Merry Christmas! (2019)

Merry Christmas everyone.  And Goodbye 2019, it feels like we hardly knew you.

I've generally stayed away from rambles and personal stuff over the past year; instead this has become a sporadic dumping ground for whatever projects I was wrapping up that were worthy of sharing.  But let's wrap up the year with a retrospective.

Hot of the Desk: Kingdom Death Gigalion

Harsh Kitty. Mean kitty. Little ball of teeth. Angry kitty. Hungry kitty. Kill. Kill. Kill.

I'm following a set of self-imposed color rules for my KDM set. If this is your first post in the series (see summary page), here's the part that I copy/paste:

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Color Choices:  For my KDM set, I'm using an airbrush to provide shadows in a pseudo-statue, almost monochrome paint scheme.  I want a lot of high contrast from light to dark, with near-black in the shadows and near-whites in the light.  I'm using warm colors (creamy grays, buttery whites, and a bright mustard yellow) for the SURVIVORS and cool colors (blue-grays and a neon blue) for the MONSTERS.
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I actually bought 2 of these kits at Gencon - one to assemble FAST and get on the table, and a second for a future competition piece.  This is the FAST version; as such I decided to use my old Kingdom Death recipes for colors and application.

It's pretty interesting to go back and try to replicate an old paint scheme.  It's been quite awhile since I'd painted this scheme, and I was teaching myself to airbrush when I set out with the 1.5 Core Box.  Since then, I've done dozens of other pieces and this fairly simple theme was kind of refreshing.

KDM Thanksgiving Showdown

Quick post, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

This year, instead of family traditions, we accepted an invitation to go hang out with friends.  This is a group from across the country that manages to assemble a few times a year for shenanigans. 

This invitation involved a several state road trip, so we set out mid-morning on Wednesday and arrived Wednesday night.  Since we rarely take ANY additional vacation at Thanksgiving (and normally work Black Friday) we were off our usual routine straight out of the gate.  (I could post separately on the evolution and end of family traditions, but won't right now).

Hot off the Desk: Miniature Monthly Masters 2019

Yes, I'm still here.

No, the blog's not dead.  The blog doesn't want to go in the cart.  It's feeling much better.  It feels happy, It feels happy.

Here's a quick post with my entry for the Miniature Monthly 2019 Masters.  I really hadn't planned on entering anything - before a few days ago I hadn't lifted a detail brush since Reapercon.  But then I found this Reaper Winged Cat in our Reapercon Loot bag and decided to play more with the GS World Color Shift Paints (Darth Blue).

Results are "okay."  Good enough that I entered it - just to enter something (someone has to round out the field!).  Total time investment was maybe 3 hours, including prep and priming.  Actual painting was 2 session, maybe an hour each.  I was going for a high contrast, sketch style and wanted to practice texture.  He's a very small mini to really paint "fur" on but I tried anyway.

I'm happy with the result for what it is, even if it's nearly impossible to take decent pictures of the color shift paint!

Reapercon 2019

It's been almost 3 weeks, I guess I should post a ReaperCon Report!

First, let's rewind the clock even more.

Hot off the Desk: DGS Games Kuzaarik Stoneclaw Savage

Dwarven calvary! Rawr!

You've already seen the finished product in the prior post.  We're headed to Reapercon this weekend so I'll set this to robo-post while I'm away.

Display Bases 101

Ready for Reapercon. Kuzaarik Stoneclaw Savage.

One of the best things about this hobby is that it can bleed over into other parts of your hobby/interests. Whether I'm stealing techniques from my Radio Control Car and Boat past, or I'm using household materials to get something to work, it's fun for me to step outside of the accepted norms of the Miniature / Boardgame / Wargame world and bring something else to the table.

I was fortunate to have a father that was trained in carpentry.  He's had a woodshop since the early 70s, and as a kid growing up without the internet, the shop was a place to play and doodle and build things.  I don't maintain all of my father's skills, but just a little bit of it was passed on, and today I have a small glimmer of his woodshop here in my garage.  And that lets me do some fun things.

The task this weekend was to make a display base for my Reapercon entry - the Freeblades Kuzaarik Stoneclaw Savage from DGS Games..  

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Darkstone Scorpions

Angry scorpions!

In my first post-GenCon update, I think I'll do a picture dump of my Dark Stone Scorpions for Shadows of Brimstone.

This project started as a quick and dirty test of Greenstuff World's Color Shift Paint.  I originally intended just to hit the models with a basecoat, maybe highlight the eyes, and get them on the table quickly.

Gencon 2019

I loved this banner, hidden on the back side of the KDM booth.  I asked people to move so I could take a clean shot.

Sometimes when I write the after-action for an event, I do it immediately (often before we've even left the event's zipcode).  Sometimes I need to let the event's memories settle a little bit so I can digest what's happened.

GenCon 2019 was the latter.

Broken Token Dead Kingdom Insert

Fighting entropy, one laser cut sheet at a time.

Ok, confession time.  My copy of Kingdom Death has been pretty dusty.  What little gaming time we've committed has been Shadows of Brimstone while KDM sat unused.  Meanwhile, I've been painting more and distracted by "real life" and [insert cliche'd excuses here....].

Anyway, with other distractions, it's been months since I've had KDM out.  But, with Gencon close and a barrage of comments from Poots on the kickstarter, I've had the KDM itch again.  Last night, while rearranging some things in our gaming nook, I came across the Broken Token Dead Kingdom storage tray that I bought at PAX Unplugged 2018 but never assembled.  On a whim, I got the glue out and started assembly.

(Never ignore the fit of inspiration when it happens....).

Pictures and notes with bullet points after the break.  Bullet points are cool.

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.

WoW Classic Countdown II

The public stress test for WoW Classic went on this week.  I caught wind of it kinda late, but did enjoy poking my head back into the Orc and Dwarf starter zones.  It felt like home.

I started by rolling an Orc Warrior named Zoxe (I'm nothing if predictable), and ran him around until I realized that I was going to be extra-tempted to run him up to the Old Orgrimmar.  There are a few things in Classic that I really want to savor - stepping foot into the original Org map is one of them.  I decided that I really wanted to do that at Launch, and do it when the quest lines actually sent me there, so I can soak in the whole thing.  So to avoid temptation, I hopped out and decided to see what was up on the Alliance side.  (I'm a Horde player but the wintery Dwarf starter zone was always my favorite).

The Dwarf zone was also crowded, but mobs could be found and I got to level 5 as a Gnome Warlock, was sent to Khanaros and decided to log out in Ironforge (which I have fewer misgivings about seeing because my attachment is lower and it hasn't changed that much).

Overall it felt really good, but I had fewer "oh wow" moments compared to the Blizzcon Demo.  I think this was because the Demo was focused on higher level content (Barrens and Westfall) where we spent more of our time.  The starter zones were always fun, but you'd spend at most a couple hours in them per character.  We "lived" in Crossroads.

Anyway, a good way to spend a rainy evening.

Before I go, though, let me summarize my expectations for WoW Classic.