A Niche Hobby Blog 3.0

Dear fellow bloglings,

I have returned! [que evil laughter] Though, I've never been truly gone, I just stopped posting here. I focused more on gaming and other aspects of the hobby. But now that I've fixed up my hobby niche, I thought: Why not give this hobby blogging thing another try? The effort isn't all that big, and there are lots of benefits to this. So here goes the obligatory editorial. 

First of all, this is an additional creative outlet, on top of the hobby aspects I cover. Blogging also keeps you organised. My tendency to jump between projects is hopefully somewhat suppressed by this. Other gamers might know this as the shiny syndrome. At the very least, blogging lends the outward appearance of structure. Furthermore, this faux structure helps me prioritize. I have some commissions I want to get out of the way on top of the projects I want to finish. I also like taking pictures. And explaining something to the internet, or whomever else, is always a learning experience. Seneca said docendo discimus (-through teaching we learn) and that holds true. If you want to learn something, explain it, to yourself at least. I'm dragging you into this now. And last but not least, I get to share my work with others, which is great source of motivation. Outer motivation that is. Inner motivation, your own drive, only gets you so far, but outer motovation, the expectation and/or awareness of others often gets you good bit further along the way. 

As you can see I've fixed up my hobby niche in my new place. I intend to have a fixed place for airbrushing too, hopefully by summer. But I want a new compressor and brush for that, along with one of those active extraction stations. That is quite an investment, so this might still take some time. But it's in the pipe. I have extended the Hobby Zone elements a bit, by three units, so that I have a little more dust free storage and a place for the bigger tools. I also had to replace the light bulb in the jeweler's lamp. I got a good 6 years of use out of it, so I guess that's OK. 

In the process of moving several times an cleaning I've also taken stock of what I have and what I want to keep. I've sold a lot of stuff over the years. The Tau army you've seen here for instance. But there are a lot of individual models I wouldn't want to part with. Willem below for instance, was a conversion that I made for an Imperial Guard Valkyrie base. I've sold the Valkyrie. But I've kept him because he has value to me. I still chuckle a little when I see him. I will turn him into an objective marker. That way I can still get some use out of him, even though I don't play IG anymore... or AM or whatever... 

So what can you expect from this season of ETTHB?

I'm still madly in love with Infinity, and I keep starting new lists. So expect Infinity and it's terrain. 40k isn't that big for me anymore but I still play it. I have a Night Lords project I want to finish, as soon as I can get my hands on some new kits and some Forge World bits. My Iyanden project would be the next in line after that. That one is highly dependent on the airbrush though. 

Recently I've started playing Team Yankee and I love it (even though it isn't the most balanced kind of game). But it feels realistic, dynamic and looks cool. And the Cold War has always fascinated me. So expect Team Yankee in the future comrades. I'm afraid those three are the only mayor systems you should expect. Along with terrain though. I love building terrain. 

Everything else is kind of on the back burner. But I won't sell my Armies for Dystopian Wars, Battlefleet Gothic, Dropfleet Commander, Hordes, Warzone and Star Wars Armada. These might creep in therefore. And I sorta, not yet started Guild Ball and the Batman Miniature Game. Meaning I have enough models to play, unassembled in drawers. So that might come up too. 

I intent to keep this a pure hobby blog. So I won't go into gaming itself too much, but I might post something about tables, armies and events, as long as it's mostly about the models and terrain pieces. I might for instance post pictures of table setups, like the one above. Or I'll take some sniper shots like the one below to show some minis on the board. 

That's all for now. Keep it fresh, like that Axe cap in the last picture (yes that one). And know that this post is so text heavy because it's an editorial / mission statement. Expect mostly pictures in the future.