ZPS - July 2018

July was all about Dropfleet

I'm going to break tradition and go rogue for this month's formatting.  Instead of the 4 normal categories of things rising and falling in priority, let's just ramble a little bit.  I know you'll miss the bullet points; they shall return next month.  There are basically three topics I wanted to tackle.  Gencon, Dropfleet, and more Gencon.

I. Gencon and a Retrospective.

Gencon is in a few days.  That's a good thing; I could use the time away from the office, and am very much looking forward to seeing old friends and walking the convention floor.  I'll be glad to visit some of my favorite booths and chat with people that I've developed online conversations with.  And I'm excited to be in the same room as one of my favorite authors - James S.A. Corey.

Gencon also marks the first anniversary of this blog, at least in concept if not by posting date.  There were things I wanted to write about coming out of last year's event, and this venue became the repository for those things.

It's been a good year.  Sometimes it feels like I'm overwhelmingly behind the curve in terms of project progress.  I mean, I'm just now getting to DFC (figures I bought last August).  But in terms of personal/hobby growth, it's been a big year.  I've typed about this before, but model prep (filling, moldline removal, priming) and airbrushing shading are the two biggest things I've added to my toolkit and now take for granted.  I'm still learning blending and brush control, and am looking for ways to expand how I do detail work with the airbrush.  But there are some big game-changing things I hadn't attempted - and was afraid of - this time last year.

Good, but not quite good enough.  Watch for improvements.

II. Dropfleet Commander.

As the Kenny Rogers classic says, "you have to know when to hold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run."

The big Dropfleet push (GC Project #2) started strong, and as the month started I had a really good feeling about it.  The test piece (shown above) looked great, model assembly went well (except for the Battlecruiser) and I was about to pop my knuckles, roll my neck, and crank out a lot of little ships.

But weekend before last, I hit a point where I was mapping out the remaining work against remaining days and coming up short.  Shortly after, I realized I was starting to make trades in quality for the sake of schedule.  "Oh, I'll just skip this, it'll look okay."  Ack, not the situation I wanted to be in.

I have a ton of money wrapped up in the DFC fleet.  I really didn't want to drop back and punt (whoa! Zoxe used a sports metaphor!) but I really didn't want to be unhappy with the result.  The direction I was going was perhaps "above average" in terms of DFC ships I see on google search results, but I knew that I was capable of better.  And as I said, I was looking for shortcuts that were becoming too tempting.

The voice in my head said that I should drop out of my DFC event at Gencon but it took a few days for me to say it out loud.  But, once I admitted it, it gave me the creative freedom to go back through the ships I thought were "done" and do some additional work, fixing things and pulling out details that I'd otherwise have overlooked.  It's also allowing me to take some risks and develop some additional skills instead of just assembly-lining them through.  Are they pro-level?  Oh, heck no.  But I'm far happier with the results I'm seeing.

Get Ready.

III. Getting Ready for Gencon.

There are a lot of google results for "how to Gencon" so I won't replicate that level of detail here.  Sure, the event is an unwieldy beast, and we certainly have our own recipe, but there's really no "wrong" way to do the event.  Instead, I'll share a few personal steps:

1. Take your vitamins.  'Con Crud is an illness that's real.  Between all the unwashed masses you'll be rubbing against, late nights, crappy diet, and various forms of nerd stress it's easy to compromise your immune system.  I think I've been sick after at least the last 2 of 3 Gencons.  This year, even though we drive, I'm treating it like one of my work trips to the airport:  multivitamins and extra sleep in the days prior, and vitamin C throughout.  (I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice, just do what makes sense for you).
2. Stay hydrated.  We bring water with us each day and buy more there.  This is a little crude, but if you haven't had to pee in awhile, ask yourself why.
3. Don't eat the food in the convention center.  We bring healthy snacks to grab throughout the day.  When it comes time to find an actual meal we go to the food trucks - there will be two areas where they congregate and they'll rotate each day.  I can't say that the food trucks are any cleaner than the convention center, but the food can be lighter (less "cafeteria-ey"), tastes better, and getting some fresh air won't hurt you (really).
4. Make dinner reservations.  Preferably somewhere outside the radius where the nerd hordes will pillage.  Sit down, have a real dinner and an adult beverage or two with friends.  You might be thinking you need to be rolling dice 23 hours a day, but just stop and pause and enjoy the weekend for what it is: time with people like you.  Indy is a great city that supports the 'con like few other places, step outside and enjoy it.