A boy and his puppies

Are arriving at my house later this week.  I am a happy gamer.  Would be happier if Khador were my main faction, but meh - it's still a darned nice piece.

Geeky non-gaming stuff

So, since I am not at GenCon, I spent some of the day launching rockets with the kids (mine and others).  Launched a total of six rockets, and got all six of them back.  Not sure how high the highest went, but it drifted about 1/5 of a mile before it landed, on a fairly calm day, so I am guessing that I came awfully close to the 1000 foot mark.

Any day where you can launch rockets is a good day; and any day where you get them all back (and could launch them again if you wished) is a great day.

Missing GenCon, still getting GenCon figs

Nothing like the haul from last year, unfortunately, but at the moment, it looks like I will still wind up with the 3Butcher limited edition, 3 of the Steelsoul Keg Protectors, and the Nightmare edition model from Malifaux, as well as Miss Step.  Yeah, it's not much, and I missed out on some kewl stuff that PP put out, but I can always get those models when the actual street date rolls around.

It's some consolation.  And, as a bit more, I picked up a nice copy of Plutarch's Lives at the used book store, so there is that, I guess.  You get your geek victories where you can find them sometimes.

It's GenCon time!

And I am not there. I am a sad gamer today.

Meh.  I'll attend another year, though probably not until 2015 or after.  It looks like next year won't happen as well.

Counting time

Math is hard.  Math, when you are shy on coffee, and forget a kickstarter, is worse.

My rough count as to what is coming in the next few months is:

Rivet Wars (forgot this one yesterday) - 160 models, more or less.  Supposedly still on track for September, IIRC, but I am assuming October.

Relic Knights - 58, I think.  Seems like it should have been more, but I think that may be it.  Fortunately, I won't see this until the holiday season, so I might have until Dec to clear some space for them.

Robotech Tactics - won't see this until January anyway, no matter what they say.  100 models, more or less, depending on how I fill out my pledge manager in the next week or two.

Wild West Exodus - 45 or 46 models, I think.  The pledge manager was done as an .xls file, so I have my copy tucked away somewhere, but I think I pretty much know what my share of it is looking at the KS page.  Those are due in Sept/Oct, and are still on track.

GenCon - not attending, but PP and Wyrd both let you order con figures online, so I'll probably be adding 20-30 models from those lines later this week.

So, 400 models, as a ballpark, back of the envelope calculation.  Add in a special order or two, and some trades (if I get the terms nailed down), and there is an even odds chance that I will add another 5-600 models between now and the end of January.  Just extra incentive to get painting, I guess.

ETA - so far today, I have put paint (to a greater or lesser degree) on 13 models.  Not as nice as yesterday, where I managed more than 25, but better than 0.  I hope to paint for another hour or so tonight, and a similar amount of time tomorrow.

Addendum to yesterday

So, yesterday, I showed off some of the Basement of Shame.  I have been trying to both organize it, and to cut into that amount of unpainted lead and plastic - by selling or trading some of it, and by attempting to paint at least an average of 5 hours per week. 

I don't know how long I have been painting today (a lot of 5-10 minute painting sessions), but I do know tht as of noon,  EST, I have put some paint on 20 models.  Sure, a lot of it was painting Ork teeth, or the bags on a Warlands car, or working on the gears to a Convergence model, but the point is that, if I an get back in the habit of doing this consistently, then things will slowly, gradually, begin to improve.

I really need to get that habit going again - because Relic Knights, Robotech Tactics, and Wild West Exodus will all be here soon.  And I really do want to get small forces for DeepWars, WreckAge, and Infinity.  Those games may "only" add 250 models to what I currently have (and, when compared to several thousand plus, "only" really is the correct term), but visually, it will have a huge impact.  I'd like to have a fair amount of stuff painted (or visibly in-progress) before those packages start arriving on my doorstep.

Shame

This would be part I, except that the other half of the basement (where my old gaming table is, and my Hirst molds, plaster, etc, and all of my RPG stuff, and another 2-3 shelving units) is currently ground zero for the great basement train table project, and basically a giant mess.



The area above the workbench. Yeah, some of the stuff up there is painted. A lot of stuff isn't, and some of it is even still in boxes. (The epoxy is for a model rocket that I need to build at some point in the near future.)



