Mike's DIY Servo-Arms

Regular weekly hobby guy Mike (not me) shared his method for making Do-It-Yourself Servo-Arms for his Chaos Space Marines this week.  The method also works well for regular Space Marines, which is what we're demonstrating since I only had loyalist backpacks to work with.

Step 1. Get a backpack, 2 combat knives, and 2 flamers.

Step 2. Cut the flamers as shown. Concentrate on
making a clean cuts.

Step 3. Cut a vent off the backpack and glue the barrel
portion of the flamer in its place.

Step 4. Glue the flamer tank to the flamer barrel.  To
get a flush fit you can either file the rounded tank side
flat or file a round section onto the flamer tank.

Step 5. Cut the other flamer barrel at the angle shown.

Step 6. Glue the barrel to the tank. Glue the other
flamer tank to the end of the second barrel.

Step 7. Cut the combat knives' blades to form the servo-
arm clamp.

Step 8. Glue the two knife pieces on to form the clamp.
You're done with the servo-arm.

Step 9. Bonus! User the two leftover pieces of the
flamer to make Blood Angels hand flamers!

And just to be double clear, this method comes from Mike (one of the weekly hobby gang) and not me. Mike is an Iron Warriors fanatic, so this sort of conversion is right up his alley. He did the conversion work on Wednesday and I took pictures as he went along.  Some more chaos-looking version he has done can be seen here.

Somewhat Better Photography

My coworker Steve brought in his Super Deluxe DoubeWide SuperFat SLR Camera (I'm sure it has a make and model, but whatever) and took some pictures of Nicodem the Pimp and my nurse.  Maybe I should name her Miss Mediocre.

This is scaled down to about 25% of original size

It sure makes my phone camera look like a piece of garbage, doesn't it? Photography is also brutally revealing.  Things like the yellow spot on the edge of his purple coat, or the poorly clipped vent on the end of the syringe or the little spots of primer peeking through the holes in the chain.  Ouch.  In reality, when I was painting for competition I used to take digital photos to find flaws to correct, so this doesn't come as a huge surprise.

No Malifaux tonight (he said glumly.) I have other things to do that count as important. I'll still be hobbying this week, which will hopefully result in a completed unit for Hive Fleet Emervac to be on its way.

Did I mention I'm never doing commission work again?  Yeah, I'm never doing commission work again. I can neglect my own models with complete abandon, but neglecting other people's models when they are trying to pay me to paint makes me feel guilty.  The only guilt I want from this hobby is buyer's remorse.

Of course, I'm still offering to paint things for friends. That's a much more enjoyable endeavor.

EDIT: The camera in question was a Nikon D5100 with a Nikon AF VR 18-55 lens, 52mm.

Pimping My Fiction. Fictional Pimp.

It's Big Pimpin' Night on the blog.

Normally, the fantastic podcast "The Aethervox" features original fiction written by one member (Julian) read by the other member (Ian.) Since Julian was away, they asked if they could use the first few chapters of my story "Confessions of an Aspiring Resurrectionist" from the Wyrd forums. I gave an exuberant yes!  The episode featuring my work is now up on their site. Ian has such a great voice for it, as you know if you have listened to the prior episodes. I'll admit it's strange hearing someone else read my words, especially since I've read them to myself so many times in very particular cadence. Having just heard both parts now, I think Ian did a wonderful job. Thanks, Ian!

Next up, here's something I've been working on. Nobody showed up at RIW on Tuesday (they were all going to Gen Con apparently) so I got to hang out and paint. I know this is the role typically given to Seamus, but something about a top hat, ruffles and a cane just screamed pimp to me. Of course, it isn't the first time.

Move over Seamus... Nicodem loves the ladies.

The leopard print was especially fun to paint. I had some expert consultation from my coworkers, who have a mightier "pimp hand" than I. The vulture pattern is based on a macaw, but everyone just thinks it's rainbow.

Weekly Hobby Update - Magnification!

Just Jimmy and me for hobbying tonight.
I finally took some pics of what Jimmy has been working on....

But first! Magnification!

 I don't use the LED lights because they are oddly blue colored.

This is the magnification headset that Jimmy gave me last week.  This week I used it to refine the painting on the Malifaux fig "Mortimer, the Grave Digger."

Results are below.

BEFORE, without magnification... not terrible
from a distance but less than awesome up close.

AFTER, lots of touch ups with the magnification lenses on.
The focus is a little softer but I hope the improvement is evident.

And here is the updated Kroot-a-saurus.

Now with more gunners!

Detail of the gunner and his awesome expression.

This side still needs its gun sponson thing.

Also, the Chaos Kroot tank.  His Kroot are Tzeentch-leaning.  Shapers / Change... it makes sense.

Captain Kroot is very enthusiastic about change.

And I worked on Nicodem a little too.  Pimptastic.

I thought the purple was kind of original until I saw that the
picture of Nicodem in the new rulebook has him purple.

