Decisions, decisions

The playtest beta I did on Friday turned out really well.  At least I thought so.  Once we got in the swing of the ruleset things moved along quickly so there was a sense of action happening.

By the time we had played 2 full games the 40K players were on their second turn.  'Nuff said.

However this means I really need to get 2 more armies ready.  I can pull one out of my personal dwarf army but no matter what I need another demo army painted up.

I decided on another 'cool' army and pulled out the Reptus so I could start prepping them.  Unfortunately it means pinning some of the bits so they stay attached and I've gotten rather lazy about pinning.  I'll get back into the swing of it soon enough.

There was a brief debate about color since I didn't want to use the standard green or orange people tend to use.  Mr. Rastl looked over the color chart and said he liked the red violet colors.  I agree, they're quite different.  So those are the colors.  The absolute complimentary set to that color has been discontinued and I'm debating about whether I should just use it since this is a demo army or if I should go with colors that are still current.  I won't know that one until I start slapping paint.

I'm finally making plans to paint with the Illinois crew (IMMPS) so I do need something to paint.  It's either going to be the monster from this army or a set of army figures.  If I'm looking for something that can be mostly and/or completely painted in an evening I'll have to lean towards the army figures.  After I get a certain amount of paint on a figure I don't like transporting it since I always tend to rub off paint when I do that.  Hence my preference for doing 'real' painting at home.

And on one final note.  I was hoping to take a bunch of pics today using the new light tent Mr. Rastl got me for my birthday but time got away from me and there was so little left that I spent the time taking mold lines off the Reptus monster and dry fitting him to get an idea of the work involved.  He's all cleaned up and goes together surprisingly well.  I don't think I'll need to fill any gaps.  Very good quality there.

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Painting sooner than I expected

I wasn't expecting to get back to painting in the very near future.  That's why I felt safe in using the area on, around and by the paint table as temporary storage.

But things changed and now I guess I'm running a demo of the game of Warlord on Friday.  And one of my demo armies doesn't have painted bases.

Yes.  I can use them without painted bases.  But they're just not as cool!

So I dug out the paint table and drenched the bases in the shadow color.  Once that dries it will be a quick matter to drybrush up the rest of the colors.  I do want to put seaweed on them (undead pirates, etc.) but that's not 100% necessary and I'd rather get them painted and sealed for play.

I'm also playing with the idea of adding a highlight to the base edges in the army color.  Nothing too fancy, just another way to easily identify the pieces on the table.  Of course one of my far more detailed painter friends took that to mean that I was going to gem the bases.

For those not in the know, to 'gem' something is to paint in the manner of a gemstone.  Reflecting light and all that.

I wasn't planning on going that far for demo army bases but I will try one with the highlight edges and see what that looks like.

Base coat is on and drying.  I touched up the spot on the crab where primer got on the underside of the claw.  So they're set for the evening.

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Flowers and distractions

Here's a flower pic for Spike.  We're in the 'everything is green' phase of the garden right now but the tulips were quite nice this year.

Tulips

Yes, we did get the house painted so it doesn't look like that any more.

I'm getting edgy to pick up a paint brush again but I have a couple of other non-mini projects I want to complete before I do that.  And after those I HAVE to finish that arena I'm painting up for a friend.  Only then can I paint minis.  Unless I join the Illinois painters for their Friday paint night because going to paint night without painting is rather silly.  But that's an overnight plan since it goes late into the night and I don't want to drive back in the wee hours of the morning.

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Post ReaperCon and back to the real world

I crashed once I got my butt in my seat on the flight home.  I woke up for beverage service and on landing.  I guess I was tired.

Monday evening was spent watching the last 2 episodes of Bones.  Now we have to wait until fall to find out what they're going to do.  You know it was a good season ending when both of us yelled out "No!" at the very end.

I'm not painting anything right now as I get back into the groove of things.  I have ideas but I need to step back after the overwhelming event that is ReaperCon.  I've been getting better about it but I don't paint for at least a week after the convention.

Mr. Rastl has taken this camping trip on his own.  I'm in the 'coming down with a cold' phase of life, he's unemployed now and wanted to get up there well before I could get out of work, and this is more his type of camping weather anyway.  He also spent last weekend at a convention with a friend and let's just say he needs a little time alone.

I'm kind of unpacked and all my pewter ended up getting shipped because something I bought wouldn't fit into my luggage if I also wanted to bring back my clothes.  And I realized I never made the last trip into the Boneyard to get the items that were being cast.  Oh well.  They weren't that important.

I'm working on some sewing projects but those are in a different blog so I won't be detailing them here.  This is for my gaming hobby so if you want to discuss sewing and stuff click on the link to the right for the FashionAeons blog.  If not, don't go.  This way you have the option.

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ReaperCon - Day 4

And so it ends.  Not with a bang but with an auction!

I got there late because I'm a big slacker.  With a hangover.  And no breakfast because I got up late and it seems most fast food places are closed Sundays.  Or at least Sunday mornings.  Grr.  Sonic for breakfast.  I had avoided that all convention long by getting up reasonably close to on time and eating the hotel-provided breakfast.  Yay waffles in the shape of the state of Texas!