The rest of the area above the workbench. Remember how I said that I had a shelf or two of Orks? Yeah, this is part of them. (Part, mind you. I haven't counted in a while, but I think I can actually field two Green Tide formations. At the same time.) For the most part, I haven't touched these guys in over a year, but I do keep them around. I even paint on them from time to time, when I don't feel like doing anything important. (And, admittedly - I can knock out the weapons or teeth or something kind of obvious and two or three dozen of those guys in a pretty short period, so it actually feels like progress.)



The table of shame. I'm literally out of storage space. I need to drop a thousand or two on KR Multicases/Battlefoam/Sabol/anything, and get this stuff put away. It's particularly bad at the moment, a combination of the Train Table project and an attempt at a full inventory. The brown case on the chair holds some of my Malifaux at the moment, since they lack storage too.



The shelving units of shame. Yes, that's four copies of Clan War. One of those Sabol cases holds some of my Strelkovy Battalon, plus some tanks. My Brits and Afrikakorps are not pictured, but they are packed up and waiting for a proper storage option, along with the rest of the Russians. Two of those Sabol bags hold my Warmaster armies. The brown box under the MonPoc one holds a hundred or so 28mm Warlord Celts - they go with the 3 boxes of Romans above them. There are Dystopian Wars armies, FSA armies, MERCS armies, and some GW stuff (LoTR, 40k, WFB). The big Sabol case carries my pigs and gators, and some of my Trolls (I think) - the KR cases hold some of the Cryx and some of the Ret. The blue bowls hold plastic 40k stuff (mostly Orks) - I bag the parts on the sprue as I clip them, and the bags just wind up in the bowl - so I can grab the Ork bowl and work on putting stuff together.

I'm currently paring some stuff out of the collection, and trying to devote at least 5 hours per week to painting, which is making a difference. It's kind of pathetic, but actually, a lot of stuff so far this year has been assembled and primed, which is a big step. And AdeptiCon compelled me to get a lot of things painted. But, to be honest, I probably won't do better than breaking even this year - Robotech, Wild West Exodus and Relic Knights are all on their way, and I'm still adding Convergence stuff when I can. (My next major gaming purchase will still probably see more spent on cases than figures, however - this is just too much sitting out, waiting to be knocked to the floor.)

Catching up on some painting

I have been painting lately, and most of it is even for me.  Just some quick pics, but not much text.  Here we go . . . .

First up, Rask.  Painted him to give him away.

Next, Swamp Gobbers.  They went to the same guy who got Rask.  (I need to replace both now, but that's no big deal. . . )

I did some Convergence, painted up a la Golden Army from Hellboy II.


Accretion Servitors

Reflex Servitors

and a Cipher.

I also did some rats.  These were test models from the Vampire Bones order, and I wanted to give them a paint, because they were all new and shiny.

Quick update

So, by the time anyone reads this, I will have primed the first test figures from my Bones stuff - 6 rats.  Yeah, rats.  They're simple, small, easy to paint, etc.  Great quick figs, and it makes a noticeable dent in the pure numbers.  I plan on keeping some of the figs in reserve, as it were, so that when I get bogged down on painting some of the fighters or something, I can bang out four of the skeletons or something, and feel like I have really accomplished something.

Anyway, I'm going to start following this blog.  Basically, the author is going to be painting an entire Vampire order (I think, though there may be some extras as well) and posting the figs along the way.  It's more ambitious than anything I am doing. . . .

On a random, army altaholic note - I might wind up picking up Infinity.  And, while I did not get a chance to play a demo of it at AdeptiCon, Deep Wars looked really interesting, so I may check it out.  And at some point, once the rules are out, I will probably pick up a gang for Wreck Age (which I did get to play at AdeptiCon, and thoroughly enjoyed).  The common theme of the games is, of course, that they are all small skirmish games; smaller even than Warmahordes.  I can afford to pick up those, but adding another big army or five has kept me (thus far) from Hail Caesar, Pike and Shotte, Black Powder or Bolt Action. 


Of course, that has not stopped me from adding labels for all of the games above, as I write this post. . . .

Got them sorted

It took a couple of hours, but I got all the Bones sorted.  Cthulhu has two right arms, and there is one figure that might be missing a piece.  I've already contacted Reaper, and they said (as I expected them too) that they would take care of it once they have fulfilled the KS orders.  I told them not to worry - Cthulhu can wait a month or two, and it's not as though I don't have plenty of other miniatures to keep me occupied in the interim.

In addition to painting, I have a bunch of terrain projects that I want to finish up.  And I intend to sell some of them, since there are some very nice new molds out over at Hirst Arts. . .