[Year In Review] There is Blame to be Apportioned

If Von can have themself rocking out on a beach as their banner photo, I can have me looking fly as hell at a Nerf war.

I could be talking about a lot of things here - when it comes to the state of the world and how depressing as hell I find the whole thing, there's a lot of individuals I could point my finger at over various issues and say "this is all your fault..."  You're not here to watch me screaming into the void, so I will put most of that aside, but not all of it.

There are still TWO individuals at whom I am going to glare accusingly.  They are more or less entirely responsible for the situation I find myself in on the hobby front, and I fully intend to blame them wholly and entirely. 

If you haven't guessed one of them already, either you're new here or you haven't been paying attention.  I am sure the person in question knows I am talking about them and is already feeling pangs of guilt.  Or possibly smug satisfaction.  Could go either way.

But for any of this to make sense we need to rewind a bit first, back to 2022....

Von  - let's face it, we all knew I was going to blame them for something - bought a 9th Ed starter set in order to get the Necron models in it, and gifted me the 6 Primaris Marine models in it, despite the fact that I was off the 40k gaming train, had sold almost all my models off and had no intention of getting back ON.  But I still loved the universe, and I've always had a soft spot for Space Marines (I'm basic like that) and had a great time assembling my new toy soldiers.    

I think it was this one.

They were swiftly painted (very swiftly given my normal glacial pace) as I simply copied the colour scheme I used for my Dropfleet models since I really liked it, and then put proudly on a shelf.  I thought that was the end of it...

But then for Christmas that year, Von remembered a comment I made about really loving the Invictor Warsuit model, and bought me a Space Wolf Combat Patrol which contained the aforesaid Invictor (also known as the Dune Buggy Dreadnought or the Try Before You Die Dreadnought).  

Oh god, they're multiplying.

Again, I got them all painted in what was - for me - stunningly fast time. (which means their first appearance on a gaming table still featured a lot of bare plastic).  A few trades and I had the core of a 1,000 point army.  

You can see their first ever outing here.  Von had taken it upon themself to teach me the newfangled 10th edition, I took it upon myself to not have an aneurysm whilst trying to learn.   

Skipping over some details, that brings us to Christmas 2023.  Von and I had played a few games by this point, and I had a clear idea where my Marines were going and what I wanted to add.  Narratively, the idea of the Sworn had now solidified with named characters and history.  And this is where the second person I wish to accuse joins the narrative.

My girlfriend, Lamby, conspired against me.  She used my newfound enthusiasm for 40k with malice aforethought.  Whenever anyone asked her what to get me for Christmas, she told them 'Games Workshop gift vouchers'.  To my horror, I got a lot.  This resulted in my eventually buying the Vanguard Taskforce as it contained basically everything I needed to round my Marines off to a nice solid 2,000 points.

please stop. no more.

I painted.  I played games.  I talked about Warhammer.  I talked trash at Von. (This, at least, is Not New.  But now it was often about Warhammer.)

Then a few months ago, disaster struck.  I'd been heavily converting and painting up my old Stormraven model to use as a centrepiece for the Sworn... I'd been worked on it slowly through most the summer.  I had spent hours combing bitz websites and etsy stores.  There's custom 3D printed parts in there.  Huge amounts of kitbashing.  I was talking about adding full interior detail.  On more than one occassion Von called me a complete madman or referred to the Stormraven as my personal White Whale.  And then one day, the unthinkable happened.

 I had the Stormraven out on the craft desk, and was painting one of the not-yet-glued-on sub assembles.  As often happens, the cat came over to see what I was up to.  She jumped up on the crafting desk to get a better look at the Big Thing I always keep locked away in a cupboard when I am not fiddling with it.  I decided to pick her up and move her away from the Delicate Model.

As cats often do she went into full Squirm mode in an effort to not get taken off the desk.  One flailing limb caught the Stormraven, and swept the whole damn thing off the desk and onto the floor.  It shattered.  Shattered.  There were bits everywhere.  Some of the resin parts were now in two or three separate broken parts.  

I was devastated.  I spent an hour on my hands and knees, searching for every  last scattered part, eventually finding them all.  I looked at the damage done.  I was so upset, so disheartened that I honestly nearly threw the whole damn thing in the bin.  I nearly gave up on it entirely.

Thankfully sanity prevailed and instead it got tossed in a box and locked away until I had calmed down enough to face it again.  That took several days, but I did go back to the Stormraven, and I was able to salvage it.  Honestly to look at it now, I am probably the only one who can see the damage that was done...

What an asshole.

Overall I would say the Stormraven Incident was probably the low point of the year for me in hobby terms.  Beyond that, I have honestly had a pretty good year, I think.  

I am honestly thankful that I have been dragged back into the Warhammer gaming space.  I left because I was feeling burnt out.  I sold all my stuff off and told myself I was GLAD I was out.  More free time and spare cash to do other stuff.  But I hadn't been doing anything with that free time... and that had impacted my mental health.  During the summer, I have Nerf events to go to, and a lot of my hobby time revolves around prep work for those - this year I built a new lever-action rifle and took it to 28 Darts Later with me.  

My baby.

But when the weather was bad, or I couldn't get the time off to go to events, I 'd quickly run out of other things to do and would end up just sitting at home with nothing to do except vegetate in front my PC.  I was stagnating, and for me that leads to frustration and depression.  Having an alternate outlet has really helped with that.

So yes, I do owe Von a debt of gratitude for reminding me that I love Warhammer.  Please don't ever tell them I said that or they'll become absolutely insufferable.  

You don't get a better look at the Stormraven till it's finished.