This is not Dog Company!

I got to leave work early today, and thought I'd crack out some US Airborne before the family gets back from Germany tomorrow night. I started on these around 2:00, and finished...well, it looks like around 2:00... I didn't paint all the way through, but almost. I'd call it eight hours. I think in this one fell swoop I have doubled my poor painting productivity for the year.

Zombie Cinema

We didn't have anything on the plate last night, so we dabbled in some RPG stuff. We're planning to run through a D&D 4e campaign, so we worked on our characters a bit. Then, we decided to break out Zombie Cinema and give it a go. Zombie Cinema is a small, rules-light, "storytelling" RPG, where the players are survivors of some sort of zombie breakout, in the vein of Night of the Living Dead or any of its stylistic descendants.

Carry a Big Stick

I picked this tip up from a recent White Dwarf, where they mentioned using a stick for priming. I typically use a sheet of cardboard with figures around the outside, which makes it difficult to get to the inside; or I used a strip of cardboard, which works well, but can't hold that many figures. A yard long, one inch square board of wood is just what I need, and I tried it out this morning with my Battlefront US Paratroopers which I'm finally getting around to painting. I really need to leave both ends free, though, and just put the figures in the middle. That would allow my to switch ends easily and spray from the other side. Now, in the White Dwarf article, they actually used all four sides at the same time, rotating the stick and spraying different angles. I'm just not that brave with my figures...

Junction Construction

Reaper has a nice little article on building Sci Fi buildings out of electrical junction boxes. They do a good job of it. I have scads of these things. Every time I think about making Sci Fi terrain, I go buy a couple-- even though, yes, I still have a bag of the things from all the other times I thought about making Sci Fi terrain. And I never do anything with them. Oh well. One of these days I'm going to need a junction box RIGHT NOW and I won't even have to go to the store to get it.

40k Chimera

I don't paint many vehicles, so this is notable-- a not too shabby little Chimera I hand painted. It took a long time and I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I got it done and am pleased with it. Now I have another one to do. Eh. Then two Valkyries...ehhhh...

My Dark Heresy Feral Guardsman

We've had a couple of sessions of our Dark Heresy game so far, and I've really enjoyed it. Here is my completed character model. I still haven't had a chance to actually pick up the sword yet, but I've gathered enough money to grab it once I have the chance. Assuming I stay alive long enough...I tried jumping out of a second story building and wound up darn near killing myself...

Galaxy Trucker

I picked up Galaxy Trucker the other day. It was a bit pricey, but it sounded like a lot of fun and we've been playing more board games lately, so I sprung for it. I ran it through the intro with Mik...and, honestly, I was thinking I might have wasted my money. I just didn't quite see the real fun in it. I persevered, though, and we played it with several other friends this weekend. It was a blast! Everybody had a lot of fun with it, including me. A lot of it just had to do with playing it a few times and getting the hang of it. Anyway, now I'll have to get the Big Expansion, which lets you play with five players, and includes some new components (and a new alien!)

Where Have I Been?

It's been quiet around here-- and this is why. My family and I visited my wife's home in Germany, to have our youngest child, Silas, baptized by her father. Due to his recent birth, this is the first time we've all been back in Germany together in at least two years (it may have been longer since I was there-- I'd ask my wife, but she and the kids are all still in Germany, whereas I had to get back home and slave away at my job).

New Superfigs

Looks like there will soon be some new Superfigs!

Warlord, 2nd Edition

I own the original Reaper Warlord rules. I always thought they looked intriguing, and I own a lot of Reaper figures anyway, just because of the quality, but I never got around to playing them. Now, with the upcoming release of a second edition, maybe I will.

Modelling Tips

From the Warp has a lot of links to vehicle and armor modeling articles. Gotta be something useful in there.

Dark Heresy

It looks like we will be doing a Dark Heresy role playing game. We rolled up characters the other night, and it looks promising. I whipped up a conversion of my feral world Imperial Guard character, replete with flintlock rifle, pistol, explosive collar and (hoped for) mono-edged great sword. I will probably add some wild hair to him.