I spent the (rest of the) morning catching up with friends and then I got to play my usual role in the auction.  Flit and I display the items currently being auctioned so Heisler can keep things moving.  Obviously we alternate.  It's great to watch the auction from the front - I can see everything happening.

Note - the auction is for cool fun stuff and only uses the 'money' you earn by taking classes, playing games, etc.  So technically whatever you get is free!

It's all over now but the packing.

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ReaperCon - Day 3

Yes, I know I'm posting on day 4.  That pretty much says it all.

I got my .. errrr ..  head handed to me in the Warlord tournament but I pretty much expected it.  I did have a darn fine lookin' army on the table, at least for a little while.  Pictures (thanks Spike!) will be forthcoming.

I'd tell you what I did the rest of the day but that tournament took me until mid-afternoon and the rest of the day is kind of a haze due to some very late rabble rousing.  I think we can stay in this hotel again next year.

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ReaperCon - Day 2

Why am I recording this for posterity?  What foul acts will come back to haunt me?

Nothing I'll be writing here, let me tell you.

Today was rather like yesterday except that I did have a class.  This one was on painting red - one of the 5 most difficult colors to paint.  I learned a few things that might be interesting to try but overall I'm probably going to keep working with my 'quick and easy' methods.  They've worked this far.

I did get through my first batch of Boneyard selections.  Now I get to work on the next set, which includes all the lists for other people.  Those will be easier since there's very little choice involved - I'm working straight off the list.  My hands still get dirty.

I did try painting a water elemental tonight but my hands weren't cooperating for some reason so I gave that up.  Hopefully I can pick it up tomorrow but I doubt it.

My first tournament round is at 9:00am - which is (check clock) less than 6 hours from now.  So with sleep, shower and food I'm going to be more than a bit tired and hung over in the morning.  This will either work to my advantage or I'm going to get spanked.  My money's on option 2.

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ReaperCon - Day 1

Well, days 0 and 1 actually.

Last night was the Meet and Greet where we all hung around and chatted.  Actually we caught up with people, etc.  Reaper provides a very nice meal for everyone and it's a nice start to things.

Today was the first official day of the convention.  There was some confusion whether it started at 9:00am or noon.  The schedule shows that classes didn't actually start until noon but they opened the doors at 9 so people could register and buy tickets for classes.  And those of us slackers who just show up and don't leave.

What did I do today?  I didn't have any classes scheduled and my army is complete.  My plan was to spend some time at Paint and Take to try a few new ideas for painting and mostly hang around.

Yeah.

What I actually did was spend a lot of time talking to people, play test the rules for one of the games, and then spend a LOT of time picking my way through the Boneyard getting all the bits and bobs I wanted in exchange for the unwanted metal I shipped down.  Yes, a LOT of time since I wanted lots of little weapons off the sprues so I can use them in conversions and terrain.  That's very time consuming.  But as of today I'd say I'm around 95% done with the planned purchases (they needed to cast more of things that were gone) so tomorrow I'll get that finished up so I can do other things.

As with previous years there was much laughter and some of it was even at stuff that might be considered funny later.  We're already getting silly and it's only the first day.  I'm going to be quite amused by the rest of the weekend.

I did finally get to Paint and Take around 10:00pm and picked out a mini to paint but she didn't tell me what color she wanted to be so I stuffed her in my brush box and went off to talk to other people.  Go figure.

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So who's surprised that I'm cranky?

First of all, the stores here aren't the same.  You would think that going into a Wal*****'s would result in the same products I have at home.  Heck no.  Which leads me into my rant.

Why can't I find unsweetened teas?  I know several companies that make them.  The stores carry the sweetened versions of them but I'll be darned if I can find one without HFCS or artificial sweeteners.  I don't want sweetened tea!  I want iced tea.  Plain, regular iced tea.  Is that so hard?  Down here, I guess it is.

I won't even get into the lack of brand of candy I wanted since that isn't nearly as annoying as the lack of a type of beverage.  I don't want to go to the grocery store and buy a multipack since I'm not at any one place long enough and at ReaperCon they have Sonic in and they will have unsweetened iced tea.  And with any luck they'll give us the same "pay once, drink all day" deal since this is stuff they just dump at the end of the day.  That's a nice deal.

On the mini scene I did get all the bases painted and the first coat of varnish on.  I'll put the second coat on tomorrow (today?) morning so they have all day to dry before I pack them back up.  One of the larger figures needs to be put back differently since her sword extends higher than the foam and it was slightly bent when I pulled her out.  That's not acceptable so I'll probably have to turn her on her side.

I did get craft paint to edge the bases and it took 3 coats before I was happy with the depth of color.  I grumbled a bit but realized I use at least 2 coats of the mini paint to do it so another coat of cheap craft paint isn't that bad.

