Clothe them in scraps (Quickie How To)

I got an email over the weekend commenting on the Otherworld Skeletons I had worked on in February. Specifically, the dude on the left there:

Here's what I wrote about him in March:

I was working on the skeletons (UD1a) and decided to take the advice I read on the Otherworld forums and pin the arms. Unfortunately, my pinning was an utter failure. Either the pin was at a "bad" angle or I didn't have enough in the ball of the arm joint to make a good fit, but I just struggled with all of them. 

One in particular (the spear guard) gave me fits. I was going to put the skeleton standing at attention with a spear/shield, and after 8 times (5 with superglue, 3 with JB Weld) of putting arms on, them not bonding/holding enough and working loose, me scraping clean, regluing, I just had ruined shoulder bones and crudded up arms/sockets. I thought I would have to put that figure away as a ruined one. I was given a great idea to get the shoulders in place anyway I could, then cover the shoulders with a "rotted" cloth. Great idea!After a search around the house for non-embossed tissues or cloth, I found that my box of industrial paper towels work great. So now the model has tons of JBWeld on the shoulders but it will be tabletop acceptable.

The emailed question was, how did I actually make the rotted cloth?

BTW, I apologize for the suckage of the photo. I probably should reshoot my minis since I now know how to use my camera properly for minis photos, later maybe.

Anyway, the recipe is as follows:

1. Grab some tissue paper, paper towel, or something that can stand up to a few dunkings in white glue.

2. Cut/rip the cloth to fit. I had to do this several times to get it to look right. It's easier to do this now than later when it's stiff and painted. If you're making rotted cloth, I ripped it so that the uneven ripped edges would look rotted.

3. Soak/paint it with Mod-Podge or Elmer's White Glue. When it starts to get dry, "shape" the cloth as much as you can so that it dries somewhat in the position you want. I also crinkled mine, then flatted it out so it didn't look perfectly smooth.

4. Repeat #3 if it doesn't feel sturdy enough. The white glue is to hold the shape and stiffen it so that when you paint it, the paper doesn't fall apart.

5. Basecoat/Shade/Highlight. For my rotted cloth, which I wanted to look leather-like, I used DecoArt Mississippi Mud as base, Devlan Mud as the shade and Khahki as a highlight.

6. Glue to your figure. I used superglue and there was enough white glue/paint in the cloth so that it held together nicely. Since it was already somewhat preshaped, it was pretty easy to get it to line up and look like it was hanging on the shoulders.

Easy Peasy and probably not worth so many words, but there ya go.

Chainmail - Battle of McGuillicuddy's Farm, Fall 46 AD

Sunday, I solo-gamed the small Chainmail scenario that I had planned out last week. Rather than three-peat the play-by-play and questions here, I'll point you to the OD&D Board thread and Knights & Knaves Alehouse thread where I have some specific questions. This post... is a flight of fantasy... a tale of bravery and woe.

It was a bit before dawn on the 13th day of Fall, 46AD and Gilroy squinted off into the distance. A bit of light bobbed and weaved, much like a will-o-wisp of legend. Gilroy spat into the ground and nudged his partner, Vomin. Vomin was a young lad, newly enlisted into the guard. Most landowners and homeowners within the town walls would grudgingly serve their requirement, but Vomin was excited to be doing something to mark his ascent into adulthood. Gilroy didn't begrudge him that, but it was still annoying all the same.

"That's someone with a torch." Vomin said, peering off into the pre-dawn gloom. "He's runnin' awful fast."

Gilroy grunted in response and waited. Soon enough, they heard gasping shouts as the figure approached. 

"Wassat he's sayin?" Gilroy asked.

"I ... I think he's yellin' goblins." Vomin said, a twinge of excited fear in his voice. Gilroy sighed and started to tighten his helmet. He hoped it was nothing more than an excited farmer's nightmare, but deep down, a disquiet grew in his stomach.

Horses neighed and snorted as the knights pulled up before the troops. Most of the Town Guards were red and puffing from the long forced march, while the Keep's soldiers drew deep breaths and drank some water. The bowmen were already stringing their staves and checking their quivers.

