Paladin From Reaper

Check it out - flames turned out well.  The armor actually looks much better in person - the camera doesnt do it justice.

Last zombie hunter from The Scene

Cool little fig (similar poses to the last 2 Ive done) - paint job on it was 'blah' but, I splattered gore on him, which was fun, but also kinda sucked :)  Jack Black or Ash?

Probably my last 15mm guy for a while.  I think Ive decided I like the bigger figures better - more opportunities for shading, etc.

LEGO Dork

Hi.  Im Jay.  And Im a LEGO dork.

I freely admit it now.  I played with LEGOs when I was a kid - I got my first set around 1977.  It was a Lunar Lander, before they had LEGO minifigs.  I was into the SPACE series and the CASTLE series.  I probably played with them until I was 13 or so, and the 'cool' factor caught up to me. 

I had forgotten about LEGOs until fairly recently when I happened to be in the toy section of a department store, and was amazed by all the cool sets they had come out with.  The Millenium Falcon and AT AT Walkers both caught my eye.

Well, I was over at a friend's house over the Christmas break and she had the LEGO Eiffel Tower (which looks like it sells for about $700 bucks IF you can find one!)  After that, I started looking around on the 'Net just for fun, and there is this entire LEGO subculture I had no idea about!

Ive loved the Space Shuttle program, and now that it is going away, I felt like it was time to relive my LEGO dorkism...

LEGO Shuttle Adventure - 1204 pieces

Now that is a lot of pieces!

Ill throw some more pics up as it starts to build up...I think my wife is looking forward to this too!

Another Zombie Hunter from The Scene

A little more 15mm redneck zombie hunter love, rebel flag and all!  Weeeee doggie!

Two more from The Scene: Agents

2 15mm Agents from The Scene...as I mentioned yesterday, these are nice little figures.  Good detail.

Bring it on!

15mm zombie hunter from The Scene UK.  Cool little miniature.  Growing up in the Deep South, and living there now, I feel like I am the total expert to paint this figure!  This 'uniform' is every day attire here...john deere hat, shotgun and chainsaw included!  I thought I was done, but I might try to get some gore and blood splatter on the chainsaw...

Dumb work stories

How many of you are IS dorks???  I figure that there are probably many of us in the little man/painting hobby.

Anyway, I work at a commercial laboratory in a Paternity department as a programmer/project manager/is guy.  I just had a really funny event happen which led me to remember some other funny stories over the years.  If you arent an IS person, or if you arent very computer savvy, you may not find this funny at all.  (You may not find it funny no matter who you are!)

So, today's story:
One of the main culprits of some of my other stories stopped me in the hall.  She said 'Jay, Im trying to change my password on XYZ system, and the OK button wont enable'.  I said 'huh, thats weird...we havent changed that window in forever - I dont know what could possibly be wrong with it.  Let me go back to my desk and try it, and Ill be out in a minute to see whats going on with your computer'

Pretty standard password window!

So, I go back to my desk, and im able to change MY password just fine.  I go out to find her in the lab (yep, you guessed it - she processes people's samples) and watch her attempt to change the password.  Well, she was typing her old password in correctly.  Typing in a new password.  Typing in a different 'Retype' password.  I said 'well, the second password you entered was different than the first'.  She said 'Well, it says to type in another new password'.  Keep in mind, this window hasnt changed in 10 years, and the employee in question has worked at this company well over 15 years.

Some others that I have "filed away":

- We use Windows here.  Each employee has access to the "I" drive, which is our own personal storage space on the network, and the virtual names are based on our real names.  I get a call from a lady named 'Antoinette Surgeon' *(Yeah, if you are reading this, you made my blog, and you are a moron!)  She said "Jay, I cant get to my Surgeo A drive".  Thinking surely she must have some brand of external drive I have never heard of, I dig a little more "What's a Surgeo A drive?  Is it an external hard drive or something?"  "No, I get to it through my computer."  I dont know what she is talking about - so I walk over to her computer.  You guessed it...its her I drive:  SurgeoA on 'Bnwcfs blah blah blah'

My Deleo J One drive

- "Jay, my computer is broken".  Not plugged in.

