First, after so long...

Last post: November 9th, 2013

Today: June 21st, 2016

That's two and a half years of the dreaded hobby rut.

That statement however, is not entirely correct.
Dabbled a bit into Infinity, X-Wing miniatures, Armada, Dice Masters and Warmachine/Hordes within that time period.
Also joined the online world of Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm.
And, even attempted to domesticate myself with Android: Netrunner.

Let's face it; gamers gonna be gamers, we'll never stop gaming.
It's just that some break and change of environment is needed.
That being said, I've stopped playing WH40K and WFB.
Not gonna call it quit yet, but this is how it is.

Now, at this current moment, I'm just a mere modeller/painter who games a bit here and there.
Updates will probably be a bit scarce, probably once a month or so.
We'll see whatever happens next.

P/S: Hopefully this is not a one-time attempt to come back.

2012 Recap and What Lies Ahead in 2013

I must say, 2012 was a great year. At least, it was for me. Won my first official tournament, more than doubled the count for my Golden Kris awards, successfully attempted the Iron Halo challenge, and of course, finally have the courage (and motivation) to paint my Wood Elves.

 

Starting of with painting, I discovered that I managed to paint almost 200 models throughout the year. Honestly, this was beyond my expectation. Credits to my fellow hobbyists, especially the Legionnaires of Legio Malaysia, as I couldn't managed this without their continuous support. Listed below are the models that I've painted (and based) in 2012.

 

Flames of War
50 Vehicles
12 Infantry (small base)
31 Infantry (medium base)
6 Artillery
1 Airplane

Warhammer Fantasy
27x 20mm base
1x 25mm base

Warhammer 40K
44x 28mm base
9x 40mm base
1x Oval base
3x Vehicle (tank/walker/flyer)
1x Objective Marker
1x Display Base

 

My achievements in 2012 were something that I'm really proud of. Not that I won the overall Golden Kris award nor being The Chosen, but some of them were actually my firsts since I started this hobby ~10 years ago.

 

Champion - Gameforge's Island of Fire Border Patrol (2012, Wood Elves)
2nd Place - Gameforge's Island of Fire Best Painted Patrol (2012, Wood Elves)
3rd Place - Golden Kris Single Model Category (2012, The Death Guard)
3rd Place - Golden Kris Flames of War Category (2012, Tiger Platoon)
Legio Malaysia's Iron Painter and Iron Halo (2012, Nurgle Force)

 

I usually paint more than I play. In 2012, it turned out that I was more active than the norm since I took part in these fantastic campaigns:

• A Bridge Too Far (2012, FoW)
• Firestorm: Bagration (2012, FoW)
• Tank Aces (2012, FoW)
• Operation Case Yellow (2012, FoW)

 

2013 is looking to be another awesome year. Checkout this latest post by Legio Malaysia; the list of events for the first half of the year were already laid out in detail. This means that you can start planning your schedule if you're considering of participating in these events. And seriously, doesn't the picture below  blow your mind?

 

 

See you next time!

Respite for a Moment

Honestly, I missed hobby-blogging but there was just nothing to write about. Except for the Iron Halo award during the recent Iron Painter 2012 event, hobby-wise, I was pretty much...unproductive. Although, I'm still thankful of having Friday nights off in the last 2-3 months.
 

I'll be having an unexpected low key workload in the next 5-6 days (not going to elaborate much on how nor why that happened). In short, I'll be furiously painting to catch up for lost time so, expect blog updates within this short time period.

The elves are coming.

Stuka Update and The Casual Gamer

As promised, here's the final picture of my Stuka before flying off to bomb France tomorrow. The paintjob is far from the best, but I think it's decent enough. The bright greens were toned down, and the panels are now more visualised.

I am really looking forward for a picture of the whole German force. Hope everyone can make it tomorrow.

The Casual Gamer

Recently, there was a...discussion...regarding what constitutes a casual gamer. These are only a few from the long list of definitions that were brought up:

• One who builds and plays his army by the fluff.
• One who builds and plays with unconventional army entries.
• One who plays in large scale games.
• One who plays with house/home-brewed/unofficial rules with opponent's consent.
• One who does not complain about the official rules.
• One who thinks outside the box to exploit the rules in the codex/armybook in a certain manner that encourages the community to be similarly creative.
• One who is not a rules lawyer.
• One who doesn't play in tournaments nor being a tournament-centric person.
• One who simply wants to have a game.

Whatever the definition might be, I am not going to argue as I perceive all of the above to be correct, even though some may seem a bit off. As long as one is consistent and not contradictory with the definition that he preaches, it is fine by me. On a personal note, my definition of a casual gamer is: One who approaches the game in a casual manner. For all I care, you can bring the most broken army list or even TA-ed me in the game, but if your attitude is right, there shall never be any problems.

