'nids part 363 - Leviathan bases and basecoats

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Leviathan Tyranids but this was from the beginning of July! I shaded them alongside my Adeptus Titanicus Lancers

Now I'm starting their highlights but it was handy to have done this menial task to help streamline the next stage.

But on top of that I also did the bases as well. Still to do the bonewhite chips but that's a later step.

Von Ryan's Leapers, and I;ve just discovered the new Combat Patrol magazine has another 3 of these in issue 2, so if I can get that there'll be another 3 to add to the brood.

Alternatively I could add the old Lictors as they're almost the same size now. My Deathleaper and painted Lictor with this one makes a full brood of 6! Not that I'll ever play them! 😂

While I still can, here's a whole bunch of Bloody Great Big Bloody BASE Stamps of Bloody Approval 

Have you got WOOD? The 2024/25 Hobby Season starts soon, join me!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #warhammercommunity the 2024/25 hobby season will be starting soon so for those alumni who joined in last season it's time to start looking back at your TO DO lists - at what you've TO DONE!, what might have slipped and those lovely unexpected successes that happened despite life getting in the way and loss of mojo - I speak from experience [yet again].

The original plan when I started with 'great big stamps of approval' was that I wouldn't do multi-coloured stamps, just alternate between red and green, but who was I kidding? I had fun with the Bloody Great Big Bloody Stamps of Bloody Approval, and I had planned to follow it up with the 'Season of Flesh'. A rather gross looking brain effect, but my Photoshop skills are rusty and the tutorial was out of date. So, instead of a physical connection we have a rhyming one. I give you the Season of Wood. Back to the roundel of the Great Big Wooden Stamps of Approval. Feel free to download and use them on your blog as and when you get stuff  'TO DONE!'

Or you can record your achievements with an 'unbranded' version.

And should you feel inclined to differentiate your efforts yet further here's the major goal stamps

And minor goals [which I occasionally find a use for].

And I've also got the Big Build...

 and Base [and obviously prime] Stamps done too. I heartily recommend this video from Tabletop Minions to understand where I was going with the 'Big Build' concept, he's touched on and expanded exactly why I created this a few years back.

Just a reminder of what it's about, in 2011 I made my first To Do List, amusingly it now/still looks like this:

• AoBR Tactical Squad
• AoBR Dreadnought
• AoBR Terminators
• Scout Squad
• Ravenwing bike squad
• Dark Angel Drop Pod
• Purity Seal all of my son's Tyranids
• Gloss Varnish all of my son's Tyranids
• Tyranid Prime
• Mycetic Spore
• Paint Vent Tower
• Paint defence platforms x4
• Complete pot pourri vegetation
• Complete future containers
• Complete 40k Cathedral tower
• STC Single story ruin
• STC Hex Defence platforms
• STC Targus Assault Blockade
• STC Vent tower
• STC Athena plateau
• STC Mercury plateau
• STC 40k Cathedral tower
• 60mm Dreadnought crater

So 4 things still haven't been done and quite frankly never will 😉. The purpose was to try to focus my efforts to outline a list of things I'd love to do over a twelve month period and if I achieved any of them - great, all of them, so much better. But more importantly I needed a structure to cling to when my efforts became aimless. That's not to say deviations from the list were forbidden it was more for when I went 'well what's next?'

It became an annual blog post to review what I'd done and set new tasks. Throughout the season I would reveal my 'To Dones!' as completed items both on and off the list. Showcase posts are nothing new to hobby blogs, everyone else does it at the end of the year/beginning of the new year. But for me it was a structure to help build the identity of this blog. Then, in 2014 I invited readers and passers-by of the blog to join in. Well, when you have a good idea why not share it around? I got about 10 people joining in and it looked like we were quite a supportive little bunch. I think over time steam ran out a little bit, but folk continue to join in each season and hopefully the same will ring true for 2024/25.

To help things out a bit I eve created a Hobby Season Facebook group, it's here [but not very popular[:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/278747245819138/

So, if you're joining in just ask and I'll add you into the group, that way you can share your blog posts or any efforts to those also joining in. I hoped this platform will allow more interaction for those taking part and keep us all motivated.