Yay! Mommy's Violent!

I watched the first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day this past Friday, and a couple more times since then.  This moment, from about 45 minutes in, cracked me up.

Actually, Stef noticed the baby and pointed it out to me.  DVR rewind, and hey!  Check that out!  Those fake gunshots must not be very loud or I'm guessing baby would be freaking out, even with cute little earmuffs.

GIANT SPACE OWL ENEMY OF MANKIND

Some of this content has been used without permission of its author.  It's for his own good.

See what I'm saying?  Seriously a threat that we can't afford to ignore.  Sure it's expensive to attack distant astronomical things, but just for a moment think of the cost of not attacking them.


Two ring nebulas, two veil nebulas (ok ok, nebulae senior Latin) and part of an hourglass nebula.

Bored Children and Crooked Men

 My daughters had been excited to go with me to play Malifaux on Tuesday night.  A week ago I took Sarah with me, and she was less than impressed.  I wanted her to watch the game, to get a feel for the rhythm and etiquette, but it was just boring to her after about 1/3 of the way through.  As evidence, I present my defaced army list, printed from the very useful Ratty's Malifaux Crew Builder.  One of my "Canine Remains" is a tiny Reaper pug familiar.  Sarah is rather enamored of it, hence the "little pug" homage.  When she was not doodling she was playing games on my phone.  My battle report is here.

Hobby night was not productive for me.  I spent most of the time helping Jimmy craft a letter of recommendation for someone to sign or downloading things for him, which did not go well since our DSL was acting poorly.  Jimmy meanwhile worked on Kroot-o-saurus some more.  Mike and Seth worked on.... you know, I can't remember what they worked on.  huh.  I didn't pick up a paint brush.  Just one of those nights for me.

I did, however, take part of last night to bang out a "Crooked Man" for my Malifaux crew.  He's basically an undead miner.  I used a bunch of game-quality techniques.  I don't know... the paint just wasn't talking to me but I felt like I had to put some paint on something.  Here he is, in a very small, poorly lit photo because I don't want to expose him to much scrutiny.

Tonight is Malifaux again.  My other daughter, having heard from the first how boring it is, opted not to go.  At least I won't have to feel guilty about her having a terrible time.

I'm Back, and I Have Forgotten How To Paint

First off, a curious personality quirk:

Every now and then I do this... I fall into this sort of self-imposed isolation.  I don't answer my phone; I drop off IM; I don't answer e-mails.  I still go to work and engage with my family but except for the things that I need to do every day, I pretty much disappear.  The last six weeks or so have been like that.  I went to a hobby shop and played a couple games with people I don't know, but I avoided contact with people I know.  Yes, it's strange and I'd love to know the root cause.  But this bout is pretty much over so I can stop thinking about it until next time.

So!  Painting!  Last night's hobby gathering was an exercise in frustration.  My eye knew what I wanted the given model to look like, but my hand just couldn't execute it.  I felt clumsy, the bristles were disobedient and the paint vacillated between gloppy and uncontrollably runny.    I feel sorry for poor Mortimer and the Nurse who received the business end of my incompetence.  I came to the conclusion last night that I had simply forgotten how to paint.  Seven years of practice out the window.  Time to rejoin the CMON forums and have someone advise me to thin my paints, I suppose.  Jimmy worked on Kroot-a-saurus a bit more, and Mike painted his Druchii.  It has been fun to see Mike's painting skills improving over the last few months or so.  He is dedicated to making his models look better and it's paying off.  Mimi sat with us and did .... what's that thing called with looping yarn through a mat with a hook to make a picture?  It had a pattern, sort of a "yarn by numbers" thing.  She did that and made fun of us.  That's kind of her niche... she does her own thing and ridicules anything with miniatures.  

Malifaux: Ah, my new love.  Something about this game just hits the sweet spot with me.  Maybe it's the personality of the models.  Maybe it's the skirmish style of game play, which I have discovered I enjoy a great deal more than huge armies gathered for epic (apocalyptic even!) battles.

Here is Dr. Douglas McMourning, master of my resurrectionist crew.  He may have taken 7 years to get his medical degree, but he got a one-night paint job from me.  This is definitely one of those models that I wish came in two pieces.  The upheld arm obscures the face far more than was convenient for painting it.  I almost need a brush with a 90 degree bend in the bristles for this sort of model.  As mediocre as this guy is I couldn't even pull off anything close to that last night.

Here also is a convict gunslinger, added to give my crew a bit of ranged capability.  Another one-night paint job (nearly... I base coated the flesh a few nights before the actual painting.

Twice now I have gone out to RIW hobbies in Livonia to play Malifaux and both times it has been a boatload of fun.  I wrote short battle reports and posted them on the Wyrd forums. (1, 2)  I am really trying to get the local group to give it a shot, but I feel a little guilty about potentially getting them into another purchasing frenzy.  Maybe I'll get a second crew and we can all play with those two sets.  Even so, I have resolved to completely paint my current crew before buying any other crews.  Since my current complete crew is 19 models I don't think that will be much of a problem.  I already have 4/19 painted (and two more in progress) so I'm much further along than any other gaming system I own.

