What a difference a few years makes...

Its been a while since this blog received any attention which means the few who did read it have probably moved onto new pastures by now. I find this a good place to collate my thoughts anyway and in many ways it performs a good function of being a hobby journal and something to flick through from time to time.

My attentions have been diverted to Starcraft 2 recently and creating commentaries in the form of casts over at http://www.youtube.com/user/BastardMode. Its a lot more faster paced and a bit "swisher" than the blogging world but its also incredibly time consuming. This has meant less time to play with toys and of course less time to blog about it. If you're interested in SC2 head on over and take a look if not read on as I wont be mentioning it any further here.

So to give a quick overview since I last placed anything here I have actually made a small amount of hobby progress. I did a small amount of work on my Night Goblins but not enough to get me any closer to my goal of finishing the army. 

At the same time Dreadfleet hit the scene and the tag line of "Pirate Battles on the Warhammer High Seas" was all I needed to hear. I promptly purchased myself a copy and have thus far not played a single game of it. I hope to remedy that in the next few months as I am tantalisingly close to completing the painting on the entire kit! Hopefully this should mean I will post a review and full coloured battle reports for it soon.

In the mean time however we have had the release of the super scary Necrons! This has enthused a friend of mine to wanting to play 40k. As is so often the case in this hobby the domino effect of enthusiasm has to eventually hit you and you'll find yourself getting back into something you haven't touched in a while. After a year of Fantasy switching back to 40k might well be just what I need. But which of my armies should I get out the box? The Orks? I still have plenty of models to build and could create a completely different list. Never the less I can't get excited about the greenskins now for whatever reason. How about the Imperial Guard? They've had a new book since I last used them which has made them much more competitive! Add to that the army is nearly completed and it sounds tailor made for getting out of the box for games! Alas however not even the plucky Guardsmen are tickling my fancy. So out of the remaining 40k armies I have in possession that leaves but one....hmmmm...if the title pic hasn't given it away the answer is simple...

There's a double reason for using the above pic. Obviously it says "Space Marine" and therefore looks like it completes the preceding sentence whilst ignoring the plural. More importantly it explains why I want to revamp my Space Marines. Because the Space Marine game is awesome! Running around as an Ultramarine made me want to revist my...well...Ultramarines. Funny how that works eh? I will probably do a Space Marine review soon as well since its relevant to the hobby but for now lets focus on the plastic toys.

And that leads us back neatly to the title of this post. What a difference a few years makes! It was my intention to go back and spruce up the paint jobs for my Battle Company with of Marines as I was convinced they were in good order. As it happens I seem to have not only left a lot unfinished but the original paint jobs I did on them don't so much impress me! Obviously my abilities have moved on since I last worked on them but I had no idea just how much. So here lies the next project that's in season for my hobby mind. I intend to work through my Battle Company and complete the outstanding painting. At the same time I intend to improve the standard and paint on "battle damage". When I first started collecting marines I had said this was something I had wanted to do. As the grind of completing an army kicked in I realised painting them plain was by far easier. After working on some fairly bespoke armies like my Ogres and Night Goblins however I think I'm ready to take the plunge in order to get a look I am happy with. After all I am a Space Marine! And I shall know no fear!

Over and out for now. - Toina.