It's only my blog's 10th Anniversary!

Wow... Well... That kind of snuck up on me.

I realised only recently that my blog's 10th anniversary was coming up and had no idea if I was even going to bother posting anything about it, or just let it pass in silence.

But I think that would be a bit of a shame and missed opportunity too.

I sit writing this in literally the last hour before midnight before the anniversary ends, still with no clue what to write about; so I'm just going to stream of thought this bad boy and see where we go.

Where it started:

My first post all the way back on April 17th 2012. 

Shortly before beginning this blog I was seriously considering whether I wanted to carry on with miniatures and tabletop gaming.
I was playing a lot more RPGs at the time and I hadn't touched my miniatures in quite some time and thought maybe it was time to just get rid of everything.

But I started to come across all the amazing and inspiring blogs and forum posts out there that just grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. Oldhammer, Middlehammer and all the awesome Inquisitor 28mm (INQ28) blanchitsu/grimdark content inspired me to take up my hobby tools and get creating again.

And I'm glad it did, I've made many friends in various communities and groups out there and taken part in group challenges and created some really fun miniature miniature projects I probably never would have were it not for starting this blog and following where it lead.

What about now?

I'll admit the last couple of years have been a little difficult. The blog went quiet as hobby posting moved more and more to Facebook groups and Instagram.

But I still like to use the blog when I wanted to write long form posts about my projects where space wasn't as limited or where I wanted some semblance of permanence. 

And of course I have been dealing with the ever present conflict that is my mental health, and more recently and present physical health problems.

And oddly I found myself right back where I started when I began this blog 10 years ago.
I haven't really done any hobby or worked on any projects for quite some time.

And I started to wonder, is this it? Is it time to quit now? Maybe I should just get rid of everything, I've had a good run... I did lose quite a bit of content, stuff was deleted, images were lost, many posts were half-written and forgotten. It was all a little disheartening...

But a lot of that I believe is just the depression talking since I hit a very low point with all the health problems and wasn't really in a frame of mind to think objectively.

So I've sat back, thought long, but not hard; just letting my thoughts wander hither and tither.

I think I want to go back to my roots, I think I want to come back to the blog and back to old/middle-hammer projects that I kept daydreaming about but just pushing to the side.
I mean, I never stopped collecting and collating miniatures for potential projects... They just kind of grew, in the background and were hidden away for that lauded "one day...".

So it's time to dig out all these boxes of treasures and take stock and see where I want to go from here.
So come have a gander and maybe even prod or goad me into something:

That's a Rhino down there on the right...
So you can see I've got some hefty boxes of metal here

A project I keep wanting to return to is one of my first loves, Orks for 40k 2nd ed.

Joint first love are of course my Dark Angels for 2nd ed 40k

I've been putting together a sizable Deathwing force,
somewhere I have a whole bunch of Ravenwing too

One project has taken literal years to procure.
Project: Karak Kadrin, Dwarf Slayer army inspired by the
Warhammer Storm of Chaos supplement book.

The partner project to the Dwarf Slayer army is Grimgor Ironhide
and his Black Orc army from the same campaign.

Sisters of Battle and various other Imperial forces

Chaos Space Marines

An Eldar army for 2nd ed that I inherited from a friend
about 20 years ago... Shit.. that blew my mind writing that.

Various other old projects and cool miniatures...
Nick Bibby Great Spined Dragon
Albion Giants
Green Knight

I started collecting a Skaven army at some point,
it wasn't focussed, just little bits here and there.

And there's still about 6 of these coffee jars to go through and organise.

I'm not posting this to show off some grand collection of miniatures, far from it.

It should have been plainly obvious, but my neuro-divergent ass completely forgot what it was I loved about this hobby.

Even as I bargain hunted and collected random lots of metal figures over the last decade at the same time as working on other projects.

In these pictures are a mountain of potential. Armies I could have only dreamed of having when I was a kid getting into this hobby.
And now I think I have a bit of a focus. I don't want to quit this hobby, who the hell am I kidding? :D

I want to start bringing these projects to life at last. Yes I still have some modern miniature projects (Necromunda... it's all Necromunda, I'm not kidding I went nuts for it... I'll write about it sometime...)

But I want to make time to start working on these a little at a time and finally build the dream armies of my childhood.

I'm taking it easy, seeing where my whims take me on this ride. It's all for fun and enjoyment, I don't want to make a chore out of any of it.
But I believe I'm back, or at least I've started the journey back.

And so again, I feel almost exactly as I did when I started this blog. Almost on the verge of quitting, but then actually finding a renewed love of this hobby again.

I've got a few things to sort out and thoughts to fix in place. I'm still wondering how I'm going to document things, whether I want to leave Instagram to finished work and start posting my work in progress logs here again...

Who knows, it's all a bit up in the air right now, but I refuse to stress about it.

Happy 10th Anniversary Meandering Shade blog!

And thank you to all my followers and friends that have been along with me so far on this very bumpy and meandering journey.

Well I just looked at the clock and it's about 45mins after... Bugger it, close enough :D

I don't know when I'm going to start working on any of this proper, I do have a couple of things to complete for others before I can permit myself to indulge.

But feel free to comment below and discuss, is there anything you might be interested in me starting off with out of that mountain?
Any project there that might be fun to see?
Do you think I should switch back to posting more here or stick to regular Instagram posts?

Maybe I should try to get back involved with the hobby communities once again and stop being such a social recluse.

I'm interested in hearing any of your thoughts.

As always, take care ;)