Today was a much better day. While it was slow for content production, I was able to speak with some key people. Sadly it seams the BattleFront Flames of War stuff I've expected for review all week is delayed a few days by a little typo error in their shipping system. On a more positive note, it gave me more time to speak with the BattleFront guys from New Zealand on the topic of Flames of War earlier. I played it briefly about 7 years back, and it was fun then, so I've been really looking forward to offering some Flames of War coverage, and revisiting it again now 7 years later. I have some really neat stuff planned too, it will be by far probably the most in-depth feature yet. It's definitely one to look forward to.
Next I managed to find the people responsible for Da Vinci paintbrushes here in the US, and spoke with some other brush companies earlier in the week. So in the coming weeks I will be doing some in-depth coverage of various brushes for painting miniatures. I also had the chance to speak with Reaper Minis today, and I have an In Focus article planned on Reaper Minis as well in the coming weeks, which should be a lot of fun.
In the MIA dept there are a few of the companies that weeks ago I said I'd be covering too. There's been a delay with a lot of the stuff from overseas still. Even though the shipping via airmail has resumed, lots of things are in limbo, or backed up still. The Army Painter guys are nearly ready to open their US online store, and will be able to get me a variety of things to cover soon too, but are having some inventory issues atm. So that feature is on the back burner for a week or so more at least.
I also got word from the SodaPop Miniatures guys, and they're waiting to get the very latest new figures from the foundry to send off, so that's still on. Micro-Art and Avatars of War stuff should be here any day now too. I was told about a week ago that those items shipped, once the airmail resumed out of Europe.
Pulp City is definitely on the radar still, and I could of probably had that stuff already in-hand, but they have some new minis coming out, and by waiting for them, I think will make for a more in-depth and up to date feature. I have big things planned for Pulp City coverage, it's one of the games I've looked the most forward to covering, right up there with Flames of War.
Another title I've been wanting to cover and try out is Infinity, and I was told the other day that they've sent that stuff off too, so watch for an in-depth look at Infinity 2nd Ed, plus the new expansion, along with some of the miniatures.
New to the list is Quantum Gothic, who make some seriously amazing looking sci-fi terrain pieces, who said I have some stuff coming our way any day now. I also have terrain from Ziterdes incoming via their US distributor ACD Distribution, LCC. This is some crazy cool looking stuff from overseas.
Faction Wars is a new game released this week, which looks really interesting, and the designer of it is sending that off. I also spoke with AdAstra Games earlier, who make a game called Squadron Strike, which is a space miniatures game, and they have some miniatures that look absolutely amazing. These are on par with, quite possibly even better than any of the other space-ship miniatures out there! I can't wait to see these up close. They're busy atm with a convention this week, but in about a week I'm told that I may have what's needed to properly sit down and review it in-depth.
I spoke briefly with Spartan Games today, so cross your fingers for some FireStorm Armada coverage in the near future, but I'm not certain where that stands yet. I also plan to do some PC game coverage of wargames/combat sims too. Actually I cut my teeth writing about PC games and combat simulations almost two decades ago now. So if all goes as planned, I may start kicking up some in-depth military sim/game coverage to boot. After all, those are WarGames as well, and I am the WarGameGuru!
All in all, I've been very busy today in the background securing product to review for the coming weeks, and forging alliances with companies to keep the content flowing. There's also quite a few other products on the radar, but it's too early to tell where that stands. It's all up to people responding and getting back with me, and it's the beginning of the convention season, which slows things down a little too.
As you can see, there's A LOT of work that goes into taking a site like this seriously, and doing the ground work that has to be done to put it all together. This is why I got so upset yesterday. Some of these people I have to deal with, have no idea, and choose to not learn about, what I actually do, and how it can totally benefit them. Very few people are as passionate about what they write about like I am, and many wish they could pump out as much stuff as I do, once I start rolling.