Work trips, tartans, figures, game stores, and other thoughts on this day....

It's Sunday, November 9th, and I am sitting here behind the keyboard when a portion of me is screaming, "NO YOU FOOL!!! Get thee behind thy brush and paint thy figures!!!!"
Instead I have a few thoughts, (mostly game related), and pictures that I wanted to share instead...

It's been an interesting week to say the least.

Last week I left on Monday for a business trip North of Chicago into the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Wednesday was supposed to be the "big day" with an onsite walkthrough and meeting, followed up with a "after meeting, meeting about the previous meeting that we had just had", (Gawd bless Corporate America)....
Well that didn't happen.
So essentially speaking I wasted three odd days up there.
While I was there I found two game stores....

#1: A GW Store right around the corner from my hotel.  Operating hours were M-T (Closed), W-TH-F: 12 noon - 7 pm (with a closure from 2:00 - 2:30 for lunch), Sat-Sun (12-8 no closure for lunch)....
The hours struck me as rather odd, and the first question I thought of was "Why can't the guy eat BEFORE he comes to work?"...
There I go thinking again...

2: The second store was called "Coliseum Games" and is located in a strip mall, off of 75th Street. I only saw it when I pulled into the parking lot to have lunch at the Charcoal Grill. (Good food).
Now, the store is smaller than average sized, and although it's generally clean and the staff is friendly, it seems to focus entirely upon
A: CCGs,
B: Board Games
C: Some RPGS.

When I asked about miniatures he said "Oh yes! We carry those also!" And showed me his miniatures lines.....
X-wing, and Star Trek Attack.....

"So you don't carry any 15mm or 25-28mm lines, like Reaper, Foundry, Old Glory, etc?" I asked him...

*blink blink*  was my reply.

Sigh...and the search goes on....

#2: A drive through Chicago can be one of too things...
A: Interesting
B: Utterly depressing.

If you drive along the waterfront, you get "A"...
If you drive anywhere else, you get "B"...

And if you drive down Cicero Avenue, you get "utterly depressing".

Driving South down Cicero Avenue is like watching your grandmother dying in the hospital. It's horrible, sad, and depressing and there is nothing you can do to stop it, as it's a progression / "de-gression" that you are unable to do anything about.
Whole blocks of the area are nothing more than "churchs", a bar, a pawn shop, and one of those questionable little "fast food markets", all of them having more bars on the doors and windows than you would find in Sing-Sing....
The rest of the area is blocks and blocks and blocks of commercial establishments that have been abandoned, or have been empty for years, (possibly decades). and up for sale. The "For Sale" signs having been in the window for so long that they are bleached out from light and age....
You know it's bad when the real estate office is closed and up for sale by ANOTHER real estate office.

I was seriously thinking of taking some photos to show this, but I wanted to use my camera and not my crappy Iphone camera, and to be honest, it wasn't out of my safety that I didn't, instead it was because it was too damn depressing.

Next time I do the drive though I think I am going to....just so folks can see what "a city in decay" looks like...

#3: Last month, I was painting some more of Bob Murch's wonderful "Pulp Figures", and in doing so, decided to try my hand at a tartan pattern.  So I read up some tutorials and read a lot and learned a lot. Amazing what some of these guys can paint....

So without further eloquence, may I introduce you to;
"Laird Angus MacHaggis of Clan MacHaggis"....

While I was "pleased" with the tartan pattern, my wife (Gawd bless her!), noticed something that I did also.

"The white stripe on the tartan seems to draw your eye to it, and then you can notice any mistakes." She say.

Holy cow she was right!

So I went back and did some more test tries.

I ran the tartan red color and then ran four patterns, from l to r: gray, white, yellow, and a dark flesh color:

Hmmm...decisions, decisions....

Eventually thought I settled on the yellow which gave it enough color but not enough to take away.

So I repainted him and here he is now.....

You can see the difference in the tartan pattern on the kilt....I did like it...

Colorful enough, but not demanding attention.

Meanwhile back to my Egyptian Figures....

A while back (Sept. I think), I started working on some Blue Moon Egyptian Agents.

Well, to make a long story short, figure #5 just didn't "do it" for me....there really wasn't anything there as in "figure", and I kept looking at it and saying "That looks like an old stature you would see in a cemetery"...so I decided to try to see if I could replicate that "blackish-green" that you see on so many odd and old statues...and yet, still allow it to be a "member of the spectral wandering undead"....

So here is my attempt...without the flash, and with the flash....

Creepy old cemetery statue?

or

Restless wandering spirit trapped between this world and the next???....

YOU decide.....

Once I got the basic color scheme down, it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

Another figure I've been working on is the one that I call "Thurg"...he's part of the Pulp Figs set PWM11 "Callous Captors"....

"Thurg works for Mistress X....Thurg hurts people that lady says to hurt. Sometimes Thurg pull on arms and legs and they bend where they aren't supposed to...Makes people scream loud. Hurts Thurgs ears...Lady says Thurg do a good job and will get a cute pet bunny for birthday. Thurg like bunnies....huh huh huh...."

While working on my figs I discovered some old Ral Partha "Slave girl" figs....and thus Blue Moon Egyptian Agent #3 suddenly became "Abdouk the slave-trader"....

WIP: Abdouk the slave-trader and some of his "wares". They can be yours if you can meet his price, or haggle a good deal... The gag on the blondes mouth, keeps her quiet, as she is always screaming for help, and telling people that she is a "kidnapped princess sold to Abdouk by one of her fathers enemies, and her father will reward anyone who rescues her..."  He's heard it all before and besides...a princess brings an even better price.....

Currently my "need to flock, wash, and/or seal count looks like this....

Just a few touch ups and we are good to go with this set!

Unfortunately I am about to kick myself though as Murch has release some more figs and I will be sending him yet more of my money....sigh....that man is an evil genius I tell you!!!

More to come my friends!