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@GrimDork - thanks for answering my questions on Battlesystems, that's very helpful. I will get to it someday.

@Thraxas - Good question! Unfortunately, I have a good answer. We've moved, and are renting a small apartment where there is no room to set up a painting area. I don't know how long it will be before we buy another house, but I won't be able to paint until then.

Before we moved, I just had too much dissertation on the brain and too much guilt about doing things other than working on it and taking care of the kids. Honestly, I took that "be serious and drop all your funtime hobbies" way too far than was healthy.

I'm currently on miniatures hiatus due to work, but plan to dive back in again in December. With space restricted, I'll be doing modding rather than painting, as usual. I also intend to put up helpful scale comparisons and conversions of all the new mini lines I'm getting into, particularly Gates of Antares and Maelstrom's Edge, to help others interested in Frankensteining their miniature lines. I'm currently waiting impatiently for an overdue box of Gates of Antares from NWS.

Finally, it is kind of you to dignify me with "Sir," but at this point I consider you a friend. As the Germans say, "wir können uns duzen."

@GrimDork - my apologies for hijacking your thread with my self-centered response to Thraxas. I won't do so again.

Lol don't worry about it dude, keeping track of PM conversations is kind of a pain on Dakka compared to chatting in thread.

Great job on 200 for the year, mate. I also well understand the need for something different - and yeah, getting to PLAY something, which WoW can supply in spades/ Luckily I'm still too butthurt about flying to come back.

Still gotta get those zombies done for 200

Whats this about flying now, Az?

I never really got into WoW - LOTRO is my poison of choice. I've been clean since spring though.

Do you count scenery and so on into the 200 Grim?

I was mucking along with a really seasoned everquest and my sister talked me into playing with her guild. Good times have been had, times have been wasted. Probably overall positive.

Scenery counts but just 1 point per piece, size independent. So with the scatter bits being loose on top, Taco Mars was probably 4-5 points for the whole project as the scatter *could* be used elsewhere. Haven't done a lot of scenery. Got the doors and furniture from black fortress primed but it made them tacky, well the furniture not the doors.

 Vermonter wrote:
@GrimDork - thanks for answering my questions on Battlesystems, that's very helpful. I will get to it someday.

@Thraxas - Good question! Unfortunately, I have a good answer. We've moved, and are renting a small apartment where there is no room to set up a painting area. I don't know how long it will be before we buy another house, but I won't be able to paint until then.

Finally, it is kind of you to dignify me with "Sir," but at this point I consider you a friend. As the Germans say, "wir können uns duzen."

@GrimDork - my apologies for hijacking your thread with my self-centered response to Thraxas. I won't do so again.

Ah Grim does not mind, the chat just motivates him .

Moving does have such a big impact...just so tiring and mentally draining too. The Sir thing is the curse of a career in retail...and "we can name terms" is one of those delightfully innocent but sounds slightly threatening terms that the German language sometimes provides.

@Grim WOW seems like a nice distraction, it is good to just relax forget the real world from time to time.

Zombie game looks fun.

That is the primary point of the endeavor so hopefully things pan out that way

Miniature Market got me again lol. Since she seemed to somewhat like her heroclix figures I bought a couple of retail display boxes (24 figures each) of the superman and hobbit sets. I had to order fast as one of the things for me was likely to run out of stock while I was browsing... and I didn't realize that there are only 12 unique figures within the superman set. Doesn't matter, she does well with duplicates anyway and it makes things more likely that we'll get all of the unique figures.

I also ordered some more bargain Infinity... sigh. I'm gonna have to spend all of next year just painting Infinity... shame drawer is almost to the point of not closing...


Eeeesh!

Now, hopefully I'm done ordering bargain miniatures for myself, or requesting them from family for the year. Too many...tooooo many. Lot of days off around Turkey Day so maybe I'll get those zombies finished. Maybe.

You can never have too many unpainted minis. Remember: you die when you paint your last one. It’s a form of immortality.

Haha, I think I've heard that before. I'll keep one of those old unpainted 3rd edition dark eldar I have tucked into a sock somewhere, just in case

I am so jealous of that Infinity pile, and the fact you got most of it on bargain prices just makes it worse!

How about 'clear the Infinity draw' as your 2016 goal?

I'm considering it Para, I really am. Gonna be tough, I've got almost 30 combined army now, 17 panO, 11 Haq, several nomads left... and you know I'll keep buying more if they sell it for half price.....

