Weekend Activity

So, this weekend Jennifer and I attacked our "office".  It's mainly her craft room, but I do stuff in there as well.

I spent some time and reorganized the acrylic paint drawer putting them in ROYGBIV-ish order.  Now we have a drawer of regular colors, and a half-drawer of glitter- and metallic-colors.  We also used boxes to organize the other kinds of paint.

And then I whittled away at my immortality by painting some miniatures.  I only finished one, but several are further along in process.

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So, this is Korved Pahmilor.  He's human with skill as an archer and saber fencing.  He's also good at tracking and some other survival-type skills.  He prefers to wear shades of blue and black, and although he is not a member of this world's version of Asian, he has straight, deep black hair.  He is also what is known in GURPS as a Weirdness Magnet.

He's a character created as a tangent to a previous campaign.  For that group, I created what came to be called Fountain Court in the city of Paean Umbara, casually called the City of Shadows.  The court has a couple boarding houses, a whorehouse, a seer, a blacksmith, a plant shop, and a gambling house/inn.  All this surrounding a working fountain.

The plant shop is run by my wood Elf from the other campaign.

Korved's parents run the gambling house/inn.  He had to move out soon after his magnetism started affecting probabilities around him.  So he became a mercenary.  That's what brought him into the present campaign.

Painting

This weekend, in and around Scottish Games and Fantasy Football Drafts, I did some More painting. I'm working on several at once, but this one came together quickly

The title of the miniature is Gray Maiden, so I worked on a monochromatic theme.



I think she turned out rather well.

She is the first of the batch that I got with my birthday gift certificate, so thanks John. the others I'm working on are from various batches, but I'll continue put them up as I get them done.

Painting Miniatures

This weekend I've done some cooking, making a yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing topped with roasted cocoa nibs.



I've also been doing some painting on the miniatures I got for my birthday and form a friend who's selling off some of his collection. I thought I'd explain a bit of the process. Below are all of the miniatures in raw metal.



Now, you paint them with an acrylic paint, and that doesn't tend to adhere to well to the metal, so you have to prime them.



I ended up using up the last of my primer, but I think I've got enough miniatures to keep me going for a while.

I managed to complete one figure this weekend. It's one that I've been coveting ever since i first saw it, and have never been able to find anything like it. it's a giantess, but what makes her different is that she isn't monstrous, just big. I got to borrow her once for a RPG session I was running, and wanted one like her ever since. The friend who is selling off some of his collection had her in the batch, and I could hardly wait to get to work on her.



And now she's all done.

Painting

Among others tings, for my birthday I received a gift certificate to Reaper Miniatures. And so I was able to purchase many new figures to paint.

There's a lot that goes into the painting though.

First there's the opening of the packaging and laying them out. Each figure has to be checked for burrs and remnant sticks from the die casting process. Then bits tend to get bent, so they need to be spread out. And some have attachable pieces that need to be cut off their stands so that they can be painted and attached later.

For some, I glue a washer onto the base. Those that have a very small base need something that will lower their center of gravity so they don't fall over when (never if, always when) the table gets bumped during a game. I use Duco Cement for all of my gluing metal to metal needs. It also work really well for ceramics. I've repaired a few cups and mugs with it.

Now they get laid out in a soda case box, and primed. I've got a good can of gray that's almost out, so I'm going to have to buy a new one soon. The primer allows for a better adhesion between the colored paint and the figure. Plus it helps some of the fine details become visible as opposed to the fresh shiny metal.

And final I get to paint. But there are so many little choices. What color will the armor be? Do I need to mix my own colors, or do i have something that will work? Once I mix a color is everything covered that needs to be, and can I recreate the color for touch ups? If there is extra color, are there other figures that I can use the leftovers on?

Once the figure is completely painted, I can glue on the extra pieces like arms, shields, or birds. hen , I tend to paint a little over the glue point.

Finally, I protect the paint job with a sealant spray. This helps protect the paint job from scratches.

And then once it's dry, it's ready for use in a game or display in my miniature army.

Pom and Painting and iPods

So Pom has been fine. No more insane perfume and potpourri smell. Jennifer wants to keep her inside all the time, but that'll just driver her crazy.

