Life had other plans

So I did not post anything the last couple of days.  A quick update is in order, then:

The FLGs that changed owners?  Yeah, it's going to be a nice place to play.  I did an unofficial demo day there today (advertised, but not enough people for it to be "official"), and I plan to be back there again next weekend.  I may stop by during the week, since they have used miniatures for sale. . . .and while I resisted some of the siren song, I nonetheless picked up Kromac the Ravenous and Intercessor Kreoss.  That makes me happy - and brings me a little closer to the goal of having all the casters.

Yeah, I'm still short on that, but I plan on getting a little closer this year.  I think, even with the release of Vengeance, that I can get most of them by the end of the year.  I closed it up a bit last year, but lost focus sometime mid-year, when my attention turned to Convergence.  That has settled down a little, so I can spare some attention to other, non-roboty goals.

I have been assembling my WWX guys.  I love their plastics.  Very, very nice.  I want PP to make plastics this nice, actually.  My Union goons (er, hired hands) Wave 1 are done, and I am working on my Lawmen goons, just so I can play a couple of different things.  I should get them primed in the next couple of days, and I really need to start painting them ASAP.

I haven't actually started working on the DZC figs.  I should be doing that too.  And pouring plaster - I have three major Hirst Arts projects that are about 75% poured, and really, a day or two of casting would let me get to the point where I could finish putting them together.

I've also been cleaning the basement.  I have a train layout that I really need to get cracking on.  Working on it will help with my modelling skills, as well as my carpentry.  And get a lot of crap out of the way in the basement, since it's all stuff that came off the former layout, and needs a good home.

A new year, a new look for the basement

I haven't posted anything yet this year, but there is some reason for that.  (Please note that I did not call it a good reason.)  I was traveling for the first day, and I have spent some significant amounts of time in the last couple of days dismantling our previous HO layout in the basement.  You would think that a 4' x 8' table would be pretty easy to clear off and take down.

You would be wrong.  I wanted to salvage as much as possible, so I had to pry off the track (which had been both glued and nailed down), gently pack away the buildings, salvage as many trees as possible, and so forth.  Once that was done, I got to confront the reality that I had built that table to hold up to a rambunctious young child - so screws and nails were the order of the day. 

It's finally apart.  I could have saved some time by leaving all the nails and whatnot in the wood, but since the wood will get re-purposed as firewood later this spring, I really did not want to chance random Cub Scouts finding old nails when they rifle through the ashes of a campfire.

So, the table is down.  Now, I have to begin rearranging everything in the basement.  On the plus side, it will really work out better once everything is done.  On the down side, everything is a huge mess right now.

But, my Blackbanes are assembled and primed, and even well on their way toward being finished, thanks to the ridiculously easy ghost scheme I have used for them.  I do need to drill and pin them, but that's for basing, and can be done once they are actually finished.  I hope to work on them briefly at some point today, and have them finished, including basing, by Sunday night.  I'd also like to have all of my Revenant crews primed and ready to go - which might happen.

Quick morning post

Just a quick one this morning, though I hope to have a longer one sometime this afternoon or evening.  Anyway, as a reward, yesterday my so nand I went to a train show - model trains, where people have set up layouts, and are selling old (ie, used, sometimes abused) stuff.  The son is really into model trains, and I like working on layouts, which are basically wargaming terrain that never actually suffers the abuse of being played with.

Anyway, for some time, I have been looking for a cheap, O-scale steam locomotive.  (Warmahordes players know why.)  To date, I have had no luck.  Or rather, I have found plenty that would work, but I just did not want to pay $40 or $50 for something that I would have to convert and would only see play in a fairly small group of scenarios.

But yesterday I found a nice O-scale loco and tender for only $12.  So I snapped it up, and tonight I plan on making some sketches and working out how I can fit it into the Iron Kingdoms milieu.  I have the loco, I have the plasticard, and I have the superglue.  I can rebuild it, better than it was before. Better, faster, stronger.  Or something like that.

Non-gaming hobby notes

Did not get to go play today - DW has been out of town on a business trip, and I thought that I should be here when she got back, instead of losing a random Warmahordes battle.

I did get to run over to a local hobby store.  Not gaming, but trains, slot cars, etc.  There, I picked up a book on wiring a model railroad layout, and a jig to align the fins on a model rocket.  Yep - those are two other hobbies that I have.  I have to indulge them from time to time, too.

The train stuff has been on hiatus for a while - I need to finish cleaning out the basement, and then I can start building the benchwork.  It's going to be much bigger than the current 4' x 8' table that the son and I have built.  It should not interfere with my gaming all that much - the kids will both be in school, so I will have a bit more spare time.  I have more problems with the carpentry and the electrical work; after all, building scenery for an HO layout is basically the same thing as building scenery for gaming, after all.

And model rockets do not interfere with gaming at all.  It's just an excuse to build something and make it go "whoosh!".  And then hike for half a mile to see if I can find where it landed.  I try to claim the whole experience as a combination of physical and mental exercise, but no - it's just plain fun.