May be the thing to do though. And finish off some board games.

May have to figure up a different scheme for the panO, I like the one I'm doing but highlighting black is not so much fun and it would be hella tedious on the all armored guys.

The other thing to consider is that unlike most boardgame bits and bobs, Infinity minis really allow you to push yourself. A year or even 6 months on just Infinity stuff and you'd come out a better painter the other end of it simply as the models give you the canvas to really push the boat out with new techniques and such.

Infinity models are awesome, they look better when finished just for being what they are. The material and sculpting/casting quality make washes and dips really shine, and almost all of the minute detail is physically there for you rather than something you have to free hand. They're good stuff.


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I also want to do some more battlezones scenery (I haven't forgotten you Josh, just hard to get around to taking photos with the kids!) and finish a permanent 4x4 board but I'm not even gonna talk about that until I get work started on it

I'm right here, still waiting. I'm thinking about dedicating the first couple of months of 2016 to terrain, so anything for inspiration would be appreciated.

Do you play Infinity, or just buy the minis?

Yeah, I'll get around to it as soon as I can, I would like to do some more terrain soon.

Next year is painting things I want, terrain, and maybe some table stuff. So far. Tentatively.

Tentatively is right. My son starts elementary school in April, so I expect to have even less spare time than I do now.

He's going to school and gonna be gone all day, why won't you have more time?

That's what the brain thinks at first right?

Damn I think I may have mis stepped on the MM sale. It seems like they're progressively slashing prices as it gets closer to black friday/whatever metric they're using. Many things were 50% off now it appears that several are 60% off or better.

Many things are also completely OOS too... so it's kind of a game to play. I don't mind the price I paid for what I ordered before but if the prices keep sliding I'm gonna have to consider a second order. The battlezones redbrick sets and the octagonal forward base thingy have both come down since their initial holiday sale price point... much lower and I shall be tempted... I may order some connectors too just because you can practically never have enough of the buggers.

Those brick battlezones are very nice - I have my eye on them for terrain for This Is Not a Test (if I ever find a group for games like that here).

It's always interesting looking back on the year and thinking about what you've achieved vs. what you planned.

I often find I start the year with clear plans and goals and then pinwheel off into some other aspect of the hobby as I get distracted during the year. Like I started the year with the plan to make Viking, Celt and Norman warbands for Saga which could be combined into a "late dark ages Irish" army for Hail Caesar, before moving into the Medieval and making a Confederate Irish force for the Civil War to face off against the New Model army.

Progress? Well, basically exactly the same as it was.

Meanwhile I've gone crazy buying Descent minis and painting board game pieces generally for use in a school dungeons and dragons campaign, and assembled an ass load of LOTR stuff when I got enthused due to some of the chatter on here about the game. Now I'm singlemindedly painting as much Dungeon Saga stuff as possible, while my poor Celts and assorted Norsemen sit weeping in their box.

 GrimDork wrote:
He's going to school and gonna be gone all day, why won't you have more time?

That's what the brain thinks at first right?

He and I will have virtually identical schedules, plus homework (assuming first graders gt homework) at, er, home. If he maintains his interest, maybe he can do his own hobby stuff while I do mine, but we'll have to wait and see.

I both envy and don't envy you access to those wild sale prices. It's quite likely that I'd be in the doghouse if I bought more stuff, even at 50% off.

The wife and I keep separate finances and I don't think she has any real understanding of the relative cost of items. Some also get picked up under the radar (usually send kickstarters to my parents' home in the country) so I doubt she realizes how much I purchase in a year.

But I also keep up my end of the bills and payments. I don't typically spend money on anything else but food and bills anyway.

 GrimDork wrote:
The wife and I keep separate finances and I don't think she has any real understanding of the relative cost of items. Some also get picked up under the radar (usually send kickstarters to my parents' home in the country) so I doubt she realizes how much I purchase in a year.

But I also keep up my end of the bills and payments. I don't typically spend money on anything else but food and bills anyway.

My Wife probably spends as much on hair dye and chocolate as I do on minis. As long as you can keep a roof over your head and everyone fed, it's all good.

I've managed to keep the minis coming for far too long. I will be cutting way back "SOON", Like I have just the Zombicide Black Plague still out there, but in the mean time I'm good. When I do buy stuff like the Dungeon Saga set that just showed up I tell my wife that I sold a few figures to get enough for my Kickstarter funds. My other purchases such as paints and brushes are so small that she never complains about those. Plus I let her get her hair done, and have girl nights out all the time, so my small purchases are usually not worth her complaining about. I don't drink, smoke, do drugs or chase other women, so this addiction is at least manageable, and now with Zombicide it is time well spent occupying the kids.

