u/AelfricHQ

On Sunday, at the Smithpoint Triathlon on Long Island, I got my first triathlon podium!

Beautiful day for a race; beautiful water for a race. The temp was in the 80s with a million% humidity. We got word the day before that we didn't have to pack our wetsuits, because the water temp was 79.8.

I was not feeling good going into the race, I did a short spin the day before and my knee was hurting. It still hurt during warm ups, so I planned to just take it easy and enjoy the day.

There was a strong current pulling left to right on the swim so I lined up as far to the left as I could to try to avoid the crowd and to make sure I didn't miss the buoy (3 people in the first wave had to be picked up by lifeguards because they missed the first turn). It didn't matter; the swim felt like a washing machine, I was running up on people's feet and having other people push into my sides the whole way, so in spite of my plan to "take it easy" I pulled hard for 563 (watch estimated) yards, good for my fastest 100 yard pace in a race (1:48) and 10:28 on the official race clock. Somehow, despite trying to let people go and slide to the outside, I finished 10th in my wave with that pace.

My heart rate was already up from the swim (I hit 173 in the water), and that adrenaline carried me onto the bike. I was averaging about 23mph with a tailwind on the way out (on my 30 year old steel frame!) and 19-ish on the way back.

The bike and the run are both out and backs over a bridge from Long Island to Fire Island. I backed it off over the bridge because I thought they told us in the pre-race briefing that it was a no passing zone but everyone else was passing and a race official was just reminding people to call out as they passed on the bridge, so I think I could have had even better results on the bike (not enough to change the race outcome, however). Knee felt good the whole way and I even managed to take in 500ml of Maurten 160. Good enough to average a watch estimated 19.4 MPH and record a 31:50 split.

On the run, I felt great, I came out hard (6:45) for the first half mile, but dropped to 7:30-7:45 through miles .5-2.5. On the return over the bridge, I opened up my stride and picked up my cadence, managing to bring my pace back up to 7:00-6:50. I had been pacing on a group of three people for most of the race, and the camera caught me in the act of passing them. As I passed, I said, "I don't know if I can hold this pace, but I'm going to try." It turned out I could, and it was a good thing I did, because one of the people in that group came in 4th in my age category, and I edged him out by six seconds. I told him afterwards that watching his back kept me moving through most of the run. My final pace was 7:25, and it was good for a 21:11 run split.

Super fun race, and really fun to see some success! I've gone from finishing in the bottom 3rd in local races four years ago to podiuming this year. My splits were:

Split	Time	Pace
Swim	10:28.47
T1	2:17.12
Bike	31:50.71	19.3 mph
T2	1:12.5
Run	21:11.8	6:50

For a total finish time of 1:07:00.63.

(Sorry for the long post, but this feels like an accomplishment for me!) It's taken me 10 years, but I finally have a 1,000 ish points of Beastmen!

The last two pieces added are the Minotaur with tentacles and spears that can serve as a small chaos spawn or a unit champion and the chariot with the one guy using a whip.

I bought that model used and the original owner must have wanted a Gorthor on foot, but they glued the chariot driver in the wrong place, so I can't add another Gor in the chariot itself. I may attach a second beastman riding the front axle like on my first chariot, but for now, I just repainted the Tuskgors and built the base. This was my first attempt at anything other than flock on a base, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Everything in this army is a first of some kind: the wizard was the first model I ever used a zenithal coat on, the tentacle guy was my first time using a hobby drill and attempting a blending technique with paint. The minotaurs were my first conversions of any kind.

Oh, yeah, that BSB? My best friend made that for his chaos army when we were 13...you should have seen how ugly my goblins were back then, while he was free handing slug spots onto perfectly sculpted additions.

Up next is filling out that unit of Gors with about ten more dudes. The models (now built and primed!) have left arms thanks to u/Captain-of-Nuln!

I have some polystyrene to build a Herdstone out of, 3 Dragon Ogres, and a dark elf chariot that I'll be looking to convert into a third beastman chariot, maybe with a Lord of some kind.

The list without magic items comes to 946 points:

===

Currently Painted Beastmen [946 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Beastmen Brayherds, Open War

===

++ Characters [266 pts] ++

Wargor [86 pts]

- Hand weapon

- Heavy armour

- Shield

- Battle Standard Bearer

- On foot

Great Bray-Shaman [180 pts]

- Braystaff

- Wizard [Level 4 Wizard]

- General

- On foot

- Daemonology

++ Core Units [336 pts] ++

12 Gor Herd [101 pts]

- Hand weapons

- Additional hand weapons

- True-horn (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Chaos Warhounds [65 pts]

- Hand weapons (Claws and fangs)

- Vanguard

Tuskgor Chariot [85 pts]

- Hand weapons

- Great weapons (Bestigor Crew)

- Cavalry spears (Gor Crew)

Tuskgor Chariot [85 pts]

- Hand weapons

- Great weapons (Bestigor Crew)

- Cavalry spears (Gor Crew)

++ Special Units [291 pts] ++

6 Minotaur Herd [291 pts]

- Hand weapon

- Light armour

- Bloodkine (champion)

- Standard bearer [The Soiled Tapestry]

++ Rare Units [53 pts] ++

1 Chaos Spawn [53 pts]

- Hand weapon (flailing appendages)

- Heavy armour (scaly skin)

- Spawn of Slaanesh

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Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com\]

A few weeks back, u/Lord-Drucifer spotted the Frozen Horror Quest Pack minis mixed in with some other random figures. I took a chance on the box, and its contents inspired my QuestJam Entry. I just uploaded it today. Figured I would share it with you all:

Frozen Horror II: Baby Horror

Like just about everything I design these days, it is for the gratuitous collector first and foremost. The best play experience requires:

(1) 1 First Light Copy,
(2) 2 Copies of the 2022 Frozen Horror Quest Pack (for overlays)
(3) 1 Copy of the 1992 Frozen Horror Quest Pack (for minis)

But it CAN be played with just First Light and the 2022 Frozen Horror Quest Pack (in a pinch, also to make it legal for the QuestJam!).

If you play it, let me know what you think!

So, that box that u/Lord-Drucifer spotted the other day turned out to be a gold mine. It contained all light blue models from the Frozen Horror and all the wolves, two archers, on swordsman the elf and the Sinestra model from the Elf Questpack.

I was missing the entire barbarian quest pack and the Sinestra model from the elf pack, so this turned out to be quite a boon for my collection!

These guys started in 2012 or 13, when I was in grad school and couldn't afford the metal models for a beefy unit of minotaurs.

I had six of the Warhammer Quest Minotaurs, which all suffered from the "static pose" syndrome of many of the early models. This was my first foray into converting and using modeling putty.

Three of them got mostly painted back in the day, and I finished those then added the other three in the last few weeks.

There is one more who lost both of his arms to make these conversions. I've given him some wicked spikes, tentacles, and a dragon's tail, and started practicing some blending techniques on him. He won't be ready for a while, but the idea is for him to be able to function as a small chaos spawn or a unit champion for these guys.

I hear that minotaurs are not in vogue these days, but I'll be fielding these guys anyway, because they're too cool to leave on the shelf!

Hi Friends,

Just finished putting a coat of varnish on these guys tonight. I originally bought them for Heroquest (there's a fan made beastman quest pack) but my son has taken an interest in Warhammer so I'm finally adding to the beaastman army that I began building in grad school (and regretting that I sold my Dwarves when I was poor...)

Anyway, hope you like them. They've surprised me and proven worth their points on the battlefield as a screen, but they're always first to die. :-)