I did a little more painting on miniatures. I'm, working on Jennifer's mini and one called Spirit of the Forest. He'll make a great wood elemental. And my mushrooms are not going to be all sweet and spotted either.

And then Sunday, I killed most of my evening having to rebuild my main playlist. I was meaning to delete a song from the list, but I hadn't selected a song yet, so it deleted the whole playlist. I had to reconstruct the list of over 6,000 songs.

My knees and ass were sore from sitting so long.

Getting Back to Abnormal

So we're experimenting now with what we're going to use for a craft table in the office.

Until we find the perfect thing, we're keeping my old desk and using it.

I set it up Tuesday night, and cleaned it up.

Last night I finished the Superman and Batman book.

And tonight, while listening to soundtracks, I got to paint again.

I did the first bits on Jennifer's mini for our beginner's game. And I did a little color testing on my wood elemental. He's bloody huge.

Oh, and I finished Holly's centaur. Now all it needs is sealant. I've got a few arms and shields to glue on to some others and then they'll be done, and then I'll do a mass sealant spraying.

Yay!

What I should have said...

So yesterday evening, Jennifer and I figured out the colors for her miniature for the GURPS beginners game. It was a nice creative process involving chocolate and alcohol. I look forward to getting started on it. Probably not until I get back from Seattle though.

Tonight, I got to about 95% of the centaur. Click on the picture on the left and check it out. It still needs the black wash for contrast, and (through the pictures I've taken) I can see some thing I need to fix. But otherwise, I am very happy with how this turned out.

This picture was taken with my new camera. Costco is having a sale, and I got a new Olympus FE-370. It has a nice large display on the back, 8 mega-pixels and a 5x zoom. And the best part (especially when taking pictures of miniatures at full zoom with shaking hands) is that it has steady-cam. This thing is great.

I also got my hair cut today in preparation for my trip. And tomorrow night, I'm packing.

This is also the countdown for Guinness' 250-Year anniversary beer which comes out Friday.

An RPG Update

Life in roleplaying has been interesting of late.

With regards to miniature painting, I have discovered a new "tool". I am painting a centaur for Holly in my beginning GURPS group, and I wanted to make sure I had the right colors for her character. So I printed up full page pictures (pixelly, granted, but I'm not publishing these), and had her tell me, in general, what colors to put where. Then I took the sheet home this weekend and filled them in with colored pencils. The rough painting went amazingly fast. I tried taking pictures to share with her, but the figure is too small for easy focusing. I'm going to have to work on it. Anyway, I'm about half done with the centaur, and very happy with the results so far.

Moving next to the high level fantasy campaign, I'm still on a cliffhanger ending. My character, an Elf, was up against a dark knight, and I attempted to remove him by casting Entombment, a spell that send the subject ten feet underground in a state of suspended animation. He reflected the spell back on me, and I failed the resistance. So I sent myself ten feet underground into a state of suspended animation. On top of this I have a spell regularly cast that makes it difficult to find me using magical methods. I succeeded by a strong margin the last time I cast it and will be under the influence of that spell for 5 or 6 more hours.

And finally, there's the psionics campaign. Yes, we did dumb things, but my teleporter got away slightly panicking from the effects of claustrophobia. In an attempt to gather some more equipment, I got into a confrontation with some men with powerful guns. One managed to hit me with a shot, and though it didn't kill me, I had to immediately teleport to a hospital emergency room for care. And so that adventure ended with me in surgery.

I'm looking forward to the resolution of both of these dilemmas in the future.

Catching Up

Okay, so it's been a busy time of energy draining activities.

Friday, although I was in the office, was a catch-up day getting things out by deadlines, and being ready for the coming Monday.

Saturday I ran part two of the beginner's GURPS game. They learned the importance of stealth (just because you succeed, does not mean you were undetected), and teamwork against a large force. No one died, but some were wounded, and they have some decisions to make by the next game.

Sunday, Jennifer and I tried to do some hiking, but the dogs off of leashes wrought some havoc with her. No bad incidents, just a strong fear based on bad experiences in the past. We left the Martinez/Lafayette hills, and went to the Martinez marshes. We saw a couple of new birds that we have yet to look up and identify. The nice part was the no dogs rule for most of the area since it's a bird preserve.