I guess the last question is why 28th August as the start/end date, why not January 1st?

I think back in 2011 it was at that time I thought a structure needed to be in place and it was as good a time as any to post a To Do List, afterall the footy season starts around this time too, no one complains about that, do they?

Anyway, 28th August join me for the new Hobby Season :)

Where's my head @?

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I'm in a somewhat reflective mood and that usually prompts the 'where's my head @?' post rather than 'what's on my palette?'. What is funny is I go back to the last 'where's my head @?' and I discover it was almost exactly 12 months ago that I wrote it. More interesting is that I had a similar sense of ennui at the end of the last hobby season. I already had things I wanted to say here but before that I'm just going to reread what I wrote in 2023...

Some time later

OK, so there is some help from that refresh of how I felt, but let's set the scene now: I finished my Adeptus Titanicus models and I thought let's get into the Leviathan Tyranids. I know my Tyranids, the scheme and that's comfortable and familiar - wrong! It was tedious and demotivating. Ironically the opposite of what happened last year where I thought I could go back to my Terminators and instead leaned into the bugs. I mean I'm persevering with them but it's not much fun.

Additionally, I'm thinking about Armies On Parade, insomuch as I never had a plan for this year, aside from my Leviathan bugs and that's not happening. So I thought about my Knights... except I just ordered the Cerastus Acheron and Castigator and it sure would be nice to have them on the board too. And I was thinking my original DreadTober plan of my Norn Emissary + 2 GSC Sentinels could instead be 2 Cerastus Knights. Except AoP is October so those timelines don't align - which has further skewered my plans and motivation.

On top of that I have been writing my review of the Season. Although I was 'satisfied' for my progress when the Deathwing were done and my [stretch goal] guarantee of satisfaction was the Titans. Well I achieved that - so I was supposed to be free and clear. But the recent lack of mojo and seeing fewer finished models somehow undid that sense of achievement. Thankfully looking at that post from last year has helped. It's pointed out just how much of a challenge those Terminators were, which I ultimately overcame. And, let's remind ourselves of my own pearl of wisdom:

However, as my Hobby Season comes to an end I am fortunate to see that this season has been a bumper one, so if next season is a little more fallow I can live with it.

So, I gave myself permission last year to do less, so I should not be feeling bad about that. And although that is true, the things I've done have been hard work, challenging and significant stumbling blocks in how long they've been on my list. Not to mention models I did not look forward to painting again [Titans] but overcame that reluctance; not just for this effort but possibly any future Titans. In which case, I have a lot to be proud of. 

It's only through writing a reflective post like this, and accidentally discovering the last post covered similar issues that I can move on with positivity. I may not have solved my AoP situation and my bugs are still tedious - I have some WiP posts to explain why, but at least my head is @ a better place now, than when I first thought about writing this post.

Adeptus Titanicus - Cerastus Knight Lancers - WHITE PICS ⚪

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my remaining #AdeptusTitanicus Cerastus Knight Lancers and here are the pics on a white background for the connoisseur.

The heraldry on knights can be a lot of fun to do, but also kill the momentum of a project.

I was quite lucky here in that not being the case.

I also had the advantage of being able to add some Legio Gryphonicus decals too, just to reinforce their commitment to the Titan order.

I randomly decided to add yellow lightning bolts on the shin pad as kill markings. I was only going to do 3, but it looked a little WW2 war symbol, so I added more to make it a pattern.

I love doing the chevrons but the shin on es should be going up at the middle rather than down. I was copying a previous one that went down and now I see it's the opposite of what's on the carapace. Nevermind.

The decals add such a history to the model, which technically it doesn't have!

The orange plasma glow worked great in some places, but the eyes are a bit ropey on both of them, but I can live with it.

Some top down views so you can see how the carapace and shoulder pads were painted.

And the set of 4. As much as I hanker for the 40k Cerastus I think it's just Lancers I'm after for Adeptus Titanicus.

