Painting toy soldiers for games you never play with friends you dont have!!

The title to this post comes form a chat I had with a fellow blogger it was said to him by an ex-partner during a heated conversation. It is something that has stuck with me as it cut so close to the truth, I enter my 45th year and my last regular wargaming was as a teenager, so can I call myself a wargamer...
It is tough to admit but I don't make friends easily, I can safely say that my two best friends are my wife Liz and my Dad Paul. I'm not fussed about this as I have a great life, it just means that playing wargames for me is tough, I am not a one for solo gaming, for me playing wargames was always more about who is round the table then whats on the table.

My Dad retired a few years ago and threw himself back into wargames so I have been mainly painting stuff for him the play with, this has been great for keeping my painting focus. I guess that I am really a painter who would like to play more. This brings me to why a have resurrected this blog after so long in the wilderness. It is for me to get my ideas and plans in print, I always find painting to a target brings the best out of me. If along the way I gain readers and share tips that can help all well and good but that will not be my goal.
I have been a very blessed person over the last few years with my personal finances in a very nice place I have been able to pick a job that leans more towards a great work/life balance than wealth gathering. I have a great job that is Mon-Fri 9-5 this hopefully will let me try and find a local games club where I can put the painting/gaming back into balance too. I have also been able to build up an impressive collection of games/figures that will keep my busy for many a year.

In 2017 my daughter moved out and the now spare room has become a hobby room for me and my wife one side holds all my wargames/boardgames stuff and the other side holds my wife's sewing knitting and dolls house stuff. it gave me chance to build my own painting desk, I raised the desk level so I can paint without ending up hunched over.

another big plus for me has been the explosion in figure based board games I started with Zombicide for my 40th Birthday and have built up an impressive array of board games just waiting for my attention. I guess this is where this blog will come in as I plan in 2018 to work on completing these games. I have two local wargames clubs to try out and will look for boardgames clubs too. I have several GW boardgames that go back to my youth and the peak (so far) of my wargaming which I am keen to get my brush into.

This blog is going to be where I put my plans and results, so where do I plan to start. I have been painting Zulu war figures for playing the era in skirmish so I have to finish these but I want to make a start on my board games, oddly I want to start with the last one bought as I know my Dad is keen too, so I will be sticking together and painting the figures for GW's Necromunda.

Gaming wise I will be looking at attending the local wargames clubs before the end of January.

January goals

1. Stick together necromunda figures and terrain
2. Attend at least one wargames club session
3. Play at least one game (wargame or boardgame)
4. Finish Colonial Zulu's