Finally, a Con-Worthy Costume

Not gaming related, but definitely in the geek realm...

Made this for a Halloween party, but should I manage to get to a convention it is coming out.

Retired! (Well, Kind Of)

As mentioned in my last post I was preparing to retire from the U.S. Army.  Well, now it's done. Signed out of my unit this morning and began my terminal leave, using up the vacation time I had saved. Not only that, but today's my birthday! (Isn't it nice when things work out like that?) So happy birthday to me!  Retirement from the military is something of a misnomer though. Unless you manage to stay in for the maximum 30 years it isn't really feasible to live off of just the retirement pay...at least until the house is paid for and the kids are out of the house.  I'll be picking up a job in the near future but in the meantime I plan to get some painting and gaming done before the kids go back to school (after I recover from the festivities planned for today).

Phew!

Man have things been busy. Who knew retiring from the military was such a time consuming exercise.  Between coordinating transportation for visiting family, attending ceremonies, clearing the installation, and planning the party there hasn't been a lot of time for painting this month. :(

On the up side, after this weekend I'll have plenty of time to paint and play depending on how long it takes to get a J-O-B.

Derailed

Just back from a trip to the homeland (Ohio). Brought some stuff with me to work on, but never opened the box as I was too busy.  Hoping to get back on track after some volunteer work and some homework.

Short Update

Had surgery about a week ago and have been on convalescent leave. Unfortunately the pain meds have effectively squashed my desire to paint. I have managed to complete two dreadballs, assembled the Dreadball goblin strikers, and started to put pigment on the Orc guards. Hopefully the pain subsides a bit before my leave does and I'll be able to knock out some serious progress in the next week and be able to actually play a game of Dreadball, which I've had for a little over a month now.

An ENIGMA Wrapped In a Riddle

I try to keep my posts related to gaming, but this is pretty neat.  I spent today manning a booth at my installation's Community Appreciation Day. The booth consisted of four encryption devices from WWII. A three-rotor ENIGMA complete with Wehrmacht markings, an M94 cipher device, an M209 converter (cipher), and the remains of a PURPLE cipher device.

I spent the day with another NCO explaining how these worked to passerby's from the local area as they shopped in the co-located craft market. My throat is a little sore from trying to talk over the crowd all day but it was worth it. Met several people who were fascinated by it, a woman who's father may very well have used an M209 during WWII, and several children who found them to be very cool. Several who stopped by were veterans themselves and we'd speak for a little while trading war stories.

Had a fun day and thought I'd share, now I return you to my irregularly scheduled broadcast.

Malaise

No, it's not something you spread on a sandwich. Haven't had much motivation to do anything gaming related lately. I finished the last model railroad building I had sitting around and started painting those Gears, but haven't touched them since that initial weekend. Been distracted by work, video games (free flash games are becoming quite complex), firearms, motorcycles, election year politics, the list goes on. It's been quite a while since I've played anything as well. My gaming has been Monopoly and Life with the kids. Thinking about jumping in on the Dreadball Kickstarter though...

Nothing Significant To Report

Been busy the past couple weeks, between coming home an not having much desire to paint or game after coming home from work and taking a motorcycle safety class over this past weekend there hasn't been any progress from a couple weeks ago when I started base coating the Rach Krakens. Hope to change that this upcoming weekend, but there's a vacation to prepare for....

Solar Observation Device

You thought it was going to be a satellite or some large piece of equipment in miniature form didn't you?  These are home made camera obscuras (cameras obscura? camera obscurae?) for the kids and myself to watch the solar eclipse tonight without burning out our retinas. The idea surfaced from a childhood memory when I made one from instructions from an astronomy magazine for kids. I was probably somewhere around 10 years old or so. (They say something is the first to go as you age, but I'll be darned if I can remember what it was.) With age though has come some improvements on the original. First, the interior was spray painted flat black. Blank paper is more readily available than when I was a kid. (I used regular notebook paper in the original) Light "leaks" have been more aggressively addressed than the original. And finally the viewing hole was made smaller to reduce the amount of light infiltrating. These work pretty well. I get about a 1/4" disk when viewing the sun unobstructed, and standing under a tree I can see a faint image of the branches over the projection surface (white card stock).

I used a shoe box, a bunch of duct tape and electrical tape, black spray paint, white cardstock (regular paper works as well), and aluminum foil. Use the tape to cover spots where light will enter the box. Paint the interior black. Cut the cardstock or paper to fit on the inside of one end of the box and tape into place. cut a small opening on the opposite end and tape the foil over the opening, making sure the side are completely covered and most importantly that the foil is taught. Using a small sewing needle, poke a tiny pinprick of a hole in the foil. Put the lid back on and tape around it to block the light. Cut a small hole in the side so you can see the paper. Go outside and looking into the viewing hole point the foil-end at the Sun and with small movements move the box so you see a bright disk on your paper...that's the reversed and inverted image of the Sun. During the eclipse we'll be able to see the Moon cross the disk.

I still think I'm going to have to tell them not to look at the Sun.

How Stuff Works

Ugh

OK, so the only thing I accomplished in January was four 15mm UNSC figures and ordering a bunch of other stuff. In fairness though RL has really kicked my butt this month. The first couple of weekends were occupied with either Army stuff or being sick, then I had to make an emergency flight back home to be there when my Grandmother passed away. Weekdays haven't been much better. Been coming home feeling whipped. Overall, there hasn't been much desire to do much of anything miniature-wise.

Hoping February will see a little more motivation.

