Thursday, 13 September 2012

My Top 10 Blogs

I just hit 50 followers, wow what a milestone. To all my new blogger friends - Welcome!

I really love tracking down new blogs to follow. Blog networks are great for that but another way I find some real gems is by looking at what blogs other people follow.  With that in mind, I thought it would be cool to highlight my favourite 10 blogs and tell everyone why I like them.  This was way harder then I initially thought, but after a lot of cutting down, I have a list. I found that there were really two groups in my top ten - big well known blogs written by veteran bloggers that have a large following (heavy weights), and smaller less known blogs that are written by equally talented people but just haven’t been around as long or are less publicised (middle weights).

So without further ado, in no particular order, Col. Ackland’s favourite 10 blogs:
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Heavy Weights
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Drax has got a really a massive Cadian army, something to shoot for one day. With almost 300 followers and over 300 posts under his belt he is a real veteran bloggers with a really cool blog. He is a champ with loads of interning posts to check out.
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When it comes to Praetorians, Col Gravis is the man, but what makes his blog really cool is that it isn’t just for lovers of pith helmeted guardsman. His passion for modelling and painting can be appreciated by any gamer that drops by his blog.  Again with more than 300 followers and over 600,000 hits, Gravis is a true veteran blogger.
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I only stumbled on to this blog recently, but OMG! Klaus has some of the most amazing conversions, well 'conversions' doesn’t seem to cover it, but let’s just say his ‘conversions’ and scratch build projects are astonishing. He is one talented German, and again a true veteran blogger.
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A Rogue Trader era veteran modeller who has an amazing “Closet of Doom” full of started or potential projects. He is truly an expert at converting up very cool looking stuff. His “Mordian 7th” and Heresy-Era armies are well worth a look, but it is always interesting to check in and see what he has been up too.
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Middle Weights
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Witty, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable every time. Headologis is the man with the Fluff passion!  His posts have a strong historical and sci-fi mix – for an example be sure to check out his triage documents and posters, just awesome!
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In my mind, you can’t mention Headologis without his mate ‘Colonel Scipio’ and his Palladain Guard. Many gamers have an army background story, but few can boast that they have written their own background book – ‘Codex Imperialis, The Palladain Guard’.  Like Headologis, Colonel Scipio is also very dedicated to fluff, it’s truly inspiring. I love the fact that he kills off his junior officers in battle (ie retires their models). All of that aside though, whenever Colonel Scipio posts something I have to check it out. It’s always a well written, thought provoking, enjoyable read.

Both of these blogs have gathered a strong following relatively fast so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time for them to break into the heavy weights! Check both these guys out for an evening of entertainment.
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Vent is only a stones through from me over in New Zealand – so a nice ‘local’ blog. He is clearly a very talented painter and must enjoy it a lot! Vent says he isn’t at GD level but he can’t be far off. I love checking out his blog because he is someone with more skill then I but isn’t some amazing professional painter that makes you feel bad about your own minis. He has lots of good WIP posts and easy to follow tips. For an example check out his tutorial on Macro Photography, well worth a look.

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A retro gamer with lots of cool retro 40k minis. Dai really knows how to model and paint, and seeing the old RT era minis painted up so well always brightens my day. Not that Dai doesn’t have lots of cool new stuff too… I guess it’s the style and character that he brings to all of his minis that I enjoy the most.
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The Glorious 4th Praetorian Mechanised! An absolutely breath taking Praetorian army blog. Man can Col Winterborne paint fast. He is at 4000p with his army and ever growing. Lots of tanks with amazing free hand details on them and some really cool conversions make every piece of his army a work of art. No wonder his miniatures have shown up on GW ‘What’s New Today’ page several times. Even if Praetorians are not your passion, you will be inspired seeing this army and blog.
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The Dragoon Guards, the Hon. Lord Gordon’s 20th praetorian horse guard regiment.
On an initial look, you might think why did I add this one to my favourite ten? Unlike other blogs listed here I don’t check out Lord Gordon’s blog for painting or conversion tips, but despite this I am always drawn to his posts to see whats been going on. Why? Because the praetorian 20th captures everything about what this hobby should be. It’s fun, it’s got character, and above all else the minis are loved. I really love that and I find so much enjoyment reading blogs like Lord Gordon’s, that's why it deserves to be in my top 10.
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Finally, I wanted to add a few honourable mentions of other blogs that I thought are real stand outs:
For all of the other blogs that I like see “my blog list” on the right. 

It’s worth noting that this list was really hard to whittle down. Essentially, I love all the blogs that I follow, so choosing just 10 was really difficult! What I’d like to do is highlight more of the blogs that I like in the future and I’d love to see what your top 10 are too!

18 comments:

  1. Very Cool, thanks for posting those links... My own Praetorians have moved to the back of my paint queue for the time being... Something about not being able to transport a Light Rifle Company on a motorcycle :-)

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  2. LOL, yeah I have a mate with that issue! You're welcome, and by the way you have a nice little blog too :)
    My painting queue seems to get changed daily so I never know what's going on!

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  3. Aw shucks! Thanks for the nod - I've really enjoyed reading your blog and I've taken a lot of inspiration from it. Congrats on the milestone - you deserve it!

    Keep up the great work, and thanks for the list of links, there are a few I hadn't seen before that I'll be adding to my reading list! Good stuff!

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  4. Aww slightly sad not to see Tale of Painters in your list. Then I realised you predominately follow Imperial Guard blogs, and we don't have much guard on our blog.

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    1. I don't too bad Garfy, It wasn't that ToP isn't one of my favs! When I was trying to whittle down the number to 10 I made the decision to cut all of the 'big' blogs that had more than 500 followers, as they are already really well known. So yeah with six to seven hundred followers it didn't stay on the list. LOL, maybe next time I'll do a 'mega weight' category :)

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  5. Thanks for having me in your top ten! A great post, and a few new blogs I will now be investigating... It's always great when I check the blog in evening and see a few Praetorian blog posts, doubly so when it's your blog! 50 followers well deserved!

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  6. O bloody hell. Now you've gone and done it. :)

    Thankyou very much for the lovely write-up sir.

    I in turn am glad to be one of the 50 members of followers of your own fine blog.

    May the next 50 find themselves over here in short order - it's well worth it!

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  7. Thanks very much, my dear Colonel, for the nod! And the 50 followers milestone is very well earned indeed - top quality blogging, and here's to many more posts and followers to come. Keep up the great work!

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  8. Thanks for the nod sir.

    Here's to the next 50 eh?

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  9. Thanks for the mention my friend. That is a very fine top ten with some blogs I have not seen before, so I need to head over and have a look.

    I will soon be back in the UK to do some much anticipated hobbying, and increase the size of my Praetorians. Keep up the good work and see you all soon.

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  10. Thanks for the shout out Col. Ackland, I appreciate it ^_^

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  11. Everyone, really I should be thanking you for all the great blogging you do! Cheers all :)

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  12. I'm honored to be part of this exclusive list!
    I hope to keep you entertained for many more days to come :)
    Thanks a million Mate

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  13. A mention in dispatches. I'm happy with that. Thank you.

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  14. Have finally managed to just about patch my leaky Internet connection to say thank you so much for listing my blog here, you're much too kind. Yours would certainly be in my own list too. Keep up the great work. I have BT coming round to fix me Internet tomorrow so hopefully normal service shall be resumed...

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  15. JEEZ! Thanks, Matey!

    I'm a teacher, and with the new school year I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks...but what a great thing to come back to!

    I'm honoured - seriously. Thank you!

    Now to check out the one-or-two I've not seen before!

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