William shifted his lance and watched in pride as Marshall Henrick Roehm rode out before the troops and squinted off into the distance. The old warhorse had been out with his knights to do a small patrol when the word came in that goblins, goblins!, had come raiding. The Marshall hadn't blinked an eye, but upon querying the frantic farmer, he rounded up some lances of his cavalry, a few platoons of foot soldiers, collected the Town Guard that had been summoned and immediately marched north. William couldn't remember a time when old Hardtack Henrick hadn't been decisive, although some said he had often gotten into more trouble than he could handle. Rumor had it that his son was soon to be raised in status and leadership within the Keep, a sign that Henrick was relinquishing control due to his age. William hoped it wouldn't be true soon... he trusted the old warhorse more than he could name.

"Alright men! It looks like the goblins are setting themselves up in a line just beyond McGillicuddy's farm. Let's ride forth and see what they're up to. Archers and foot, form a line and follow behind!" Henrick bawled. William turned his horse in line and drew his sword. Today would bring victory, with Henrick in charge!

"Bah! They're moving the archers forward, cowards!" Henrick snarled. "Damnable creatures."

He waved to the cavalry. "We ride through the archers! By the time those green-skins know what hit 'em, we'll be through them and can trap the others between! Then we'll get on down the road. I know what those cowards are after, our harvest!"

Gilroy watched the horsemen line up and begin to ride as the lieutenants and sergeants bawled their commands and got the foot and archers moving up behind. He watched Henrick wave his lance and everyone cheered them on. As they advanced the archers fired volleys of arrows over the cavalry's charge to pepper the goblins. The knot in his stomach tightened further as the missiles didn't seem to have much effect...

William couldn't believe his eyes! The goblins had moved more troops from behind the woods and they were bearing down on their right. Even more unbelievable, the goblin archers were tossing down their bows and reaching for their swords rather than retreat from the charge! Henrick was to his right and yelling at his knights to ware the flank, but they were already among the archers and lances and swords were flashing as man and bestial fought.

Goblin blood sprayed in the air as the horsemen pushed their way into the archer's lines. William stole a glance to his right and watched as Henrick's knights tried to halt their charge and face the flanking danger. Then...

Three goblins jumped at Henrick from the side and one plunged his sword into the old man's neck as the other two pulled him off his horse. His knights milled in confusion as the goblin foot soldiers beat them to the side and rear and more men fell as horses died and goblin blades drank human blood....

The cavalry finally halted their charge some twenty to thirty yards behind the now destroyed line of archers. Some fled away, broken by the advance, but the spirit had broken much harder for the Enonians. The goblins were cheering and hooting... and they were advancing!  

"Back at 'em!" called out one of the cavalry lieutenants. "For the Marshall!" William wheeled his horse around and gripped his lance tightly as the horsemen advanced towards the jeering foot. With a crash, the two lines hit each other. The last thing William saw were two goblin blades coming from either side of his horse...

"They're all dead! I don't see the horses anymore!" Vomin cried out. Gilroy nodded grimly. 

"Keep your eyes to the front, boy! Those goblins advancing on us only care if we're dead... and we don't want to end up on a goblin's spear!" 

The two lines crashed together as Enonian footmen hewed at the goblins who stabbed and gibbered as they thrust their blades at the troops. Men screamed and fell and slowly the Enonians were pushed back till they retreated.

Gilroy wiped goblin blood from his face as the sergeants pulled the men back in line to face the advancing goblins. "Stand ready!" they called out urgently. Beside Gilroy, arrows flew as the archers desperately tried to hold the goblins off, but again, few fell and then the goblins were among them.

Gilroy was sporting a deep gash in his arm from a goblin blade. Vomin seemed none the worse for wear but he was clearly frightened. Around them, the battle seemed to go well, but men were falling, much too fast. Already, the humans were starting to pull back, but the goblins seemed to be doing the same. Then, several goblins advanced towards them. More and more men were starting pull back from the goblins onslaught. Gilroy saw that they were about to be cut off.

"Get going!" he said as he shoved Vomin towards the retreating men. "I'll hold them off!"

Vomin's grateful glance heartened Gilroy and Gilroy's grim look burned itself into Vomin's memory.

There's too many of them! The Marshall's dead! Retreat! Get back to the city!" screamed a bloody lieutenant, his nerve broken. The few men remaining from the foot soldiers began to flee, their resolve having fled. Vomin started to run with them, casting glances backwards in vain attempts to see if Gilroy was among them... but he never saw Gilroy again.

