Reboot

 

Wow, I haven't posted here in 5 years.

And yah, I know blogging is dead and all the kids are on instaface or whatever.  This has always been more of a diary that anything anyway. Screw it, let's type.

Let's get this part out of the way: it's been a rough time for my hobby. When the Pandemic hit, we pivoted to work from home instantly, like many.  Except, just months before, we had converted our spare bedroom office into a hobby room with a pair of benches. So, I began working from my hobby bench. 

In 2026, when I talk to people about how deeply the pandemic affected me - still affects me - I get puzzled looks. It's also become an uncomfortable political hot button, which I hate. The impacts to me were, and are, very real. 

My job at the time was deeply involved with the pandemic response.  I had emotional, stress filled days for the better part of two years.  It's now been 5+ years but I find myself sighing and swallowing hard to even type this as memories flash.  But my point is this: after finishing for the day, I wanted nothing to do with the hobby space in which I worked. I had to get away, had to go outside, go watch a movie, go sit on the couch. Anywhere else, but not there. When I sit there now, some of that aura of stress and dissatisfaction comes back. Later, I added a sit-stand desk next to the hobby bench to have a permanent workstation, but that aura in that chair remains.

And the cat. We got a Pandemic Kitten. A tiny little orange orphan that someone dropped at my parent's. He was exactly what we needed at the time, and he enjoyed working with me and became part of my email and meeting routine.  He's 6 now, but grew up in a house with both of us teleworking and me, his primary human, spending most of his day in the hobby room. Although we are back in the office now, to this day he begs for me to sit in the email chair and goes berserk with happyness when I'm in that room.

Which means he goes berserk when I try to sit down and hobby.  It's tough. He's a good little guy, but I get irritated fast with his shenanigans. While I could break him of it, it's such a fundamental thing about him and our relationship, that it would be cruel to do so. He simply doesn't understand why I'm mad, he just wants to do emails.  As a result, my hobby sessions are fewer and often end in frustration. 

End result: I have a hobby bench that I don't really use; between my lingering anxiety from the pandemic, and sacrifices I make for a neurotic furry overlord, my hobby time has been sporadic and dwindling. 

I haven't painted in probably 8 months and haven't done any serious contest work since 2022. Four years ago.

Gencon ... All of those burdens are still there - work, life, whatever. Before the Pandemic, I used to be excited for Gencon. It was nerd Christmas. I posted here about shenanigans and planning and results.  It was an event to be min/max'd and we went all in. 

• Gencon 2020 didn't happen. We hosted Gencan't with friends and gamed at the house.  
• We went to Gencon 2021 for a single day. It was an odd, small affair. We walked the vendor hall - which was about 1/2 the size of the normal sprawling hall, said hi to a few friends, and then went home sad.  
• I missed Gencon 2022 due to work; I was assigned out of state for almost a year.  
• I honestly don't remember much about Gencon 2023 and 2024. Fizzles. I walked the vendor hall and checked out a few things, bought some Brimstone and Kingdom Death but wasn't adding any new lines to a hobby I really didn't participate in.  
• Gencon 2025 was an interesting one. I got into 3 Kingdom Death factory games. We had a blast with those. I don't remember buying much, and what I did buy is still in the bag that I brought it home in.

And then, Gencon 2026. Something clicked. It started with a random chat with a friend who is a lapsed Infinity player. I told him I'd play - "just tell me what to buy."  

Things snowballed. Two player starter pack (just for me, 2 squads), the 'beyond' pack to extend. Dice. And more dice. And a few other dice. The Infinity fluff book. Once the spending started, I started looking at the show floor through new eyes.  Although we'd walked every aisle in past years, I found myself lingering over demo tables and looking more deeply into vendor booths.  When the dust settled, I also owned two new TTRPGs and something called Squirrel: The Card Game.  I haven't looked at my Amex statement intentionally.

I haven't had a Gencon like that in awhile - where I truly looked at games with enthusiasm and awe. Gencon was once again fun, and I'm staring down building a couple of Infinity squads for casual play. I hope this is a hobby reboot.

Update

TLDR:  We're fine.  I thought about how to start the post, but that's perhaps the best summary.  All things considered, and given the struggles and pain and loss that others are going through, we're fine.

Real Life:
I'd been watching the global situation evolve since before the holidays.  I am not a first responder, but to coin a phrase, I'm sort of a secondary responder.  In our office, there are a handful of processes that I'm responsible for that must continue as unhampered as possible.

Back in January, "This sounds bad," were words I'd shared with family.  I'm not a doomsdayer or a pessimist, and (at least I think) err on the side of practicality.  In late February, we went to the store and stocked up.  No, we weren't part of the TP brigade, but we did fill the pantry with staples.  If things got REALLY bad, we'd not starve.

We were supposed to be on a cruise ship back in Mid March.  Worked kicked into overdrive in the weeks before (unrelated to the pandemic) - I was asked to assist with a high visibility special project consulting for another area. Sitting here typing about it in May, it feels very far away - like it happened to someone else - but those first two weeks of March were some of the busiest and stressful that I'd had in a long while.

