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...

Family Time and D-Day Beaches

Family Time, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

It's been quite the family hobby time lately. Number One Son has taken some real interest in things since getting his Spinosaurus at Historicon, and I've had the gaming table covered up with his stuff lately as much as mine. And to keep Number Two Son, four, involved as well, I picked up some chubby plaster statues for kids for him to paint right alongside us. It has frankly been a blast, as they both have their own little projects to work on, and I can even work on my own stuff a bit. A little bit. The Mumak is now in, and our last two evening have been spent gluing that behemoth together. It's a pretty sweet kit, simple for its size, and pretty accessible to an eleven year old.

Form a Queue

I'm trying to get myself a little organizized, so I am forming a queue of shorter term hobby goals. I'm not really creating firm goals; I'm just trying to keep a little better visibility of what I'm thinking about. I've got a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head and I could certainly use a bit of direction at times... I may post this list again periodically as items are completed. BWAH HA HA HA HA...I slay me.

A Little Prehistory

Spinosaurus, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Here's the latest state of Number One Son's Spinosaurus. Last night we glued it down on a plasticard base and covered that with Liquitex Ceramic Stucco. That basically an untinted "flocking gel." I use it a lot on my bases. He's pretty exited about it and kept want to make fancy bases, but dour Daddy dissuaded him from anything too advanced. Although, it's not too late to put some interesting stuff on there.

Skullcracker Bird

Skullcracker Bird, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

I just finished up my ShadowSea Skullcracker Bird. Technically a fantasy model, he'll probably serve as a pseudo-historical albeit anachronistic Terror Bird in some prehistoric games with Number One Son. It's a nice resin model, and to stabilize it I mounted it on some plasticard (a For Sale sign from the local hardware store). It's surprisingly light, although thick enough everywhere that it seems durable. The paint scheme is loosely based on the snake eating Roadrunner, but I turned his flaring crown feathers into a display. Speaking of resin models, I spent the weekend in Memphis with my wife for our sixteenth wedding anniversary. My mom watched the kids in the evenings so that my wife and I could celebrate, but during the day I took Number One Son to the Games Workshop Battle Bunker.

Blu-Tack holds the hobby together

DSCN0058, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

An amusing little snapshot of my workspace. I got the urge to put a few things together, which required a fair amount of epoxying. In the process of curing, I propped all the guys into position as best I could using one of my main stay hobby tools-- Blu-Tack. I wanted Orangatango as soon as I saw him. Super apes are fun, I already have handfuls, and one more is always appreciated. Still, as Orangutan-based super apes go, I still think Harangutan is my favorite, just for the pun. Reaper's mummy pharaoh Khalith is waiting some finishing touches that don't require any Blue-Tac-- although I used that craft paint bottle topped with Blue-Tac as a handle while painting him. I also have handfuls of Reaper Egyptian figures. They hit the table about as often as the super apes...which is to say, not very often... Speaking of super apes, or their mechanically augmented cousins, I recently stumbled across Ammon Miniatures's Cyber Monkey and couldn't let that pass by. Now he was a chore, lots of fiddly gluing and soft resin in an awkward pose-- can't wait to drop him and ruin him! Which I'm sure will happen eventually! And, speaking of resin, with Blue-Tac holding up his atrophied little wings, I assembled my ShadowSea Skullcracker Bird. I picked him up at Fall-In! and he will presumably be fighting my Neanderthals at some point as an only slightly anachronistic Terror Bird.

For Auld Lang Syne

Welcome 2011! I can't believe it's 2011 already. We violated a few local ordnances this evening with a screeching round of fireworks. For my own references as much as anything, Magic Crystals are a lot of fun for the price. These things shriek LOUDLY and actually fly. On the downside, one came back down on my new car! No damage that I could see. It rained pretty hard most of the night, but fortunately around midnight it lightened up quite a bit. Our midnight finale' was Sky Quake, which I was a bit underwhelmed by. It was still a 500g power bundle though, and as it started going off, I thought, "Wow, I wonder which neighbors went to bed early tonight..." For a big piece like that, my favorite is still Loud and Rowdy.

First Game of Tusk

Intro Game of Tusk
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

The Number One Son and I sat down this last weekend and finished up our Neanderthals! Ten Primaeval Designs Neanderthal warriors, two Wooly Mammoths and a too large Reaper wolf/dog to serve as a hunting dog. As we sat at the dining room table, with the figures painted, I looked at their white unfinished bases and the white table covering and thought, "Hey. Snow!" So we threw down with a quick solo game of Tusk, my son pushing a band of Neanderthal hunters while I managed the rules and ran the Mammoth (whose actions are determined by a reaction table).

WindSword Accessories Terrain

I picked up these dental plaster dinosaur bones/fossils terrain pieces at Fall-In. The packaging was labeled "WindSword Accessories," which I had never heard of. However, they were quite nicely priced, 3.50-4.00 for everything except the big piece, and I thought they would provide a lot of atmosphere to my new prehistoric big game hunt board. My son was very excited to see them and can't wait to paint them for me. I'm starting to think this was a very good idea...

Back From Fall-In!

Mik and I are back from Fall-In! I had some concerns that, after having been to Historicons and Cold Wars, the smaller Fall-In! might not be worth the time and cost to get up to. We drove almost 600 miles to get there. Despite being somewhat smaller, it was definitely worth it, though. I can't go to more than one a year, and that one would tend to be Historicon, but Fall-In! was fun.

I went content in my hobbiness and not really looking for anything new, just hoping to pick up some bargains. Yet I started two new periods! Actually, I have been on the verge of "big game hunting" for prehistoric mammals or dinosaurs since Historicon 2009 when I picked up the Tooth and Claw rules. My nine year old son is a big prehistoric animal fan-- much more so than the WW2 games I've subjected him to. Plus Mik bought some Primaeval Designs Neanderthals and other figures. So, what the heck, I bought two packs of Neanderthal hunters and two woolly mammoths. Only on the drive home did I realize I now had just about everything I needed for Tusk!

My son has also been reading a lot about Romans. Plus, he and his older sister have been painting a bit for me. So I was already thinking about getting some plastic Romans for him to paint. However, in the flea market, I picked up something like 150 Wargames Factory ancient Germans and 40 or so Warlord Games Romans. I have no clue what I'm going to do with that many figures. Ah well. He will not run out of things to paint anytime soon, and hopefully it will be great practice for him.

One of the coolest things I saw at the con was the use of flickering LEDs for fire markers. They would be tucked away inside a rather traditional puff of cotton smoke, and really looked good. I ordered 12 from Amazon, determined to make my own. Only later did I realize how cool they would look as fire markers in a 25mm Tusk game!

I now have my Neanderthals glued and based, and my Woolly Mammoths assembled, waiting for time with the kids to get painting on them. Prehistoric big game hunting and ancient Romans will largely be "with kids" painting. This will allow me to continue to focus on 15mm WW2, while also giving me incentive to spend more time painting with the kids. At their current rate of $2.00/hr, it's cheaper than having Sri Lankan children paint!