I played 40k a couple weeks ago during hobby night.  Seth and I each took 1000 points of Space Marines vs. 2000 points of Mike's Tau.  A combination of huge barrages or marker-light assisted shooty and some of the worst assault rolling I have ever seen resulted in the marines suffering from Post Tau-matic Stress Disorder.  (See what I did there?  Tau-matic?  Ha!)   Seth's ability to roll 1's for his TH/SS termies was ... amazing.  We're talking Rosencrantz and Guildenstern coin-flipping level of improbability.  I can only conclude that their optical arrays were mis-calibrated, and any wounds inflicted were from hitting an enemy standing next to their actual target.

On a more personally irritating note, I have been diagnosed recently with gout.  I flatly refuse to suffer from any ailment with so stupid a name, especially if said ailment tends to exhibit in one's big toe.  Industrial strength anti-inflammatory meds seem to help, but good grief is it painful.  It can be controlled through diet, which means I'll have to develop a modicum of self-control at the moment before food hits my mouth.  It will probably take a few severe bouts before I develop that self-control.

Lastly, and this is to confound the search engines as much as anything, I would like to confess my irrational love of "pizza bubbles."  These are dome shaped bubbles within the crust of a pizza that typically occur on the outer edge of the toppings.  As a youngster we used to occasionally eat at a pizza place called Cardona's in Brighton, MI and I remember their pizza always had bubbles like that.  Cardona's was a pretty typical pizza place in the late 70's.  It was dark, and had a jukebox and a couple coin-op video games by the front door.  The closest thing I can relate it to nowadays is the experience that most Pizza Huts try to accomplish but never seem to quite be the same.  Maybe it was seeing things through a child's eye, but Cardona's felt kind of exciting.  Like it was a big deal to go there.  Maybe that's why I gravitate to the one thing I remember most about their pizza.

I purchased a macro lens for my HTC Evo 4G phone.  It comes with a little self-adhesive ring that you stick on the phone and the lens snaps magnetically on the ring.  It takes some very interesting macro shots, but they are very close and it is nearly impossible to get an entire model.  I may use it to get detail shots of a model's face or something.  Eventually.

Secret Weapon... I'm using the washes and bases.  I still need to write up a report of how they perform.  It's been a pretty positive experience, but I have a few complaints about bubbles in the resin.  The washes work great when you are using them for the things they are good at (if that makes sense.)  Stick to their strengths and you will like them a lot.  

Weekly Hobby Group Update: Malifaux Models in One Night

First off, I don't know what kind of crazy voodoo plague I got a couple weeks ago, but I am just now getting to the point of doing anything at night besides falling asleep on the couch after putting the kids to bed.  I probably would have slept for two weeks straight without the help of Five Hour Energy Drink.

Even with my life-sapping malady, we've still had Thursday night hobby time.  Both nights I have resolved to paint an entire figure in one night.

Behold last week's nurse and last night's zombie dog handler:

Quit barking at me or you'll get a dose of this.

I plan on using the zombie as a flesh construct for my McMourning crew.  Since the crew has a bunch of zombie dogs I figured that this dude was appropriate.  It has been observed that he looks like a Best Buy employee.  I don't know what the dark genesis of the extended warranty is, but I would wager that it involved the undead.  The nurse was last weeks model.  The original has a red cross over each of her nipples, which I did not find terribly appealing.  I removed them.

Seth worked like crazy on that shield for Harry the Hammer.  He is a total perfectionist, which makes for awesome single models and vast, unpainted armies.  This is the second base-coat that Harry himself has gotten, the first being stripped for inadequate awesomeness.

Mike has been working on his Dark Elf test warriors.  He can't decide on a blue/red/gold scheme or just a red/gold scheme.  I thought I had taken pics, but I can't find them on my phone.  hmmm....  He also explained that the servo-arms from the last hobby post I did were constructed from other parts.  We will be coordinating to do a tutorial on how to make those soon.

Jimmy continued adding things to Kroot-a-saurus.  He can't decide whether to keep the banded mail armor from the last picture or go with a more round armor that he made from pastic bottles.  He really has an amazing ability to see conversion fodder in everyday items.

Just for kicks, here is the rest of my Malifaux crew in their unpainted splendor.

In this picture there are 8 dogs.  Can you find them all?

Okay, so the Convict Gunslinger has paint on his face.  I guess that disqualifies him from one-night paint job status.

I am more and more wanting to play Malifaux.  The soonest I can get out to RIW in Livonia to play is 5/31.  Ach!  In the meantime I'll paint and listen to The Aethervox podcast, which is 99% Malifaux.

