This Week in the Hobby

Each Truancy - Joy to the Enemy; Hero Labour - Attack on the Bourgeois. 

Those of you who follow my good friend Jim over at Whispers of Chaos will know that he recently started doing a weekly blog post series entitled The Week in Hobby <insert date here>. You can have a look here. One reason for this sort of scheduled posting is to generate content which is the lifeblood of any blog, but more importantly, to develop the blogger as a writer through repetition and practice. I am guilty of lapsing into "occasional blog syndrome" so I salute my colleague Jim and wish him all the best. In the shadow of his efforts I am going to try the same thing here at Zen and the Art of Miniature Painting. This Week in the Hobby (notice the slight paraphrase) will be an attempt to document my progress and generally develop some musings on the hobby as they happen.

I have now been here in Queensland, Australia for almost a week. I have some work lined up working at a local tavern, and have managed to get most of the admin side of life sorted, bank account, tax number, mobile phone. So far the major impediment to everything has been the intense heat, which as the gentle reader could well imagine, came as a bit of a shock upon leaving a rainy and cold Britain. Nevertheless H and I are adapting well to sitting in the shade by the pool side drinking industrial quantities of water.

I have had a cursory look around the local area for a gaming store, and it seems that I have been lucky enough to be just down the Pacific Highway from Irresistible Force in Tana Merah (irresistibleforce.com.au). I am hoping to pop down, pick up some brushes and paints and make myself known during this week. From their website it seems that this establishment features a dedicated gaming lounge, and that just seems so awesome, very Firestorm-esque. As my previous post explained, I haven't brought much over with me, but those Dark Vengeance Dark Angels are amazing, and I can't wait to start painting them. In fact, I am rather tempted to join the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge which sets the aim of painting 1000 points in six months, followed by another 1000 points. Until I get hold of a Codex: Dark Angels though, I am not committing. One of my major concerns is the heat, especially how it might affect things like resin and paint dry times. I don't like it when paints dry too quickly. On the upside, H and I have a spacious room featuring air conditioning, so being able to control the temperature will certainly help. I will however need to pick up a decent lamp for painting by. 

So, the mission for this week is:

- Get painting supplies, Dark Angels palette mainly.

- Sort out a decent lamp with white light.

- Arrange a painting spot, probably on the floor initially, using the TV table. 

- Make contact with local gaming personalities. 

- Start reading the 40k Rulebook.

- Get a Dark Angels Codex.

Quite a long list, but all small jobs really. I am going to get the Rulebook and Codex in digital format on my iPad as I don't have the means to store books really. Another secondary task I have set myself is to do book reviews of Horus Heresy novels. I really want to write reviews for Fulgrim and Descent of Angels as I feel I have something to say.

Let's hope that I can establish some sort of routine amidst the sun and games.

+ Carry on citizens +