We waived off the cruise just days before the major lines announced that they'd pause operations.  Instead, we made some quick reservations and drove to a quiet beach in North Carolina.  No airports, no crowds, and very much their off season.  Just large expanses of empty beach, and some fresh seafood. 

It was the break we needed, but while there "shit got real" as they say.  During the drive out that things started getting surreal with friends posting on FB that the store shelves were empty back home while news headlines started looking bleak.  While there, the shutdown started.  I felt like I had to keep 1 foot grounded in reality and keep a bag packed in case interstate travel started being curtailed.  It was a fog that loomed over the entire trip.

The week passed and we drove home.  The interstates weren't entirely empty, but we drove past town after town with malls shut down, hotels empty, and restaurants closed.  Areas that I expected to be congested with traffic simply weren't.  It wasn't a full-stop, but the volume knob had been turned from 11 down to about a 3 1/2.  Just friggin' weird.

Home Life:
Getting home and checking in with work, we started our remote telework routine and have been working from home since.  The last day I was physically in the office was March 12th, over 2 months ago, the day before we left for NC.

If nothing else, this experience has made me appreciate the 10 acres that we own.  The past few years, I've resented (strong word, I'll use it) the time investment that this property requires.  The chores are nonstop, and to be honest -- over the past few years I've only tread water.  But without the commute, and a burning need to get out of the house, we've had freedom and open spaces that many others don't.

One of the first surprise projects was that we cut a trail through the 3 acres behind the house.  This has given us someplace to walk at lunch.  While not "state park" level of manicure, it's shaping up nicely.  Later, we reopened another trail in the front 7 acres, giving us a 1/2 mile loop to walk.

The Hobby:
My desire to 'hobby' has just died.  Totally.  I normally do a lot of my hobby time after we get home but before dinner, and with working from home that's exactly the window in which I MUST MUST MUST GET OUTSIDE. 

While work has been better lately, the stress of the crazy situation has led me to hide in WoW Classic after dinner instead of attempting to paint.

I'm still doing monthly lessons with Aaron Lovejoy at Miniature Monthly.  Each month I've scrambled to paint SOMETHING to go over with him.  Oddly, I've gotten more out of our lessons lately, even though I'm not applying the knowledge via bench time.  Something 'clicked' in how he's teaching and how I'm receiving. Pretty cool.

We miss our "convention friends."  Over the past couple of years, we've met some fun people in the gaming/painting world that we see several times a year through the convention circuit.  Adepticon, Gencon, and Reapercon are all canceled.  We'll keep up to date via Discord as best we can, but in person shenanigans are better. 

I'm not complaining. I think it was the right choice for the conventions to chill out for a bit.  But it does change the landscape of our year quite a bit.

Blitz

This is what the pre-Gencon Blitz feels like.  A little less than 2 weeks from now, we'll be downtown Indy.  Plans are starting to morph from vague notions and solidify into something more coherent.  As excitement builds with other friends, we bounce ideas around with increasing momentum and refine some expectations.  We had lunch with Pevil this week and talked about events and after-hours shenanigans. Lunch was too short, I could have stayed all day.

I'm looking forward to all of it, but there's just a little bit of panic in the air.

Gencon always feels very far away, right until the point where it's borderline too late.  It's like- February? It's COLD! Gencon is sooooo far away.  March? It's RAINY! Gencon is soo far away.  June? Summer just started!  Gencon is far away.  July?  OhcrapOhCRAPI'msobehind.

I'm not in a bad place overall, but not quite where I maybe should be.

New Dropfleet ships are painted, but I need to figure out carriage/storage in my foam box, and I should probably finalize my army list for the DFC event I'm in.  I already have one Brimstone painting contest entry complete and ready, and just left the bench from working on the second.  I only have a vague notion of where the 2nd project is going, but initial results are good - I just need to hurry the F up and get it done.

Meanwhile the hype train is starting online. New games announced, Kickstarters ramping up, and an informal Q&A from Poots on the KDM Kickstarter comments.

I'm looking forward to a few days off, the time with friends, some good wholesome gaming.  But the next week is probably going to stress me out just a bit as I wrap things up and get ready.

Shut up and Paint

This is a post that I've been fussing with for awhile, which is sort of ironic given the title.  I guess I should just Shut up and Post.

Something interesting happened at a class at Adepticon.  Something unfortunate.  And being honest, in one 10 second exchange, solidified a feeling that I've been chasing but hadn't gotten my arms around.

This isn't a rant, but it might start off sounding like one.

Eras

This is the end of an era. 

I'm typing this from my desktop PC, a pretty dusty Win7 box that I think I clucked down next to my desk sometime in 2012. As I type, I'm transferring pictures and files off of it, which is the first step in the process to clean it up and send it to the recycler. 

The space that my PC desk sits in will soon become my permanent hobby area.  We don't have a basement, and I've been living in a "temp" space on the dining room table.  I put quotes around "temp" because the mess has been there pretty consistently over the past few years.  Technically it all collapses into some rubbermaid bins and Amazon boxes, but realistically it's a daily presence and a nuisance. 

