GW's Army Painting Contest

My local GW (the only LGS near me) is having a contest. You choose one of the Space Marine Chapters listed on a poster they have hanging in the store, purchase a box of Space Marines in Power Armor (no Terminators or Scouts because they have “Terminator Armor” and “Scout Armor”), then paint them up to look like the chapter you chose. Then one model from each chapter will be placed in a display case with the person who painted it and the chapter listed. The one unit that is voted “best painted” will get to create their own chapter and that will replace the “erased” listed on the poster hanging in the store. AND the life size model of the Space Marine that is the Icon of the store will be repainted with those colors chosen by the person who wins.

My Wife deiced that the whole family should get involved. At first I thought we’d pick one Chapter and then we’d all paint our units to look the same, but then only 1 model get’s in the case.... so we all picked a chapter and a unit box of 5 models. My wife wants to have some sort of posterity in the store since I spend so much $$ on GW products, this way we support the store community and not just the store.

I chose the Black Dragons. Not my first choice, but the Grey Knights were already taken. I will painting a Devastator Squad.
My wife chose the Hawk Lords, mainly because they were purple.... and a Combat Squad to paint.
Eldest chose Knights of the Raven and will painting up a Sternguard Veteran Squad
Middle Child chose Salamanders and will painting an Assault Squad.
Youngest chose Death Eagles and will be painting up a Combat Squad.

The only obstacle I can see hitting is the logo’s of each of the Armies above since GW does not produce emblems for each and every Chapter they list. I know that The Bolter & Chainsword Forums have dedicated members who create downloadable images that can be used to print out the decals on transfer paper. Since I have a color laser printer, I’m hoping to obtain some decal paper and actually try printing them out and seeing how it works to actually put them on... freehand painting that small is extremely hard and I really don’t have the time or inclination to do so.

At The Moment, my middle son is the one most enthusiastic about this endeavor. I’m really swamped at work, coming home and putting in another 3-4 hours remotely. Nice that I can do from the comfort of my own home, but it cuts into family time.... which my wife considers this event. A chance to have our family do something together and encourage each other to complete the task. My youngest and eldest are not that enthalled and are like “sure Mom”.... while still sitting at the computer playing Modern Warfare 2.... when she says we should start working on them. My wife has not been enthralled in the past with doing this type of hobby, but she’s grown to it and really wants to learn how to build/paint the miniatures. I’m hoping I have the patience to do it.

As I stated my Middle Son is the most enthusiastic. When he goes to play at the GW, people treat him as a fellow gamer and they don’t judge him based on his Autism, they judge him on how good a player he is. While he loses almost all games (he’s probably 5 wins to 100 loses, but he really get’s into the game and when he has his Warboss declare a WAAAAAGH... my son does just that..... at the top of his lungs he bellows out “WAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!” It is awesome and since he hasn’t been able to go and play, the store personnel and other gamers always ask if he’s coming back to play since they miss his antics acting like an Ork. I’m glad he’s found a place where he’s accepted.

-TTFN-

On my way....

With the new house, I've stated that I should be hobby-ing and playing very soon.

Well, the first few steps have been completed. I already spoke of the workshop... that's coming along wonderfully. Just need to be better organized on what goes in there and what goes in.....

My new HOBBY ROOM!!!

I put up a kitchen countertop to use as a desk/hobby table. And it is WONDERFUL. Just got it up today and got my MAC setup and all... HMM HMM GOOD! Take a look!







Now there's plenty of room to work from home (as necessary) AND be able to build, paint, etc.... The Room is now a disaster area (had to move a bookcase) with books, old desk, etc taking up lots of room. I need to move the display cases so they actually look good in the room, etc and have room for the bookshelf for all the rulebooks, etc.

I'm also designing two gaming tables that will go in the room so we have a place to actually play. I'll be making them modular in nature so if necessary they can either fold up or be attached together depending on the size of the game played...