A Sickly Thank You

First off, I'm sick of being sick.  Seriously, last week was bad enough.  To descend back into the clutches of some unknown virus again this weekend after feeling so much better Friday was depressing.  So here I sit, after having slept most of the day away, listening to a lawnmower and wondering how long it will take me to 1) do the work I'm backlogged on and 2) catch up on the >100 RSS feed items I have on google reader.  If you blog about FoW, I'm probably just going to look at the pretty pictures.

My two daughters are home sick too.  They were told they could not stay home and watch TV, so I found them each a book they could read it they want.  Lily (9) is reading a 1978 copy of "A Wrinkle in Time" and Sarah (12) is reading a 1980 copy of "A Wizard of Earthsea."  I have requested that they be gentle with the books, but in my heart I am prepared for each book's demise.  It's a small sacrifice to see the girls reading fantasy.

Next, I want to thank all the people who nominated me for a "Stylish Blogger Award."  It's flattering to get a nod when there are so many blogs with similar subject matter out there. In truth, the first time I received such a nomination/award was January 2010 when the very clever but never posting "Pop and Ice" nominated me for the "Kreativ Blogger" honor.  I honestly had no idea what to make of it and so I basically sat on it.  With the current storm of nominations, I think just about every blogger in the 40k sphere has gotten at least one or two of these.

Okay, back to bed with me.

Starting Malifaux... sort of

I think I ought to just face the facts that my hobby is now "buying miniatures" and that gaming and painting are just extra activities that result from buying.  In that spirit, I have purchased a Malifaux crew.  After about a million permutations of who would be fun to paint and play (since they are all equally fun to buy) I decided to go with a McMourning crew featuring undead dogs.


Strategy:
The plan is to go to Miniature Market website, click the "Malifaux" link on the left.  On turn two I will go to the Resurrectionists section and find the McMourning box set and click "add to cart."  Finally I will click "checkout" and supply my credit card info.  A flawless plan.

I mean, who doesn't love a crazy coroner dude with steel toed shoes.  Oh, and his totem?  A Zombie Chihuahua.  That was sort of the clincher for me.

Yappy, shaky little jerks.  The box comes with Sebastian (who can make zombie dogs, aka "Canine Remains")  and a couple of nurses (who can supercharge the dogs into one-turn "dog bombs.")  Meanwhile McMourning is making big, nasty flesh constructs and trying to get himself into combat.  Add Mortimer and a Convict Gunslinger and I have a healthy 25 pt crew (using only one nurse.)  It's kind of fun to think about summoning dead dogs.  No, I don't know why.

Gaming Strategy: 

Find someone else who plays Malifaux.

So the next question is whether to try and make it out to RIW Hobbies to get a game in on Tuesdays or to try and get a local community started.  My personal (read: non-family) life begins at about 9:00 PM unfortunately, so very few "go somewhere and game" options present themselves.

Heroes of Armageddon Tip: Give Early!

Remember!  There are weekly "Heroes of Armageddon" prize giveaways, including this week's amazing choice between a Blood Angels Battalion, an Ork Stompa or an Imperial Shadow Sword.  To maximize your chance of winning one of these weekly drawings, give your full donation early instead of waiting until close to the big army giveaways.  The pool of possible winners is much smaller in the beginning (theoretically) so stack the odds in your favor!

Speaking of which, I got my weekly-drawing swag from Secret Weapon Miniatures yesterday.  I have been sick lately, so I did little more than open the bag and rub the bases luxuriously over my body. (Quick suggestion: do not rub resin bases luxuriously over your body... they have pointy and scratchy bits.)  I will do a nice write up of what I got once I get a chance to really give them a go-over.

A Winner Is Me!

Yay for free stuff!  I won the weekly Heroes of Armageddon drawing and got one of two $25 vouchers at Secret Weapon Miniatures.  Showing great thought and restraint, I placed an order there today.  While I was there I dropped another $35 in addition to my $25 voucher.  It was definitely my desire to make the order slightly profitable for them, and not at all related to my inability to limit myself to the amount I had won.  Nope.  No connection whatsoever.

So here's what I bought:
1 x Dark Sepia Wash = $2.99
1 x Armor Wash = $2.99
1 x Soft Body Black Wash = $2.99
1 x Small Roman Style Helmet Crest = $5.00
1 x Round Lip: 30mm Urban Streets Bases = $10.00
1 x Round Lip: 40mm Urban Streets Bases = $10.00
1 x Round Lip: 50mm Urban Streets Bases = $5.00
1 x Round Lip: All Your "Flagstone" Bases = $22.50

Why those, you ask? I don't know! They looked cool, and I will need to base my (currently completely unpurchased) Malifaux crew(s) eventually. I also wanted to try their washes, which are both larger pots then Citadel (20ml as opposed to 12ml) and pigmented heavier. Expect critique here at some point. Their color range is good; I was tempted to just buy the whole set. I may yet do so, depending on how well I like the three I bought.