Times change. Interests change. For the past couple decades, I've been a pretty avid PC gamer and MMO player.  I'm not sure when that stopped being true, but it has.  Slowly, I drifted away - driven by my own physical frailty (a shoulder that is trying to freeze and hates long hours on the PC).  I also found a desire to be more visible and "do more" with the time that I have here on the planet.  (I'm not sure how painting tiny army men qualifies for that, but let me have this moment). 

Anyway, the past couple of years, this gaming rig has stopped being the place where I spent my downtime, and instead become the place where I do my taxes, or listen to music when I'm working from home.  And yet I clung to it and avoided the idea that I needed to reclaim the space.

We've been at this address just about 10 years now.  The place where my PC is now is where my PC was when we moved in.  I've never not called it "the computer room."  As I'm sifting through things here, I can't help but feel a little nostalgic.  Games the way they used to be; screenshots of guild greatness in WoW, shenanigans in EVE, heck the desktop background is still set to my EVE Corp (guild) logo that I adapted from a real world logo in 2004 (modernized a few times, but ... originating 15 years ago).

But it's time.  Time to move on, time to evolve, time to accept what has already been true for awhile.  I have some work to do before the machine is turned off for the final time, but this might be the last meaningful thing that I type from it. 

Let's do this.

Projects and Planning

More Dropfleet on the horizon - and a striping tutorial.

Yes, I've attempted to increase my posting frequency.  This is working hand-in-hand with my time at the bench to increase the velocity of my painting.  Coming out of a winter slump, the past several weeks were very productive.  I'm feeling good about where I'm at.  (It's a fleeting feeling; I'll enjoy it while it lasts, hah).

Adepticon was a milestone of sorts - coming home from the event I started framing up "what's next" for the bench. I have some really cool stuff waiting that I've been thinking about since last Gencon (in some cases) but there's been some hesitancy to actually kick it off. I learn more 'stuff' each project; I hesitate to start something not due until August because between now and then I'm going to learn and improve.

But now it's spring, the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming.  It's time.

And then Bones 4 Delivered....

I've started to feel a little better about my painting backlog.  Inspired by Adepticon (before and after), the past few weeks have seen some pretty reasonable progress at the bench.  As I type, I have one Gencon contest entry nearly done, and 3 different batches of Dropfleet ships getting ready for a tourney in May, the Brimstone Lava Giant assembled and awaiting primer once the Dropfleet stuff finishes.  Progress is slow, but steady, and I'll wrap up some of the Dropfleet today.

I have my summer projects queued up in a spreadsheet, and am looking forward to having items to display both at Gencon and at Reapercon, all while getting more fun things on our table for Brimstone, plus more Dropfleet, and plus a foray into Freeblades. 

All of that means fewer sprues on the shelf awaiting assembly, which makes me feel good; it's the first time I can say my backlog is actually reduced in quite some time.

And then Bones 4 delivered.  Behold its glory.

No way around it, that's a lot of Reaper Bones.  Hard to show scale; the Core Set box is about the size of a large shoe (boot) box.

It seems like a long time ago that we pledged this on KS, and it's a little surreal to have in our living room.  We did not go all in, but this is still a pretty hefty box.  There are 150 (!!) individual figures in the core box alone, plus 40 more in the expansion box.  That's before you get to the individual poly bags.

I'll admit that I was so afraid to open the box that it sat conspicuously in our foyer for a couple of days.  But, I knew we needed to at least check inventory, so out it came.

I am pretty excited about checking out the 4 new boxes of paint (small brown boxes on the right), and there are a few figures that I might pull ahead in the queue - a couple of large Dragonkin, for example - but yeeeeeeeesh.  This did not help the backlog at all.

Suggested Reading

I started reading as a kid (in the 4th grade, I read Arthur C. Clarke's 2010) and have continued to read in spurts all my life.  In high school, I got into the original Tom Clancy novels

I am not a high volume reader.  In fact, I tend to go back and reread older books.  Certain stories or characters resonated with me, and over the years I've reread the work and gained different understanding.

Wildly crude example:  Reading Red Storm Rising as a high school freshman, I thought the planes and guns were supercool.  Reading the same book a couple of decades later, and I'm picking up the historical nuances of a Cold War Europe. 

Anyway, the books below changed my life, in some way or another.  No particular order.  I'll use bullet points.  Bullet points are cool.

• Leviathan Wakes, James S.A. Corey
• Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy
• CW2, Layne Heathe
• One Second After, William R. Forstchen
• Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
• The Stand, Stephen King
• Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldier, Stephen Ambrose

There's a lot of war and post-apocalypse on here, which maybe tell you something about me (hah).  

This Week's Distraction: Diablo 3 Season 16

It's been quite awhile since I've played any meaningful Diablo 3 content.  When the game originally launched, I played through, but was quickly bored with the grind and steep difficulty curve.  (And, at launch, the real money auction house and a couple of classes that were nigh unplayable).

It's been several years, and Blizzard has continued to tweak the title and make incremental improvements.  A friend mentioned that Season 16 had commenced, so on a whim I popped in and rolled a fresh Crusader. 

What became clear to me is that:
a) after several years away, the core satisfaction - smiting oodles of baddies - is very much still there, and in some ways amplified.
b) after several years of playing board games, D3 offers a really great dungeon crawl on par with Shadows of Brimstone, or the tabletop RPG that we played last week with friends (D&D5E).  Sure, the pacing is different, and D3 is far more mindless, but the but it's been a really excellent way to scratch the same itch, and do it in ways that WoW or GW2 simply can't.