---

History records that on the thirteenth day of Fall, 46 AD, the goblins launched a successful raid of a particular rich harvest. A diversionary force had been sent towards Enonia while the remainder of the goblins plundered the grain stores and livestock to be carried back to their dens within the Dark Woods. Unfortunately for Enonia, Marshall Henrick Roehm was killed in the Battle at McGillicuddy's Farm, where Enonian forces responding to the attack encountered the diversionary force.

The knights were virtually wiped out, with only a couple of nobles surviving, and the cavalry was lost as an effective unit. The Town Guard and Keep footmen, losing their nerve at so many of their fellows dying, as well as shock over their Marshall's death, fled the battle alongside the archers. The goblins never attacked the city itself, but the loss of grain and cattle caused a great deal of privation in the ensuing harsh winter. Victor Roehm, Henrick's eldest son, assumed the title of Marshall, but some say he never was able to get over the death of his father.

Gaming on the cheap: DIY Miniature Carriers

Back at GenCon 2009, I purchased a Battlefoam(tm) bag- a Battlefoam 216 pack. I've been pretty satisfied with the bag, I have two of their Imperial Guard trays and a 72 figure troop tray. With this bag, I get carrying capacity of 204 figures. More if I double up on the figures, which I do for my "mass troops" like the kobolds, goblins or bulk orcs. As I keep cranking out the miniatures with my painting push for this winter, I'm nearing full capacity, in fact I've ran out of the 1" x 2" spaces. I had purchased a second 216 pack, but I bought custom foam to make my own, and I've been using these for the minis that don't fit standard rectangles.

I've looked at their more expensive packs, I've looked at the Sabol Army Transports, but the idea of spending $75 to $150 for carrying around lead/plastic figures just isn't in the cards. Then I happened to see this post on DIY Foam Trays on the blog House of Paincakes. They've been doing a series of post "Gaming on a Budget" which I've enjoyed greatly. This all seems to have been inspired by an Oct 2010 blog post on DIY foam trays at a site called "War Builder."

This was all good, but I wanted some sort of a carrier - something that I could buy on the cheap, and it would work as good as the Battlefoam PACK or the Sabol. I examined a Sabol Army Transport that was for sale at Games Plus's semi-annual auction and to me, it looked no different than those soft sided cooler bags and lunch bags I've seen and used. Hmm...

(Pictures and info after the cut...)

Tids and bits

- As of the 3/13 AD&D Dark Ages game this past Sunday, we've reached the 50 game milestone. That's pretty damn cool! If I were a more prepared DM, I'd have some compiled statistics and trivia, but all I got is me trying to prep for the Garycon game. If I do have a dwarf visit from another realm, it's going to be epic... the last dwarf was seen about 257 years ago by elves. Visiting characters from other campaigns though... very cool!

- The online game keeps rolling and I may have a new player. Welcome Slatz! Good luck and don't pick up any dolls. :) You might also just start cursing Kellri right now, all my other players are. It seems to rain A LOT in Skalfier. For some reason, the players blame his CDD#4...

- I started painting my Sumerian DBA I/1a army last night and realized what all shiny-new army painting n00bs realize... this shit is hard! And I was just working on the flesh areas. This is not as easy as slopping together 18 or 25 orcs...

- Been ruminating about how I'll be incorporating a megadungeon into my campaign and realized this is going to be tricky with an already skittish bunch of folks who saw a high level (for my campaign) PC die and another fall the next game. The players are convincing themselves that they're not ready for what lies to the East, although I think this is more the first time they've really struggled. The world has presented them an opportunity and while I'm not going to push them there, they've opened Pandora's Box. I'm now walking a fine line between coming off as some sort of "you must follow my plot!" DM and presenting the consequences of their actions.

"Do you hear that sound, Mr. Anderson? That's the sound of inevitability..." - Agent Smith, The Matrix


Yea. Tricky. I know how I'll navigate it (without giving anything away to the players that read this blog. *waves* Hi there!) but it's gonna be tricky. You ever run into that?

Have a great weekend!

Sneak peek at latest painted dragon miniature

 Light posting today - but I thought you might enjoy a (blurry) sneak peek at the latest paint job - Reaper's Dark Heavens Silver Dragon (#02539) by Sandra Garrity. I've re-purposed it as a Gold Dragon, one of my all-time favorite D&D monsters.

