Yearly Archives: 2022

Things I Enjoyed: Nov 2022

Unclear and Present Danger/Patreon

They really should have listened to Jamelle’s wife and called it “Patreon Games” seriously: what a mistake.

I don’t really listen to podcasts (I tend to find them frustrating), but I’ve been enjoying Jamelle Bouie* and John Ganz‘s Unclear and Present Danger podcast, which is about the political thrillers of the ’90’s and what they say about American politics of that time. I was in high school and college through the 90’s and went through some associated, significant shifts in worldview during that time… and importantly lived through it. So the look back has been an intensely refreshing perspective on my young adulthood that I was too in the weeds of to appreciate at the time.

That they’ve since started up a second feed, Unclear and Present Patreon (that they didn’t listen to Jamelle’s wife and call it “Patreon Games” is truly a tragedy) dedicated to spy movies of the Cold War is an extremely easy sell to me. Opening up with a contrast between Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Thunderball, and Our Man in Havana is just a great start.

* Won’t link to his NYT profile page because I don’t want to cross the picket line.

Andor

We could not finish The Book of Boba Fett. As much as I enjoyed The Madalorian, it was starting to seem like Star Wars stuff I enjoyed was the exception, not the rule.

I guess that’s probably still true, but wow: Andor really, really did live up to the hype. We enjoyed it immensely, and I’m looking forward to the next season.

Vampire Survivors

I don’t spend a lot of time playing computer games any more: time spent playing them is time not spent painting minis. Further not helping things: I am a morning person. My evenings are spent with my wife and we’re in bed by 10PM, normally… which is about when my close friends who are not morning people tend to be getting online and firing up Deep Rock Galactic. This is why I haven’t picked up, and likely won’t pick up Darktide.

But: the past few month’s been brutal on my time and energy for painting minis… and for whatever reason I picked up Vampire Survivors to pad out what free time I have in which I’m unable to paint.

It’s hard to describe: Castlevania-themed random swarm survival, with heaps of replayability. Early on (in theory there’s an unlock that removes this, but I haven’t gotten it yet) there’s a hardcap at 30m/level. If you can survive to 31m, you get an unlock, but that’s difficult. So you just grind away. Sometimes I think the goal is to get so much going on it melts your graphics card; no mean feat with Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest level pixel graphics.

It’s a deeply stupid game, but I’ve absolutely gotten my $5’s worth out of it..

Workbench

I’m emotionally bottoming out in these Black Templars. Not a one of you warned me about how awful it would be to have to go back and paint the black on these guys last: you are all awful friends. Shame.

So I’ve gone back to Stormcast. Pretty close to having these guys done, and it’ll be one batch left after them.

It Came from the Lightbox: Retributors

These guys were really frustrating; life kept interfering with progress and both of those fething Starsoul Maces broke off, necessitating a mid-paint pinning. :/

They’re done now, though! And I think they look good.

Backlog Assessment

Between a lot of things rolling out over the past few months and my current project taking longer than I’d expected it to, I’m starting to feel a little oppressed by my backlog. That’s not great!

When the pandemic hit, I definitely entered a state where if I thought I was going to work on a thing: I’d better get it in hand because I might not be able to get it when I was ready. That really kind of worked for me, too, for the first couple of years. But: backlog is starting to accrete. I’m painting more slowly and, uh, buying more quickly.

So, I thought I’d take a beat to enumerate the different projects I have floating in my backlog. This wouldn’t be everything rattling around the hobby closet (I’ve got some stuff I really need to clear out), just the stuff I want to be working on Right Now.

This should hopefully help inoculate me against getting suckered into picking up one of those new Games Workshop holiday bundle boxes.

  • Stormcast Eternals – This is what I’m working on right now. It’s taking longer than my instincts expect, but a lot of that is work and seasonal changes (and accompanying allergies) just kicking my hobby productivity in the kidneys. I’ve got 15 models left, which isn’t too many; I’m more than halfway done.
  • Black Templar Intercession Kill Team – Kill Teams are kind of the perfect hobby project: paint a dozen or less models of something different. Guardrails up against it spiraling out too far. Finding out the BT Army Set is extremely inexpensive prompted me to snap one up for this purpose.
  • Into the Dark Terrain – This stuff is ready to go. It’s even been masked: I just have to do it to it. I expect it to paint quickly… but I’m also not in the biggest hurry to tackle a new terrain project after knocking out the Masters of the Universe terrain and a traditional Kill Team table over the last few months.
  • Masters of the Universe Wave 1 & 2 minis – Just four models plus the Tyrantisaurus. It’d be nice to get them done before Wave 3 comes out.
  • Masters of the Universe Wave 1 & 2 terrain – This is 99% Wave 2 Preternia terrain, and I’m breaking it out because terrain’s a separate brainspace.
  • Morats – I’ve about half the sectorial unpainted since I snagged a great deal on a lot of them back when the faction got the glow-up. Now they’re getting new models and units and that’s only widening the gap. I should get that Action Pack painted.
  • Bushido – I have 4 models (2 Minimoto, 2 Ronin) I need to build and paint to catch up
  • Halls of Thranduil – I’ve printed off like everything I could possibly need to play these guys and they’re just sitting around in trays.
  • Imperial Navis Breacher Kill Team – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!
  • Kroot Farstalker Kinband Kill Team – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!
  • Horns of Hashut Warcry warband – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!
  • Rotmire Creed Warcry warband – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!

Each of these should be like a 2-3 week jam (well, the Morats would be several of those)… and that means like half a year’s worth of work is sitting around, ready to go.