So, anyway, that's this week's distraction. I'm sure it won't last, but I'm enjoying the ride for now.

Overhaul

In the post-before-last, I questioned whether House of Zoxe should continue on.  I wasn't really in a mindset to pack it in, but I was kind of questioning my motives and how to increase visibility.  Pevil jumped in and was a great sounding board, and the result of that conversation resulted in just a few minor tweaks that I could make to increase my own enjoyment with this project.

So here's the line in the sand, the milestone, the point where I overhaul.

FIRST - Repeat visitors will notice the new layout.  After using the a more graphical/modern layout for the first year or so, I'm taking a step back to something a little more basic. 

I'm curious if part of the problem with keeping all y'all's attention was the theme.  So it's gone.  (Two sub-notes:  a) Expect more tweaking as we go, and b) you might find some broken formatting in older posts. I'll fix it if I see it but I'm not auditing everything right now).

As a side benefit, I'm no longer forced to include an image in every post (it broke the old theme), which means I might be inclined to type stray thoughts without feeling like I need to stop and dumpster drive for an appropriate image.

SECOND - I'm going to delve into some additional personal writing.  This is my platform, my outlet, and there's more to Zoxe than just airbrushing little army men.  You've been warned.

I stayed away from this kind of non-gamer content intentionally because I felt like it diluted the blog a bit, and if I go through a period where I'm not gaming/painting, then it becomes post after post of randomness.  My EVE blog went through this in its death throes.  But I also think that it could spice things up and perhaps make this a page worth bookmarking.

THIRD - I have a few projects in the hopper, but I'm also shifting my methods a bit to focus on volume over perfection. 

This fall, I stepped back from the path I was on.  I'm an "okay" painter and I don't aspire to perfection.  The "expected" path is that as a mini painter, I should aspire to finer control, more difficult techniques, cleaner blends, better basing, and incrementally better and better results - inching and clawing and begging and pleading towards higher and higher levels of quality.

The mini-painting community is great - friendly, inclusive, and creative.  But for some of us the moving of the goal posts becomes unhealthy. 

I needed to remind myself that I started in the hobby NOT intending to paint but just to PLAY the damn games.  My very first figures were a 3 or 4 step process (Prime, basecoat, wash, dry brush).  There's a slippery slope of adding complexity to a painting process to add some detail, pull up a highlight, push a shadow, fix a line, add some freehand.  There's a peer pressure aspect to it, there's a self motivation aspect.  I'm not sure how else to describe it.

Anyway, I need to not obsess and just shut up and paint.  I'm okay with a "Tabletop plus" result.  I'm going to screw up some models, learn some things, and be okay with it.

To Continue?

Had a friend ask me this week if I was going to continue on with this blog. 

The honest answer is, I really don't know.  I've never caught a real groove, never built a readership, and honestly this platform is a dinosaur in the era of Discord, Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram. 

My posting volume is down, in part, because my painting volume is down.  Sounds silly - it's the winter - but I've been struggling with absurd amounts of apathy towards some projects that I feel like I SHOULD complete and NEED TO complete while other more alluring projects sit and gather dust.

Case in point:  I'm sitting here typing on a Saturday morning instead of turning on my bench light. 

Secondly, I know that there's basically nobody reading this.  Since you, the reader, are reading this now, I'll just salute and say thank you.  But please know that you're one of the few. 

My Kingdom Death posts still get some hits, and I take some pleasure in that; hopefully I'm helping people.  But other posts about Shadows of Brimstone, GenCon, or other rambles simply don't get much traction.  My most recent post - 6 days ago - has just 1 (one!) hit.  And that might have been me. 

When I link directly (to BGG or another forum), I get a burp of activity on that one post, people complement me on the blog, and then the wave passes in a day or two.  So, when people are finding the blog, they aren't staying, they aren't following, and probably don't come back.  This doesn't mean I'm "blaming" them; it's more of a confirmation to me that a blog like this isn't in their daily read routine (see previous statement about this platform being a dinosaur).

True story: I get more traffic from Russian porn sites than real readers.  Maybe they have a mini fetish, I dunno.

This doesn't feel like the end.  But it might be a transition. 

Merry Christmas!

And so, we mark another year together.  Be excellent to each other.

Blast from the Past

Camp Taurajo.  Hello old friend.

So, this weekend was Blizzcon weekend.  Oddly, it's a sort of holiday for us.  Oh, our hobby interests have waxed and waned, but through thick and thin we somehow always pay attention to Blizzcon weekend.  Over the years it's been a weekend where we pause and veg out and watch the streams (or DirecTV PPV back in the day) and otherwise just nerd out.  It never mattered much if we were playing Blizzard games or not; we stop, reminisce, and enjoy.

Blizzcon has a special place in our hearts.  We first attended in person on a complete whim in 2007 - the second Blizzcon ever.  I happened to load a Blizzard page linking to the ticket sales and a road trip to Anaheim sounded like fun.