The sculpt came in 6 pieces and unlike the WotC Red Dragon, this one fit fairly well together. The only issue I had was gap filling the tail, I have a bit of a ring/bump but it's not all that noticeable. Click the thumbnail to enlarge - sorry for the blurry quality of the picture, but my phone is almost 3 years old and it was early in the morning, still getting my coffee fix!

The base is a CD with a rock from my stone walkway that's breaking apart, plus a slurry of sand/modge-podge, basecoated with 50 cent Home Depot paint reject, inked with Devlan Mud and drybrushed with Bone White (sand) and Fortress Grey (rock). The dragon is mounted on the stone with epoxy - I wasn't taking any chances!

I'll do a step by step paint on it later.

February Minis Painting Roundup

Started the month with: 168 unpainted minis. (8 from my Jan "primed project list")
Purchased/added: 23 minis
Painted: 20 minis. (8 from my Jan "primed project list")
Removed: 8 minis (my 3 DBA armies will use 84 of 92 figures from the infantry set)
End the month with: 163 unpainted minis.

Completed:

• Fire Beetles (x6; Otherworld Miniatures #DV4a; 3 as Fire Beetles, 3 as Generic Beetles)
• Damien, Hellborn Wizard (Reaper Dark Heaven Legends #03321)
• Aziz Al-Jawar (Reaper Dark Heaven Legends #02426)
• "Amathor Arch Mage" (Reaper Dark Heaven #02319)
• Orc Brutes(x2 Reaper Dark Heaven Legends #02550 Orc War Party)
• Pig-nosed orcs (x3; Otherworld Miniatures #O6; combined with the Orc Brutes above to form a command unit)
• Ghosts (x2; Citadel Warhammer #8572F) 
• Red Dragon (Wizards of Coast #40017)
• Skeletons (x3; Otherworld Miniatures #UD1a)

Purchased/Added:

• Egyptian Archers (x8; Atlantic Egyptian Army Set #1502)
• Persian Archers (x15; HäT Persian Light Infantry Set #8057)

So only a net movement of 5 minis in the right direction. It was a short month and I spent a good chunk of time in modeling and prep mode as versus painting - orcs, the skeletons, two dragons and starting the conversion of figures for my DBA army. As a result, I didn't quite hit a figure a day, more like about 7/10ths of a figure a day. Good news is I can eliminate 41 minis next month with my DBA army! I'm also happy that I completed the last of my Jan "primed project list". 39 miniatures that sat around primed for almost a year are now in the case, ready to play. 

Some highlights from the month:

Winsor/Newton Series 7 brushes - extremely huge difference and well worth the cost. I made the vast majority of my brushes obsolete with two of these - #1 and #2 sizes. Amazing how well I can paint now with them. It's challenged me to get even better with my technique. I'm not sure I'm there - I think I'm hitting a plateau, but I keep trying harder stuff to improve.

Green Stuff sculpting - After my success last month with the mule's packs, I attempted a hand and shield with one of my OWM pig nosed orcs. I didn't want to use the hand holding the Dwarf's head - mainly because there are no (living) Dwarfs in my campaign. So rather than hack the hand, I decided to do something even more difficult and make my own shield and hand. First one came out very rubbery, couldn't superglue it - my ratio of blue to yellow was all off. Second one was a bit rubbery at first, but after 4 to 5 days, it hardened rock solid. The hand looked terrible though, so I ended up using the dwarf head's hand. I hacked off the Dwarf head, made greenstuff thumb/finger and shield straps. It's not OWM quality sculpting but with dark paint/black wash, it's acceptable! I'm not displeased with how it turned out.

Reusing recipes - The Citadel ghosts (which, BTW, I love the personalities of their expressions - there's something about the slightly sinister/slightly goofy/slightly whimsical nature of them that I really like) were painted with two separate recipes or schemes - the shrouds were painted as I did for the Mega-Minis ghost last month, and their faces were painted using a scheme from the bell clapper of a Games Workshop Skaven "Screaming Bell." I just liked the look of how the bell clapper went from this sickly green to white/green and decided it's perfect for how I see non-corporeal undead.

I have a book where I write down my recipes for later use. I also do color tests on 3x5 cards and keep those for later use, in case I want to figure out how I did something.

OWM Skeleton - I was working on the skeletons (UD1a) and decided to take the advice I read on the Otherworld forums and pin the arms. Unfortunately, my pinning was an utter failure. Either the pin was at a "bad" angle or I didn't have enough in the ball of the arm joint to make a good fit, but I just struggled with all of them.