That's all I have to say. Sorry if it turned out to be a mini-rant, it's just something that I need to let out off my chest. But, do spare a little time to think about what I've just said.

An Asrai's Journey

If it wasn't because of next month's planned trip up north, I would still be painting my Minotaurs. Which means, the Asrai Kindred would have been still kept nicely in their storage boxes. I'm really grateful that Khairul asked me to join along for the trip actually, as it reminded me of something important.

The Wood Elves, my first ever army in miniature wargaming, is among my most treasured army in my collection. Yet, I've never given them the proper justice of actually completing their paintjobs. Worse, there's about 300+ points yet to be assembled. While carefully opening the box where I kept them, suddenly it dawned on me, this is my 10th anniversary in this hobby. Yes, I started this hobby back in 2002 during my college years.

The great thing of painting your own models, you'll remember all the things happening around the time period you've painted them, especially when you paint them individually instead of batch painting (which I frequently do lately). The above picture shows my progress as a hobbyist from 2002 up till 2011. Looking back at my old models, there's an urge to repaint them but the sentimental feelings that rose whenever I looked at them kept annulling that urge. Come to think of it, it probably was a good call. Looking back at each and every Asrai I've painted, they served as reminders for everything I've experienced in the last 10 years in this hobby; the learning curve of grasping the concept of painting, all the fun and laughters, the great people I've met and lost, the acquaintances I made, the wacky ideas I had and tried to materialize. It was all very precious.

Thus, I have firmly decided to bring them along in the trip next month to add to the pool of memories. Until then, I shall do whatever I can to paint them individually as much as possible. They've been neglected way too long. For the time being, the list below shall be my preliminary 500pts list. It may change though, depends on what I manage to paint in this 1 month.

Hero, Enchanted Shield, Hail of Doom Arrows

20 Glade Guard, Musician

12 Dryad

Reemergence from the Warp

"The Warp may have consumed our body, but not our will, nor our soul.
Finally, we have escaped from its eternal shackles.
Beware, for we have returned.
Shed the true light of the Emperor shall we continue of, For The Emperor!"

Picture courtesy of Dave Greco

It has been a very hectic three months, I was travelling all over the country. It turns out going the research path wasn't much easier, but as long as I enjoy it, not gonna complain about it.

2010 is nearing its completion so, let's reveal my 2010 resolution and assess it together.

(1) Obtaining a Legio Malaysia Purity Seal
Mission accomplished. I was voted as the best Iron Painter army in the inaugural Legio Malaysia Iron Painter held back in February.

(2) Assemble and Paint the Wood Elves Army
Mission failed. I managed to completely assemble all 2500pts I have, but only ~1000pts are painted. I have to mention that almost all of them were painted during the Iron Painter tournament. Must do better in 2011.

(3) Start a new WH40K Army
Mission accomplished, although by accident. To be honest, this wasn't exactly the army I planned to start, it was something else. To tell you the story, I was converting my second Daemon Prince and some lesser daemons for existing my CSM army. Coincidentally, Paxter organized an online painting competition and I fell into the trap. Suffice to say, now I own a 1250pts Chaos Daemon army. Hmm...I need to assemble and paint that last Daemon Prince to make it 1500pts.

(4) Repaint all Alpha Legion vehicles, including walkers and superheavies
Mission failed. To make it short, I fell into the trap of acquiring more models than I can handle instead of painting what I have at the moment.

(5) Start any work on the Secret Force
Mission accomplished. After 2 years, they are finally out from the box in the corner of my room and clipped from the sprue.As of now, 1000pts has already been assembled and primed, while some has already met the Legio Malaysia standards. My original plan of unveiling was by February 2011, but I'll have to postpone this project to make way for the K2 mega-project. It's going to be LEGEND...wait for it...DARY! (Hahaha, I always failed to resist quoting Mr. Barney Stinson)

That was my 2010 resolution. 3 vs 2, not exactly something I would be proud of.
I've mentioned 'traps' a number of times, would you like to know what they are?

• A new 3000pts WHFB Warriors of Chaos army.
• Added some infiltrator marines (counts as normal CSM) for my Alpha Legion army.
• An Eldar Corsair fleet for BFG.
• The Fulgrim conversion project.
• Some random good looking 40K miniatures that turned out to be the foundation for my upcoming K2 army.

And I did them all during the first three quarters of 2010. After that, I barely have enough time to hobby due to work commitments. 2011 promises to be a great year and I expect better results from myself, that includes better time and resource management. I've already made plans for 2011; among them are my K2 army and the Inquisitorial Alpha Legion army (Codex: Grey Knights). And this time, I'll try harder to complete all my resolutions.

HYDRA DOMINATUS!