Now, for context:  in 2007, WoW was in the mid/late TBC era.  I was a Vanilla WoW player, but had struggled to catch a groove in TBC.  We kind of laughed about the fact that we were attending a convention for a game that we weren't actually playing.  (That statement alone is indicative of how focused Blizzard was on WoW at the time - WC3 and SC1 were of course around but showing their age, and Diablo 3 was years away.  WoW was the runaway juggernaut that had yet to actually peak).

The 2007 Blizzcon was the announcement for Wrath of the Lich King and Death Knights, and watching the trailer while in line for Blizzcon merchandise, I was totally and completely hooked.  Over a decade later, I think that one trip to California changed how I viewed games, gaming, and became a Blizzard fan.

We returned to Blizzcon in 2008 and again in 2015.  Some day we may return again.

A lot has changed with WoW since 2007.  Wrath, Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion, and now BfA have all deployed.  The bones of the game that I enjoyed in Vanilla through Wrath are still there, but the game is so very different today.  The type of play that I enjoy is still there, sort of, but it's obscured, twisted, and different.  Less pure.  If nothing else, the map changes that the Cata expansion brought keep me from visiting places that I used to know.

This Blizzcon brought the WoW Classic demo.  I'm currently logged in as I type, with an Orc Warrior named Zoxe standing in Camp T.  This is an area of the game that we haven't seen since Cata launched and Deathwing wrecked the old world in 2010.

It was a little thing, but I'll admit that my eyes got a little watery running down from Crossroads to visit Camp T just after logging in yesterday.

The demo only includes the Barrens and Westfall, so I'm limited in places I can enjoy, but it just feels like home.

Summer Sprint

GenCon badges came in the mail this week.  That's the point that August starts to feel very real.  It looks like it's going to sell out again, so I'd expect to be welcomed by this sign.

GenCon2017 greeting.  Expect it again this year.

Work was threatening to send me on business travel the week of GenCon.  I was keeping my head down and not reacting to the not-formally-announced trip, but was prepared to throw down an approved vacation slip from months and months ago and practice my best "are you kidding me?" look.  As it turns out, that trip got deferred to mid-August and the showdown was averted.

Anyway, I'm very much still in the middle of GenCon prep.  I have a few days off over the July 4th Holiday and am hoping to get the long-awaited project #1 (aka GC1) completed this weekend, then move strongly into the DropFleet Army prep for my battle at GenCon.  There is so much to do, and I paint so slowly....

But after a slow early June, I've accelerated and there is still hope.  As I was painting this week, I realized that my methods have really changed over the past year.  I've written about this before, but I happened to stumble across some Shadows of Brimstone minis that I finished just before GenCon last year, but never based and thus never declared "complete."  They're okay - certainly tabletop quality - but I kind of rolled my eyes and sighed.

I can't convey how much Miniature Monthly has changed the way that I look at the process.  

I'm nowhere near a master.  That takes practice and probably more innate talent than I have.  And I'm still using a mix of styles and methods.  For example, I don't like using a wet palette, which is heresy.  Some of the things I'm doing actually cost me time in the long run, but end up being lower risk by adding steps.  (I can jump in with both feet and risk completely ruining a model, or I can sneak up on the finish I want).  

But on the current-unnamed-project, I'm using the Airbrush to prime, basecoat, and provide initial highlights.  That's not something I was doing a year ago, but got comfortable with through KDM.  New to this project: using a Sotar 2020 airbrush to shoot inks and washes for shading.  Before the Miniature Monthly boot camp, that would have been unthinkable.

Last night I was using 2-brush blending to add a colored wash into the shadows of my current figure.  One brush to slide the wash into place, another damp/clean brush to erase the seam between colors.  Super simple, but not something I knew about until earlier this year.  I experimented with it on the KDM Watcher, and am using it full-force in the current GC1 project.

My task this afternoon is to work on the face of one of the female models.  I hate painting skin.  But I now have a decent understanding of the tools and theories I need to employ.  (That doesn't mean it'll look great, but it does mean I've got a better chance at success than I did before....).

Back to these guys ... soon. Very soon.

This is all Miniature Monthly.  Recently, I upped my tier to the top level.  This gives me a monthly 1:1 session with Aaron Lovejoy.  It's expensive and I won't keep it very long, but I needed to jump start the Dropfleet project, and he had an opening.  We did our first session last week; about an hour with him on Google Hangouts talking through the project and watching him doodle in photoshop changed reinforced some things I was already planning and changed the way I was thinking about the fine details.  An hour with him saved me hours of fussing and cussing and will speed up the entire project.  

I just need to get GC1 out of the way and shift gears to it.

Ikea Hellquest

I'm currently on a quest to overhaul our gaming alcove.  We have a family gathering in a couple of weeks, and I need to free up space and make things tidy before our 3- and 4-year old nieces descend upon our abode.  So, I've spent the past two Sunday afternoons assembling our new Besta chest/organizer.  This is not as exciting as it sounds!

Ikea Besta modular package from the product catalog wonderland.

Background:  Besta is a modular line at Ikea that lets you customize the result. It's primarily intended for TV/entertainment centers but we found a pre-config'd setup that will fit our gaming alcove perfectly and allow us to centralize all the various boxes and unassembled models that we have stashed around the house.