The real problem is that I didn't think ahead about the availability of the color of static grass I wanted.  For whatever reason I thought I could find something close enough and dry brush the ends once I got to Reaper.  Yeah, silly me.  I ended up sending an urgent pleading e-mail to Skullcrafts asking for a small bag of the flame static grass so I can add it to the bases.  He'll have to send it to my next hotel so I get it.  I'd really like something less vibrant but Skully stopped doing the larger variety of colors so I'll take what he's willing to send me.

This army does look darn cool.  I'll try to get some pictures while they're in play so people can see just how cool they look.

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I can't believe I'm done

I finished painting and lining the last dwarf for my tournament army last night.  And I had enough time to put the basing material on all the other models.  Including time to putty up the holes in the slotta bases.  Wow.

Today I attached and varnished that last fella so tonight I'll be getting his base material in place.  I can prime everyone but him (the glue needs time to set) so they're ready for painting when I get to Texas.

I still can't believe I'm actually done.  Yes, I still have one figure for the larger pickup army and she's been started but I could field her as-is without being less cool but it would be nice to have that one done as well.  I just don't paint to my standards when I'm painting away from home.  I guess I'm too used to my setup.

I will have to paint a familiar (little beastie) for her and I'm thinking of using the tortoise.  Seems appropriate for a dwarf.  That is something I can paint while at ReaperCon since it's a fun little paint job.

The mercenaries aren't even an issue right now since I haven't bought them yet.

So now my plans include creating the cavities in the foam inserts for the carry case, getting all my melt boxed up and shipped down, shopping for those things I have to bring with me (not including the bakery items for my father I have to get on the way to the airport), and making about 37 lists so I don't forget things.  Which I will.  And which is why they have Wal-Mart.

After all this I'm still excited about painting other things.  I didn't burn myself out too badly getting this army done and I credit all my tabletop paint jobs for that.  And Mr. Rastl for just letting me do what I felt I needed to do.  I did try to spend some quality time with him every evening but generally he just sent me off to paint.  He knew that he wouldn't get me back until after my trip.

I am taking my camera with me (of course) but I won't even try to post pictures while I'm down there.  Once the convention kicks in I won't be spending much time at all at the hotel if past years are anything to go by.  Here was last year's schedule:

07:30 - meet for continental breakfast in the hotel lobby
08:30 - gather up folks who are riding with me
09:00 - arrive at convention
23:00 - get kicked out of convention for the day
23:30 - meet up for beers
01:00 - stumble back to my room

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I really feel my age after this convention.

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Age is not kind

I really didn't do what I would have thought to be an extended painting session today.  5 hours, broken up a few times to get up and do other things.  But by the end I knew I had enough and couldn't do anything else of value.

I didn't get nearly as much done yesterday as I had planned but it was too nice of a day to spend closeted in the paint room.  I won't say it was wasted because it wasn't.  I still got a couple of hours of painting in and I didn't burn myself out by trying to do 2 marathon paint days.

Of the remaining figures the fiddly one is done.  It's still in 2 parts since it is much easier to varnish them separately and then epoxy together.  Epoxy is clear so I'm not worried about a little overflow.  She turned out quite nicely and the hair was so well sculpted I had to spend extra time to make it look good.

I started on the last figure and I'm guessing he's about 1/3 done.  Knowing the colors really does make it go faster and if I hadn't been starting to wander mentally I probably would have gotten more done.  But he's well underway and I can see him getting done in short order.  Then my army is fully painted!

For the pickup army I only needed to add 2 figures from my stash.  I painted up one of them at paint night last week (yay easy paint jobs!) and the other one is either going to be easy or hard.  I won't know until I get started.  She's prepped and mostly primed so I can try painting her after I finish the required ones.

I'm going to work on building the bases this week so they're all done by Wednesday.  As previously noted I'm not that concerned about painting them here but priming would be great since that works like glue to hold the basing materials down.  I also need to cut the foam inserts for the transport case for these figures.  Again, time.

At least for next year I'll have at least one completed army so I won't have to go through this again, right?

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The end is nigh! The end is nigh!

Well, kinda.  I'm on the last 2 models of my regular army.  The piercers (archers) are done and glued to their bases.  The bear rider captain has been lined.  All 5 of them are waiting for varnish, which they will get tomorrow.

The last 2 figures are prepped and I actually started on them last night.  I only started the second one because I had extra skin tone on the palette that I didn't want to waste.

Obviously the basing isn't done.  As I stated previously that's the last of my concerns at this point.  Gluing the materials to the base and priming can be done here and the painting once I'm in Texas.

I'm waiting on my light tent before trying to take pictures.  Even if Mr. Rastl waits until my birthday that's soon enough that I can take pictures before I leave.

I'll also need to work on the carry case and carving out the spaces for the minis.  I had a friend send me a bunch of old cotton t-shirts that I can use for wrapping the figures when they're in the carry case.  The foam is a very mild abrasive, which leads to paint being rubbed off in places.  I'd like to avoid that if possible.

I'll be starting on my lists of things to bring and things to ship ahead of time.  I need to get my stuff shipped out by about Thursday so it has a week to get there even though it will be sent in a Priority Flat Rate box.  Better early than late.  That's just my melt.  The army will be in my checked luggage.

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