Excuses and Resolutions

So we’ll start with the excuses: you may notice that my last post was way back in September. This is ridiculous, and should get me thrown in jail. Luckily, our legal system doesn’t work that way, so I’m out, free as a bird and able to commit other crimes in the future like jaywalking and aggravated buggery.

An OshCon 2009 "action" shot

However, I do have reasons for my silence, however weak they may be: in early October, I ran OshCon 2009: a gaming convention here in Oshkosh, WI. This year was our biggest yet, with 233 attendees over the two days. Hey look, pictures! Obviously, a gaming convention doesn’t prepare for itself, so I was very busily crossing “i”s and dotting “t”s for weeks beforehand, including the date of my last post to this blog, meaning I did actually take time out of my busy preparations to give you a lame and phoned-in post. You’re welcome.

After OshCon, I attended RockCon in northern Illinois. That was really fun and I met some really cool people and found out that my hotel room didn’t give me a disease, so it was really win-win. I did accidentally (nearly) kill a guy, so it wasn’t all roses.

Then, let’s say work was pretty busy. Sure.

Then it was Thanksgiving, then St. Nick’s Day, then probably Presidents Day or something, then I started a tabletop miniatures gaming and hobby group, then built a web site and forum for said group, then Christmas. Everything is just a blur, frankly. Eventually, I found myself on the 2010 side of New Year’s, and now here we are. I did do a bunch of stuff during the time that this blog was dark, but I will post those things later, and make it look like new content. Aren’t you lucky?

Speaking of New Year’s, now is the time when I talk about my New Year’s resolutions. This year, I’m going to aim for an hour of painting and modeling per day. You read that correctly. Now, if I can’t paint on a Tuesday due to other commitments or something, then I just need to paint for two hours on Wednesday, and so on. Certainly, this may cause me to have to do a lot of catching up on weekends, but what the hell are weekends for, I might ask? Exactly. So an hour a day is the goal.

Another resolution: I am going to paint more, and buy less. Actually, the plan is to not buy any minis and just paint all the primed minis on my shelves and the un-primed and un-constructed minis in my storage boxes, but something awesome might come up, and I’m not made of stone, for Pete’s sake. However, I am going to stop surfing eBay and picking up things I don’t need just because they’re cheap. Do you know how many Necrons I ended up with doing that? A gaggle. A gaggle of Necrons. Or perhaps it’s a drudge.

I’m also resolving to get more terrain finished. I have half a dozen unfinished projects on and around my desk, and I have a brand spanking new Realm of Battle board sitting in my closet, waiting to be primed and painted. I really have to wait until spring and warmer weather to tackle that project, but I can work on several other terrain projects in the mean time, and I mean to.

Here come the Warjacks

Lastly, I resolve to play more. I have so many games, and I’m interested in many more. I’ve started a miniatures gaming club, so there should be plenty of opportunities to play. I’ve been playing Star Wars Miniatures most Tuesdays at the House of Heroes, but I really want to play more Warmachine (probably staying with the old Prime Remix rules instead of moving to the new Mk II rules) and AT-43 and Song of Blades and Heroes and Mutants and Death Ray Guns. Plus, there should be more playtesting of the rules that Peter and I are working on. Oh yeah, and I bought a copy of the new release of Space Hulk when it came out, so there’s that as well.

Anyway, enough rambling, I need to catch up on my painting for the week. It is a Saturday, after all.

The Finished Manhunter

After all the finishing touch-ups and little niggling bits here and there, I finally committed and varnished him, and then added a little bit of static grass to the base. He’s finished, and I’ve moved on to the next model(s).

The finished Khador Manhunter

Actually, he was done a while ago, but I just finally shot decent photos of him last night. Since he’s been done I’ve worked on some more terrain from Armorcast and I’ve started constructing the Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios from Warmachine (Privateer Press). She is a weird-looking sculpt, as I have mentioned before, and I had to pin her tiny little arms, which was a pain in the neck. However, she’s now built and I’m just finishing up the detailing on her base. Then I can prime her when I’m ready and get to painting.

I’m going to try to take some time out tonight to inventory all my AT-43 (Rackham) figures and make myself a list. I think that I might have enough for three 2000 point armies (U.N.A., Therians and Red Blok) but I might need to pick up a few pieces here and there to make it happen. I would like to be able to play with friends, and if I can supply the armies for them, then playtime will be more likely. Of course, I’ll have very little playtime between now and early August, as my work is gearing up for a little event that we put on anually (that draws 700,000-plus people) and I’ll be working some long days. Hopefully I’ll have the mental energy to keep up with my painting. Maybe I can find something sort of mindless to paint or do that’s hobby-related.