RL Strikes Again

Not much going to happen hobby wise this weekend, and probably next weekend. RL is rearing one of it's more ugly heads in my realm and I'm having to make an emergency trip to my hometown.  I'd take some stuff to work on, but I know won't do anything with it and I probably won't have a lot of time to do so. So instead I'm downloading a business leadership book to my Nook and topping off the charge on the netbook.

In an unrelated note, been afflicted with the desire to scratchbuild or kitbash a dropship for 15mm, despite only having played a few small games. Reading on Inso's World his similar affliction has not been helping. Right now I'm thinking of some kind of unholy combination of a C-130 fuselage, the cockpit canopy from an Mi-24 Hind, and rotating engine nacelles to hang off the C-130 wing roots. Still trying to figure out how exactly to make this work.

Well, So Much For That Idea

The only painting I did over the weeken was priming Zachary's 1:72 plastic WWII Germans and Phillip's skeleton's (MegaMiniatures). I had intended to finish that last Mauridian frigate, but due to other obligations, a house project, etc that didn't happen.

What I did learn is that electric go-karts, while still fun and probably much easier to maintain are nowhere near as exciting as old school gas karts. However, teaching Alexander (our five year old) the finer points of drifting was well worth it. Though when he got on the kiddie karts he blocking his second cousin from passing like a pro. Must've been the endless hours of watching "Cars".

Waiting

So, we've moved into the house but am waiting to get my pretties. They'll be here tomorrow, but beds will need to be assembled, furniture placed in its spot, etc before I can resume any hobby activities. Once I do, I believe it will be time for the airbrush to come out and get some serious base coating done on a variety of miniatures. Though there will be some prep work involved for a number of things. More to follow as things progress.

We're Not In Kansas Anymore TK429

Well, the last week included me packing all of my little pewter, plastic, and resin lovelies; watching them be loaded into a moving truck; and driving from Kansas to West Texas. I'm glad to be back in San Angelo, I did not enjoy my time in Kansas and am looking forward to my future here.

What does all this mean regarding miniatures? Well, I'm currently without a house, so all my lovelies are inaccessible in storage. As time and family allows I want to continue developing back story for my sci-fi universe.

AS for what I've been doing in the meantime? Mostly I've been reading books on my Nook Color. If you have some form of ereader you need to visit the Baen Free Library. They allow free downloads of a number of their books as enticement to buy the rest of their books. In the last three weeks I've read "With the Lightnings", "Lt. Leary Commanding", "Hymn Before Battle" and am working my way through "Gust Front." Before I started he move I downloaded 23 books from authors I've been wanting to try out but hadn't gotten around to. So reading, and that moving thing, have been occupying my time.

Moving Time

Well, it's not like I've been real active with my miniatures lately, but another move for my family looming at the end of the month. So, I'm starting to look down the barrel of packing up my pretties and moving them to back to Texas. Long story short, there's not going to be a lot of gaming related activity here until I get settled. Might throw out a few tidbits here and there, but nothing regular or major.

Usama Bin Laden Dead

If you've been a regular follower of my blog you'll know that I do my best to keep it on the topic of miniatures and wargaming. This news warrants breaking that.

As a member of the U.S. military for over 17 years the news of UBL's death is of great importance to me. Not only that, but the news was made public on the second anniversary of the death of SGT James Pirtle, a former student of mine when I was serving as a technical school instructor. So you'll excuse me if I'm somewhat exuberant in the death of a murderer of innocents and a generally evil man (though I hesitate to use the term "man" in his case). There is evil in the world, and it is not wrong to celebrate the elimination of even the smallest part of it.

Now, there will be at least attempts at retaliation. The war will not be over with his death. There is still a lot of work to be done. But our military and those of our allies (whom we must not forget to thank for their support and the lives of their young men and women as they've stood shoulder to shoulder with us throughout these times) will see that the work will be done.

Back From Vacation

or Holiday as our European friends may call it.  Had a good week-long trip to Wyoming to visit the in-laws. Nothing much miniature wise to report from the last week other than I cleaned mold lines on all but two escorts of the Japanese ships. I had grand plans of doing the same for all my remaining Trek ships and one of my Ravenstar Studios space stations, but as usual my exuberance was outweighed by reality. On a vacation related note, they should make containers that fit to standard luggage racks which are appropriately sized to place a teenager in during long road-trips.

While I was out, my latest order of GZG figures arrived.  I placed the order in mid-February-ish so he must be getting closer to being caught up with back orders. Hopefully the new website goes up without a hitch for him. Will most likely post a review of them before I start painting them.  I have a few minor quibbles with the grav tank.

Home!

I returned home from my deployment last night!  Don't have much to add to that other than I'm really happy to be home.

On the miniature front, I'm probably going to do my annual wrap-up post with what I painted in 2010 here in a few days, but no promises on that.  Going to have to dig through and see what I actually painted since I haven't painted anything in seven or eight months.

Plans for this year are to finish my starships, of which I have a good collection now, try to finish my CAV minis, finish off a WIP dragon I started in 2009, and get some 15mm forces painted.  This is combined with actually getting some games in and moving in June.

Been a Long Time

OK, so deployment time is almost over. Still have a couple weeks before I get back, but expect some updates to start flowing again by late January/early February. Most likely games and pics of some miniatures my kids have painted while I'm gone. Probably won't start painting again until February, though from the sound of it, I have new lead waiting for me. :)

Still Kickin'

It's been a while since I posted anything, been busy being deployed and all. Have some Khurasan 15mm figs on their way to me, really want to see how they are. Haven't done much with the rules, but have still been kicking ideas around in the noggin. 'Bout it for now.