Hellquest, Chapter 1:  The older I get, the more I loathe box stores.  We've known for awhile that the gaming alcove needed some storage options but I was reluctant to buy based only on the online catalog and theoretical dimensions.  A few weeks ago we took a deep breath and braved the local Ikea to get actual eyeballs on the products.  We were in and out of the store as quickly as possible, before I failed a sanity roll when dealing with the SUV Soccer Mom Mafia (SSMM) that roams the suburban tundra around the Ikea mecca (*shakes angry fist at SSMM*). 

Anyway, with the valuable intel we needed, we retreated to our laptops to min/max the strategy (actual build configuration of the modular items) from the safety of our own country stronghold.  Then, for $29, had it all delivered to the house.

It was $29 well spent to have someone else collect all the bits and then hump them to my front door.

SSMM thwarted.  Hahahahaha.


Hellquest, Chapter 2: But ... the problem with the modular stuff is that upon delivery there was a very intimidating mountain of boxes in our entryway.   Each bit, each box, each morsel, has its own SKU, and came in its own packaging, with its own instructions.   Now instead of facing mortal combat with the SSMM, I stared down a huge puzzle quest with many possible false steps bearing mortal danger and shredded faux-plywood. 

I hauled the biggest boxes upstairs and began picking through them.  I retained all my fingers, escaped mortal peril from papercuts, and avoided scratching any finished surfaces by opening boxes with a utlity knife - which is something Ikea High Command expressly forbids in all of their hieroglyphs.

Here is where we stopped at the end of Chapter 2.  Backbone complete and all big boxes pillaged.  Now the details start.

Hellquest, Chapter 3:  Alas, there was a storyline complication.  One of the SKUs was missing from my packup - apparently the GM involved noticed my smugness-masked-as-praise when I bragged about the $29 delivery solution and decided I needed a wrinkle to keep things from being too straightforward.  I've been through the mountain of cardboard from top to bottom, and the promised 6 boxes of hinge hardware are missing.

Without a replacement, I couldn't complete the Hellquest and was forced complete a side quest to allow further progress.  My only alternative was to call upon the Ikea High Command and demand compensation for this outrage.

Or if that doesn't work, begging will ensue.



Hellquest, Chapter 4:  After 2 hours and 5 minutes of hold time with Ikea High Command, I was successful in the side quest.  For the next two days, I heard their hold music and looping messaging whenever I closed my eyes.

After a week's delay, the replacement hardware arrived at my doorstep.



Hellquest, Chapter 5:   It was a close thing, but negotiations with Ikea High Command were fruitful, allowing evil to be vanquished. 

I was a little nervous, because I didn't actually get any shipping info for the missing hardware until Friday.  But, FedEx h at it at my doorstep by 9am Saturday.  The quest was set to resume on Sunday afternoon.

Today after other chores, I steadied my nerves and went to install the doors.  This was mostly straightfoward, and I was able to assembly-line a lot of it, and it all went well.  I did have one hiccup with the hinge hardware - that failed to seat properly but felt secured - that caused me to de-install all the doors and put them back on.  Otherwise, I had very few adjustments.  I'll let things settle overnight and then see if I need to square-up anything.

The upper areas will become the home for my KDM and SoB collections, and Mrs. Zoxe's Super Dungeon Explore.  The lower areas will likely be crammed with all sorts of games, although presently it's hiding my KDM Wave 2 boxes and Gloomhaven.  I've not secured to the wall yet, but will - not sure if we want it along that wall or in the opposite corner. 

The pictures make it look smaller than it actually is.  Total width is just under 6 feet - the KDM Phoenix standing guard is one of my largest figures with a 12" wingspan.

The gaming surface was a $99 clearance find at our local Mendards.  It's 53 x 40 and enough room to play most anything. 

Quest Complete! On to the next!  KDM Phoenix standing guard.

We found the very large coffee table on clearance at a local home improvement store - $99! and it's big enough to play most anything.

Now, back to town to find solace at the local public house and await our next adventure.

Welcome to the Blur

Holy crap, it's midlate-April.  I could round up and say it's almost May!

Let's rewind the clock and talk about why I've been quiet here. 

At the end of March, we stepped onto a cruise ship and spent the first 10 days of April floating around the Caribbean and parts of South America.  From beginning to end, we were off work almost 2 full weeks.  With the prep work around the house and yard to get ready for our departure, and a mad rush and extra hours at the office, it's been almost a month since I've lifted a paintbrush, and longer since I've rolled any dice.

This was our fourth cruise in 18 months.  We normally budget for two vacations a year, though spending all of our available vacation time on cruise ships has been very abnormal for us (vs. other destinations/activities).  But that's how it lined up. 

All this time onboard ship has led to a feeling of having two lives.  I commented to Mrs. Zoxe as we boarded this ship that I feel like we put our real life on hold and we go pick up where we left off in some alternate timeline.  And with a smile I thought, "and yah, I'm okay with that."

Towards the middle of the trip, I started to think of it as "the blur."  The only days that mattered were today, yesterday, and tomorrow.  Anything beyond that was a blur.  I had no idea what day of the week it was.  Everything kind of smeared together.  Usually my life is reasonably distinct and precise.  The blur means my life is a finger painting with the colors bleeding and oozing together.

