on his top eyelids. It looks OK, but it isn;t right and one day I may have to fix that.

The purple wasn't quite as smoothly blended as I'd hoped. It had been looking quite dire and just the edition of that white line across the bottom made it far more interesting and draws the eye away from the dubious blends...

I also glossed all the weaponry, again to make up for what I didn't explore on the Chosen Axes

Pics on the white background.

See what I mean about his pupils. However, do me a favour click on the pick and zoom in to the leather groin protector - see those individual brush stroke highlights? I love them! While you're at it look at the blend on that sword closely - I need to do all my blends like this!

Anyway, a Big Teal Stamp of Approval for these guys.

Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Chosen Axes - TO DONE!

I finished the Chosen Axes just before the end of the last Hobby Season, but I didn't take my TO DONE! pics, well apart from one for the end of the season review.

With Garrek's Reavers done I thought I'd do all three warbands in one sitting and I ended up loving the Camera360 shots so much I didn't even bother with my digital camera - too much faffing.

It's really weird to look at these now, I haven't really paid them much attention since I finished and I'm pleasantly surprised what I actually did.

I'm not 100% convinced about the grey on the base, but the flock and skulls are OK.

Individual facing shots [where appropriate].

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

I can honestly say right now I don't quite know how I did the gold on that axe head. I need to go back and see if there are any tips. It might just be my standard brassy bronze with some extra highlights but that's what I'll go for on my Deathwing Knights when I get round to them.

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

And on a white background, with more natural colours.

I had considered coating their skin in gloss varnish, glad I didn't now; although I glossed the armour on Garrek's Reavers so I got to see what it would have looked like.

That 'gold' tho!

Of course these were completed in my 2017/18 Hobby Season and as I've only just got round to taking some pics here's the appropriate Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval!