Overdue Update Pt. 1- Fantasy

It's been 4.5 months since my last update. But I haven't been completely inactive. Just not posting much here. I post pics more regularly on Instagram, probably because it's easier than sitting down at a PC to update this site. And I spend too much time in front of my PC every week for work, so I've also been trying to enjoy the summer & fall outside, before winter hits.

I have actually written and re-written a post about revisiting my idea for Warhammer -1313 and now working it into a solo skirmish campaign. But more on that later. For now, here's a potential warband teaser pic. :D More on that later, as well.

I've mostly been painting sci-fi figures lately and playing Five Parsecs From Home. But I just got an itch for some October spooky terrain & painting a week or two ago. It started with the idea of using some cheap craft store pumpkins for a bit of terrain -- a pumpkin patch. Then I thought of doing a pumkin circle, like a fairy circle, but spooky. Naturally that meant I needed someone to inhabit/emerge from the pumpkin ring realm. I've got a small batch of others partially painted, hopefully finish this week.

I will follow up shortly with some sci-fi posts next. I have been updating the Five Parsecs page here, even if it doesn't show up on the front page/main blog section. So there are more battle reports and painted figures to share. Coming soon! Probably.

Five Parsecs from Gaming

It appears to have been a while since I've updated. That's due to the lack of painting or gaming since the beginning of July. 2021 has not been kind.

First, a bit of catching up. Early in July I posted my wrap-up for the 2021 Old World Army Challenge. I've never had difficulty finishing a painting challenge until this year. In fact, I skipped everything other than the OWAC. (No "Big April", "Month of Marsh", or "Orctober" for me.) But at least I'm happy with the end result of OWAC 2021!

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2021/07/zerotwentythrees-post-owac4-eldar.html

Recently (last two weeks or so) I've squeezed out some time at the painting desk again. Thank FSM. I needed it. Painting is my anti-stress, my meditation. And I needed it.

I've been continuing with the sci-fi theme, participating in the "squad challenge" that the OWAC group does as an off-season warm up or something like that. Essentially, it's painting 10 figures with a common theme over 2 months. I'm continuing with sci-fi, painting some more "supporting characters" for a hopeful solo campaign of Five Parsecs From Home. More on that later.

So the painting...

First 3 of the 10 figure challenge. Nulltron, washed up egotistical robot overlord; Slem, time and space displaced fianna Fimir turned galactic fringe bounty hunter; and Jaz, just Jaz.

David Rattenborough, famed Spaven naturalist & mutalogical engineer, with his field assistant, Gleek. Seen here with a vox caster, no doubt presenting the findings of his latest expedition.

99% done painting. Still need inspiration to hit for something entertaining to paint on the scroll.

Not sure if she's summoning them up from below ground or about to get eaten. Pic could be telling either story.

Stalking the crystal fields.

Small terrain piece kitbashed from various bits of trash.

Mostly I work. This year we had an official OK for costumes on the Friday before Halloween, we decorated like we never have before, and our last hour of the work day was "trick or treat."  So this was my casual Friday look. Unfortunately I didn't have any video meetings. "Yes, behold the wraith who designs your retail stores!"

Half-Orc Arrival

I've put in a couple of really long weeks this month, which is part of the reason I didn't paint as many half-orcs as I would have liked this month. So I thought I deserved a few minis. Picked up a pack of minis to test for half-orciness.

They're Alternative Armies hobgoblin raiders. Shown here, from left to right... Mirliton hal-orc, Alt. Armies, Citadel RR15 hobgoblin, Alt. Armies, Black Tree Orc, Alt. Armies


Last night I was up to stupid o'clock working on one small detail for our office decorating contest...

Halloween 2017

I should be playing KoW in a couple weeks. This is what I'm thinking of taking, nothing but bones. I needed to start sorting out figures anyway, and thought it was a good way to pass the time while waiting for trick-or-treaters who never showed up. (On the plus side, there's a full bowl of candy left for me!) I still have to finish 13 more Nightmare Legion to finish the horde. If I don't get them done in time, I will swap that unit out for some other skeletons.

Halloween craftiness below. I've been sick the past few days, but enjoyed a little bit of the holiday spirit. Made the mask but didn't really wear it other than for a quick photo.

Wandering

Got my hands on some more Nightmare Legion. I wasn't specifically looking, nor expecting to get any more. At all. But put a low bid (at least compared to the ridiculous BIN prices usually listed) in on eBay and won. So since I am playing KoW in early November, I think I might try to paint the remaining minis I need to run a KoW horde of them! They need cleaned up a bit. Looks like no/minimal cleanup of flash & mold lines. Not sure how much time I will be able to put into that.

End of October/Early November is a busy time. Work stuff is about to explode. But on a more persona note, I've got some resin toy stuff I need to finish for an exhibit at Designer Con ...

And then there's the Halloween, Dia de Muertos, All Souls, etc. stuff to work on, attend, etc...

So the next few weeks I will be wandering all over the place...

Halloween '16

Thought I would share a few photos from Halloween. (I realize this is a bit late.)

My daughter dressed in a calavera, fairy, witch, princess... I don't know, I lost track. The costume was sort of a fluid concept up until the last minute. But that's OK. She was happy, looked cute, and I can dig the free-form costuming. Besides, my own concept wasn't more than, "hey, I have this robe, why don't I get a faceless mask at the last minute."

We had fun, that's all that matters. She was really excited, skipping around the neighborhood. I tried to keep up with her skipping.

The weekend before Haloween we painted pumpkins and ceramic skulls, which ended up on the table on our front porch. Admittedly a bit hard to see them in this Halloween night pic. All three kids (aside from my daughter) who came trick-or-treating on our street got to check them out. Things have changed since I was young. Don't kids go outdoors anymore? I mean, it was a night of dressing up and collecting bags of free candy -- WTF? (Whatever. More left-over Skittles and Reese Cups for me.)

Halloween Loot '16

$1.99 reinforcements? Not quite "gaming proportions" and half of them are bent up. They also fall closer to the size of the giants rather than the ogres. More like a taller cousin to the 40mm skeleton on the right. Not sure if that's good or bad. I didn't really have a plan for them beyond, "Ooooh, cheap! I should buy a bag!"

A plain black mask was what I was actually shopping for at the Halloween store. I have a brown robe and I'm trying to put together a last-minute costume cheaply and quickly.

Figures on the Table and Halloween

Some lousy photos of one of the next things on my table. A pair of old Marauder dwarf swivel guns. I bought them eBay ages ago, but the package arrived damaged and a few parts were missing. It's taken me years to finally get around to creating a few replacement parts (one and a half of the two frames) for the guns. My plan is to mount these on 40mm bases and use them to bolster my insufficient numbers (10) of Marauder dwarfs with handguns.

They're cast in a very soft, presumably lead-heavy alloy. You can print pretty clearly with them on paper.

My time the past few days, however, has been taken up with building a mask for my daughter. She has been changing her mind every few days as to what she wanted to be for Haloween. With just a couple days to go, she really wanted to be a dinosaur. I ran out of time for some of the details (and rest of the teeth). As it turns out, the poor kid is really sick and didn't wear the mask anyway -- though she did go trick-or-treating for just a bit, dressed as Super Girl.

At the end of the day, T-rex (shown here after my daughter had painted it earlier in the day) got into some of the left-over candy. It is a well accepted fact that T-rex was not just a predator, but was an opportunist not above scavenging.

Can't stay on track

No sooner than I sit down at the miniatures painting table for a day or two, than I'm distracted by other things.

One is the Spaces Gallery 10x10 Benefit, for which I donated a watercolor (which I hope makes some bidder/donor quite happy -- as I liked it and I'm actually a bit sad to see it go).

The other is Halloween! I always have such grand plans for costumes. One out of every ten years do I actually pursue them. The rest of the time it's just whatever I can pull together last minute.

So granted, this is still dragging out til last minute, but I've been working on it. Probably for an inappropriate amount of time.

Here's 3/4 of the way through tonight's painting. I wanted to try the top part of the costume on...



I've since added some further texture & darkness to the mask, plus gathered together the rest of the costume, added some details like the metalic color and patina to the lenses & associated structure (screw heads...)

A few friends have gone off to Fall In this weekend. I've sent a request to buy me a pack of the Perry WotR plastics plus one of the command packs. Perhaps more figures on the horizon. ;)

In truth, I've been working on some commission stuff in between mask-making & other scheming.