It's a Major Award!

Must be Italian.

I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by Ana at the outstanding Gardens of Hecate. At the risk of sounding like I'm back in Junior High... How cool is that?!

Thank you Ana.

You Do NOT talk about the Liebster Award.

It now falls to me to reveal 11 truths about myself, answer the 11 questions posed by Ana, nominate another 11 blogs/bloggers to further this benign pyramid-scheme, and ask them 11 questions of my own. Not my normal schtick but I think I'm up to the task. Game on.

Be sure to take notes. There will be a quiz at the end.

Eleven Truths

• My name is Jim.
• My surname means finch in Old English.
• I'm from New Jersey. Our state bird is the goldfinch.
• I love rhubarb and green olives (separately).
  
• I loath hard boiled eggs. Just the smell turns my stomach.
• I may be a tad over-reliant on movie/TV references in both my blogging and everyday communication. If you doubt me, please refer to the two images above. Sadly, not all of life's mysteries can be explained with a well chosen Simpson's quote. (D'oh!)
• I miss her.
• At one time I worked as a bookbinder.
• I've been to New Zealand.
• My upbringing had a touch of the hillbilly to it. I know what it is to use an outhouse regularly (pun intended). Ours was a two-seater... never quite understood that part. Not like we were doubling up or anything. Even hillbillies have certain lines they won't cross.
• Like Capt. Miller in Saving Private Ryan, I keep the last truth for myself. (See. I did it again.)

Eleven Answers

• What was the last book you've read?  On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt.Col. Dave Grossman. My normal reading fare is considerably lighter. You caught me on a good day.
• If you could spend a day with any person out of all of human history, who would it be and why? Gandhi? Churchill? Bono? Nuts to that. I'm going with Errol Flynn; one of history's premier party animals. Think Charlie Sheen with class. It's been brought to my attention that I need to loosen up a little. With Flynn running the show I'd likely succeed (or die trying).
• Would you rather burn everything you own, or keep everything you own but never gain anything for the rest of your life? Two lousy choices. Destroy everything, trash and treasure alike, or endure a sad, static existence. I suppose I'd go for the burning option... but I wouldn't like it.
• Does the idea of humans technologically augmenting themselves worry you? Not really. I wore glasses for much of my life. Without that technological augmentation I would have spent most of my waking hours bumping into things.
• Would you rather be able to read minds, or be able to become invisible at will? I'm leaning towards the mind-reading option.
• Would you rather be able to turn into an insect at will, or into a vicious beast uncontrollably? Insect. What are we without free will (or the delusion thereof)?
• Would you rather have a flesh-eating virus, or have no skin? I think this was actually a question from The Dating Game back in the 70's. Forty years on and there's still no good answer.
• What would you do if you came home one day to find everything and everyone in your house/flat was replaced by an exact copy? Seek out my local mental health professional. (Unless they've also been replaced by a copy. Then I'm pretty well screwed.)
• Would you rather be roasted alive, or live forever inside a coffer? I've never been a fan of being roasted alive. I'll take the coffer.
• Would you rather eat fifty pounds of pig fat, or jump into a pool of acid? I'm assuming an acid resistant suit is not allowed so pass the pig fat.
• What's in the box?! Schrodinger's cat.

Eleven Blogs

For the blogs, I'm holding (with one exception) to the provision that they must have fewer than 200 followers and passing on blogs that appear on Ana's list (as well as Gardens of Hecate itself). The whole point of this exercise is to spread the love as widely as possible.

• Belched from the Depths
• Brummie's Wargaming Blog
• Clamshells and Seahorses
• Dr. Strangebrush
• Duke of the Blood Keep
• Metalchaos Blog
• Of Tin, Lead and Pewter
• Paint Splats
• Stone Cold Lead
• Twisted Brushes
• The Wily Brush

Eleven Questions

For the questions, I mashed together my favorites from Ana's list, the lists from two of the three blogs that nominated Gardens of Hecate ( Fimm Mc Cool's Games Orkshop and Meandering Shade), and a couple of my own.  

• What was the last book you've read?
• How did you first get into the hobby?
• Would you say you are more a painter or gamer and why?
• Who is your favorite miniature sculptor? 
• Who is your favorite painter and would you like to emulate their style?
• Do you have a comfort zone in painting technique or colors that you tend to fall back on? 
• Do you like to have the right atmosphere when painting; music, movies, quiet?
• Buyer's remorse. What recent hobby purchase do you most regret (if any)?
• Would you rather burn everything you own, or keep everything you own but never gain anything for the rest of your life?
• When you finally shuffle off this mortal coil, what would you like to happen to your hobby collection?
• Peanut butter. Smooth or Crunchy?

It's Go Time

Here follows a post largely unrelated to the miniature hobby. I beg your indulgence, dear reader.

Super Bowl XLVIII will shortly unfold a few miles from where I now sit. Through circumstances that defy rational explanation, this life-long New Jerseyian is also a life-long fan of a team from the other side of the continent: the Seattle Seahawks. Those same Seahawks are one of the two teams playing in said Super Bowl.

I go all the way back to the teams inception in '76 when I was a mere lad. Decades passed and the team never won it all. That changes tonight.

GO HAWKS!! 




