[Lantz's Corner] The Big Time

Well, here I am. Back in my childhood days full of legos and chocolate covered anythings, my mother once told me, "Son, someday you'll make something of yourself. You're going to enter the fray and come out on top. But until then, you're cleaning the dishes...get to it." Somewhere past the large amounts of alcohol, video games, women and playing with little plastic men came this day. Hello, my name is Lantz, newest guest writer of MWC and I'm here to blog your face off.

Yesterday, Matt here at MWC asked me if I'd like to join in as a guest writer on a regular basis. After the first few second of shock and awe, I gathered myself and thought about what this would mean. From a purely technical standpoint, my blog (themagnetpro.blogspot.com, one of many shameless plugs to come,) has followers around the 65 mark and averages around 60 hits a day. MWC's current follower base is in the 1100's and sees roughly 1000 hits a day. TMP conversion content consists of smaller models reaching the size of Land Raiders at its peak. MWC has... well. Yeah. It doesn't matter how you spin it, in the world of 40k Matt is here and I'm here. You can't see the hand movements I'm making, but work with me.

Now, from a personal standpoint, Matt and I haven't known each other long. It all started with his post on a beautifully crafted Warhound and how it would fit in with my AdMech Fandex currently in the beta stages. From that point forth we've chatted off and on, 40k related or not. For those of you who don't know him, Matt is a fantastically friendly fello. As you've probably guessed from the amount of contests he holds and how many of the prizes come from him directly, he's very giving. This offer to write for his blog, however, that's generosity at its core. MWC has over one-hundred posts as of this writing. Over one hundred posts of major content; pictures and tutorials of his amazing work. Monumental conversions that some of us can only dream of accomplishing--all of this wrapped up in more than a hundred posts...That I would have control of...

This bothered me. Those of you that know me know I'm a very cautious person. Always planning for the worst so as to not be surprised. You may call that cynical, I call it realistic. I don't romanticize reality because bad stuff can and will happen in life. So when offered this opportunity, it took me a bit to respond. Do I want that weight on my shoulders? These posts, all of these posts, I've worshiped their pure awesomeness for a long while. Do I want this kind of responsibility for them? The pressure was building in my chest; this is my chance to get my god-like status of literature out to the masses. Can I? Can't I? What if the fantasticalness of my writing skills physically harms people's eyes? Dear god, what if somebody hacks my account and fiddles with things?! Fiddles!

I then quickly realized I no longer live with my crazy ex and I'm the kind of person who password protects his passwords and then protects those passwords with more passwords; I accepted.

So who am I? Where the heck did this red-headed sex-icon come through the woodwork? What kind of content does he have that I would want to read? While those questions are slightly rude, and you all are starting to get on my bad side for asking them in that tone, they're all valid. I started my first tabletop adventures about two and a half years ago. Going through a bit of a rough-patch in my personal life, some friends suggested I begin playing this crazy game full of sexy looking space-witches and penetrating hits. After my giggling settled, I looked into the world of 40k a bit. It was huge; the lore and background of 40k seemed to go on forever. Then I began looking at models...We all remember that first day. The recognition of the cost of playing. After picking my jaw up from the floor, I said no and thought that was the end of it.

Lucky for me, my friends are jerks.

My friends Aaron and Eric over at The Midnight Shift had purchased two boxes of Black Reach for Eric's Ork army and had a hefty amount of Space Marines collecting dust. What would later be my "40k Friends" offered up all of the SMs to me. For free. I know, right? Just plain mean... And that was it, there just isn't much more to the story. I'm a penny-pincher. I get a kick from saving money whenever and wherever I can. I'm that old lady at your local grocery store with 57 coupons for 33 items reincarnated. When a friend offers you something with a 100% discount and it's not in a blazing paper bag, you go for it. Upon discovering that I could drill, cut, melt, add to, shave and plasticard these little plastic doodads, I gave up. I was locked in for good.

Later, my 40k friends suggested I put the constant conversion work I was doing with my models online via blogger. Thus, The Magnet Pro was born. Blogger has given way to more shared content through the community than what I can keep up with. This is good, it keeps me pressing myself to do better and better work that I can share with all of you. As for my current projects, they consist of the Adeptus Mechanicus and not much else. As some of you know I'm the creator of the AdMech FanDex MWC posted earlier in the week. AdMech are by far my favorite race and lore in the 40k universe. Them not having a functional codex didn't sit right with me, especially after reading Dan Abnett's Titanicus. So last year I set out on what's become a very time consuming project. Fortunately it has come together more quickly than I thought it would thanks to the help of the community and a small team of AdMech lovers, and with the solidifying of units and options within the dex I've set out into my purchases of models for them. So until Necrons (my other army) rightfully get their 5th Edition codex, all of my energy is being poured into the AdMech.

So, here I am. The big time, if you will. While I haven't been in the tabletop game very long, my love for conversions motivates me forward with a big smile on my face every step of the way... Save maybe when I'm paying Games Workshop their outrageous prices on my little soldier guys. In the future, I hope to eventually start a third army again, but until then I'm plenty busy. So that's me in a six or so paragraph, 40k-filled nutshell. I'll end my ranting here as I don't want to overload all of you with too much Lantz all at once. I hope to bring you all writings, conversion content and pictures of silly cats that think they're people worthy of the Miniature Wargame Conversions name in the very near future.

Until next time.

~Lantz aka Sinaura

(www.themagnetpro.blogspot.com) - Had to get one more in.