Today's Acquisitions...

In an effort to keep up with this blog, I got this out this evening...(while finishing off a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label).

One of the things with most miniature gamers, (at least with me) is the amount of "non-gaming, gaming stuff" that we do. This include cleaning worktables, emptying that overflowing trashcan in the game room, organizing your figures, paints, brushes, etc.

To be honest, this seems to take up more of my time than actually gaming.  However it is the little things in life that make it worthwhile and "it is the season for the Halloween stuff to be coming out!"

So today I took a much needed little jaunt, under the guise of taking care of a bill with my eyeglasses company, (who just happened to be closed, so I get to go on Monday), and stopped by Michael's, Hobby Lobby and finally for the first time in over a year my LGS.

The first stop WAS the optometrist, which happened to be closed and seems to keep bankers hours.

So after that it was a quick run down to Michael's to see if their Halloween stuff was out and much to my surprise the first portions of it are out on the shelves!

YAY!

Summer be gone!!!!

The biggest problem I have with the Halloween decor is simply that "If I was single and had the house to myself, this would probably be up all year around..."

I saw some nice Lemax Halloween pieces that I will be stocking up on soon, Their cemetery gates make nice terrain pieces.

And then it was off to Hobby Lobby...

At Hobby Lobby I was on a mission. I needed to pick up some thin metal rods that they have so I can finish the bars to the jail cells in the Sheriff's Office and put that nightmare behind me. 

Add to the fact that my Dremel bit the big one...sigh.

But I was able to get two packs of the brass rods.

Hmm...these will work quite nicely...

And while checking the clearance area, I noticed that some brushes were on sale, and lo and behold, they had some of the REALLY NICE Windsor and Newton Brushes for 50% off!

I found two nice ones and added them to my collection.

Nothing wrong with getting nice brushes when they are on sale, I always say....

And then it was off to my LGS.

Readers will hopefully remember that I have had mixed feelings and experiences with my LGS in the past years. The store I would really like to check out regularly is over on the other side of town, (a good 30-40 mile drive).

So I really wasn't sure what to expect this time I showed up.

The place is still small, and honestly, sitting in an industrial park area, the rent may be cheap but the frontage is non-existent and even though I have been there half a dozen times since their move, I still need a GPS to locate it.

However I wasn't there for directions or inspections.

Instead I picked up some Reaper Bones figures.

A nice PC cleric figure...or a NPC...

And some more female sword-users

And then I found this and said "Cool, Old School Roper Style monster to give the PC's a problem or four...lol..

This looks like some promising XP's right there....as soon as they can kill it, without being killed that is...

And then I decided to pick up some of this as something to work with on some ideas I have seen it used on. Let's hope I can master it.

 On the way back I stopped for a quick lunch of Sliders and then made it home.
Relaxing today after a hard week at work, and tomorrow I get to work on the jail...finally!

More to come!

Overdue Update and A Finished Scenery Piece

In the blink of an eye, the year is already half over and we are in August and my blog has suffered from neglect and misuse, and for that dear reader I am sorry.

To be honest, there I've been busy with work, as well as some family and health issues as well as going through a major cycle of depression, and even though I have been painting like a madman, (and later posts will prove this), I just haven't had the "umph" to update this blog the way I should be.

But I've decided to try to get back into the swing of it, and thus starting with a piece of scenery.

A couple of years ago, (late 2015 I think), I picked up an old early 1990's hydrastone casting from the now long defunct Stellar Games "Stonewyrk" line. In this case it was a medieval style gallows.

Yeah this company's been looooooooooong gone...

In the funky old game-store that I have nicknamed "The Tombs", it is kind of like The Island of Misfit Toys, and so many of these things are just waiting for someone to find them, buy them, paint them, and play with them. And sometimes they wait for decades.

The front of the package showing the age....

So I went ahead and got this one and then it became that "Item that we all have that we do "dawdle work" on when we are in the block that all of us get on painting, building, etc. We don't want to sit there at the paint table and go "Duhhhh..." so we find this item that becomes our "Never-Ending Project".

And so I worked on it, and worked on it, AND worked on it for a couple of years.

Finally about two weeks ago, I said "Screw it!" and went into "get this finished!" mode.

It was relatively easy to do, although I did modify it by using a larger dowel rod for the hanging support than the teeny one that was provided.

 

 

 You can see here that I also experimented with different groundwork. One side is green blended turf while the other is rocks and sand. I decided to go wit this as there wouldn't me much grass from the front of it from the feet of onlookers.

All in all it was an "okay" kit. A nice addition and background piece, and my wonderful wife (GAWD BLESS HER!), has the right type of thread to make hanging rope nooses out of, so that will be nice.
It's typical of mid 1990's small company quality. Don't expect first rate stuff due to the period that it was done. Overall I would get it a C+ .

More stuff to come.