I'm going to try to keep doing a status update post each X months, as might be of interest to read some personal opinions of some videogames I play (my main hobby nowadays).
I've done small bits of painting some necrons, but nothing relevant to show.
I've mainly spent time deciding which miniatures to get rid of and which ones to keep permanently, and then selling them. I still keep quite a few ones and have enough to paint for years, but at least I did this pending task and now can focus on painting.
Very recently I finally finished the original Uncharted Trilogy, so combining that with my recent read of The Art of Last of Us, grabbing The Art of the Uncharted Trilogy was a clear choice. And one I do not regret.
The review is pretty much like the aforementioned Last of Us title, but 3x. Tons of beautiful sketches, illustrations and drawings both seen in the game and never seen before (because they were conceptual, discarded, or simply evolved into other final versions). Lots of early designs of the main character Drake, but also of his close friends and many secondary characters from all three titles, and we're not talking just about bosses but NPCs, enemies, even the flora and types of trees.
Illumination tests, evolution of certain set pieces, tricks and non-realistic concessions they had to do to make the games either more visually appealing or gameplay-wise more enjoyable, and I was surprised to also see quite a few discarded scenarios (material that sometimes you don't even get to know about).
Covering three games in around 200 pages means it always feels brief, but I've you've played the games you will love the insane amount of detail, from how they decided which clothes enemies should wear at certain places to how Drake's diary pages should be built to feel natural and realistic.
I skipped a few Horus Heresy books because I wanted to read about the Thunder Warriors and The Outcast Dead was the recommended source. The main story relates to a powerful astropath who, after surviving a warp accident on a spaceship, got almost mad and apparently incapable of performing his duties, and who by chance will party with some renegade Space Marines who were imprisoned on Terra, so not much about Thunder Warriors there... it is true that part of the later plot does involve them (I don't want to spoil anything), but I was hoping to know more details.
Still the main story is quite interesting, at first unfolds slowly but then takes pace and I read the last third of the book way faster, devouring the words and trying to learn what happened next. Another good Horus Heresy novella, and one that goes quite deep into astropaths, cryptopaths, navigators and related psykers.
Usually any art book contains concept art and character & enemy designs, but probably due to Naughty Dog's nature (the company responsible for the videogame), in The Art of Last Of Us there is an incredible amount of beautiful scenery, iterations of not only the main characters but also non-player characters and monsters, examples of different lighting tests on scenes...
I loved the videogame, and the book doesn't disappoints, showing sketches, different steps and iterations (including discarded ones), colouring... Special mention to the faces: You clearly feel how much effort was put on trying to find "the perfect match" for each character face, different expression tests, or details like hair color. And the same applies to enemies: Lots of iterations on the type, clothing and weaponry.
A nice collector's item indeed.
After moving some old miniatures, I've decided to move most of my remaining painted miniatures to my family's country-house. I mostly only keep painted from now on my Deathwing Terminators (+2 full squads) and some Genestealers including the big patriarch on the throne. I'll decide what to do when I finish painting other minis when I'm able to finish painting anything.
So, I've moved some really old miniatures, like the Rogue Trader Dark Angel Space Marines:
And an old Land Raider:
But also some newer miniatures, like this plastic Dreadnought:
Or the Ork Stompa I had already photos of:
And non-Warhammer miniatures, like this (already pre-painted) Metal Gear Gray Fox ninja:
This small Aliens APC (also pre-painted):
Or this old Aliens Queen:
As usual, you can see a few more photos and all the archives at the Warhammer 40k gallery and the Assorted gallery.