Same for me, my only vice is plastic soldiers (and sometimes video games) so I get by alright. Next years goal is to buy zermo minis. I will fail. But I wanna get asxfew new models as possible.

More soon, but time to get home and prepare for the night shift (both kids while the wife works). If I play my cards right, I get to sleep a little.

I would never suggest using daddy's little helper , because sleep is for losers

Gah! I'm still alive and stuff, just been stupidly busy. The second kid has proven to be a challenge, for sure. We've also worked a lot later this year than usual due to unseasonable warmth. Haven't gotten much done between caring for the kids, working longer than expected (though I'm not complaining!) and doing all of the holiday shopping and stuff. We also totally adopted/stole/whatevered a young cat (no longer a kitten though for sure) that I found hanging around one of our regular jobs. Saw it in the summer but lost my chance to pick it up then. Saw it again a few weeks ago. He was happy to come home with us, though it's a bit of an adjustment for everybody So far all he's done against my hobby stuff is knock over some precariously perched Dungeon Saga cards, and I'd call that so far so good.

Dungeon saga came in. I'm pretty happy with the quality of everything, if all of the minis straighten out with hot water like people are suggesting they will... I should be quite pleased with my purchase overall. The GCPS marines from the warpath kickstarter are shaping up to look good too. I may throw a little funding towards that since their PM will last beyond my birthday and I may have some loose cash to burn. Beyond that, or possibly the latest licensed IP KS Mantic has planned, I'm really hoping to buy less models next year. I may still get zombicide with amazon credit because I have almost enough and I hear it's a stupid fun game. But yeah... Overall I want to pick up less models. No 365/365 painting goal though. It's too unrealistic for me. Still want to get as much done as possible, just with different metrics for success.

Here's a photo to go with all of the blabbering, finished 4 enforcers and 13 zombies dip/seal/base (most were painted already but have not yet been counted for the total). Pictured also are the other two enforcers previously completed.



So I'm gonna go off to do some other housekeeping things but I wanted to check in with everyone before I vanish again for holiday stuff. Some notes...

I don't think WoW is gonna take. I just can't put in an hour or two a day, and none of which with headphones for immersion/better group play, which I think is what I'd need to be doing to have fun. Logging in every morning before the kids wake up so I can spin on my garrison hamster wheel is... less than satisfying. And I don't think even my winter schedule will allow for fun stuff like battlegrounds, dungeons, or raids. It was worth a try, and now I've got a new game pad out of the deal. I think I'll look into restarting some owned games that I've not touched in years or possibly pick up some simpler new games like Magicka 2 to take advantage of my 'has a working game pad' status.

I got Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for my android phone. Loving it. While I think the gameplay would technically be faster with an emulated PS1 version (plus save state shenanigans to take the edge off of grinding certain things), they did a much better job on the translation/localization in the updated version and it's a joy to have a clearer idea of what's going on. Add in some cutscenes and most importantly, another class (Ramza can finally be a class with special knight skills, woo woo!) and I'm fairly smitten. They added a couple of neat new characters too, from other FF titles set (vaguely) in the same world. Overall I'm having a blast but I relapse into playing FFT every few years just because. May possibly my favorite game. Can't even explain why in so many words, but we get along well. The game does crash periodically(0-3 times a day I'd say, and the 0 comes up more often than not). So far I haven't had it happen after any hours-long grinding sessions or I may have broken my hand punching the wall... usually it's after saving or switching menus, so mostly I haven't lost anything when it does. As frequently as I save the game, it's not much of an issue.

Alright anyway just wanted to check in. Gonna try to do 11 more models before January 1st so I can call it 200 for the year. Maybe some dungeon furniture.

Oh also. If any of you guys have missed me at your own Blogs/topics, I'm slowly trying to work my way around and catch up. FFT has been eating into my idle forum time

That's a lot too balance. You won't get any pressure from me to increase production.

The GCPS guys do look nice, but I will stick with Asterians, I think.

They're sooo spindly. I can't get inspiration to paint them at the moment, just gathering dust in my containers.

I like the spindly robot look, personally. Plus I already have a metric ton of generic SF troopers between SW and Alternative Armies levies (from long long ago) .