One in particular (the spear guard) gave me fits. I was going to put the skeleton standing at attention with a spear/shield, and after 8 times (5 with superglue, 3 with JB Weld) of putting arms on, them not bonding/holding enough and working loose, me scraping clean, regluing, I just had ruined shoulder bones and crudded up arms/sockets. I thought I would have to put that figure away as a ruined one. I was given a great idea to get the shoulders in place anyway I could, then cover the shoulders with a "rotted" cloth. Great idea!After a search around the house for non-embossed tissues or cloth, I found that my box of industrial paper towels work great. So now the model has tons of JBWeld on the shoulders but it will be tabletop acceptable. It was fitting that these were the last minis I completed in Febrary, considering I was about to give up on them. They ended up looking really good.

DBA Army - I decided to go with the I/1a army, even though I didn't have enough archers. I was going to use foamboard "flats" with labels glued to the top. Some email inquiries landed me into new territory - figure trading! Mike Monaco of Swords & Dorkery had some spare Biblical figures, as well as plenty of teaser plastics to try and lure me into the addiction of army building! In return, I traded Mike some NIB Reapers that I have laying around. Thanks again, Mike! (Although,  so far, I've made my Saving Throw vs. temptation.)

After I convert a Nim skirmisher to look like an archer, and some minor conversion to be done on the Persians and Egyptians, I will have my 32 bowmen. Wahoo! I wasn't able to get started on this army in February, but that's on the roster for minis I'll be painting in March.

BTW.... one genuine ChicagoWiz-No-Prize to the person that can guess the TV show that influenced my choice of coloring for the orcs... :) (My AD&D players cannot guess, as they already know... oh yes... *evil grin*)

The strange places minis will take you

I'm just about finished doing up my special sauce for the X1 - Isle of Dread D&D Marathon this weekend, but tomorrow to Monday will be jam-packed, so this is gonna have to do it for the week. Hopefully I'll get my February minis photos completed and we'll have a nice post for Monday or Tuesday.

Speaking of miniatures, I've found that my hobby and my particular obsessions with getting the info on the particular figures I have takes me into some strange places. My minis have influenced the direction of my game at several points - most notable are the Otherworlds troll, the figure I'm using to represent Calypso (villian in @thePrincessWife's solo game), the figure that became the Mountain Ogre and the Otherworlds orc shamen holding a heart in his hand.

How so? Well, when I was constructing my Dark Ages world, I had just started putting together the OWM troll.  Putting him under a bridge on the main path to a tempting exploration destination came to me while assembling the big guy - making him a troll mage was probably the result of me slicing my finger open or something. If I feel pain... everyone feels it! The Mountain Ogre was a creation of imagination from having just played Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and looking at this figure and wondering how I could convert it away from the "Hellborne" look. The story wrote itself. The orc shamen influenced the game I just concluded on Sunday... what would be special that would cause so many orcs to show up? Hmm... shamen is doing some sort of sacrificial ritual... and that story wrote itself. The Calpyso figure was holding an orb and looking young and suave - and thus I've come up with more info on that villain and how he acts/thinks.

I also find myself discovering unusual things. For instance, did you know that FASA had released a game called Crucible that sounds an awful lot like they were wanting to take on WarHammer? (here, here and here). I found this out because I got a figure in a trade that I could not find or identify. It wasn't until I started a search based on the tiny words from the "slotta tab" on the bottom of this winged, demonic looking creature. "Olley" and "C 99 Ral Partha" led me to the photo on the left. Viola! Mystery figure found and a game that I had never heard of... and probably will never play. Sounds like it was an interesting game though.  (Picture is from collecting-miniatures.com - the Olley Armies wiki)

And yes, I am going to find some reason to stick this guy in one of my games somewhere!

Some people find their inspiration from the books and magazines they collect, I find a chunk of mine in my minis. How about you?

Red Dragon mini painting musings

I'm just about to start on the "POS WotC Red Dragon" that I've complained about for awhile now. It was a difficult sculpt to assemble but the figure looks nice enough when it finally stays together. :) A picture of what it looks like is below. (paint job is NOT mine..)