- "Jay, my mouse is broken".  Computer is frozen up.

- "Jay, my monitor is broken".  Monitor is not turned on.

- "Jay, Im trying to cancel a run (lab speak) and when I try to cancel it, nothing happens".  Response window that shows 'OK' and 'Cancel'.  User is pressing 'Cancel'.

Just a day in the life...

Moral of the story????  DONT EVER GET PARENTAGE TESTING DONE!!!!!

Reaper Miniatures Rogue

I have just finished another figure from Reaper...I think she was called Saori???  Anyway, she felt like a rogue to me, and that is what she is.  I tried something a little different this time - I tried to put some water effects on the sword and paint them to look like poison.  The water effects are too thick....I would have been better off just painting the sword in several greenish shades to make it look like liquid.  Oh well.

Playing too much Call of Duty?

I was sitting in my chair watching TV yesterday afternoon.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bird circling in front of my house.  My first though was to pull out my anti air rocket, and shoot down the spy plane...

November 2010 Totals

I finished 4 different projects in November.  However, I still didnt TOUCH the Peter Pig marines!  WTF????  I dont know what it is...they are great little figures.  I think that A) Im finding Im not a huge fan of 15mm - I like the detail and layering I can do with a 28mm and B) there appears to be SO MANY FIGURES on my paint table, that I get overwhelmed, and just say 'fuck it'

In order to combat my project crawl, Ive had to clean up my desk, and get back to only a few things so it doesnt seem like such a dauntless task.  Once my desk was clean, I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  That certainly isnt the way I want to deal with this hobby.

Im taking stuff off of my 'In Progress' list, and I am going to try to make sure that this only reflects things that I am truly working on right now.

Completed, for November, 2010:

28mm cavalry completed: 2
2 Arabs on camels (Brigade Games Arab Revolt Range)
15mm infantry completed: 9
9 Reapers (GZG Miniatures)
1/285 armor completed: 5
5 M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles (GHQ) 
Mini Sci Fi Vessel: 1
1 Ravager Raider (GZG Miniatures)


In progress, October/November, 2010:
15mm infantry in progress: 15 (Reduced this number here from over 100 last month)
9 Modern US Marines (Peter Pig)
3 Zombie Hunters (Rebel Miniatures)
3 Special Agents (Rebel Miniatures)
28mm infantry in progress: 5
1 Dark Elf Assassin (Reaper)
1 Wizard/Mage (Reaper)
1 Paladin (Reaper)
1 Elf Hunter/Ranger (Reaper)
1 Elven Cat (Reaper)
Mini Sci Fi Vessel: 1
1 NAC Suffolk Class escort (GZG Miniatures)

Im going to do my DAMNDEST to get these miniatures off of my table before I pick more up.  However, I purchased several packs of 15mm zombies from Reaper, got some Foundry cowboys and a SWAT team on reduced price, and I also picked up a box of Wargames Factory Prussian Landwehr on sale, all tugging at me....

Purchased, November 2010

Did well on the purchasing front until Black Friday came along.  As I mentioned, I bought a box of plastic Landwehr from Brookhurst Hobbies on sale for $22.  I spent over 50 at Rebel Miniatures on zombies, contractors, and zombie hunters.  Also, I got some reduced price Foundry minis too on Black Friday - I dont remember, but I think they were $36 total.  Anyway, that puts me over the $1000 mark for the year.  Im waiting on my reward.

Yearly totals:

25-28mm infantry completed: 51
25-28mm cavalry completed: 18
15mm infantry completed: 68
15mm cavalry completed: 4
15mm armor completed: 3
1/720 warships completed: 2
1/600 airplanes completed: 12 
1/285 airplanes completed: 4 
1/285 armor completed:10
1/285 infantry completed: 24
Battlestar Galactica: 1 
Other mini sci fi vessel: 1
Total spent: about $1076.89

Barbarian from Reaper Minis

Ive just completed a barbarian figure from Reaper Miniatures (I think he is Bertok The Barbarian or something?).  I dont typically do "fantasy miniatures", but I picked up four or five a couple weeks ago to work on my painting (they are slightly bigger figures - Heroic 28mm or even bigger - this figure is probably closer to 35mm base to eyes).