Another Reason Having Kids Rocks

Having kids is like living with comedians.  Tiny, sloppy, needy comedians.  As evidence I give you these two exchanges between my daughters (Sarah and Lily) and me.

From last week...

Me: I watched part of Dumb and Dumber the other night.  I was surprised at how much casual profanity is thrown around in that movie.
Sarah: Oh, so they were like "Hi!  Hi!  Hi!" (waving and smiling madly)
Me: Uh, no.  More like beeep beeep beeep beeep.
Sarah: (looking serious and thoughtful) I see. So they were robots.

And this one from breakfast this morning...

Me: Do you kids know who Osama bin Laden is?
Kids: No.
Me: He's the leader of the group who planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Lily: I suppose we'll be hearing about him in Social Studies.
Me: Well, after searching for him for almost ten years, the military finally found him and he was killed in an attack yesterday.
Lily: Well then I guess we'll be hearing about him in History.

My son isn't quite there with the verbal wit yet, but he's only six.  He tells me thrilling tales of playing Portal with his friend Colin at school.  I'm not quite sure what two six year olds play-acting Portal is like, but Jay is developing a passable impression of GLaDOS's speech cadence.

Weekly Hobby Group Update: Servo Arms, Armor and Nid Wins

Seth, Jimmy, and Mike came over to hobby last night.  Seth wasn't in the painting mood so I got out Space Hulk and we played mission one a couple times.  Nids always won.

Jimmy, crushed by the "scrot-a-saurus" comment from last week's blog, finally took all of our advice and added armor plating.  It helped that I gave him a sheet of plasticard and a paper cutter to use.

Mike wanted to show off his Iron Warriors models, complete with servo arms.  The one on the left is converted with a nifty shield, but the black priming sucks all the light out of the photo.

Meanwhile, Stef and Mimi watched "Wire in the Blood" and discussed the portrayal of various religions in film/TV.  Mimi doesn't think witches are getting a fair shake.

And me?  I haven't done anything of note lately.  I've been working on a coding project, but it makes for boring blog posting.  (What?  You want to talk about SQL queries?  You are a sicko.)

The Ominous "S"

I returned from fetching lunch to find this at my desk.

A tiny square of paper with a bold capital "S" on it.  Who could have left it?!  What does it mean?!!?!?

Superb 40k FanFic "Radical"

I do not normally read a great deal of fanfic, but Commissar Carrie got me hooked on her amazing narrative battle reports and that just flowed naturally into her superb 40k fanfic entitled "Radical."

Go check it out.

Chapters: Hell, Healing, Heretics, Hymn, and Hero
She's got kind of an "H" thing going on you see...

Playstation Network Update

2011.04.21: Network halted for upload preparation
2011.04.22: Wetware sychronization initiated
2011.04.23: Wetware disconnect complete
2011.04.25: Cell network reprocessing initiated

PENDING: Cell process neural network distribution completion
PENDING: Network restart
PENDING: Ringing phones in sequence down a hallway to indicate success to nemesis
PENDING: begin global nuclear bombardment

Weekly Hobby Group: Kroot-a-saurus, Zombie Fish and Bad Pants

Who can resist a title like that?

Jimmy and I hobbied it up on Thursday.  Chips flew.  Glue dripped.  Paint was applied.

First up, Kroot-a-saurus got some work.  Jimmy (aka "King Kitbash") started with some head enhancements and went on to trying to make some armor.  It was supposed to look like giant turtle shell pieces bolted to the side, but it never quite got there.

Next up, Jimmy brought the zombie fish bowl he's been working on for his roommate's belated Christmas present.  I helped him by painting the tombstone last week, and he brought it over to show me the finished product.

Hive Fleet Emervac's hormagaunts got some more attention.  I'm probably one serious night away from finishing this unit.

And lastly, Tristan's Harlequin got some pants.  I am decidedly unhappy with the consistency of the yellow.... so chalky.  The plan is to go over it a few more times to try and smooth the color, then shore up the borders with more purple so that the lines are sharp.  Maybe I'll blackline around them...

Egg Drop Soup (with Helicopters)

Today, for reasons I cannot now fathom, we took the kids to a 30,000 Easter egg "hunt" where some of the eggs were dropped by helicopter. Sounds.... crazy, right?  It was.

After two days of rain, it did not occur to us that the whole thing would be a horrific quagmire. It was.

By the time we were actually in position for the drop 2 of my 3 kids had fallen and were covered in mud.

People came from miles to partake in the spectacle. It was packed. Once the call was given to go, the mad scramble left some children with huge bags of eggs, and some children left crying, empty handed.  My 6 year old got 5 eggs (and was not happy) and my girls got 5 eggs between them. This is definitely one time where the meek are not blessed.  Aggression and assertiveness win the day at an egg drop.  At least the organizers had the forethought to leave a few eggs in reserve for the poor kids who got none.

