Balls..BIG round ..guild balls.

So yeah...
I'm kinda delirious with brain fry at the moment.

I had this fantastic plan...i mean it was fool proof. Models i would enjoy painting. A slow build plan and a scheme all worked out.

But i should know better shouldn't. I mean the blog name says it all.
What happened this time i hear you grumble.
Well it went like this 'fuzzy flashback fade out' effects.

I walked into Games Workshop full of intent and ideas. Sidled smoothly up to the Tau section, looked for that first model purchase and then my brain went. Nah.
Literally just straight up. Nah.
Ideas fled to the hills in terror, inspiration dived behind the sofa and trembled and enthusiasm dived into the River Ankh and was last seen clinging to a previous resident of the fine city (anyone get the reference?).

whooshy twanging and a snapping sensation as time reverts to normal.

So i then walked out of the store a little confused and downbeat.
Fortunately a quiet work day left much time for a pondering and thunking. I like a good thunk and sometimes i can really conce..coencent....constipate.

A bit of twittering, fbooking and random internet wanderings were the order of the day.
Now i don't really remember what it was that initially drew my eye..it could have been some distant memory swimming through the cosmos of my brain like the great a'tuin or it could even be DocBungles fault on twitter.

But something got me looking at guildball.
Now i have played bloodbowl and dreadball so i knew i liked sports games and i also knew the mrs liked them. So +1 there.

That little look turned into a data usage destroying search and a little itch (which for the record is not a wargaming STI and CANNOT be treated with creams, sprays or pills)
But the searching and digging opened up a game that outwardly looks very good. Nice characterful models much like my happy malifaux days.
A good chunk of youtubing has shown what appears to be a smooth playing game with a good amount of challenge but..and this is important...not a life sucking play length.

So it was starting to look promising. So a look towards a potential purchase began. Now this month the hobby budget is massively constrained (kids coming in the summer and now the death of the household boiler) have left me with a hobby budget the size of a nats left nut....if they even have nuts. But the budget would stretch to a whopping single starter box....but which one.

Pondering more pondering. A bike ride home that saw me arrive in a state that was less supreme athlete and more Whindle Poons after a very vigorous chase.

But back onto the interwebs...and then...well in simple terms. Inspiration struck.
But inspiration is not really the right word...as it's more of an idea....but this blog doesn't do things the easy way...you see there is a theory about ideas.

They all sit out in the darkness of space. Whizzing about and colliding with each other. Occasionally one gets knocked in the direction of this little ball of water and rock called 'The Earth'.
Most ideas never survive the entry through our atmosphere that has been likened to a really bad morning after a decisively violent Vindaloo.
But some do. Some slam into the mind of passing humans. Then in a flash of brilliance they forget.
But some....the really lucky ones....find a willing mind.
Davinci saw art and flying machine.
Einstein world changing theories.
Baach great orchestras of music.
Even in a caveman there was fire.

The one that was unfortunate enough saw.
Tartan.
It saw Brewers guild players in Tartan, possible even Tartan and tattoos.
It griped the empty vessel of my and squeezed for all it was worth. Then through no fault of it's own created an image or blue tattooed, fiery haired , Tartan wearing guild ball players. Think Braveheart with gingers...and be afraid.
Because i bloody well am.

I have no idea if i can even paint tartan, let alone paint it well. But i guess i will find out. There is a plan b, that involves a similar idea just without the tartan. But plan B is for the moment my brain joins my enthusiasm in the Ankh.

So yeah...umm someone once said...May you live in interesting times.
Most people thought it a blessing...little did they know.

Me...well i am gonna spell check the ramble, goggle up 'Salute of the jugger' and grin like Tim Curry playing a wizard who thinks he is about to take over the world.

the plan for the future

So the blog has been pretty darn quiet.

My new job, trying to get fit, playing airsoft and now being dragged out of football retirement to step back into goal....well it has all taken it's toll on my hobby time.

Anyone who knows me, reads this blog or my twitter, knows i am a bit of a hobby butterfly.
But that doesn't mean i don't crave the beautiful army or nice completed project like everyone else.

But recently it's been worse than ever. Fleeting visits to a new bolt action army, various games and a return to try marines. But none of them have really bitten in much. Even worse at times i have even questioned my place in wargaming and thought long and hard about just walking away.

But those reflections like any in life bring more questions than answers.
The biggest one though was.
Why don't i enjoy my hobby anymore?.

It's a hell of a question isn't it.

I spent the last couple of weeks dwelling on it. Looking for various answers from various angles.
I don't get nearly enough gaming time and that plays a fair part. But that's down to choice of games. I broke away from GW a while back and unless your blessed with fair sized multi game venues, you have already taken a step into the wilderness. Another aspect of this has been my work preventing me attending the best of the clubs in the area and being able to play what had been my main game 'Bolt Action'.

The other answer lies deeper within the hobbyist in me.
I just haven't been enjoying my painting....not for a really long time. I have rode along on the eddies and flows of whats cool and in turn lost the love of painting by painting things that just don't appeal deep down.

For the foreseeable future i don't see the gaming situation changing. But it will because in finding and answering the questions i have drawn myself  up a bit of a plan.

Gaming will come, it will come in the shape of 40k. Why? well it's the single most prevalent game locally, it still has a lot of appeal and lets face it, from the kid within to the adult without...its where a majority of us discovered wargaming.
I'm making an active decision to avoid most major forums and the inherent GW hatred they seem to spew into the web, in the past it has really eroded my hobby love and the future plan doesn't want ot need them 'negative vibes'.

So the hobbyist...how to address it. Well simple really.
I looked over my photobucket gallery, pondered over various pics, reflected on the models i enjoyed painting, the ones i liked the look of and what i didn't.

And in a rather shocking revelation to myself. I discovered that in about 3 years of painting (if not more) aside from my Bolt Action British paras, The only model i really recall enjoying painting.....AND being happy with at the end.

Was a Tau Empire XV104 Riptide.

I thought about the whys and what for on the project and realised i put more time and effort not only into the painting, but the pose, base and dynamic of the model, than any model in recent memory.

So i set to thunking on it some more.
Looked at the models, thought about the fluff and the options. Thought about a plan of taking a project forward and set myself a bit of a plan.
It's nothing exciting, it wont make GW a billion dollars and it won't break the bank. It's simple in it's elegance and purity.

Purchase 1 box a month. No mater how big or small. (no battleforce type boxes though).
The paint that box over the spare time i have that month. If it isn't finished, no purchase the next month.

It's simple because it eliminates one of my flaws. Looking at a massive army and getting daunted, then disgruntled and then bored by the large array of grey plastic.

So that's the plan folks. It's not earth shattering, it's not even something new to most hobbyists out there. But hopefully, given time. It will see me back in the fold and gaming once more.