Then we went home, stopping for sushi on the way, and watched the last three episodes of this season's "Terminator - The Connor Chronicles", loving every minute, and then two episodes of "Reaper". This was interspersed with trips to the mall (all closed except for Sears) and Smart and Final for ice cream.

Yesterday was finally the last day of drilling in Santa Clara. For this project we broke ground on March 30, and with a few one day breaks, we finished two weeks later. Now I can relax in the office for a while before we return to Stockton for more wells. The weather yesterday was perfect for fieldwork: sunny, but diffuse with high clouds, and a slight breeze all day. Perfect short sleeve weather.

And then when I got home I found my package from Reaper Miniatures. Lots of lead figures, with a completion of wood elementals, and a centaur for Holly's beginner character and a new figure for Jennifer.

Now I'm just left with the little bits of work to finish my taxes.

Random and Assorted Thoughts

I just got off the phone with Phil from EVT. He'd had a cancellation by his artist (he was going to get work done), and has an opening for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I'll go in and get the black done for the burning "S", and then we'll have time set aside for planning the future of the back piece. I'll bring artwork printouts, and talk about what I'd like in the future as far as ideas and such.

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Saturday night Jennifer and I watched "Equilibrium" on DVD. That is an intense movie. It's fun and exciting. And it has the occasional levity as well. Very good

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Got my comics on Saturday too. And some cool lead minis as well. I think the next time I'm unoccupied, I think I'll take some close-ups, and post them here.

Trippy Music Thoughts

Jennifer is out tonight, so I'm doing my typical, manly activity: painting RPG miniatures (actually the ones I'm painting are from here). Hey, I said it was my manly activity.

While I was painting, "Back in N.Y.C." from Genesis' double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway came on the iPod. And suddenly a chain of thoughts cascaded through my brain like a flash-forward.

Millions of children (of various ages) saw "WALL-E". Of those a fraction have somehow acquired the soundtrack, and enjoyed the song from the credits enough to wonder, "Who is this Peter Gabriel guy?" Now of those some (probably more than I would expect with iTunes and the like) will get some of his music, and really enjoy it. Maybe they'll work their way back to his early solo work. And some of those might even go so far back as to check out old Genesis stuff.

It was at that point that I became jealous of all of those kids, because they will be "discovering" all of this old music. And yes, Ms. Medicine Balls it is old.

But hey, that's cool. I just turn 13 for the third time.

Accomplishments over the Holiday

Thursday and Friday last week, I was (at least for dinner) ovo-lacto vegetarian. Thursday Jennifer made a great pasta for me with mushrooms and asparagus. It would have been vegan if not for the asiago cheese on it. Then for the Fourth, I had two ears of corn and two artichokes, each as big as two of my fists. Again nearly vegan, but they both must have butter. That's a lot of fiber.

Friday night, instead of watching fireworks, Jennifer and I watched the 1972 movie production of the musical "1776". It's a fun show, but the cool part were the stars in the movie. John Adams was played by William Daniels from "St. Elsewhere" and also the voice of KITT in "Knight Rider". Thomas Jefferson was Ken Howard who went on to be the star of "The White Shadow". Martha Jefferson was Blythe Danner, Gwyneth Paltrow's mother. Lewis Morris the Representative from New York was played by Howard Caine who was Major Hochstetter in "Hogan's Heroes".

Saturday was a free-for-all of fun as we spent the day with our friends Steve and Lisa in Fairfield. But not before finally putting down the deposit for my tattoos. I'll be getting the line work, and black and white done on August 7 at 6:00 in Vacaville (yes, 6 hours past noon on the seventh day of the eighth month, or was I the only one that noticed that?). Then we'll set up a date to go back and get the color done after the two bits have healed up.

Sunday we went looking at houses for possible purchase. Not much luck in the price range, but we'll see. It's always a good education going out and looking. Then we went by Black Diamond Games, and Jennifer chose a lead miniature to paint. The one she got can be seen here. She decided that since she sees so well close up that she'd like to try her hand at painting tiny pieces of metal with acrylics. She opened the packaging, and then I glued the washed on the base, and I'll prime the figure with gray tonight.