While, this post is largely unrelated to the miniature hobby it isn't entirely unrelated. I'm backing CSM's TOH Complete II Kickstarter. Looks promising... 36 hours in and it's already hit its funding goal.

The Good, The Bad, And The Fugly

Happy New Year to one and all!

With 2014 fast approaching, the goal of averaging two posts per month has been met with this, the twenty-fourth post of the year.

I'm tempted to stop right here. While achieving my post goal with a post that says nothing more than, "Cool, I met my post goal" may appeal to my inner comedian, it hardly makes for compelling reading. (Sorry inner comedian. Better luck next year.)

Instead, I offer a few thoughts on the highs and lows from the past year.

The Good 

• Blogging : I've enjoyed taking a more active interest in my own blog and those of others. Seeing what other members of the community are doing is a blast in its own right. Plus, it's often just the kick in the ass that this terminal procrastinator needs to get on with it.

• An Embarrassment of Riches : These are wondrous times in which we live! It seems as though every time I turn around another miniature company is offering a new, shiny object that I can't live without. Case in point: RuneCast Miniatures - a new company whose first few minis were hard (as in impossible) to resist. 

Welcome To The Lead Pile

•  Windsor & Newton Brushes. I finally broke down in 2013 and spent a little more for some decent brushes. The difference is like night and day. 

The Bad

• Second Verse, Same as the First; Bound to Be Better... Unless it's Worse : One word says it all... BONES. I might easily have gone for two words, in which case BONES would have been preceded by a colorful expletive. Forgive my lapse. Please feel free to insert the expletive of your choice. For more Bones related frustration see my rant from earlier this year.
  
  
  The Fugly
   
• The Never Ending Story : I'm still waiting on my rewards from four crowdfunding projects. Two appear as though they will experience minor delays.  The other two are currently overdue by six months and approximately a year respectively. It's enough to sour one on the whole shebang.

Here I might continue with a peek at what I'm currently working on but my inner comedian informs me that one should always leave the audience wanting more. With that in mind, I'll conclude simply by saying, Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night.

Stadium Seating

No more fumbling through a drawer full of paint to find that needed color. Drawers are acceptable vessels for the storage of paint but fail miserably on the retrievability scale.

In an attempt to rectify the problem, I have cobbled together my very own DIY paint rack from Elmers's Foamboard. If I had to do it over again I'd think through the design of the side panels a bit better, but other than that I'm happy with the result.

 

One thing I definitely wouldn't change is the material used. The foamboard turned out to be perfect for this application; sufficiently rigid, easily cut and glued together.

It appeals my cheap side too. The finished rack holds more paint than commercially available versions that cost three times as much.

Odds and Ends

Another post in 2012? What's going on here?

Nobody panic. Just thought I'd throw a few things out there.

Braiiiins!!: It's going slowly but work on this months Otherworld submission (two zombies with a simpatico reaper mini thrown in) is proceeding.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short: On a related subject, the minis that were intended to represent Sigfried and his father in last month's OW painting challenge finally arrived on my doorstep. Time permitting, I'll paint them up and post them on the boards.

Confessions of an Otherworld Fanboy: My lead-pile contains mostly non-OW minis. Really. At some point I should paint up something showy from another manufacturer (a dragon perhaps?) without somehow tying it to what's going on on the OW forums. Just sayin'. Then I could submit it on CMON and link to my gallery from this very blog.

Then again, maybe not. (See following item.)

Conspiracy Theory: Seems that the link to my CMON gallery is being foiled at the source. Anyone reading this post soon after it's submited will likely find the link working well enough and wonder what the hell I'm talking about. Wait a day or two. Every time I get it set up, it works briefly then craps out.

I suspect that CMON is somehow rotating the relevent URL. Were I not a happy-go-lucky, trusting sort, I might conclude that dark forces are at work here. Is CMON furthering its own network of blogs to the exclusion of all others? How does this play into their plan for world domination? Why did the neighbor's cat tell me to set those fires? Regrettably, these questions remain unresolved. Long story short, I've repaired the link in the sidebar yet again. If the problem resurfaces, I'm gonna chuck it.

If, on the other hand, everything continues to work as it should, please disregard my previous ramblings.


PS: No worries. I didn't act on the cat's instructions. I may be crazy but I'm not stupid.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Yikes! It's been a while. As for how I spent my Summer, no vacation I'm afraid, and, more to the point, no miniature painting either. Once the weather warmed up I put down my brush and spent some time in the fresh air, removed from the dank confines of my paint cave. As the above photo shows, I also found time to flout State liquor laws. Throw in work, travel time, and the fact that my ancient dremel crapped out, and you wind up with a serious lack of movement on the miniatures front.

Enough with the excuses already! When my dremel bought the farm I had a project in the works that required a motor-tool and made use of a spare Otherworld troll head. As this is more of a yes, I'm still alive sort of post, I'll save the details for next time.

Getting My Feet Wet

So, here it is. My blog. My first attempt at one of these things. Should anyone else ever read this, please bear with me. As the snappy subtitle implies, my focus will be the miniature hobby; gaming miniatures to be more precise. I recently reentered the hobby after a long absence so before going on to new business it may be worthwhile to present samples of my older work. I’ll see about dusting off some of my old lead in time for my next update.