And that, ultimately, is what keeps us coming back to the big white boats.  The ability to check out, detox, and strip away all of those accumulated decisions (at least temporarily) and become another version of myself and hope that I like the person that I find there.

This trip was longer than most, and the additional duration certainly fed the illusion.  It was such a strong feeling throughout the trip - that my other life was the dream and THIS was my reality - that it was a little jarring to come home.

Welcome to the blur.

On the Horizon

There is much on the horizon.

Although I have a couple of things that could hit the bench, I took a break this week and not once did I flip on my desk lamp.  It feels like there's a big surge on the horizon, but instead of feeling stressed about it, I'm kind of intentionally holding back and feeling pretty good about it.

• Kingdom Death Wave 2 tracking information hit Asia and Europe overnight.  I'm sure U.S. will follow shortly.  
• Miniature Monthly Boot Camp is next weekend.  I got the reminder from our hotel yesterday and it started feeling very real.  More on this below.  
• Figures, bits, and bases two separate projects I have in mind for Gencon contests have arrived.  Pretty excited about these.  I may actually pop some blister packs open this afternoon and get started with model prep.
• And good news from the War Store.  The Scibor bases that I ordered back in December (December!!) are (maybe?) finally moving again.  Scibor is a Polish company that makes some outstandingly cool conversion bits and bases.  I bought a selection through The War Store.  The War Store has been great, and responsive when I inquire, but my box of loot got stuck in customs in Belgium.  It's been so long that I really don't remember what I had planned for all of them, but do know that I intended to marry them to the KDM Wave 2 content as an upgrade over the stock bases.  

Stock Image (not my paint) of the type of Scibor bases I have inbound. Very excited to finally have these in hand.

So, let's talk about Boot Camp and my painting journey.

We often think of the learning curve as a smooth progression from A to B to C.  But in practice it's really not.  There are periods of rapid acceleration, there are plateaus, and with perishable skills like painting there are steps backwards.

I consider myself a beginner painter, maybe dabbling towards intermediate.  I started on this path when I bought my first box of Shadows of Brimstone, and walked off the Gencon show floor with no intention of actually painting anything.  A few days later, I changed course and set out with really no goal other than to give a monochrome basecoat (via a rattle can) and then wash/shade the miniatures.  And my first models were really that simple:  basecoat, wash, dry brush.  Two or three colors total, including the wash.

This was a time of rapid learning.  Learning the brands, learning the techniques, getting comfortable with basic assembly.  Big jump in the learning curve.

As these things tend to go, it's a slippery slope of expanding scope.  I get a little more comfortable with the brush, and my SoB heroes - not masterworks by any stretch - included a half dozen colors and a couple of custom-mixed colors.  My time invested really wasn't that much more, but the results were far more pleasing.

Fast forward 18 months or so.  In the weeks before Kingdom Death arrived, I had bumped up against the limits of that technique.  I was happy with my Trederra pieces, with more subtle shading, better color selection, and better brush control, but I was still far from a place that would win any awards.

I also knew that I was DONE with rattle can priming after some misfortune with some expensive resins that I still haven't had the heart to try to strip and salvage.

Simple technique, at its limits.

Thus began the era of Airbrushing.

Once again, I started modestly. I needed a solution to apply primer.  The slippery slope appears again: well, doing some shading would be okay I guess.  Now, 4 months later, I'm more comfortable with the Badger and am not looking back.

But I also know that I'm bumping up against the limits of the technique I developed for the KDM Core Box.  The Phoenix, Watcher, and especially the Antelope suffered from the way I was doing things.  I am so very happy with them, but I also know that they could have been better.  And I'll say I learned a metric buttload during the KDM project (big jump in my learning curve).

It feels like these skills are starting to fit together like puzzle pieces.  Model prep. Filling.  Color selection.  Light sourcing.  KDM did a lot to bring these skills along.  But looking back at the pieces, I know that it's time to learn more about washes (shading by hand) and maybe even wet blending.

Progression and learning on many different techniques at once.

And so, as we were sifting back through the prior episodes of Miniature Monthly, we decided to sign up for their Boot Camp and get some hands-on experience with a couple of masters.  It's not cheap, but it should be a fun, unique experience.  And it's exactly what I need to progress a step or two more.

So, I started this post to talk about all the figures on the horizon.  But it's really about learning. There's a lot of learning on the horizon.

WIP: Dropfleet Commander Frigates

Two each:  Toulon frigate (bottom center and upper left) and New Orleans strike carriers (top and right).  This is per the fleet composition suggested in the 2-player starter pack.

Another quick post.  I've been taking my time with the DFC assembly.  Last night I wrapped up the last two frigates and started looking at the pair of "convention exclusive" resin cruisers that I bought at GenCon. 

I may give the ships a quick shot of primer so that I can see what will and won't need filled.  But otherwise am going to hold tight for a few weeks until we're back from the Miniature Monthly Boot Camp. 

The good news is:  there are no huge gaps, just some seams between parts and one engine nozzle that got nicked by my clippers.  (The first resin ship - not shown - will need some heavy surgery, however).

