Celebrating (Over) Fifty Followers

Wohoo! Spiky has now over 50 followers and the number is rising all the time, sweet! Another milestone is now behind and we're already aiming to the "big" number...

When - obviously ;) - Spiky gets over 100 followers, we have thought about putting up a raffle and draw some sort of a "price" for one lucky registered follower. We already have couple of nasty ideas what the price could be, so please, keep on following us and tell your friends about us too. More the merrier!

+++

One more thing. Stylish Blogger Awards Nomination thingy has been wandering around the miniature blogger scene for some time and now the monster has also bitten Spiky to the ankle. Feralique has given us this respectful nomination for these little rodents and we'd like to thank him for doing so.

This is how it works...

• 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

Now I know what most of you might be thinking about these kind of "chain letters". We, however, think that this is a good way to lift up some of the blogs that you happen to like and give those hard working bloggers some big hand for their efforts. And yes, it's nice to hear what other bloggers think about your blog too ;)

Well, as Spiky has two composervitors, I and okkiW, I'll be sharing to you only things regarding my hobby. So here's couple of things about me:

• I first started my miniature hobby back in the early 90's. I was pretty young back then. Due the fact that there weren't that many hobbyists in our little town in the middle of no-where, my hobby soon faded away...
• ...Until I found it again back in 2005. Now the miniature hobby is flourishing better than ever! I still need to get my first 40k army ready so that I can start the bloody gaming too!
• My first Warhammer Fantasy army - that I tried to collect - was Dwarfs. The funny thing is, back in the mid 90's, when I decided to leave this hobby, I sold my Dwarf remnants to Mikko, who I really didn't know back then. He might still have couple of those uglies that I painted back then somewhere in his darkest closets...
• I've teached miniature painting and kept couple of lectures in three previous RopeCon (Europe's largest independent roleplaying event) events. If you ever happen to be around Helsinki, Finland, during this event, I highly recommend you to join the party!
• I like to read Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels. One of my favourite authors is Alastair Reynolds. His Revelation Space universe is kick ass to read! I also consume comics, especially 2000 AD's! A.B.C. Warriors and Nemesis might be my favourites, to name but the few.
• Games Workshop's Talisman (2nd edition) is one of my favourite boardgames.
• What else, hmm... Oh right! I've a son of two summers old (who is SO going to learn how to paint in the future!) and I'm getting married July 30th.

Now about the blogs. I've planned to share the blogs that I frequently read for a while now, but never found a good spot to do so. So basically this nomination is like hitting two birds with one stone then, eh? Here's my favourite miniature blogs, not 10-15, but 8 this time...

• Spyglass Asylum - Steve Buddle is a veteran sculptor. His insights from the hobby and pondering aspects from sculpting are very instructive and something to learn from. By the way, you can find Steve's online store - Spyglass Miniatures - from here. Kick yourself there and grab a miniature or two from this talented sculptor!
• Massive Voodoo - These guys are already legends amongst the current miniature scene. They are the "pop" for us, so to speak. I've been a fan of Roman a.k.a Jarhead's artwork for a good while now. He always surprises me with his approaches and never leaves any doubt that he could be one of this decade's pioneer in the miniature scene.
• Kings Minis - This blog is kept by an Australian multi-talent miniature hobbyist, Dave King, who also has his own line of miniatures in small production, Bederken Miniatures. You got to love those Marauder-ish Chaos Dwarfs! Dave also seems to be a huge fan of Citadel's old school miniatures, which I happen to be also.
• Ninja Bread - Very interesting oddball amongst miniature hobby blogs, with a hilarious and catchy, every now and then published comic about, well, the hobby.
• Eye of Error - Another worshipper of ruinous powers! LuckyNo.5 has some nice projects under his belt, like those Dark Eldars and Chaos Battle Fleet Gothic fleet. His 40k scenery is also eye-droppingly beautiful.
• Static Painting - Nomic must be one of the most talented Finnish painters that I've stumbled around the Internet. He has this very unique style to play with light and shadow in his miniatures, which makes them look like marvelous comicbook characters. Bad news is that Nomic has decided to withdraw from the hobby and hasn't left any notice when he's coming back. I sure hope he does, 'couse it'd be a true shame to loose such a talent!
• Realm of Lead Addiction - Sometimes it's fairly easy to please me. Just throw in a bunch of vintage miniatures with a great paint coat on them and I'm sold. Realm of Lead Addiction is full of them and much more. They even have charity auctions where they sell fine miniatures for good cause.
• Paint Splats - It's always great to see legendary rockbands to do their comebacks. Same goes with painters from the golden ages of Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures, the 80's. Steve is definitely one superb old school painter from those old times, from times when I was just a little wet eared kid. To me, it's always a priviledge to hear what these "old-timers" have to say from your works and I give them a great deal of value.

So there's my list. I kept it short this time, lazy as I am. This damn weather is killing my thoughts.

+++

It's 22.45 and the evening weather is hot and sweaty with +25°C. I think I'll go and get myself a cold beer from the refrigirator and sit outside and browse through couple old White Dwarfs...