I played around with some skin tones (and I think they turned out decently) and shadows.  After I was finished, I compared my model to the one painted by a painter better than me and they looked nearly similar in colors, and concepts, so I feel pretty good about it.

Current WIP is another figure from Reaper (cant remember her name), but she, to me, looks like a rogue of some kind.  She is nearly complete, but Im going to play around with using some Woodland Scenic water effects on her blades to try to make some poison drips.

A little pregame pizza....AND SNOW

 

Just waiting on today's SEC championship game, and it has started snowing.  A little early for us here in the southeastern US, and we already have an inch after about an hour.  Is this a sign???  IS HELL FREEZING OVER?????   GOOOOOO COCKS!

Queue the Conan music

No, not this Conan.  THIS Conan:

Ive been working on a Reaper Miniatures barbarian (I dont remember the name he was given - I guess all their minis are named).  He isnt done yet (still needs some gold), but he is getting there.  I think my guy has better abs.  My homage to Conan The Barbarian:

Arab Revolt, WW1

I just saw Lawrence of Arabia for the first time a month or so ago, and it got me in the mood to paint some Arabs.  28mm Brigade Games from the Arab Revolt range.

Current WIP

Im really excited about the way this guy (I have a couple of them) is turning out so far.  They are camel riders from the Brigade Games Arab Revolt series.

GZG Pirate vessel

Pirate ship from GZG, lovingly titled 'The Gamecock'

1/285 GHQ Bradleys

In European camo.  These are some tough little models to paint.  I need to lighten up on the green...

I cant believe it....

After 37 years of heartbreak, my Gamecocks finally broke through against Florida this weekend, moving on to the SEC title game on December 4th.  Its hard to describe the feeling.  You may think 'its just football', and yeah, you are right, but when you have struggled with the "chicken curse" all these years, the 0-11 seasons, the bowl losses...damn it feels good.  And against the damn Gay-tors too.


GOOOOOOOOO COCKS!!!

We all have regrets

Found this on one of the sites I visit (sorry Angry Lurker - hope its ok that I "borrow" from your blog)

The Concrete Jungle

You know where the f@ck you are????  You're in the jungle baby!  You're gonna diiiiieeeeeeeeeee!!!!

So, Ive been considering picking up and playing 'All Things Zombie', which is, you guessed it, a zombie game, that can be played solo.  Getting the figures will be easy - Rebel Minis makes what looks like some cool figures, and Im sure 'zombie hunter' types are a dime a dozen.  What was holding me back was scenery...its hard for me to imagine a really good zombie game in a field!

After reading some posts on TMP, I discovered an old toy set called 'Child Guidance Buildings' from the 60s and 70s (and not in production anymore.)  I checked out Ebay a few weeks ago, and there were like 3 sets on there....one was $90 (!?!), one was 50ish, and one was $0.99.  I got into a "bidding war", and won it for 8 bucks!  I figured Id probably get screwed, but what the hell???

Anyway, they came a couple days ago...the box must have had 500 walls in it!  Literally!  I sat out in my garage last night for at least an hour organizing the pieces and building some stuff (which, I must admit, I had more fun doing than I should have!)  Here are some pics:

The building with the red and black top will be a prison/police station (what good zombie game doesnt have a police station???).  Also, other assorted buildings.

Some smaller buildings, serving as houses, barracks, etc.

One of the buildings up close

A close up of the jail, and another building

This could serve as an airport terminal (especially if I can modify the 'air traffic tower' to look a little more 'airplaney').  Ive thought playing through an Entebbe scenario might be cool too.

Each "floor" could have some cardboard glued in to make an actual floor, so all of these buildings could have their own levels!  They need some paint (dont know anything about painting buildings like this), and some zombies, and Ill be good to go.

Melissa, I hope you arent looking at this this morning!  I just brought some more shit into the house!!!