Weekly Hobby Update

Made it back from Adepticon after a whistlestop 5 days in the US. I think I'm getting better at international travel as I survived the two 23 hour journeys without jet lag.

Of those five days in Chicago, 40 hours were spent doing hobby courses and I came away with a lot of learnings:

• I was holding my airbrush wrong
• I wasn't getting close enough to models when I was spraying
• Now have a much more efficient airbrush cleaning process
• Learned a new alcohol/paint technique for Nurgle
• Discovered how to do NMN properly but prefer real metallics
• Learned great realistic stone weathering process
• Know how to use my smartphone to take better photos
• Compared "salt" weathering with "hairspray" and prefer salt
• Learned the technical requirements for making Youtube videos - and decided that it is too much effort
• Decided I really want to paint more Death Guard

I did manage to pick up some loot will I was there:

• Magna Tray system from Battlefoam
• More Secret Weapon paints
• Some P3 paints
• Airbrush stand and spare needle/noozle
• Game Gear brushes
• New dice tray
• Some MDF terrain plus other scatter terrain
• 40k Measuring Template
• Airbrush Stencils 

So another great Adepticon. I'm already looking to go next year and I'll probably look to play something like the Long War Doubles (single day) and look for further classes. Air New Zealand is starting an Auckland-Chicago flight soon which will cut 6-7 hours off the journey.

Unfortunately the Frontline Gaming terrain I ordered arrived at Jack's the day after we arrived at Adepticon so I need to wait until later this month to get it. However when I got home I had a big parcel of mdf terrain from 4Ground waiting for me. There is enough to built a new industrial plant table. I have spent the weekend evenings putting it together and it is a dream. The fact that it comes prepainted is fantastic.

Finally I spent Saturday down at the Warlords and managed to get two games in. The first was against the new Tau and it was certainly hardfought. While I managed to win 8-6, the undoubted highlight was me losing both Daemon Princes to the same Ghost Keel in Overwatch. In the end that Ghost Keel and a Broadside were the only Tau models left allowing me to claim two objectives to one.

In the second game I played Thousand Sons and was able to launch an Alpha Strike that removed a Defiler, Ahriman, a Rhino and most of a Rubric Marine Squad first turn. From there I was able to dictate the battle and by Turn 4 the Thousand Sons were reduced to a Rhino and an Exalted Sorcerer. 

Both games were characterised by "Seize the Initiative". This is always interesting as it can be a two edged sword in my experience (especially if the player who is "Seized On" has a lot of units off the table. The player now going first needs to be absolutely sure that they don't set up a crippling beta strike by showing their hand.