The New Orleans coming together in the Zoxe Shipyards(tm).  Moscow heavy cruiser standing guard for scale.

Leftover parts on the sprue after clipping everything for my 4 frigates.  There are 5 possible configurations of frigates. Per the instructions, each sprue builds a max of 4 ships, but only 2 of the same class.  Some guys are magnetizing all the bits for full flexibility, but I'm happily gluing things down solid.

Top view of assembled ships.  All the gun turrets could have been magnetized to allow rotation, but I chose not just pick a dynamic pose.

Angle view. Resin antenna from the convention-only ships on the paper towel.

Assembled 2-player starter fleet, UCM faction.

Angled view with ship and KDM survivor for scale. The frigates actually aren't that big.

Side view. I should put away my stack of brushes in the back.

WIP: Dropfleet Commander Cruisers

Cruisers, ready for action. Or at least some primer.

Fast post with some pics of Dropfleet commander assembly.  I started with the Cruisers, and am building the recommended fleet composition from the 2-player starter pack.

Initial thoughts:

• The starter boxes are plastic (not resin), with detail quality similar to KDM. 
• Tamiya Plastic Cement works wonderfully.
• There's near zero mold flash and only minimal mold lines.  
• Most of the mold lines are actually cleverly hidden in the ship details.
• Likewise, the parts are cleverly designed to disguise the the seams between parts.  In particular, the "cap" that runs down the spine of the hull and a pair of antenna at the nose hide the most prominent seams.
• Small bits have helpful pins to locate and orient properly.
• I'll have a few places to apply filler but overall I'm pretty happy.

Cruiser sprue. One hull is provided (center top) but other modules/bits are interchangeable to build one of 9 configurations.  The parts are numbered on the back side to keep things sane.

Moscow Class Heavy Cruiser, clipped but not yet cleaned.

First hull half. This center antenna needs to be installed before the two halves go together.  Note that the antenna has a pin/bump to properly orient it.

Center hull and antenna installed, waiting for the engine nacelles.

Three cruisers:  Seattle Strike Carrier, Berlin Cruiser, and Moscow Heavy Cruiser (clockwise, starting from left)

Alternate view showing off the Seattle's Galactica-style carrier pods, and the big friggin' gun slung under the Berlin's nose.

Unboxing: DropFleet Commander

Finally.

Today.  Is a big day.  A day long in coming.  A day that I thought might never get here.

Today, is Dropfleet Commander Unboxing Day.  Very Exciting.

Why wait so long?
We bought the game at GenCon, but until today the shrink wrap was still intact.  We don't have a dedicated hobby room, and no basement, so we shuffle things around the house and in/out of my closet as situations dictate.  I left the shrink on the box as a way to ensure no bits got lost.  And of course, it added something to the anticipation (and shame) that I hadn't made the plunge yet.

And like anything, time got away from me.  Blink your eyes, and 6 months goes by.

Two player starter box, still in shrink wrap.

Box top open.  You're greeted by a mini-box containing the manual and other printed items.  Box is a high quality "chest" configuration and will be usable for storage after (no glued box lid).

Sprues!  Scourge Player left, UCM Player right.  A handful of D6 and a branded HAWK tape measure.

Here's the big thing about DFC - the ships are modular.  The sprues give you the parts to build several different ships from the same basic hull/backbone.

The variants have different stats lines and abilities depending on what kind of fleet you want to build - the Cruisers for example can be built to represent 9 different ships (fleet carriers, light cruisers, troopships, etc.).  The starter box comes with a recommended Fleet build that we'll start with, and then experiment down the road with lists.

UCM Sprues on display.  Three are identical, the one on bottom is unique.

The two player box includes enough sprues to build a total of 7 ships per player - 3 cruisers and 4 frigates.  We also bought the first batch of Battlefleet Boxes available anywhere, so we'll add and customize our fleets.

I should also note that Hawk Wargames recently folded into TTCombat.  So any future acquisitions will be through that company, and it looks like mass production Battlefleet Boxes are finally on the shelf.

Punch card tokens, debris fields, and one of two foldable maps.

Other items included:

• Dropfleet Commander Rulebook.*
• A two-piece "poster" that creates a 3x4 foot game map**
• Cardstock debris fields
• Cardstock cities
• Cardstock tokens
• Ten D6 (black)
• Hawk branded tape measure
• Misc stat sheets and player aids

*The rulebook is 224 pages, softback, but high quality glossy print.  It's got some heft.  There's a fair amount of backstory/fluff for the overall universe plus some details on each of the four races.  Other content includes stat lines for ships, detailed game rules, campaign creation rules, and several scenarios.  I'll want to tab mine out with post-its, but it seems reasonably well organized and well constructed.

**The maps are really cool, but they're glossy and feel like they'd be a pain to remove the creases from.  I'll play on one of my X-Wing mats to start, but I have my eyes on a Deepcut Studio Orbital Mat for future games (if I can ever justify the huge shipping costs from overseas....).

I am still debating the color scheme for my Fleet, and will be running some experiments with colors sometime soon.  But for inspiration, I've been looking at pictures of my favorite ships from EVE Online.

EVE Online - Caldari:  Inspiration for painting.