Furthermore, I'm continuing to grow my 10mm "Pendraken Miniatures" Early War project with an Axis Panzer III tank. I'm planning on featuring period of the Second World War in a Battle Report soon, along with another focusing upon my ongoing Battle of the Bulge campaign.
Lastly, I've even completed a bit of scenery for a future game of second edition "Frostgrave" by "Osprey Publishing". Please click the link below to pay me a visit and see all the updates for yourself.
In addition, I'm continuing to grow my "Flames Of War" German Beach Defence Company with a platoon of sMG34 Machine-gun teams. These'll be following by more Panzergrenadiers, a pair of 7.5cm Tank-Hunter teams and a handful of Panzer IVs…
Lastly, I've finished porting across both the January-May 2019 postings from this blog over to the new Wix website. Please click the link below to pay me a visit and see all the changes for yourself.
In addition, I've posted up the first of my completed 15mm ACW plastic infantry strips by "Warlord Games", taken from their upcoming "Epic Battles: American Civil War" game for Black Powder. The models came free on the cover of Issue 393 of "Wargames Illustrated".
Lastly, I've finishing porting across both the January and February 2019 postings from this blog over to the new Wix website. Please click the link below to pay me a visit and see all the changes for yourself.
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| Both an Updates and Projects section have been added to the new Wix website |
I've also created a Projects section which can be accessed via the website's title menu. This will lead to a page dedicated to the past six month's painting projects, and record my progress. You can click on a finished miniature and will be taken to the posting covering its completion. I hope to have more projects added as time progresses...
In addition, I've put together a short Updates summary section at the top of the Wix website to also provide updates as to how the new Fantorical is going. My intention is to regularly update that area and then copy over the text to this old blog weekly.
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| More "Alternative Armies" Elementals Have Been Added To The New Wix Website |
In addition, the top of the website now contains links to this (old) Blogger site and a brief summary of "Fantorical" since its start as a printed 'fanzine' way back 2003. Going forward the plan is to create some more of these additional pages covering subjects such as purchases, "Kickstarters", shows and painting projects.
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| "Alternative Armies" Lesser Air Elementals Join My Earth and Water Elemental Units |
https://www.fantoricalwargaming.com/post/air-elementals-are-fast-flying-creatures-made-of-living-air
All of 2020s postings are now available, and over the next few months I'll be porting across the vast majority of my other postings during the past decade on Blogger. The good news is that Wix allows me to post-date my articles, so instead of overrunning my main feed with old posts, they'll simply slip onto the site in the background and be there to view should a trip down memory lane take your fancy.
Not all my posts will be coming across, and some will be combined so that they better fit the six paragraph style I currently use. For those interested I'll continue to provide some updates here on Blogger regarding what is coming across, as well as some of the other updates Wix seems to offer as an actual website (e.g. An About page, and Projects page).
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| "...The future's Wix." |
Why Wix?
Wix has a series of easy-to-use templates with which to create a website from scratch. In addition it also has a Blog page, which acts like a normal blogging platform with posts and tags etc. This makes posting really simple with the platform automatically positioning my pictures, text and captions. The platform also offers a lot more options once you start using the Wix editor to make your own templates. I haven't spent too much time on that yet, but it contains gadgets such as Popular Posts and Labels just like Blogger has.
Wix also seems to allow me to post bigger and better quality pics, so I'm hoping that'll encourage me to produce more Battle Reports. On Blogger these were always a very time-consuming type of post. But having now successfully transferred a few of this year's BatReps over to Wix it seems clear that the platform makes them extremely easy to configure and upload.
How Different Will Fantorical Look On Wix?
As I'm currently using a quite generic template on Wix, Fantorical will look a little less colourful to begin with. I rather like the snapshots personally but the background is too white and somewhat sterile-looking. However, the posts can now be broken down into Categories, so at the top of the page I plan to offer the option of subjects such as Finished Figures, Battle Reports, Wargaming Shows, and Monthly Musings.
What Is Being Transferred Over To Wix?
The vast majority of my postings on Blogger will be moving across to Wix over the coming months. This week's goal is to get all of 2020's articles across and then start posting new content regularly once again. I also aim to bring across my posts from 2010 onwards, as well as some articles from my earlier blogs/painting diaries. Obviously, these will come up on my main feed too, but will clearly be labelled under the category 'From The Vaults' or some such. Personally, I'm always fascinated by my ambitious projects from the past and seeing just how much I accomplished once a new 'shiny' arrived to distract me.
Disappointingly, the comments won't be coming across. I'm a bit gutted by this as I think this is the most important part of Fantorical - where we can discuss thoughts, opinions, suggestions, help, recommendations and advice. I did consider maybe taking a snap shot of the comments and adding them to the relevant post. But that seems a lot of work when the discussions will remain for all to see here on Blogger if anyone is that interested in a five-year old conversation.
What Will Happen To Fantorical On Blogger?
I've no intention of taking Fantorical down on Blogger, and indeed, for the foreseeable still intend to post updates (such as this) on the site. I'll also be signposting visitors to my new posts on Wix when they start.
I do plan on maintaining my comic review site "The Brown Bag" on Blogger until the end of 2020, before shifting that across to Wix. The postings on that are reasonably straightforward, so I'm hoping I'll be able to struggle through until Fantorical is fully ensconced on Wix. The thought of moving two sites over to Wix simultaneously was too much for me to contemplate...
https://blaxkleric.wixsite.com/website
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| "...For an important announcement." |
Indeed, having looked at a few of my older posts, the new Blogger seems to have altered them too, and the thought of going through my backlog of over a thousand posts to see what its altered isn't something I'm willing to do.
I will try and persevere with the new format but certainly won't be posting three times a week anymore - unless the Legacy Button makes a most welcome return. I'll also be exploring other platforms like Wordpress and Facebook as an alternative.
Thanks for visiting and I hope to still comment on people's blogs. But frankly this has really sucked the enthusiasm out of the hobby for me...
UPDATE: I'm uploading/re-editing my 2020 posts on "Wix" to see how well it works. Please drop by to see how its going at: https://blaxkleric.wixsite.com/website
