Reapercon 2018 - Part II

Part II.  Here's the mini-review / how to.

Home sweet home. The Embassy Suites in Denton Texas was so new it smelled new.

View from our room on the 11th floor. I suspect this will be filled in with commercial offerings galore next year.

The Good:

• The Classes.  The classes we took were excellent.  They are only an hour and 45 minutes in length, so it's fast paced and in some cases just a little too short.  We didn't take as many classes as we could because we were worried about fatigue, but we left each session excited and wanting more.
• The People.  As I mentioned in Part I, this is a tight knit, but welcoming crew.  Reaper Staff were great, and we met so many accepting people.
• The Venue. The new Embassy Suites was fantastic.  The staff (for the most part) were outstanding and got on board with our nerdly ways - for example, I saw employees wearing convention badge ribbons under their Embassy Suites badges.

The Bad:

• The GrowTix registration site is ... well, I started to type "not adequate" to be polite, but ... it's trash.  Sorry.  All of our tickets came out in the end, so no harm to us, but I was meticulous in figuring out their systems and double checking everything because the interface is so horrendously bad.
• The Auction.  Throughout the event, you can earn "Reaper Bucks" (play money) to use at the closing ceremony auction.  All in all we had fun, and even won a Badger Krome airbrush, but as tables started pooling their funds, it left out a lot of people who wanted to bid on items.  We were at a good table - thanks to getting adopted - but it was apparent that some people were frustrated.

Things to Do Differently Next Time:

• Pack a lunch.  We ate restaurant food and junky snacks from the time that we left on Tuesday until we got home late Monday.  It's hard to leave the venue, get food, and get back in a reasonable amount of time, despite a lot of nearby options.  Each room had a kitchenette that we could have made use of - even if it was PBJ or deli meat sandwiches.  And we spent a lot of money on food.
• Take more classes.  I don't want to spend every waking moment in class, but we could have handled more classroom time.
• Volunteer to run a game.  There wasn't a lot of board game / tabletop wargame options.  Reaper obviously only offers what people are willing to run.  Maybe I should step up - I'm thinking Shadows of Brimstone would be a fun thing to run.
• Enter the painting contest.  We pushed ourselves to get entries into GenCon and then the Miniature Monthly Masters.  I had things that I'd painted earlier this year, but didn't feel that they showed my current capability and left them at home.  I should have done SOMETHING though.
• Bring stuff to paint.  Although we painted in classes and did the painting events ("Sophie Says") I could have brought a few models to play with at Fort Wappel.

Reapercon 2018 - Part I

Miniatures. Gaming. Fun.  That about sums it up.

I've started typing this post a few times to consolidate some of my Reapercon thoughts.  Nothing I've written yet really conveys exactly what happened to us.  "We had a great/wonderful/excellent/terrific time" is kind of cliche.

So, I'll start with a post I wrote for another forum and then modify/merge and turn this into sort of a mini-review / how-to at the end.

We signed up not really knowing what to expect.  What we found is that Reapercon is first and foremost about the painting aspect of the hobby.  Secondarily, it's about D&D and a smattering of other tabletop systems.  I saw just a handful of board games in play, but there were tons of tabletop RPGs.

But painting, lots of painting.

The Trip:

Anyway, we opted to drive. People called us crazy, but I really wanted the "road trip" feel to our experience.  And I really detest airports.  Between our home and the Texas destination there were a couple of states that I've never physically been to, except perhaps during a layover for a flight.  And I really detest airports.  Did I mention I don't like airports?

We set out after work on Tuesday evening and set our destination for St. Louis and the physical store for Miniature Market.  I've used MM over the past several years as a source for all kinds of things, and it was super fun (and a little surreal) to park our car in the front row beneath the MM sign.

The store was really cool, and I would recommend stopping by if you are in the area, but wasn't a mega-mart by any stretch.  Huge for a gaming store, and well stocked, but much of the obscure stuff that I know they have is managed out of the warehouse - which is a separate address.  We bought a few things and chatted up the store staff - they seemed impressed and honored that we made them part of our road trip.

Initial Destination:  Miniature Market physical store in St. Louis.

We arrived in time for the Wednesday night pizza party to kick off the event.  We randomly sat next to other people from the Reaper forums, and that served as a gateway to meeting many (many) more people throughout the weekend.

We signed up for 3 classes spread throughout the weekend (more on this later), registered for a run-thru of the Pathfinder 2E scenario, and we did the Reaper factory tour.  All of this was good fun and quite worthwhile.

Aaron Lovejoy giving a class on NMM.

My rough NMM attempt in the limited time we had; focusing on lighting and colors.

Setting up for the "Everything Chibi" course.  Here I've basecoated the Reaper figure.

The factory tour, in particular, was fantastic.  Reaper is a small shop in the grand scheme, and it's apparent that they've grown very organically over the years and figured out what works best for them.  I've been in/around large and small manufacturing since my first job in my teens and the sad/sterile/lifeless corporate factory is far too common.  Their entire factory just oozes with personalized touches and customized processes.  It made me want to work there.

Shifting topics:  the people that attend Reapercon are a tight knit crew and quite fantastic.  It's not a "small" con, but it's far smaller than PAX-U, and it goes on for 4+ full days (with most people arriving Wednesday evening for the pre-party and some staying through to Monday morning before setting off for home, so it's almost 6 days for many).

Convention Layout. We had most of the convention space but there is room to grow.

Registration desk.

Vendor area. Two short rows of booths (this is not Gencon) but there was good variety and things worth looking at.

General 'free area' for painting, gaming, or sitting down to chat or have a bite.  I'm showing maybe 1/3 of the available space.

Here's the part that I have trouble describing:  we got adopted by two groups and then met friends-of-friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends.  After 5 Gencons, 3 Blizzcons, a PAX-U, and random visits to the game stores near us, I feel like I can find common ground and have a pleasant conversation with most nerds.  But in the small confines of a mult-day event, those incidental encounters were compounded with repeat conversations.

Fort Wappel is a gathering point for many painters and social hijinks. We spent a lot of time here.

I grabbed reference photos of this dragon for my KDM Dragon King. 

Face detail on the dragon. Those eyes!

We started Wednesday night awkward and anonymous, but went up to our room on Sunday with handshakes and hugs.  It all happened in a blur, but looking back at how the weekend evolved, it couldn't have happened any other way - and could have never been planned or premeditated.

So, we had a great time; already talking about next year.

Hot off the Desk: Kingdom Death White Knight

Kingdom Death White Knight on a Scibor base.

Now that the Miniature Monthly Masters entry window has closed, I'll post pictures of my entry!

*fanfare noises*  Kingdom Death White Knight!

A few random notes:

• He was truthfully one of the best models to assemble.  The resin was super clean and easy to work with.  
• What you're seeing is a mix of hand-brushing and airbrush work.  I alternated both methods throughout - basecoating as well as shading.
• I started with my usual airbrush-applied primer (Vallejo Surface Primer, Black) and then worked up through several shades of gray to pure white before basecoating the other colors.
• The marble floor result was almost totally an accident.  I bought the paint (Reaper Pearl White) to put me over the top to get free shipping when I ordered the Teal.  I started using the Pearl only because it was "new" and then realized that it's actually a "metallic" and somewhat translucent. Initially I was unhappy with it because it was thin - took several coats to cover and hard to control ... I was worried about filling in the floor texture detail.  Then the blue ink over the top really surprised me; I almost did something else entirely.
• The stripe on the shield was masked and airbrushed, then I accented the highlights on the teal.
• I was originally going to airbrush a bright gold ink on the shield instead of the stripe.  It would have made the shield a white with translucent gold with dark gold in the recesses.  I'm happy with the stripe but might save that idea for another figure.
• As I was painting the two figures on the wooden cross, I was highlighting their rag coverings and discovered that there aren't 2 figures, but actually 4.  If you look closely, there's a 2nd figure on each side grasping at the other figure's waist.  They're tiny!  There isn't much lore on this figure, but I took that represent the Strong protecting the Weak and made me like him even more.

Some Work in Progress photos:

Mockup after assembly to check compatibility with the base.

First attempt at the tunic shading and gold basecoating done. Starting to highlight gold.

At this point I've mocked up the fur, but ultimately wanted it less brown to stand out from the gold more.

Raw airbrushed shield; masking and teal stripe will be applied later.

And the final submission photos:

Sword arm view.  All of the gold was basecoated and highlighted by hand (Reaper products).  The plant and some of the gems/detail and sword grip are Reaper Rusty Red - one of my new favorite colors that was recently discontinued (!!)

Rear view. The cloak was airbrushed and then highlighted by hand. I tried to accent the base with two colors of brown to make it look like silted sediment.

The base 'face' was basecoated by hand and then shaded with inks and highlighted with Reaper Pearl White. I used the Sotar 2020 for detail work.

Closer shot of the Shield.  I tried to shade the leg/thigh where maybe the (heavy) shield might rub during a long day of travel.

ZPS - August 2018

UCM Frigates - Done!

August came and went in a flash.  Work had me on the road quite a bit, and I've struggled to keep any sort of momentum at the office.  It seems like GenCon was a long time ago, but it's only been a few weeks.

1. On the Table:
I feel like I've gotten a lot done, but these piddly little entries don't quite do it justice.

• Miniature Monthly Masters Contest Entry - After GenCon, I was planning to get back to Dropfleet Commander (DFC) cruisers and capital ships, but decided to put an entry into this contest.  As a single figure, it is probably a personal best and while I'm hoping to be competitive, I don't expect to place.  I'm super happy with the results, though.  I'll post pictures after the results, but it's been a good chance to use some new colors and try some new things.
• Dropfleet Commander - The frigates are DONE and the cruisers and capital ships are airbrush-basecoated and shaded.  Now that MM-Masters submission in, I've pulled them back to the front of the queue and am starting to pick out details before I mask all the accent stripes. 
• ReaperCon - We're actually at ReaperCon RIGHT NOW!  I set this post to robo-post while we're away.  Looking forward to a few painting classes, and maybe some tabletop RPGs.

2. Gaining Momentum:

• Magic: the Gathering - Bought some cards on a whim after being away for almost 15 years.  I have no intention of playing competitively at the FLGS, but a few pickup games around the house have been fun.  I'd hoped to get some MTG in at GenCon but the stars didn't align (but that's okay).  For where we're at, their preconstructed decks are pretty fun and work okay for a weeknight brawl.

3. Losing Traction:

• Gloomhaven - Wish we had time to continue our campaign.  Weekends lately have been mowing, painting, and recovery.  Weeknights have been no good for long gaming sessions either.
• KDM Wave 2 - Also wish I had more time to dig into these, but reality is reality.  After the DFC ships are done, these are next, but realistically I don't expect to get to them for several weeks.

4. Going, going, gone.

• Summer - Labor Day marks the end of another summer (even though Fall doesn't technically begin for another few weeks).  I'm okay with this.  Summer is my least favorite season - humidity and bugs and mowing the lawn.  There's also this underlying peer pressure (reinforced by the marketing gurus at Lowes, Home Depot, and Bud Light) that Summer is supposed to be "fun" with lots of time outside being social.  Honestly, I'd rather be outside in October and November when the temperatures are nice.  I'm looking forward to splitting wood, running the chainsaw, and some crisp dry mornings.  So screw you, Summer, and get the heck out of here already.