The old King is dead, long live the King!

Blogging, gaming, hobby and life are all constantly evolving. Change is constant and when we stop evolving we are either dead or already dying. ‘Flashlights of Fury’ was born of necessity as a creative outlet when I decided to leave the world of forums; it was created quickly and without a lot of thought. More successful, entertaining and eye opening that I ever anticipated it quickly became evident that I would need a more permanent home that would more accurately reflect my continuing evolution.

Deep Thoughts: Priorities!

Why do we chronicle our hobby on blogs, forums, websites and the internet in general? Why do we take pictures, compose articles, set deadlines and creating posting schedules for ourselves? Is it for recognition, money or personal gain? I think not – hardly any of us will ever meet in real life, few of us will ever reach a number of hits high enough to create any positive income and there is very little personal gain involved in any of this. Yet, we continue to do it. Some of us even allowing it to consume ever more of our hobby time until the actual process of building, painting and playing with our armies, which is what got us into this in the first place, becomes little more than an afterthought.

Community: Old Stuff Day

Rob over at Warhammer 39,999 came up with the idea of Old Stuff Day, which apparently also falls on National Banana Cream Pie Day - so we will of course support it.

In October 2009 Mike at Santa Cruz Warhammer did a great tutorial on how he did some of his photoshop effects at the time. His article gave me some great ideas that I have used in the last couple of years more than a few times. Santa Cruz Warhammer

In June of 2009 Dave Taylor created a tutorial for what would later be called a 'Taylor Pattern Chimera', not only did he make an ork trukk into an Imperial Guard Chimera that looks great, but members of the community later dubbed the vehicle after him. Dave Taylor Miniatures

In December of 2009 Man Boy Genius posted a tutorial for how to turn a Valkyrie into a Jet fighter. Quite possibly one of the most creative and easy to accomplish variations for a kit I have seen in years, and it looks awesome to boot wheather you are building an Ork Bomber or an Imperial Thunderbolt. Spikey Bits

Fear is the Mind Killer

I'd like to begin my blogging endeavours with thanking Tallarn for the trust to write in his space. I'm not the caliber of painter, gamer, or writer that he is but I try and he understands that about me.

Fear has stopped me from writing on occasion. Why? Criticism. I often take things waaaay to personally in real life and that bleeds over into the internet as well. I have to remember that I will be harsher on myself then anybody can ever be and not to worry so much. We all have to go with it most of the time. Our hobby almost demands it as a prerequisite!

I'd like to share with you a 'one off' piece I've been painting in my spare time over the last month. With everything it has to begin with a good model and the Warp Wolf Stalker from the Hordes range is outstanding in my opinion. From the very first time I saw the model in previews I knew, actually knew, I was going to get this model just to paint. Another first for me since I have this thing about 'power armor'.

The base isn't done because I want to write a quick tutorial on how to do bases since I think basing is also part of our hobby. People, even when they paint well, tend to let this last step go by the wayside.

I've named him 'The Great Wolf Nigel Humperdink'.

Deep Thoughts: Whither to Blog?

In all the realm of geekdom you have two vastly different choices with which to bestow your infinite knowledge for all to absorb on this crazy ship we affectionately refer to as ‘teh interwebz’ (as founded by the great ‘Goracle’ many moons prior to our arrival on this plane of existence). You can join with the masses and frequent a web forum, which will provide ample opportunity for you to present your work and have it critiqued by all knowing demigods of geekery, who will no doubt shower you with such mind blowing offers of superior intellect as, "Sweet! Awesome! OMG, that is so great I just crapped my pants! U r teh Uber Sumo!" Or you can choose a blog, which probably won’t reward you with comments or critiques on a consistent basis but will give you free reign for the unfettered release of your creative juices all over the unsuspecting masses.

The net is vast and infinite

First a bit about myself - my screen name is Tallarn and I have been playing 40k since 1992. Back when you could put out some books in your basement and fight with unpainted armies over coke can objectives. I have stuck with my original army through it all and have over 100 painted Desert Raiders, including one of the unpublished Tallarn Sniper. I have a cabinet full of tanks and a ton of conversions. Sitting on my shelf at the moment is an Armorcast Reaver Titan that will be stripped and painted soon enough.

What can you expect to see on this blog? Pictures of my older works, progress on newer projects, weekly history lessons, round up of the best of the Blog sphere and most importantly, my random thoughts.

Free from the chains of life as a moderator at the Astronomican I can finally speak my mind without fear of insulting, irritating or bothering anyone. And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite.