Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht

Plenty to do, no space to do it in...

"Man plans, and God laughs"

I see that I kept a public queue of my 2013 projects! I thought it might be fun to go through those and see what has happened to them over the last twelve years...

Return to Blogging

Yours truly running a game at Nashcon 2025

What have been doing the past 12 years? Why return to blogging now?

I mostly stopped blogging because of the friction of posting, compared to the ease of posting on Instagram. However, I've stopped posting there, too. And I keep finding myself going back to my blog, to reference past projects, remind myself of what I've done, etc... So, I'm taking a stab at blogging again. No guarantees I'll keep at it.

Most Depressing Gaming Trip Ever

My Car!, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

We headed over to Mik's to try out some Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3.0. We'd had some thunderstorms throughout the day, nothing major, and it was raining pretty hard while we started generating characters. Then my wife called and said she and the kids were sheltering in the bathroom! Typical overreaction from a wife, huh? I'm trying to get my game on, and she's calling me freaking out over a little rain. She calls me a second time, and I ask her what she wants me to do? I can't do anything about the weather!! Shortly after that, we hear the rain noticeably start to escalate. Then, the "tack tack tack" of hail. Then, "THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!!!! I never heard that before!! We open the door and there is a carpet of big hail stones outside. I stick my hand it in, get hit by a few small ones, then WHAP get a big one that HURT BADLY and left a nice bruise. And I'm thinking, "Yeah, that would have dented a car..." More than dented, my car was absolutely crushed. We called the game and I went home to apologize to my wife!! We wound up with golf ball sized hail and it was indeed a pretty scary situation after I got home. I am covered by insurance for the damage to this and the relatively minor damage to the house-- nothing at all to complain about when over 250 people died.

Lessons in Anti-Monarchicalism

SIC SEMPER CERISIAE
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I've carried some cheap bottle opener on my keychain for about fifteen years. It was given to me by some long ago unreadable vendor, and has served me long and dutifully, well above and beyond the call of duty for a normal bottle opener. He finally gave up the ghost, and I got an almost identical replacement the very next day from Mik. However, this replacement was in name only, not spirit, as he lasted only a few short months. I decided to purchase one, and figuring with luck it would amortize at under $1 a year, I bought a $20 one and got it engraved. I thought I had picked a cool quote any wargamer would recognize...but apparently, I was wrong, as none of my friends appeared to know the reference!! "Sic semper tyrannis!" shouted Brutus, when he stabbed the tyrant Caesar (or so the dramatists say). It is a phrase I've often considered getting as a tattoo, on the off chance I could become the king of Sweden (Field Marshall Bernadotte was rumored to have had this tattoo). The translation: "Thus always to Tyrants!" Listening to the History of Rome podcast, he mentioned how Emperor Diocletian ordered (unsuccessfully) price fixing across the Roman Empire, and how these prices have survived history and included the names of three different types of beer. A little research on the Interwebs turned up CERVISIA as a Celtic wheat beer. As a big fan of Hefeweizen, the epiphany struck-- a keychain with which I could exclaim, "Thus always to beer!" as I killed yet another one.

Gaming Tip

IMG00163-20101203-2250
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I stumbled across a nifty little gaming tip the other day. When we play the great air combat game Check Your 6!, the guys running the game usually hand out clipboards to the guys running the planes, who clip their planes' roster on it and plot their actions each turn. Most of us will usually clip the quick reference sheet underneath for easy access. Well, the other day I received a clipboard with a clear plastic back. It wasn't intended, but I realized I could put the most useful side of the QRS facing backwards and just flip my clipboard over to take a look at it! Simple, and useful.

Take It From a Professional

Face First into Legos
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

You don't want to fall face first into anything. But if you have to fall face first into something, you don't want that something to be a Lego creation. Those precised edges can be painfully sharp with just a little force behind them! Number Two Son fell onto Number One Son's Lego boat. It was a pretty minor fall, so I wasn't to concerned at first, but the blood just kept coming! Not visible are a busted lower lip and a torn upper gum! At least he kept his teeth-- unlike Number One Son who knocked one out at about this age...

An Interesting Data Point About Stripping Miniatures

It's Alive! IT'S ALIVE!
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

So, a long while back, I picked up some Wargames Foundry pirates and the Treasure Island characters. They were primed and painted pretty roughly, so I dropped them in a Mason jar full of Pine-Sol to strip the paint off. Not too much later, I decided to strip some Tau Pathfinders and Kryomek Talos units I had bouncing around, and dropped them in a Mason jar of Simple Green. Then I pretty much forgot about them. For, near as I can guess, two or three years.

Old Gallery Back

The original LittleLeadHeroes.com gallery has been out of commission for a while. I finally got around to getting it back online. Ignore the errors and such; I'm not really looking to make it functional, just available. I've found myself trying to reference a few older blog posts, only to see that the pictures I needed weren't up. I just got tired of that.

Two Months. Two Units.

Looking back through the blog, it looks like I started my Pak 40s back in August, around the 10th.  It's taken me over two months to get them and my 88s done-- and, technically, I don't have movers for my Pak 40s.  Man, no wonder I never get anything done.

Eff Me

Now my microwave has gone out!!!

International D&D Contest

I'm entering Troll in the Corner's International D&D contest.  I feel like my luck has to break soon...  My luck is so bad.  How bad is it?  My luck is so bad I just went to look at a car, and the previous test driver wrecked it!  Stay away from me, people!

In just the last two weeks...

I've had to completely replace the water service line to my house, had my car diagnosed with bad bearings in the crankshaft (read: new car), dropped a tumbler and shattered my wife's ceramic cooktop, and now just had a screw put a quarter inch hole right through a tire, and spent an hour on the side of the road trying to figure out how to get the spare loose and change the tire!  The only upside of all of this is that vehicle needed new tires anyway.  My poor wife has spent the last three hours at the tire dealer, waiting around with our irritable two year old who should have napped two hours ago.  Ah well.  Having had two people in our lives diagnosed with cancer in the last couple of years, we're able to keep things in perspective!  I still want to complain to the Internet, though!!

Edit: Got home and my fridge light was out...

Taking my eye off the prize

Speaking of being distracted, checking out the time stamps on my blog...it appears to have taken me over two weeks just to assemble, glue to tongue depressors, prime, and glue to paint bottles a single 88 battery-- two guns, three vehicles and around twenty dudes.  Jeez, I'm slow.  Well, not just slow; a married father of three.  Even when I find time, I'm often too tired to produce.

About Had It With Craft Paints

I have been a big proponent of cheap craft paints for painting miniatures for many years. The vast majority of the paints I have used for all my miniatures tend to be dollar a bottle craft paints, usually Delta Ceramcoat but maybe Apple Barrel or some other. I'm not picky. There have been irritations along the way, such as when Ceramcoat dropped one of my favorite colors, Palomino Tan, and of course they tend to be sparse on military colors like olive green, which I mixed up myself. But now, it is really getting infuriating. I recently restocked some core brown and grey colors, parts of my "triads" of those shades, and the paints are worthless. Thin little anemic wash that I can't use for anything. And they're really backbone colors of my painting, especially right now as I'm painting lots of WW2 Germans. It's infuriating. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just jump ship to some dedicated hobby paints.

Mickey Doggie

We have a new member of our household, a two year old rescued Miniature Schnauzer named Mickey, or Mickey Doggie as my two year old is calling him. After a difficult few days at first, he seems to be settling in extremely well with the family. He gets along really well with the kids and is generally very well behaved, although I'm not used to having such an energetic dog!

And do your tunic up!

"A spot of medicinal brandy would set me up, sir!"
"Brandy's for heroes, Mister Hook..."

Zulu is just my favorite movie ever. I used to have a six foot tall original movie poster, but lost it in a move! A few years back, I even subscribed to Wargames Illustrated just to get the Mark Copplestone Hollywood and historical figures of Gonville Bromhead. So it definitely warms my heart to see this figure pack of Chard, Bromhead, Colour Sergeant Bourne and Private Hook from Empress Miniatures. Apparently, these new figures will be available in about a month, although my order is already in. I still retain no illusions about doing Rorke's Drift in 25mm, though. That's too many Zulus to paint!

"Sixty! I painted at least sixty, wouldn't you say?"
"That leaves three thousand, nine hundred and forty..."


A crossed eye stereographic picture of Bromhead leading British soldiers!

...and I would have based it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!

My last four stands of OG 15mm old glory CD early war German infantry are lying on table. Next to them lies four stands of HMGs. All are loose, though. Because somebody in this house has taken my @$%#ing glue. Yes, my glue. The one with "DAD'S GLUE! DO NOT TAKE!" written on it repeatedly in bold black Sharpie. It's written thusly because harsh experience has shown my two older kids will TAKE my glue and, with callous disregard for me, not return it. I inevitably do not notice this until it is needed, late in the evening, once they are all asleep in bed, as I have been slaving away over the ungrateful little heathen all day. Frankly, I suspect another culprit in this heinous crime. The devious duo typically leave their ill-gotten goods in some easily found location. Yet I have scoured all the bedrooms and closets in the house with my pitiful iPod for a flashlight, and not discovered my glue anywhere. This leads me to believe that their mother has cleaned up the evidence of their crime behind them, and placed it in some godforsaken location where the kids' art supplies are apparently kept. Like a mafia hitman, I always know when my wife has "cleaned something up," as I never see hide nor hair of it ever again.

Being Human

A ghost, a vampire and a werewolf walk into a bar... That's not a joke, but hopefully was the lead in to the elevator pitch for the BBC's science fiction show, Being Human. Hat tip to the THACO podcast's Best Geek Media of 2009 episode for turning me on to this. I've only watched the first two episodes of season one, but I have really enjoyed them so far. I'm a fan of Doctor Who and Torchwood, but this show completely lacks their camp and has high quality writing and acting. I'm really looking forward to continuing the series.

Alzheimers?

So, I had been waiting on an order for over a month. I finally went to the company's website, to find their e-mail address and fire off an impatient word about my order, when I see my full shopping cart sitting there. I had been waiting for an order I never actually placed.

I may have Alzheimer's, but at least I don't have Alzheimer's!

Calculating Dice Probabilities

I get into working through dice probabilities every now and then. Now there's a website to help me.