Re-Post: The future of Games Days and Games Workshop - Part 9

 Now I'm not usually the one to do this, but I thought this has been one the most interesting reads regarding GW's financials on the Internet. This is a chain of post by Zaphod over at Masterminis.net

n Zaphod Beeblebrox

n Zaphod Beeblebrox

Read more at:

I know, it's another wall of text. But I believe you really should read this if the miniature and gaming hobby is close to your heart. 

I am old and slow. And apparently I have at least one working crystal ball.

Two days ago we simply reported about the dramatic decline of Game's Workshop's value. On a single day, the Company lost 24% of its value. This followed the release of their half-year-report in which they showed -12% lost sales, -30% profits....
It is unlikely you have not heard of it, since our post about this yesterday has become our 2nd most read post ever And it's even just a little over a day old.

- See more at: http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2014/01/the-future-of-games-workshop-part9.html#sthash.EjPkneyn.dpuf

The future of Games Days and Games Workshop - Part 9 

Well, that escalated quickly!

I know, it's another wall of text. But I believe you really should read this if the miniature and gaming hobby is close to your heart. 

I am old and slow. And apparently I have at least one working crystal ball.

Two days ago we simply reported about the dramatic decline of Game's Workshop's value. On a single day, the Company lost 24% of its value. This followed the release of their half-year-report in which they showed -12% lost sales, -30% profits....
It is unlikely you have not heard of it, since our post about this yesterday has become our 2nd most read post ever And it's even just a little over a day old.

- See more at: http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2014/01/the-future-of-games-workshop-part9.html#sthash.EjPkneyn.dpuf

    The future of Games Days and Games Workshop - Part 9 - That escalated quickly!

The future of Games Days and Games Workshop - Part 9 

Well, that escalated quickly!

I know, it's another wall of text. But I believe you really should read this if the miniature and gaming hobby is close to your heart. 

I am old and slow. And apparently I have at least one working crystal ball.

- See more at: http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2014/01/the-future-of-games-workshop-part9.html#sthash.EjPkneyn.dpuf

I would recommend taking an hours time and start with Part 1, and work your way up to the current post, but if you start at Part 8 that's enough.

Book Review: Fellguard Parts 1 & 2

 

Fellguard Part 1: The Siege of Fellguard (eBook)

Ok, so the stories themselves were good, and I'll give the author credit, but they really are over priced.  The Story follows the Cadian 39th as they attempt to storm and hold Fellguard and fight off the denziens of Chaos.  Most of the Story Centers around their Castellan, Regimental Commissar, and a Junior officer as the siege one of the central Bastions covering "No Mans Land" between the City walls.  

I won't give away the end, but for a short Story i enjoyed it, and to be honest I wouldn't mind seeing more in the future. The issue I have with them is the Price.

Fellguard Part 2: The Hour of Hell (eBook)

Now I know that eBooks have a different number of pages depending on your device, but on a 7" Tablet I had a combined page count of about 65 pages. All that for a whopping 6 Euro!!  I mean a standard BL paperback with 300 Pages run on average about 14 Euro ($19). Which is bad enough considering that just 4 years ago they were about 10 Euro ($14). 

I mean even if we use simple division, a paperback at 14 Euro equals about 1 Euro ($1.32) for 22 pages. That means that my 65 pages should have ran me about 3 Euro ($3,96).  But hello, these were E-BOOKS, so all I payed for was text file, a license, and the feeling of being ripped off. 

Which leads me to ask, why the hell are GW / BL e-Books so freaking expensive?  e-Books in Germany are generally expensive, because the Germans have some crazy law called a "Fixed book price agreement". I won't even venture down that road and how worthless I think the law is. But that aside, GW really needs to open there eyes and adjust their price model for e-Books.  

In the end though my recommendation would be to save your money until they're bundled together, with a lower price. 

 

Avenger Strike Fighter (Part 2)

Well she's coming along just fine, here she is after 2 nights of work.  We currently have company for a bit (till the end of the month), so my "Man Cave" has been converted into a guest bedroom.  This of course means that I'm having to build this out of a box so that it can be cleaned up and put away every night...  It may take a while to get built..

Up until this point everything is going ok, but it's going to need a bit of green stuff in the end.  The wings and engines were really a pain in the butt, and there's plenty of gaps where they connect. The 2nd problem I've had is that none of my normal Superglue is holding for crap... It's taking sometimes 15 - 20 minutes to dry to the point where I can support it and let it sit until everything is fixed in place.  At this rate I'm about ready to go out and buy new glue.

Oh, and in the above pic, the pilot and co-pilot are just sitting in there.  I won't be gluing them on until the end.  And the Avenger cannon fell off, about 30 seconds after snapping the pic... damn glue.

Aerial Support

Imperial Naval Squadron VF-8455 "Nomads"

Imperial Naval Squadron's VF-8454 "Shadowhawks" and VF-8455 "Nomads" have been assigned to the House Villeneuve Trader Fleet* for nearly 5000 years. The Shadowhawks are equipped with the Fury Interceptor while the Nomads are equipped with Avenger Strike Fighter "ASF-Mk3a". 

After a day or two of cutting and sanding down all the "flash", I finally got her all washed up and as you can see all I have to do now is wait till tomorrow and the assembly can begin.  Outside of the standard weapons I'm thinking of magnetizing the 2nd pair of hard points so that I can either equip it with missile launchers or with Hellfury/Hellstrike missiles. 

As for a color scheme, I've been thinking about something like this. Not that I'm great with an air brush or anything but I think it would look pretty good. 

Image found on the Internet

* More on this at a later date...

2014 Hobby Resolutions

Well it's the start of a new year and as custom dictates, here are my "Hobby" New Years resolutions. I'd sum up the results of last year but I didn't make any for 2013, and besides me getting back into the swing of things is enough.  So enough of that and here's my list:

1. Blog Regularly.  
This goal works partially with points 2 and 3.  The more I game and paint the more I have to blog about.

2. Game Regularly.
See, I've already talked this over with the wife and as long as life and work permits I'm going to try and visit the local club twice a month. Even if I don't get a game in, I can always use the time to model or paint.  There are some great guys down there and I always enjoy the Apoc games, and the 1-2 "normal" games that I get in.

3. Finish the following Models:
Yes, some of these are rather old, but since my daughter was born (she's 3 now) I always find myself busy with other things.  Not that I mind see, she is by far more important, but even she knows not to play with "Papa's little army men".

  - 7th Scansin:
      - Hvy Weps
      - 2nd Squad

  - BG 82:
      - Arial Support
      - Warhound


4. Use the Painting Chart to track my painting progress.
See  point 3.  The more I paint the more I can fill out :)  nuff said.


5. Finish and post up my collected Fluff and Background information 
This should be a no brainer, but I've been putting this off for years...  Partially because my fluff is in 3 documents and reads more like scatter brained ideas, and partially because I'm not so very good at writing fluff.

Well I guess that's it.  Happy New Year to all and I wish you all the best in the coming year.  Unless of course your playing against me, in which case, I hope you get a tie.