That said, I do want some Questoris so I can copy my 40k knights in epic scale. Until then I hope you enjoyed all these little giant robots.

Belated 9th Anniversary of the birth of the Man Cave

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've had my man cave for 9 years now, it was originally installed on 27th July 2015. But it was mid September before I'd finished insulating and boarding it out, not to mention getting the electricity fitted and moving in.

So a little late in celebrating it's installation but it's all good. I've been busy recently, had some time off and finally been able to get to Otty's on a good day to help with his new hobby shed. I've got a fair few pictures of it being built that I'll share down the line. Sadly [or conveniently?] I wasn't able to be there when a lot of the heavy lifting was needed but I did get to paint one end of the shed, which looks pretty cool.

And then helped Otty, Phil and Liam with insulating and boarding the inside. 40% of the walls were done in 5 hours and we got some insulation in the ceiling too. I'm down for another day on Tuesday, maybe we can get all the walls done by then?

We've had so much fun in his original shed and my own is now 9, it will definitely need a repaint next year for its 10th birthday. Sheds are ace! All hail the man cave.

Adeptus Titanicus - Cerastus Knight Lancers - TO DONE! 🔴

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my remaining #AdeptusTitanicus Cerastus Knight Lancers. I genuinely thought I'd be over painting little giant robots after the titans were done, but it seems I'm not.

These two fellas were a lot fun to finish off and it meant I didn't have to focus on the Lion or my Tyranids.

I'll be honest my enthusiasm and momentum is somewhat lacking at the moment. 

There's just one month left in the season and I don't feel I have the energy to get much done.

We'll see though, but I've blogging to catch up with and a new hobby season to conjure up.

But I did enjoy fitting these in and they were much quicker/easier to do than I had imagined.

One worry is that GW have just announced a twin box for the Cerastus Acheron and Castigator!

I am sorely tempted. I always wanted the Acheron and when the Lancer came out I always hoped one would come with some kind of gatling weapon.

That said I'd been planning on the Acheron and getting 3rd party bits to make the Castigator. 

3D printed sword and using the baneblades Vulcan Mega Bolter to make the gun. It'd be cheaper and I can't ever imagine running 3 Cerastus.

Certainly not if they don't make the Imperial Knights Codex, which is still unconfirmed.

Not to mention there have been rumours of a different knight coming in plastic, who knows what I might want instead.

But for now, these guys are done. I may actually talk about painting them in the white background pics 😂

Another Bloody Great Big Bloody Stamps of Bloody Approval!

3 million

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity almost 3 years ago I hit the 2 million view mark on the blog, which had previously taken 5 years to go from 1 to 2 million and 6 to make the first million! But what does it all mean? Not much if I'm honest. I've said it many times before that I don't covet views, hits or followers. I mark them as a milestone but I don't use them as a measure. In particular the blogger hit counter is getting data from somewhere that never actually correlates with my Google Analytics. 

Not 187,000 views in Google search, that's for sure...

I think it counts web crawlers and all sorts so I don't think this number is a true reflection of how many people are visiting the site. But, the number exists, so I have to acknowledge it, even if I don't agree with it. 

That said my comments are nearly at 6,000, which is a number I can get behind because that's people taking time to talk about the hobby and my efforts within it. I try to respond but I keep finding posts from way back when I didn't [which I should rectify] so it's probably about 3,000 messages from people that are genuine [my spam thankfully is not included in that number, currently at 220].

Interestingly though the 3 million hits has had a massive boost in the past few months. I don't know what's changed but the increase in traffic has been insane - I've had over 180,000 this last month alone! That's nearly triple the highest I'd ever received, which was 63,000 in March this year. Previously the highest was nearly 59,000 in September 2023. But you can see below the last year were pretty solid [apart from May, but even that was 18,000] before it's just gone through the roof this month

I'm going to put it down to adding more search descriptions. If it's bots and web crawlers than I suspect they help a lot. At the end of the day I've no idea what it means. It's a stat I get, I note it and I move on. But within those numbers there are real people still coming to the blog, and if you're one of them then I thank you for sticking with me.