So speaking of paint job, I'm trying to figure out how to paint the damn thing. My mind wanders back to 1979 when I first got involved in D&D. My intros to Red Dragons looked a little something like this:


(Holmes box picture from http://xeveninti.blogspot.com/ )

Yea, I like that, iconic, old school, always how I picture.. WAIT!!! What is up with those damn wings!?!

The grey wings are a theme that has popped up before, with the cockatrices - they had leathery grey wings according to ye-olde AD&D Monster Manual. A check of the AD&D book, and going back to OD&D Monsters & Treasures doesn't help - colors were not really described. That's not a problem, per se, but I'm still at a loss what the deal is with the grey wings. There's something I'm not liking about this deal.

(Anyone know why the fascination with the grey leathery wings theme?)

Then I saw this by an artist known as Kevin Mayle. (From here... http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=workshop&thread=969&page=1#22807 and he was still doing posts in 2010... very nice work.)

I like the way he has the wings - a more developed black/grey theme that hews to the original and yet has a much nicer look than the dull grey from the covers. Now we're cookin here! Thanks for the  inspiration Kevin.

So the dilemma is this... stick to the simple or go off the ranch? I'm not looking to go much beyond this scheme, but I'm going to be digging to see how I can enrich the red/orange/yellows here to make them more evocative. Interestingly, the picture I used in my post last year has a lot of influence from the same old covers - that artist and I have the same idea.

Wish me luck on this one...

Plans for the weekend

Plumbing & Furniture... that should be some sort of game. "I rolled a 1! The pipes leak all over the place!"

Wait, that's probably gonna happen anyway. My first time soldering copper piping. If you have small children or weak constitutions, you probably should stay away - the cussing will be epic.

Anyway, I'll finish up on my 5 OWM/Reaper orcs. It took about a week to crank out 5 of them - probably about 12 to 15 hours of work in them but it's worth it - they look great and the emulation of a particular theme came out like I hoped. I'm also extra-grossifying the OWM orc shaman, but I'll let the Februrary minis recap tell that story.

Next on the list is a quick 'break' of two old Citadel ghosts in a neat fashion, then I'm moving on to "the piece of shit that shall be cool" WotC Red Dragon. With that, I'll conclude all 39 of my "primed" list I started in January. What will I do after? I should be getting some archers in a minis exchange soon, so I'll have my DBA Sumerian I/1a army waiting to be done... but more OWM pretties first!

Oh and if anyone has a spare Merry/Pippen for the Games Workshop Mines of Moria game... I tossed them out by accident when I was separating the sprues. I'm still a little WTF over that...

So all that and hopefully, hopefully... @thePrincessWife will take on Alaxus in our OD&D solo game! She's rid of the cursed "fancy sword" and hired some extra muscle to take on the 8 rotting things, 8 piles of bones (they're not sure if they're alive or not.. and I'm not telling -yet-) and one "something" that closed a door by pointing at it. We'll see how it all turns out... I'm excited! :)

Minis Madness

I'm in full swing of the winter Minis-madness that seems to grip me. I think I have to be a bit crazy to be putting in all this time for little figures that people are going to push around the table and (in the case of monsters) try to get removed from the table as fast as possible.

Part of it is that when I'm modeling or painting, I'm in a zen place. This probably is how I spent some of my happiest moments as a young lad, downstairs working on my model balsa airplanes or plastic models while my Dad was working in his woodshop. One of my earliest/youngest memories is of putting together these small three or four piece biplane models and then going to watch Emergency! after a fun-filled birthday party at my best friend's father's house. So none of this is probably a surprise.

I've given myself some definitive goals of getting my backlog reduced. I'm doing my best to not purchase any minis in February and March (until the Spring Auction at Games Plus where I hope to fill out my need for Sumerian or generic Biblical archers. If you have these in 1/72 or 20mm size, let's talk trade!)

Anyway... it's a madness because I'm finally feeling "good" about what I'm doing and thus it has become a positive feedback loop. An addiction of sorts. I have my new Winsor/Newton #1 and #2 brushes (quick review - OMGBUYTHESENOWTHEYROCK!) and I've set up my space down in the basement (I feel the influence of Dad there...) and I just do my thing. I have my assembly line, my quota/primed/modeled box and my "waiting to be picked" box. I come home and as soon as I'm done with required stuff, I almost feel like a kid escaping to his favorite game or hobby - back to the brush and modeling.

