Well now, this is rather flattering!

Well, this was a bit out of the blue, and rather flattering! It certainly put a big grin on my face! I'm speaking of the "Stylish Blogger Award" from Mik, of Mik's Minis. I received an email from Mik on wednesday letting me know that this blog was one of the 15 he has chosen to present the award to. As a big fan of his blog and with it being one of the main influences of me starting Chris' Miniature Woes, this came as a welcome surprise!


So, what is the "Stylish Blogger Award" all about? As Mik says, it's basically a virtual pat on the back, given to a blogger as a sort of "Good job, mate! Keep up the great work!" - for this, you must do four things:

Thank and link back to the person giving you the award

Share seven things about yourself

Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award

Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

So, thank you very much to Mik - his blog would certainly be one of the blogs I'd choose to give this award to - Mik's Minis was one of the first blogs I stumbled across when starting on Blogspot and it's remained a favourite - covering a number of different wargaming and roleplaying genres, Mik always has something new on the go - I can well empathise with this hobby ADD!  Add to this a sprinkling of film, games and book reviews, general whimsy, life stuff - a fantastic multi-layed, multi-genre, delightful blog! Cheers again Mik!


Seven Things About Me

1. I love Peep Show. It's a superb British comedy, with some unbearably cringe-worthy scenes. I often get internal monologues like the main characters. As a wargamer you have to absolutely love lines like "I'm cancelling you out of shame, like my subscription to White Dwarf!" - check it out!
2. I've had 6 operations on my knees. They're scarred to bits, but I do rather like my war wounds/Frankenknees...
3. I miss my greenhouse and garden very much in the lovely weather that we've been having recently.
4. I love cooking - especially cooking for my mates. I also like combining stuff that needs using out of the fridge and making great one-off meals that are impossible to recreate...
5. I studied Film Studies at university. Sadly, due to my knee problems, I never finished my degree. I should really get that finished...
6. I very much enjoy the outdoors, it's a shame I live in a large town - I love getting mucky, walking through rivers and climbing up rocks and the like. 
7. I love decent cover songs. Even quite cheesy ones. I think I like it when something is taken and turned into something new. Probably the same reason I love awesome conversions!

Onto the blogs - what I will say, is that I'm not much of a commenter. It's definitely something I need to sort out and I do go through phases of posting quite a bit. To be honest, I've always been a bit of a lurker when it comes to forums and blogs - I realise that I should probably get a bit more involved! These are some of the blogs that I love and their creators are doing a great job:

• Dropship Horizon - a lovely blog to read, Mark is one of the hardest working bloggers out there, usually posting multiple updates per day. This isn't his only blog either - this one is focused on near-future to sci-fi combat at 15mm, showcasing the fantastic selection of miniatures available at that scale. Mark is always updating with interesting concepts and ideas for games. Well worth a read.
• Vampifan's World of the Undead - this blog is focused on zombies and vampires, with battle reports, reviews (miniatures, films, books) and examples of Vampifans excellent work. Vampifan seems to own just about every vampire and zombie miniature out there...
• Warrant of Trade - as the name of the blog suggests, WoT revolves around the Rogue Trader RPG by Fantasy Flight Games. Witchfinder General gives us a blog that not only charts the course of the game he is currently GM-ing, but also gives great insight into the ways to run an immersive campaign that your players are truly a part of. This blog made me buy the Rogue Trader main rulebook - time to find a decent gaming group...
• Tales from the Maelstrom and earlier, Jeriko's Reach - one of my favourite blogs, TftM showcases the kind of games I'd love to take part in - interesting, story-driven games in a backwater setting, somewhat away from the long reach of the Inquisition. Great miniatures, lovely terrain, interesting characters. I'd love a gaming group like this!
• Feralique - my mate Daniel's blog - like myself, Daniel has modelling attention deficit disorder, always having something new on the go project-wise. Painting and concept-wise, the miniatures shown on Feralique are superb, with a style all of their own. Check out his recent Plague Marine conversions - brilliant!
• Nathan "Ironworker" Miller's Miniature Games - another gamer whose setting, miniatures and terrain I'd love to emulate. Nathan uses that friend-of-the-gamer, junk, to build terrain that looks lived in and usable! Check out the blog for great battle reports.
• Port Maw - a recently-started blog, I was subscribed to Torben's painting log over on the Eastern Fringe forum - I recently received an email from the forum to say that there had been additional posts there. Torben is carving out his own little niche in the 40k universe with the kind of gaming I love - narrative driven, conversions galore. The blog has only been running a couple of weeks, but given the painting log and the posts that are already up, it's shaping up to be a great one.
• INQ28 - a fantastic blog, run by Commissar Molotov (of various forums) and focused on his gaming groups 28mm Inquisitor gaming (as opposed to the 54mm scale that GW used with this particular game). This is how I used to play Inquisitor back in the day and I've had several aborted efforts to get my mates involved in this type of gaming again. I'll succeed one day, but for now I'll have to live vicariously and keep reading Mol's INQ28 blog! Fantastic conversions and background with battle reports every now and then - go check it out!
• Four Colour Super Minis - this blog was originally set up for the superhero genre, but gets sidetracked now and then, with A Very British Civil War, various historicals, cowboys...all sorts basically! Lovely painting, lovely bits of background - this is a blog that I'm always excited about updates from!
• Four-Color Figures - another blog that seems to have started off aimed at the supers genre (with Scott, the creator, being responsible for creating SuperSystem) and branched out into all kinds of other genres, with Warmachine/Hordes, 40k, Heavy Gear, Songs of Blades and Heroes - all sorts really. This blog has led to me purchasing more than a few random miniatures.

Well, that's about it - I've spent a good part of my day writing this (inbetween distractions) and would advise that you go read these blogs! 

A final thank you to Mik, and a thanks to Mol of the INQ28 blog mentioned above, who recently linked to my blog from his own. Cheers guys!