The Fighting Fez: June 2014

Hello all,
Sorry once again for the delay in posts, its been a busy month with the UK Games Expo, then a uber holiday has left little time for hobby, let alone blogging.

Starting off, I'll be posting a separate report of the FoW Tournament at Expo next.

Before the Expo, I had the great surprise and pleasure to be nominated for the Liebster Award not once but twice before the weekend!

Dog of War was kind enough to be the first, I really enjoy his writing style, even if his latest post has started dangling new Saga Hobby Crack in front of my eyes...

http://reddogofwar.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/private-liebster-reporting-for-duty.html

Crac des Chevaliers then popped his nomination on again, his blog is always inspires me to paint harder

http://cracdeschevaliers.blogspot.com/2014/05/liebster-award.html

For those who don't know, the Liebster award is a chain letter type award given to blogs, who then award other blogs and answer a set of questions (that changes as it progresses like Chinese whispers)

I'll put together my nominations in another post, but for now, here's my questions:

1. Why did you start blogging?
To give some direction to my hobby, and develop my creative writing skills. It also gives me motivation to finish my projects!

2. If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be?
To put people with real business sense in charge of the major hobby companies. While they are making better and better products, the decisions on the business side are often bewildering (looking at you G.W!)

3. What is best in life?
Hobby. Flying. Motorcycles.

4. Do you read Battle Reports and what makes them inviting to read?
Yes, and seeing people enjoy the hobby and share that with others.

5. Fame or fortune?
Fortune. To spend creating the greatest living history museum ever....

6. What miniatures are you most proud of having painted?
None yet. I've done some nice pieces, although it has been batch painting armies to get them finished for events rather than to look pretty. There are many techniques I want to apply before I think I can be proud with the results.

7. How do you deal with burnout?
I often just take a break and get on with another hobby. A day out on the airfield often fires my motivation

8. Whats better; Gaming at home or at Cons?
Both. They are very different animals, some games work with people you don't know, others need you to know the people you're playing with.

9. Which Front do you prefer to game; East or West?

West I would have to say. I like Jagdtigers too much!

10. If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be?

Probably Battlefront. They seem to offer a wider and wider selection!

11. Could you limit your gaming and collecting to one period and one size? If so, what?

Nope!

That's the questions done!

I had the great fortune of attending the UK Games Expo at the Hilton Hotel in Birmingham last month, working on the trade Friday. I had planned to get work out of the way on the Friday, then play the Flames of War tournament on the Saturday, and head home for some rest on Sunday before it all starts again on the Monday. Well, that was the plan, until half the people I needed to see for work didn't turn up until Saturday, and the Expo was three times bigger than I expected....

The Expo is a great experience, the best parts of Games Workshops Games Days, Salute and conventions all rolled into one.

There are pictures, click here!

The entire hotel gets taken over by a horde of hobbists of varying interests for the weekend, from Star Wars storm troopers, to Darleks, Bronies, even a furry or two. Plus Games. With a capital G as there were so many. The trade halls were full to the ceiling with piles of games, and the playing halls were never empty. And I mean never. Even at 4:30 on the Sunday morning, people were playing games, having a great time. If you love games, then it is well worth a trip. All the people from the industry are there in one form or another, meaning my one day of work became three, with three games of flames of war stuck in the middle! Like I said, I'll write the games up in another post.

Giant Star Trek Attack Wing game!

Met these guys too at Expo. Great Card terrain, keep an eye out on KS for the Dungeon theme soon!

The Sci-Fi stuff is SWEET

Would love to play infinity on this stuff....

After the Expo, I had a week at work and then a week of adventures with the misses! We spent a day a Thorpe Park, then two at Alton Towers. Good way to keep up the G-tolerance while I'm not flying. Anyone who enjoys these kind of things I really recommend the 'smiler' at Alton Towers.

The cue is underneath the coaster - what an intense experience!

After all that fun going upside down, we headed over to see Roland at Stafford Games!

Gateway to Hobby Joy

Its a shame I got carried away with buying the new GreyWolf and some Wirblewinds (for Reimagen) that I didn't take any more pictures. With a great stocked shop, and a large gaming area with lovely boards, I really wish I lived in Stafford!

On the way home, we swung by Warwick castle. By this time, our feet were rather sore so we saved the best of the castle for another day, although we did get to see the 18m Trebuchet firing, which was something else entirely.

HUGE!

So, to round off the weekend, Saturday was the festival of flight air show at Biggin Hill. Despite taking two hours to get in (and nearly three to get out) it was a great display of flying. Much smaller than the previous international offerings, the quality of the displays was no less impressive. Well worth a trip next year if you are local!

Sunday was the Farnborough games club annual wargames show, Valhalla. Again, no pictures as such, other than the impressive WW2 bombers game:

A nice show, worth a trip again.

And finally, what was awaiting me at my desk at work on the Monday. Brits for Bolt Action!

Stay tuned, our usual service will resume soon!

Thanks for reading,

Fez

Hello internets!
Sorry for the long break in posts, I've had a rather manic month, and hope to catch you all up with my adventures in due time.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get a space on a day long Airbrush course, run by Brian of Anarchy Models. The course is run in the back room of SnM stuff, my local 'hobby crack' merchant.

The first part of the day is all about the basics, involving dots and lines on paper - Airbrushing is a skill, that needs solid core techniques to build upon.

Lots of practice!

Brian is a great teacher, passing on his extensive hobby knowledge with humour and patience. Our group managed to progress quickly, so we moved on to how to use Anarchy Models stencils, then progressed to learning whatever techniques we asked for.

So many dots.....

Four bays, all well equipped

We also covered cleaning and caring for your airbrush, and selecting a set up that works for you.
I would seriously recommend the course to anyone who has or wants to start airbrushing.

Sean also offered a discount on hobby supplies bought on the day!
SnM stuff has all the paint you could ever want. Sean offers a professional friendly service that I would recommend to anyone.