...so anyway, where was I?

Hello all -

      It's no secret that I have a lot of hobbies, and it's not unusual for my involvment in any one of them to come or go for a few months.  Well, shortly before the holidays last year, I got the urge to do some PC gaming - and, somehow, this showed up at my doorstep:

... a couple weeks later, this happened:

... and then, THIS happened:

... all of that was enough to make me like

And if all that, wasn't enough, a couple of weeks before Christmas I had surgery - nothing major, but enough to put me out of commission physically for a month.  And, of top of that, this was one of my Christmas presents from my wife:

That's Ripley - she's a lot bigger now, and quite a handful.  So, needless to say, between marathon PC gaming sessions, being physically wrecked, and taking care of a new puppy, the blog fell by the wayside.  Nevertheless, I have returned and plan to have things back an running at full steam shortly.  Quick pertinent stuff I want to get out there:

- Lars4life & I will be attending Adepticon 2012! Drop us a line if you're going and want to hang out!

- A BIG kitbash project is in the works as the final piece for my Ork army.

-GenCon 2012 badges were purchased tonight!

Lots more stuff is coming, give me a few days to sort through my pics and put things together...

Mystery Project Pt. IV

The next clue to my "mystery project":

...needless to say, the "electronics" aspect of this project is quickly growing out-of-hand...

Gamma World

Our gaming group got together a little while ago and played another round of  Gamma World:

Eeek, killer robots!

I had a great time at this session, and am starting to feel more at home with the system - I felt like I made a lot better use of the Alpha Mutations &  Omega Tech this time around.  I had an awesome moment in the second combat:

Natural 20, fools!

...after which I was immediately knocked unconscious for several rounds.  (I've found that our GM is not shy about handing out beatings in Gamma World).  I think we're close to the end of this particular adventure - I look forward to seeing how it ends!

Mystery Project Pt. III

The next clues to my "mystery project" series:

...the plot thickens...

ChapterHouse Studios Conversion Bits

I got an order in from ChapterHouse Studios the other day:

...this is a set of their Gun-Halberd Weapons and a couple of the Imperial/Eagle Storm Shields.  The halberds will be used for my Grey Knights - I just thought the shields were cool, I don't necessarily have a plan for them yet.  This is the first time I've ordered anything from ChapterHouse.  I've looked at their stuff before, but never pulled the trigger - I heard an interview with Nick from ChapterHouse on Episode 8 of the Screaming Heretic podcast, and decided to give it a shot.  Their stuff looks good, and it's nice to not have to wait for parts to get here from the UK or Poland for once!

Airbrush Parts Tip

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I got a Badger SOTAR 20/20 airbrush, and that I was going to try to buy the parts to convert it from a "fine" setup to a "medium" - the problem is, SOTAR parts are really expensive!  And while I've never had anything but excellent service and super fast shipping from Badger's own supplier, I'm happy that I discovered you can get a lot of Badger airbrush parts WAY cheaper on Amazon - I paid less than half of what Wyn-Wyn wanted for the same parts:

Now I have everything I need to convert my SOTAR - check it out if you need parts on the cheap!

Mystery Project Pt. II

The next clue in my "mystery project" series:

Hmmm, might electronics play a role here?

New Airbrush

...you might recall that in my Aibrushing Guide I gave recommendations for ten or so airbrushes that are commonly used in the "hobby" community - one of the most highly regarded airbrushes is the Badger SOTAR 20/20.  Unfortunately, it's also very expensive, so I figured I'd never get a chance to try one unless I stumbled upon one secondhand - then I got an email from Badger that they were closing out a small number of the SOTAR airbrushes for 75% off.  I decided I couldn't pass up such an opportunity, and after waiting a couple of weeks (apparently some parts were backordered) the postman dropped one off at my door:

I haven't even had a reason to try it out yet - the model they were closing out had the "fine" needle & tip, which is crazy small - I'll probably try to source some "medium" parts to make it less finicky with hobby acrylics.  With this acquisition I'll probably be listing some airbrushes on eBay, too, as I have too many to use at this point...

Mystery Project Pt. I

If you follow my Twitter feed, you know I've been putting up photos & hinting about a "mystery project" - this is a scratchbuild project that I've decided to do for a friend of mine for Xmas.  I'll be putting up occasional pics to give hints about what it is, and will hopefully have a successful unveiling when it's finished.  I will say that while it's technically a "model", it's not really related to any miniature/wargaming universe - I guess the most accurate way to describe it would be a "replica prop", and I'm going to be using parts from lots of different sources.

Nevertheless, here's the first pic:

First FailCast FineCost FailCost FineCast Model

(LOL, the title is just having some fun w/ the haters).
 
I picked up my first FineCast model the other day:

...Inquisitor Karamazov on the Throne of Judgement - the last model I needed to build my Grey Knights list.  I was looking for one of these for quite a while, but nobody had it in stock (I even scoured all the cons I went to this summer) and all the ones that were showing up on eBay were either in sad shape or so-called "pro painted" (yeah right) and they wanted a fortune for them - I actually kept back a little bit of the spending money that I took to GenCon, and as soon as they released the FineCast version I snapped one up.  (This was actually the first time I've bought anything direct from GW's website, now that I think about it - I always had my local shop order stuff from Direct for me).  I haven't built it yet, so I can't speak to what the FineCast is like to work with, but I examined it pretty closely, and it doesn't appear to have any bubbles or other problems  like I've heard about on the Intarwebs.  My Grey Knights are at least 3rd in line to be built behind other armies that are sitting on the shelf, but I might have to go ahead and build this model early - it's one that I've always thought was extremely cool ever since I got into 40K, and I'm kinda chomping at the bit to paint it...