Sunday 29 November 2009

3, 2, 1...We're Back in the Room.

It is Sunday again and this week I have a little more to go on about.

It would appear that my Bronchitis is having minimal effect on me at the moment (although I still have a cough) and as a result, I am starting to get back to normal with things. I have even begun to get my attention span back so I have been able to focus for a small while...so good news!

Right, on with the blog :). I have recently been made aware of a brand new sci-fi and fantasy gaming magazine called The Ancible; see the picture:

Click the Pic!

I bought a subscription straight away (as support for an emerging magazine) and was not disappointed. The magazine has a lot of interesting stuff in it; including: games reviews, battle reports, interviews and all manner of new artwork and writing. I'll admit that some of the layout could be better and that some of the pictures are a bit 'rustic' but the guys over at the Ancible seem to be taking a lot of the critiques on board and will be adjusting the magazine as they go. If I could say one short sentence about how I felt about the magazine when I received it it would be this:

"It is a publication that harks back to the spirit of the games magazines I used to buy and has a 'by gamers, for gamers' feel to it, along with an independent content that has been lacking in print since the demise of Harbinger magazine".

All I will add is this:

GO TO THE SITE AND ORDER THE MAGAZINE...NOW!

For more information, see the link:

http://www.the-ancible.com/

On to other things...the final straw.

I have been buying Games Workshop (GW) products for years and especially White Dwarf magazine. Literally thousands of pounds have been spent on GW products. I have been buying their products for over 25 years (ever since the first Space Marine was released)...but no more.

Recently GW have been drawing a line in the sand. Children are the target audience now and all those who have supported the company for many years are no longer welcome. GW has become a business now, rather than a company run by gaming enthusiasts and that has meant that some of their recent behaviour has not sat too well with the gaming community as a whole.

I will leave you to go and find out about all of the cease and desist notices that have been flying around lately and all of the negative comments that have been generated by them...there are a lot of them out there, I can tell you.

What it all boils down to is this: all of the work the die hard supporters of GW have created over the years is no longer tolerated and will be removed by legal action. This includes sites that have been keeping the enthusiasm (and sales of GW products) alive for the games that GW have long stopped supporting...even back as far as the old Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd games!

That really is a smack in the chops for me and all those poor souls who have now been forced to remove years of hard work from their web-sites.

As a result of the disgust I feel at the moment, I will not be buying another White Dwarf, or any other product from a GW store again. The only concession I will make is paint (due to the fact that I always have an army on the go and need to keep continuity in the colours) and I will only be doing that until I have finished my current projects and can change paints to a different brand.

This is my choice and I will not encourage or disuade anyone from taking the same one...that is up to your own conscience.

Further to this, I will not be posting any more pictures, reviews or links to anything GW for fear of receiving a cease and desist notice of my own...and yes, it has got that stupid!

Good luck GW...the backlash is building steam.

...AAAAND...we're back again :).

I now have four, partially built, armoured vehicles:

Click the Pic!

Click the Pic!

Yes, they still need detailing and yes, they still need tracks but the fact that I have got this far means that I am back from the doldrums and am starting to be productive again. As for the tracks, I have got a couple of boxes of these:

Click the Pic!

...and some wooden dowelling to build tracks and wheels for the little armoured vehicles to travel around on. It will be a while before they are finished but I am fairly pleased with the way they have gone so far.

For information (probably again!) the two turreted APCs will be for the command and support sections of an infantry platoon, with the two un-turreted ones being for the two standard infantry squads.

I reckon that the Christmas holidays may involve cutting a lot of dowell for wheels and gluing together hundreds of individual track links!

...And now for something completely different.

As of this last week, I have been married to my lovely wife for 18 years. I can only say that I am exceptionally lucky to have found someone who completely understands how obsessed I am with the hobby (even though she niether enjoys it herself nor understands the point to it) and puts up with everything I throw at her all the time (including my job taking me away from home sometimes and putting me in harms way).

Soppy as it sounds, I have a soul mate and I appreciate her more and more every day.

See you through the rainbow!

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