Today my friend E. A. decided to go to Hobbytown and pick up the beginning stages of his Tau army. He invited me along to act as a paint and hobby supply counselor and because it was an excuse to hang out at Hobbytown for a couple of hours. He wound up getting the Tau Empire Battleforce and a Tau Crisis Battlesuit Commander to lead his force. He also picked up some paints and in true wargamer fashion began making plans to build an Eldar army as soon as he gets a playable Tau force built. I drooled over the Baneblade kit and had a look at the Flames of War spinner rack. I also remembered to pick up some clearcoat for my finished figures, as I've got a few things that are painted but still aren't protected from dings and scrapes. I very nearly picked up some airbrush thinner and some decal setting solution, but then decided not to because I couldn't remember which decal solutions were good for which applications. I'll have to do some research. I really should learn to use my airbrush, I think it may come into the picture when I paint up some vehicles for my Space Marines.

During the trip I realized that I am not very knowledgeable about the game itself, as there were many questions about the armies and gameplay that I was unable to answer at all. My friend seems to be the sort of person who will deliberately and methodically go over the army list and pick the best options, research combos on the forums and podcasts, and spend a couple of hours at the paint rack deciding which color of red is most reminiscent of Mars. As a result he has a lot of questions. I don't really have any answers, as my approach to games and armies is more of an, "Oooh, shiny!" attitude. Luckily the guys at the store are more helpful than I am.

I made a small amount of progress on my Space Marines today, getting some of the brown armor highlighted. We haven't been able to get much going the last couple of days as The Critter has been very fussy and demanding. Perhaps tomorrow I will find time to make a post about my hobby goals for 2009. They are not quite as ambitious as last year's goals, but I think they are attainable. Anyway, making a 2009 goals post seems to be the nifty thing to do, so look forward to that in the near future.