Come to think of it, having six 2x2' tables instead of two 4x6' tables. I haven't decided yet. I'm mainly thinking that since I own a Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard from Games Workshop, it is 4x6' at it's largest size, with each tile being 2x2'. But Ex-Illis can come with a bunch of 1x1' tiles to make a battle board.... so I'm torn. But 2x2' would be a single GW tile or 4 Ex-Illis tiles.

Guess I'll be hitting various games forums to see what sizes are normal for certain games (I know that for 40k, WFB, AT-43 and Confrontation that bigger most of the time is better.) Some games like Warmachine are determined by the size of the Battle. Of course I'm going off of the original Prime book and not the Latest MKII rules. I'll be getting those once all the army books are out and I can just grab everything all at once.

But then I have games like Monsterpocalypse.... while technically a miniature game, it has a predetermined size map.... I've thought about actually creating modular maps for the game based on the size of the squares, but have not figured out how to lock them together. Once I figure that out... booyah! Plenty of that type of Gaming Goodness will be happening.

Then I also play Old West games like Gutshot Cowboy Wars, and Tombstones and Tumbleweeds. They can take decent size tables, especially when doing a reproduction of an authentic old west town.

Now a game like Chaos in Carpathia and its sci-fi version, Chaos on Chronos, can be played on a 2x2' or 4x4' play space.

See the dilemma on the table creation?

I'm sure I'll figure it out and it will be AWESOME!

Stay tuned for more awesome stuff coming down the pipe.

WHOOT!

As in my last post, we got the house and we actually moved in over the Christmas school break (I took two weeks of holiday from work).

Moving over a holiday type week is not the brightest move I've made in my life. It was raining, it was cold and it took 7 truck loads (17ft) to get our stuff from out of the valley.

And it has taken me this long to post.... trying to get the townhouse ready for renting, trying to unpack... having to own a car now to get to where we need to go.

I never realized how much time was being wasted when we used to own a car. Having not owned one for 7 years, you get used to taking your time, but it's constructive time. You can read, talk on the phone... can't do that when your driving.

Lots has changed with this move. Biggest is my commute has shortened. I am now using a vanpool and I leave 1/2 hour later and get home at the same time, but I don't have to shuffle out 1/2 hour early and only take a 1/2 hour lunch. So that's nice. My coworkers appreciate my not running out to catch the bus. The vanpool is much more predictable and there are no smelly bums on it, or people who vomit in the middle of the isle.

I mentioned the bonus room, which is slowly coming together. I am going to be putting in a "workbench". It will be a kitchen counter top put in on one corner and run almost the length of one wall. That should give me plenty of room for a desk for my computer and when I'm on call with work, as well as painting/building station for mini's and terrain.

In the garage is a workshop and I finally got my drill press up and running. I had purchased it about 8 months ago and due to a water leak in the garage at the townhouse I was unable to set it up. So it sat in the box. Well I got it out of the box put it together and now I'm drilling like a MOFO! In what would take me 30 minutes with a hand drill, I was able to complete in about 15 minutes. That's HALF THE TIME! WHOOT!

So I'm hoping now that once the Townhouse is rented (we have someone lined up and they should be moving in the first of March) that will be off my plate and hopefully I can make a video of how to make the display boards I've been working on for all the Mini's I own. From concept to finished product.

And hopefully I won't ignore this blog too much. Yea I know wishful thinking ;).

TTFN

Finally....

Well we finally got the house stuff all worked out.

Man am I glad. What a pain in the butt.

Here's a pic of the house.....



I had totally forgotten what a pain it is to buy a house. Shopping for the house... FUN! Deciding which house after you have seen a few... FUN! Paperwork to purchase the house.... NOT FUN! :D

And going with a VA backed loan drags the process out at least another two weeks.

But I am SO JAZZED that the process is over. Now we are doing some light cleaning (like carpets, walls, dusting) and a few repair items, we'll be moving in very soon.

