Slow Spring ... Balancing Real Life and Hobby Life

It seems my spring has been a bit hectic with real life obligations taking up a good portion of my time. With several weddings and the various associated functions, confirmations, holidays, track meets for my daughter and a glut of spring cleaning home maintenance I've been to exhausted or pressed for time to make headway on some hobby projects I've had in the works.

It's pretty crazy how quickly real life can eat up your hobby time. Mostly I look to my hobby as a means to relax and unwind from the rigors of everyday life with this site as a means of tracking my progress and sharing my work with the world. Lately I haven't had a ton of time to game and my regular group is suffering from the same scheduling issues which means a lack of drive for completing my projects. 

That lack of drive coupled with revisiting some Xbox games I've neglected to play for quite some time means a lack of updates for my site. (Side note: my wife recently found Battlestar Galactica on Netflix I avoided the series when it was on TV but watching the episodes back to back has become a bit of an addiction the show is compelling enough that I have a hard time focusing on painting while its on...)

Never fear though I have a ton of projects that I'll be sharing over the coming weeks. Here's a list of what I have in the works:

• Near Future Board – The basic sketches are done and I've begun construction. Photos and step by step to come as soon as I have time to set up a photo shoot.

• Malifaux Crews – I have a bunch of crews assembled and ready for paint, look for updates soon. With the announcement of Second Edition I'm excited for the Public Testing to begin. 

• Warhammer 40K – Still plugging along on my marines, not sure I'm going to be able to finish them before year's end but with just over six months left it's possible.

• Relic Knights Board – I've been looking at what I have done so far and considering some additions. With the Kickstarter delay November seems like a lifetime away. 

• Super Dungeon Explore – Still working on some sketches for 3D boards I'm hoping to get this up soon. I've decided not to pick up anymore expansions until I get the ones i have painted, hopefully that will provide me with some motivation to speed up the process.

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In other news the Mantic Kickstarter is looking more and more attractive. The cost to by in combined with the amount of stuff you get has almost pushed me over the fence. A quick read through of the Alpha rules leads me to believe this will be a fun game to play. There's still plenty of time for me to decide.

Secret Weapon also has a very interesting Kickstarter running for just a few more days. These tiles are a nice way to quickly and easily get a board to match up with your bases. The cost is reasonable for what you get and a good solution for players that need an easily transportable playing surface. I don't know that I'll be backing them but who knows I might pick up a set after they're released.

Sodapop Miniatures has their forums back up and is in the process of revamping their site. I'm hoping this means we're going to see more updates on the Relic Knights project. Even with the delay I'm still excited about this game and hoping Sodapop will be able to overcome the negative feelings they've create with their handling of the campaign thus far.

Evil Baby Orphanage is close to shipping the rewards to their backers, I'm looking forward to getting these in hand as the game is surprisingly fun and I think the exspansions add quite a bit to the game. This is one of those projects that had great communication in the begining and then just fell off after the core game was delivered. 

Still waiting on my Bones delivery, I only backed for the limited Sophie with the Dragon and Cthlu add ons apparently they're still on the way from China. Bit of a bummer but really the deal was to good to pass up. From the mixed reviews of the Bones product online I'm glad I didn't go all in with the massive Vampire deal. I love Reaper for the odd model here and there to fit with a conversion or proxy model but I'm not really a huge fantasy guy so most of the models weren't up my alley.

Dice Rings should be on their way soon. Look for a review once I have mine in hand.

Impact have experienced some set backs beyond their control but the amount of updates they provide make any delay more acceptable. Looking forward to getting these when they finish casting.

Helldorado has been pretty good about posting updates. I'm looking forward to playing this game again.

Kingdom Death: Monster has been really great with posting updates. The most recent shows off the board artwork. I'm going to be honest I was really hoping for a 3D board like what is shown in the video but I imagine that's not possible without throwing the price point of the box game into the too expensive category. For a one man operation Adam has been able to communicate the projects progress better than any of the larger kickstarters and I feel like this is going to be one of my favorite games.

Fantasy Arc has been pretty good about posting updates on this project. The creator has been responding to almost every post in the comments section so I feel good about this project. This is another one man show where the guy is making everything himself in his garage. With the speed he's been burning these kits it seems like he might even make his deadline. It's amazing what production in the US does for your deadlines. :)