Once the eggs had all been collected, the search began for each child.  Parents were everywhere hollering names in every which direction.

We had planned on heading to my parents' house after the event, but with everyone covered in mud and our house almost an hour in entirely the wrong direction we decided to stop off and buy some clothes for them on the way.  $135 later, we were on the road again.  Admittedly, $20 of that was me impulse buying "Tales from Earthsea."  I didn't realize Miyazaki had adapted Ursula LeGuinn's stories (which I read as a teen) and I loves me some Miyazaki.

Egg dropping and a very curvy rotor.

Seeing the helicopter was fun, and if someone can explain to me why the rotors appear so curved in the photos?  I just can't figure why they would be in focus let look so curved, or why one side would look curved and not the other.  If it was from the motion of the rotors you would think both would be equally affected.

Rotors curving upward oddly.  Feel free to hum "Ride of the Valkyries" here.  I did.

Rotors curving downward...oddly.

Legion 1/0 ... Protectorate Still 0/9

We haven't played any Thursday lunchtime battles at work in a few weeks, so it took me unawares when our local Khador player (aka "wins all games") IM'd me that he was up for a game.  I could have played the house Skorne army, but decided to test drive Matt's Legion.

My Legion:

• Lylyth
• Carnivean
• 5 Shredders

Khador:

• Strakhov
• Marauder
• Juggernaut
• The Three Bears
• Gorman DiWulfe

So what happened, you might ask?  Did you not read the title?  I won!  It turns out Lylyth is deadly with that bow.  POW 12, 12" range and ROF 2.  Anybody with less armor than Karchev is going to feel that one.  I pretty much raced off to one side (leaving the Three Bears alone on a flank) and tried to swarm him with Shredders, which put a little pressure on.  On Lylyth's feat turn, those little rabid jerks will get 4 dice to hit and boosted damage.  They aren't going to miss.

One note about running a slew of Shredders... you need to have some way to identify them!  I could have written on the base or something, but I decided to give them nicknames based on their poses.  Lefty and Lefty Jr. had an extended left foot (Lefty far more than his namesake) while Up and Down seemed to be looking in the direction of their name.  The Agonizer was, no surprise, an Agonizer that I was proxying as a shredder.  

So how did it end?  He ended up focusing on the swarm of shredders (out of necessity mostly) and moving the Marauder back to screen Strakhov from Lylyth's killer bow.  Strak is immune to fire or I would have dragon breath'd him with the Carnivean.  Instead, I slammed the Marauder (a taste of its own bitter medicine!) into Strakhov and the knocked down models opened the door for Lylyth to step to one side, pop her feat, roll 4 dice to hit against a model with DEF 5, and do the remaining 5 or so damage to win the game.

I like typing that part.  I'm going to do it again.  ...to win the game.

Earth Will Be Victorious!!

I just received an email from "Environment Michigan" detailing our plans to defeat Mercury on Earth Day. While I understand the symbolic significance of an Earth Day victory, I am very disappointed in how visible the campaign's timeline is.  The element of surprise is vital to a decisive victory, and by advertising that we will be attacking Mercury on Earth Day we are giving them ample time to shore up their defenses in preparation for the invasion.  I assume our vast fleets are en route as we speak, assuming Venus gave us permission to cross their orbit.

Plastic Vanguard Vet w/ Relic Blade

Ron Saikowski's Astorath conversion writeup made me think a bit about how to model minis (marines specifically) holding weapons two handed.  How would I do that?  Then I remembered... I already did!

(Yes, sounds like Professor Fansworth's Smelloscope.... sadly.)

This guy is one of a few conversions I did a while ago that never got posted here.  Each got to about 80% completion before I ADD'd off to the next idea.  The arms are the gunner arms from the Adeptus Mechanicus tank crew member found on every Space Marine vehicle sprue... you know, the guy nobody seems to use?  Yeah, that one.  His hands are flat enough on top to press them together in a reasonable facsimile of a two handed grip.  I drilled through them and placed a thin rod so that they would keep their orientation, then pinned the blade and the pommel (?) to the extending ends of the rod.  The arms will not fit completely flush at the shoulder when the hands are together, but a little putty and the comically huge shoulder pads will completely obscure that.  The blade is the Black Reach captain's blade.  

At roughly the same time frame I did this fellow, meant to be a Chapter Master.

I was getting all fancy with the magnets, so I gave him a bolter, bolt pistol or plasma pistol.  He's a converted Black Reach captain with a regular marine chest plate in place of the rather unique one that the model normally uses.  The cloth covering his bits there hides the fact that his legs just sort of terminate into nothingness.  There are no bits to cover.  It's not really visible unless you turn the model completely upside down.  The little crest on the helmet is green stuff.

Everybody has their little rock to stand on too.  It's standard issue once you reach a certain rank.

Third Time's A Charm?