The Bonus Room (where I'll be doing my actual gaming) is 12'x15'.... or 3.657 Meter's by 4.572 Meter's (for the European Community). Depending on how much the Diplay cases take up (as well as my Workstation), I'm thinking at least 2 4'x4' tables which can be combined into a 4'x8' table. If it's possible, I'll be putting in three or four 4'x4' tables. If that's not possible, I'll see about 4'x3' tables. Combining those would make two 4'x6' tables.

Here's some pics of the bonus room...






I'll be removing the shelves on the wall since I have my own bookcase and two display cases.

The Garage has a workshop. Although I'm going to have an electrician come out and check the Power Panel vs how many power tools I'll have running.

There is room for my drill press, but not for the table saw. That will have to go out in the garage.

I'll post more of course now that the "danger" has been averted. The valley could still flood, but I won't be in it.

Saga So Far

To continue on the "Flood" saga.....

We found a house on the East Hill that we liked and put in an offer. It was accepted. Before the economic downturn, I would not have been able to afford this house. But the house is really cool. Not only do I get a gaming room (aka the "Bonus Room"), I also get a workshop along with part of the 3 car garage to put my Radial Arm saw, routing table and other large power tools that will create a lot of wood dust and make it easy to clean up.

The workshop is really nice with a bench with power and shelving already in place. There is a place for my Drill press and other smaller power tools. Once I have everything in place I'll post pictures.

I'm jazzed because I can now, supposedly, have the room and ability to create all the terrain I want and actually have a place to paint mini's etc. This will allow me to finish the mini trays that I had been posting pictures of and I am hoping to actually make a tutorial that I can post on YouTube.

So stay tuned to this space for further updates. (Just an FYI we should be moving over the US Thanksgiving Day Holiday.) I should be posting more frequently (but then don't I always promise that? :D ).

Life

As usual it's been a while. Life always seems to happen just when you start enjoying yourself.

At the moment, there are two things going on in my life. The first is I now live in a flood plain.... WTF?!? how could I go from not living in a flood plain to living in one? It's called the Howard-Hansen Dam. Seems this Dam was built in the 1950's to keep the area where I live from flooding..... which caused it to no longer be classified as a flood zone. Now fast forward 50 years later and with climate change hitting the Pacific Northwest pretty hard (we now get rain like the East Coast gets, large, hard and lots of it, were before we got drizzle), instead of 90 days of drizzle, we get 90 days of OMG CATS and DOGS flowing from the sky.

So last year (2008) was a record year for the Dam. The Dam normally fills to 75% capacity. Last year it was 90%.... then the operators/care takers noticed "depressions" in the Dam... not a good thing. They drained it and discovered that it is no longer viable to hold massive amounts of water and it will take 8-10 years to fix..... whoops... so all of my inquiries into "Do I live in a flood plain" and being told "No" was a bunch of crap. There is a single point of failure in the logic that a flood plain is no longer a flood plain just because some Humans built a Dam and said so.

This brings me to point number two. In our strive to not have everything we own ruined by said coming flood... we have started to raise items in the Townhouse. So all the books/video's that are normally downstairs, are now upstairs... all the fun stuff in the Garage / Workshop is being moved to shelving I have put into the ceiling. This creates a much more open workspace. And that is awesome because I've been wanting more workspace. Of course that euphoria won't last long as all that extra space will be in 6-10' of water when the rains come.

With all the new workspace and hoping that the rains do not come or are not as bad as trending has shown it should be, I'll be working on a massive amount of stuff. The display boards I have not finished will finally get finished and photo's taken and posted.

Too bad that the "right now" is taken up by flood prep. But hopefully it will all work out in the end and I will have a cool workspace that won't flood.

The DC Chronicles.

Discovered this series of short movies while checking out Fallout 3 Vids on Youtube.

The DC Chronicles.

The Fallout 3 engine allows for scripted sequences and I found a series of video's on Youtube by member Drakortha and OMG! this guy is good.

Not only is the scripting very well done, but the writing and how it is presented is incredible.

There are 3 episodes up at the time of this post. It is highly recommended that you watch them, even if you are not a fan of the game.


My hats off to you Drakortha. Damn good job.