30kplus40k - Year 1 - In review

Afternoon everyone,

With the recent Birthday of my blog I wanted to have a little review of the whole year and also discuss a little bit of "re-branding with you guys". 

Armies - The New

So the past year has seen something of a tumultuous change in both my armies and my approach to the collecting/playing hobby as a whole! There have been many fine new additions to the roster of armies which includes:

- The majority of my Death Company Army

- The Mechanicum (30k)

- The Fallen Dark Angels (40k)

- The Alpha Legion (30k)

Now whilst the Alpha Legion hasn't really been built yet, it is something I have invested heavily in, with everything required for it having been bought and semi-prepped for building. This army should see light of day in the next few months certainly. 

The Death Company are almost complete, with the last 6 marines sat on my desk with basecoating beginning on them! Hallelujah!! This will be quite the event for me as it has felt a looooong time in the coming and I think will be my first truly complete army! Even though the mechanicum sort of pipped them...

Speaking of the mechanicum, though they were complete as an army for the tournament I have always had designs to expand them, whereas once the last 6 Death Company are complete there will be no more!! I had a parcel arrive from Forge World yesterday which contained the recent reinforcements for my mechanicum and I look forward to doing a good old unboxing for those soon!

The Dark Angels were very much a spur of the moment purchase due to an excellent deal on eBay. I really enjoyed motoring through them but they have fallen by the wayside a little. With the advent of the Death company completion nearing I am hoping they will wheedle their way into my work schedule with the odd model here and there whilst I steam ahead with 30k armies.

Armies - The Fallen

Sadly it has not all been the new and the shiny this year and I have said goodbye to a few older armies as well as half finished or not even started projects. 

- The Night Lords

- The Black Templars

- The Militarum Tempestus

- The Dark Angels (30k)???

The Night Lords and the Black Templars were wonderful armies from a time when I bought what was cheap and what was pretty. This meant huge amounts of work cleaning up miniatures and huge amounts of work to make them fun to play on the tabletop. Sadly both have since been sold to fund the hobby and tax bills respectively! 

The militarum tempestus was another army that was really well converted by myself, but had such a tricky scheme and high model count that I simply couldn't keep up with in tandem to other projects. Plus I was worried that it would lose all support from GW with its codex being neither here nor there! And thus they were also sold. 

Finally I have my 30k Dark Angels project. I am ashamed to say that I received several bad reviews of my conversion of various facebook groups and forums and this has somewhat consigned them to the wayside and I am finding it very hard to get back up and going with them... Thoughts here would be most welcome my friends!

The Brand of the Blog and Viewing Figures

So has you can read about (much like everything else useful!) over at The Burning Eye, a blogs name is an important part to consider when starting it up. I never thought I would become so involved with my blog when I began it and thus paid little heed to the principles that Nick sets out. 

So my URL is 30kplus40kequalsinfinity@blogspot.com and this I can deal with (as I can't change it)!! But the blog title as it appears on my page is something of a giant mouthful that makes it hard to quickly convey. 

I have been considering altering "From the Horus Heresy to Infinity and Beyond" to simply "30kplus40k", which mirrors the fact that my foray into infinity was oh so short lived and its also a lot snappier. It also matches the first part of my URL so they tally up nicely. 

What say you lot on this idea?

In terms of viewing figures, I am very happy to report a nearly continuous month on month increase, with a slight blip in february, though that is nicely accounted for my a drop in posts and a shorter month. March 2016 pulled in close to 12'000 views and my eventual aim is to reach a steady state of 15-20'000 views a month at this time. Plenty of work to do and not something I expect to reach anytime soon, but I feel setting the bar high here can only be a good thing!

Overview

In general my hobby collection has gotten far larger rather than smaller, though with the possibility of removing 30k Dark Angels from the mix this will make my plastic count a little more manageable. The biggest changes in my hobby as actually been the article nature of my posting, with Horus Heresy Reviews being a large part of my bread and butter viewing figures. I have also really tried to step up my painting game which is starting to pay dividends both in others admiration but also my personal satisfaction with my armies. 

As I have said before, the blog itself has precipitated a lot of my hobby improvement, as feedback from the blogosphere has been tremendous in its encouragement and advice. I often find comments that the blog network is not what it used to be odd. Not that I doubt the sage words of older folks (Mr Weston :P) but that I have found it to be a thoroughly strong, deep and kind community. So I an but imagine how good it was in yesteryear!

Anyway that is all my rambling on the first year of blogging. I do hope you stick around to hear me chatter on about the second.

Peace out,

Rob