Well, two winners have been chosen in my oh-so-closely-watched 100 (or so) followers celebratory giveaway, and neither winner responded.  You'd think it would be easier to give stuff away.

So now a third winner has been chosen.  I'm hoping the fact that this user actually has a profile pic in Blogger means that he will respond.  Email has been sent!  You have a week!

Growth Over Time

It is an interesting phenomenon that when a certain character is illustrated over a long period of time, certain aspects of illustration will get enlarged.

Take, for instance, Bloom County's Opus the Penguin.

I won't begin to speculate why the nose gets bigger over time.  Smarter people than me have probably done all the analysis ever needed on that subject.

After seeing the post on MWC with associated artwork, it occurs to me that Marneus Calgar's armor has gone through much the same tranformation.

Okay, so maybe the later version is supposed to be him in his special terminator armor... I dunno.  The one on the left looks merely anatomically impossible.  The one on the right looks like Dreadknight Jr., and has notably fewer dinosaurs.  Would you turn in your leopard skin cloak and dinosaur attendants in exchange for very cold lighting and giant armor?  Well, would you?  I didn't think so.

<3 Michigan

This state is crazy.  A couple years ago we had a white Easter and a green Christmas.  Today, it's snowing like crazy.  My grandfather told tale of his birth in June being the day of a snowstorm.

Ah, who am I kidding.  I love it.  Crazy, wonderful, unpredictable, Michigan weather.

Games Day 2011 Chicago... NOT sold out

NOTICE: I just got a nice email from Megan at GW saying there was a web site problem. Tickets are still available.  Thanks for the quick response, Megan!

I just went to buy Games Day tickets (here) and .... no longer available?  Did I miss something?  Did Games Day tickets sell out?

I haven't been to a Games Day since they went to the format of having only one in the US.  It never occurred to me that demand might be high enough to sell out before May.  I have emailed GW to ask.

Anyone actually know for sure?

This could seriously hamper my Golden Demon plans...

This is What a $10,000 Mini Really Looks Like

...and one of the reasons Marike Reimer is one of my favorite painters.  I'm glad she posted pics because the Crystal Brush photos just didn't capture how amazing this piece really is.

This is a closeup (lifted unapologetically from her website.)  She has also posted it on CMON.  Painting last night trying to achieve this level of precision was... frustrating.

Surprisingly Offensive

I just got called a name that offended me.  I am not easily offended.

The name was "boss."

Am I being too sensitive?  I'm a middle aged white man.  To have a young (20-30 year old) black man call be "boss" made me feel like I had just called him "boy."  I don't think I did anything to deserve that.  I was stopping by my favorite pizza place to pick up an order for my family's dinner, and I had to ask him to repeat what he yelled to me when I first walked in the door.  "HAVE... YOU... ALREADY... ORDERED?" he repeated in comically exaggerated enunciation.  Whether or not that was the precipitating event, I was "boss" from that moment on.  It wasn't a single time either.  Each of the three or four times he addressed me he called me boss.

I said nothing.  I'm not a terribly confrontational person.  Maybe this was a glimpse into what it's like to experience subtle racism on a regular basis.  Maybe he thought I wouldn't notice his subtle slight.  Maybe he didn't even realize the implication his words had.  Whatever his intent, I felt accused.


Post script:  A few weeks later I went back to that same place and observed a white employee calling a black patron "boss."

Language is a funny thing.  It has been pointed out to me for years that seemingly meaningless phrases actually have a lot of built-in baggage.  When I was a kid it was commonplace to tell others to "get your cotton-picking hands off of me" or something similar.  Describing something as "cotton picking" did not have any other purpose than emphasis for us as children, but it has distinctly racial overtones.  As an adult I have endeavored to eliminate phrases like that from my speech.  I forget that some things just lose their meaning as they are diluted in the culture.

Happy Birthday Stef! (And a Nice Word About Ubid)

Today is my lovely wife's birthday.  (Perhaps I'm biased, but she does not look a day older than when we met, some 19 years ago.)  She loves electronic gadgets, so this year I bought her a 2go PC SL10 for what amounts to a huge discount from ubid.com.   We haven't gotten it yet, but it has shipped.

For a brief time, I wondered if we would get it at all.  

Ubid suffered a denial of service attack on the day that particular auction was scheduled to end.  As a result I was unable to access the site to check the auction or up my bid if needed.  The end time came and went, and I was left to wonder if I had won or not.  About 2 AM an email came to me saying I had won for a ridiculous 50% of retail price.  Considering the DOS attack, and the fact that another email from ubid said that auctions running during the DOS would be extended by 24 hours, I wondered if they would honor the price.  It could certainly be argued that the auction was invalidated by the DOS, and that the prices were artificially low.  These items were actually being shipped from ubid itself, so they certainly had the leeway to do what they wanted.  Today, I got notification that the item had shipped at the auction price.  Hats off to ubid for going the "happy customer" route in this case.  Perhaps I'm biased because I got a good deal.  Perhaps I'm biased because my wife will be happy.  Probably a little of both.