This month, I've done some serious customization on one of the Otherworld Miniature orcs - eschewing the dwarf head hand for a hand holding a green-stuff shield. I've also had to do some creative adjustments on an Otherworlds skeleton - pinning the shoulders resulted in a nightmare and I thought I would have to trash one of the figures. That was prevented by a timely suggestion of a rotting tabard over the shoulders to cover the mound of JB Weld I put to hold the damn arms in place. Great figures, very easy to fuck up if you get the pinning and gluing wrong.

I should mention again the new brushes. Up till now, I've been using mostly Loew-Cornell brushes. Not the worst in the world, but these guys have been beat up and no good points at all. When I started using my Winsor Newtons - wow. I felt like I gained a level in painting just by tools alone. I'm amazed at what I can do with these brushes. They require more attention and I definitely lick/shape these brushes a lot more, but the results hopefully will speak for themselves. Provided I can take decent photos this month... Anyway - the tools definitely make the job.

This weekend will see me heading to the Dells for an "adults only" get-away to be alone - maybe play some more solo OD&D and a sample game of Pendragon.

So why is there a tiny bit of me grumbling about the loss of two painting days...? Madness, I tell you. Wait till the weather changes and Harley in the garage starts growling. *sigh*

In the minority...

Hello all! I survived the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011, although I made myself very sick by too much exertion at the snow removal. I was already with a cold and I pushed myself too hard. Go figure, me do that? Heh.

Anyway, back for a moment and I wanted to mention something that's an unexpected item that I have to take care of due to the nature of my campaign being "drop in/drop out" ... player/character maintenance.

Judging from a recent thread I participated in on K&KA, I'm apparently in the minority when it comes to gaming. Most of the people I chatted with seem to game with mainly an already established group of social friends, and that doesn't lead to much new blood? Me? I have had close to 30 people participate in the campaign since it started two years ago. About half of those stay in touch or continue to game, most have been onsie-twosies. That's OK! That was something I brought into the West Marches game and while it has given me grief a couple of times (in the form of players who didn't match the social/campaign style/flow that we have going) on the whole it's been a positive, rewarding thing.

Still, I'm in the unusual position today of "doing maintenance" in the form of contacting long silent players to see if they ever plan on returning or if I should retire their characters. I've already heard back from a couple, which is a nice surprise - it's always nice to hear from the original players who've had to break away for life reasons. It's probably something that is particular to my style of campaign - the people with established gamer/social circles probably don't have to do this.

Another thing that I seem to be in the minority of, when it comes to "old/original gaming" is using email to conduct business or "in between games" activities. I do have a limit on what I can do/accomplish between games, usually subject to my ever-shrinking amount of free-time. I usually also limit this to transactional type of things or the results of stuff done off-table, like making scrolls, carousing, etc. To me, if I can limit the amount of "paperwork" like activities on game day, it's a benefit. And sometimes we have some great discussions/RP via email. Maybe it's because I'm comfortable with the medium, or maybe it's an aspect that my campaign group isn't a social friends group, although there are some overlaps between the two?

A couple of quick minis notes...

- Painting with a Winsor/Newton Series 7 brush is like moving from a demolition derby car to a NASCAR Sprint Cup series Late Model. Holy crap! I may have made the vast majority of my other brushes obsolete!

- JB Weld is going to become my friend. I love Otherworlds Miniatures, but some of the figures are decidedly difficult to pin/glue and one particular arm on one particular skeleton is giving me fits. I'm up to attempt #5.

- I also attempted serious sculpting with green stuff by making an orc shield! We'll see how it goes, I had to make the hand as well. It's going on one of the Otherworlds pig-nosed orcs, so I'm feeling "meh" about doing such a radical modification. If it works, I'm going to be thrilled!

January Minis Painting recap

I'm going to start doing my minis recaps/picture posts as monthly updates, we'll see how this works.

I started the month with 103 minis primed/unpainted.

I added 104 miniatures this month:

• 2 Mega-Minis cockatrices
• Mega-Minis ghost
• Mega-Minis Guthrie Druid
• 3 Mega-Minis dogs: bull terrier, Scottish terrier, German Shepard
• 2 unnamed Reaper monsters (Dark Ages campaign-specific)
• 92 HäT Sumerian infantry (1/72 DBA Army)
• 3 HäT Sumerian chariots (1/72 DBA Army - 12 donkeys, 6 figures, 3 war wagons)

I ended the month with 168 miniatures primed/unpainted.