2009: Year in Review

18th of January 2009 marks the beginning of Stealthy Blades. It may not be much of a blog, but to me it signifies my intent and seriousness of my hobby. Although initially intended as a gallery for my Raven Guard army, it soon evolved as my own personal hobby blog as the word 'Stealth' can be applied to all three armies I own at the moment; Raven Guard, Alpha Legion, and Wood Elves.

Somewhere around March or April, I joined a fantastic hobby club called Legio Malaysia. Damn, it was one hell of wacky & fun people to be with. In this club too, I get to be reacquainted with some familiar faces of the past (Faizal, Arzmi, Jit/Rizal and 'small' Shazli to be exact). We spent almost every Friday nights together, talking and doing hobby, rolling dices, painting stuffs, making tables, and organizing events to make the Malaysian gaming community better. We even went to Singapore together, just to play some more games. I am so happy that I found a place that I felt at home with, thanks guys!

Come July, I was already halfway through my second 40K army: the Alpha Legion. Up to this moment, that army is still in the 'Painting in Progress' mode, but trust me when I say it already wrecked havoc in my gaming club. Especially during the great Arenxis Minoris campaign that was organized by Azlan. I also noticed something while working on this Chaos army; other than the freedom of conversion that it provided, my painting skills actually improved. This realization came to me when I decided to play a game with my Raven Guard again. I definitely have to thank Jeff and Khairul for this, because now I feel more confident to actually finish painting my abandoned Wood Elves.

And now, I'm already looking and searching for my own airbrush set. Being in a proper hobby club really encouraged me to be better. I'm really confident that my conversion skill has gone way beyond my own expectations, just need to brush up on the painting skills. The best part is, I'm doing it by my own free will because I want to be just as good as the other hobbyists around me. Some fellow hobbyist even went a bit extreme by developing their own secret army projects, hahaha. I'm foreseeing that 2010 will be the year of secrets unveiling. I wish I was this eager with other aspects of my life.

My real life, almost all aspects of it, can be summed up in one word: Sucks! Hoping it would turned for the best by next year though.
And some may notice that I don't drive, at all. One small reason was because my license has expired way back during my studying period overseas, while another big reason was...hmm, don't really wanna talk about this much. Let's just say even when you're working in the health-care field, actually being diagnosed of something doesn't really sound nice to your ears. I'm thinking of going against the doctor's orders in 2010; can't just rely on others' kindness, sometimes we just have to take the risk.

I am very tempted to start a new army in 2010. BUT, I'm not going to buy anything until I completed painting all the models that I'm going to frequently use in my current armies. This applies to all my Dryads, Glade Guards, Treemen, Wardancers, Alter Kindreds, Raven Guard & Alpha Legion Tanks & Walkers, Daemon Princes, Obliterators, Raven Guard marines & scouts, and Alpha Legionnaires. Looking at all those stuff, maybe I won't be able to start a new army at all but who knows? It's a son of Corax, an Alpha Legionnaire, and an Asrai who's doing the talking here; nothing is what it may seemed to be ;)

Fare thee well 2009. Welcome 2010.

Passing through.

No progress this week. Yup, a huge solid massive zero. My initial plan was to continue with the Arenxis Minoris campaign summary, with the target of at least 50%, turns out it remained static at 10%. Zero progress on the painting and modelling aspect; (1) my current RG Dreadnoughts project remained as what they are now, (2) "Venom", the Alpha Legion defiler that I'm so proud of, still have solid Regal Blue limbs, (3) the rest of my Glade Guards aren't even primed yet, and (4) my Alpha Legion Armoured Regiment remained at their '3-colour with painting effort' status'.

Real life reared its ugly head again. Have been really busy this week, and right now I should be spending this little time I have to sleep instead of blogging. But, I think I'm almost addicted to blog; feels weird not to write anything in a week. Looking at the hobbies I have (miniatures, gaming, photography), perhaps this is some sort of creative urge? Hahaha :D

Speaking of which, I plan to post a blog regarding the '3-colour requirement with painting effort' that my gaming club has been talking about, by this weekend. Hopefully it would give my fellow hobbyist a better visual aid on what that phrase actually means. I will get this plan materialized, and I promise you there will be pictures, so tune in to this humble blog of mine by Sunday.

That's all for now. After all, I'm just passing through.


----------


Do you guys ever look back at your life, wondering how your life would have been if you took the other option during that fate-determining decision? I do. The turning point of my life was way back in early Form 5, on one seemingly small-looking decision at that time. It was the decision whether to take the Arts subject for SPM, or not. I chose the latter, and this is how my life has become. It has all been from that simple choice.

At some points, there has been some regrets and perhaps, some of those regret may still remain. But I chose to just look at things positively, and enjoy the things that I have right now. Maybe if I took the other option, I may never even have the time for my hobby and met the great guys I've met with along the way.

Although in the end it goes down to two words: "What if?," it's now actually up to us to make our life better. No one would do it for you.

Just my two cents.