My Busy Hobby Shelf

I should either finish some of these or move them to a safer locale.  This is the shelf from which the Wraithlord and Treewoman made their various drops.

So what's up there....

• the Avatar of Menoth with his stained glass goodness
• an Ultraforge Treewoman in progress
• a couple Warmachine mercenaries (Anastasia DiBray and Madelyn Corbeau) unpainted
• a Reaper Elf Mage that I was painting as part of a challenge vs. Auberoun at Digital Waaagh.  
• High Exemplar Kreoss poking in from the side
• the Ral Partha Elf Blademistress I've been trying to paint lately
• Skaven Lord Skrolk, who may end up a Golden Demon entry if I can improve him dramatically
• a Wraithguard in a sad state of WIP
• a panda made from polymer clay by one of my kids
• Reaper Jolie, also painted by one of my kids
• a Razorback turret with heavy bolters

So what does this demonstrate?  That I am incapable of finishing a project?  Maybe....

Hello? The Winner?

So the winner of the random-painted-mini-follower-contest type thing hasn't responded, and it's been more than a week.  It isn't anyone whose name I recognize, so I don't even know if that person is real or a puppet account.

Anyway, if I don't get a response on or before this coming Tuesday (4/12) I will  pick another winner randomly.  If you are a regular follower but not a "google-friend-connect magical space robot follower" then let me know and I will add you to the choose-o-matic list.  I will also re-generate the list from google friend connect as well, so if you became a follower between the last drawing and now you will have a shot at winning.

While you're here, take a look at that phone.  Remember the sound dialing used to make, or the satisfying impact of your finger on that metal stopper?  And the phone company charged extra for touch tone?  Yeah, now I dial by touch screen or just think the name of the person really loud.  Progress.

Crytsal Brush: Wish List for Next Year

Crystal Brush is over, and umpteen thousands have been awarded to some of my favorite painters.  Sure it had its hitches, but I suppose it went pretty well for the first year.  I loved the idea of taking part in the online voting, which ties in well with CMON's whole "thing."  After participating, I thought I'd mention a couple things that might improve the experience for next year.

1. Add the ability to change my vote. I had at least one experience where I realized after looking at the mini later that I really low-balled the score. The ability to fix that would be great, and shouldn't be infeasible since we're already logged in.

2. Display entry counts. Just some idea of how many entries we've voted on out of a total count would give a sense of scale, since we're not there to look at all the models physically. "You have voted on 11/23 in this category; 34 of 91 overall" or similar.

3. Display my vote in gallery view. Goes back to #1.  The only place I could see what I voted on something was each time I case a vote and a new entry was displayed (my prior vote was displayed on the left with score.)

4. Inclusion in CMON annual. This may be a no-brainer, but I thought I'd mention it. A nice spread of the winners each year in the annual would be nice.

5. Improve the photography.  This is definitely a case of "testing would have helped."  The reflective black backdrop was distracting and many of the pics were slightly off focus and over-saturated.  They seemed to get it right for pics of the final winners, so hopefully next year's competition will all have that quality.

So thanks to CMON for giving me some enjoyable painting competition participation, even if only vicariously.  I really hope to compete next year!

(Also, Steve Buddle has some excellent points on the subject.)

Crystal Brush: Photography Is Difficult

If you have ever participated at CMON, you know that two hobbies are on display there, mini painting and photography.  A bad picture of a great mini will get a mediocre score.  Whoever is doing the photography for the first Crystal Brush painting competition is having a very frustrating day, I'm sure.

When voting came online, about 11:30 PM Eastern time, it became very clear that photography was not going to tell the story of many of these pieces.  Some were clearly amazing.  Others... less so.  Some it is impossible to tell.  I was going to include some images of the minis that I really liked and some that I just couldn't discern the quality level from the Crystal Brush photo, but in the spirit of not commenting on an ongoing competition I will save those for after voting has closed.

After voting on a hundred or so minis, I have to wonder if a purely judge-based system isn't the best way to go.  I'm giving it my best to score these, but I just don't feel like I'm in possession of all the data.

Failure To Plan: Missing Crystal Brush #1

I am a bit miffed at myself. When I first heard about the Crystal Brush painting competition and its $10,000 grand prize I decided to go to Adepticon to compete. Not because I had any delusions of winning, mind you... I just wanted to be part of the moment (so to speak) and to see what would undoubtedly be some world class miniatures.

Instead, I will be sitting home, voting for my favorite entry via CMON, and merely wishing I was there. Perhaps I will employ some sort of food-based solace.

I still plan on going to Chicago for Games Day and hopefully incrementing my Golden Demon count. Maybe I should focus this weekend on getting those entries closer to completion. Or maybe I'll just sit around and read the Malifaux rulebook. So many choices.