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2020/02/26 20:05:21
Subject: Graven's shelf of shame Feb 25 Bloodtide Buccaneers, Dreadball space sharks
youwashock wrote:For spending so much time underwater, you are on fire. As usual, I guess. Love the Sphyr.
They are great, I love their aesthetic and their top-tier in game even post-nerf.
Gitsplitta wrote:Close-up of C'thilla please!
Oh no, that's a serious request...
Voila. Note her inexplicably distracting bewbs.
Heretic Tom wrote:I love that scarecrow sculpt and dumbledore gives me serious Charleton Heston moses vibes Picking up those hot wheels for Joker's Funland was a stroke of genius!
Yeah, the scarecrow was fine - Man-Bat, OTOH, was horrendous. Double-door is very moses, yes I have picked up the cannon before but it's nice to have extras for scatter. I had planned to build Funland last night whilst watching The Boys but got distracted, and instead (finally) built Man-Bat.
He's a ridiculous figure, so I just decide to embrace it and add extra bats for good measure. There's a set bracing the left wing, but he's definitely getting added to the "display" pile. I need to make him some rules for DCU as Justice League Dark version.
Also got the Dredd Arch-villains built.
As always, hate the warlord bases, and whilst the metals are lovely, rebasing is a lot more work as I'm forced to use milliput sad. Still, was amused to give Mean Machine a "deck" plate. Also, Death is suitably HUGE!
Got a couple of Dreadball promos (and a Superb Owl) built too:
Gabe is a Penny Arcade character, I believe. A rare early promo that I intend to ruin with paint There are no stats for him in DB2.0 so I'll use him as a stand-in for Patient Zero, an augmented human MVP that I'm missing (perils of eBay bulk purchases). The Black Widow is the 2.0 return of an old v1 promo fig to the main game so pleased to get her; who knows, might even inspire me to do my female human team also. What, I've only got 3 (ish) unbuilt teams? Definitely don't have a problem... I had planned to do my human females purple & pink but an all Black Widow themed team might also be fun.
Today's been a rough day. Not bad at work particularly, just feel very Bilbo Baggins - Thin and Stretched. I'm hoping it will pass.
Hey ho
Graven
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/02/26 21:15:52
Subject: Graven's shelf of shame Feb 26 more building, more models to the silver shelf
I spoke at length to metropolis tonight. He's just been signed off work, which was a real shock to me. My wife has been off for a month with stress, just doing phased return, so we talked about that and how I was coping - he'd seen me at my lowest before Xmas, and wanted to know how I'd managed to bounce back. Of course, that made me realize that I really haven't. Paint and toys help; he's not lifted a brush since July and I gently suggested that it, and blogging about it, was one form of therapy that did truly help. The real question is whether I can help myself without recourse to doctors. It is the nature of teaching that one is unlikely to leave kids in the lurch at critical times.
Here is my interim therapy: more paint.
Decided that Molly needed a wagging finger, so made her a new hand from gs from scratch.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2020/02/26 21:59:53
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/02/26 22:13:42
Subject: Re:Graven's shelf of shame Feb 26 more building, more models to the silver shelf, and Weasleys
Fifty wrote:Love those Weasleys! Never felt the urge to paint a slightly bohemian, middle-aged, middle-class couple!
Can we see the finger better?
Struggling to get a decent pic, hope this ok.
Yes, couldn't be arsed doing the eyes.
youwashock wrote:Weasleys are spot on. Hope you get through the mind stuff soon. Thin and stretched is not the preferred state.
Everybody's favourite substitute parents. No, indeed, it's not ideal. Whether I can feasibly do anything about it is another matter. Dakka/hobby helps, a lot.
Brief mild(er) spell of weather meant got the kids' AoS primed and started priming all the Hellboy... black, after much deliberation.
Today's experiment: a little sci-fi, mostly Dredd building with (mostly) MEdge bits.
Everything has to be playable, right? Hence the platforms.
Then, had another notion
Wee bunker for Aeronautica
Feels very in-keeping with the AI aesthetic to me. Need to build the orkuivalent...
Hey ho
Graven
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/02/27 22:56:17
Subject: Graven's shelf of shame Feb 27 building some buildings, MEdge bits and more
Excellent work on the Weasleys and the bunkers brilliant.
"But me no buts! Our comrades get hurt. Our friends die. Falkenburg is a knight who swore an oath to serve the church and to defend the weak. He'd be the first to tell you to stop puling and start planning. Because what we are doing-at risk to ourselves-is what we have sworn to do. The West relies on us. It is a risk we take with pride. It is an oath we honour. Even when some soft southern burgher mutters about us, we know the reason he sleeps soft and comfortable, why his wife is able to complain about the price of cabbages as her most serious problem and why his children dare to throw dung and yell "Knot" when we pass. It's because we are what we are. For all our faults we stand for law and light.
Von Gherens This Rough Magic Lackey, Flint & Freer
Mekagorkalicious -Monkeytroll
2017 Model Count-71
2020/03/01 22:23:37
Subject: Graven's shelf of shame Feb 27 building some buildings, MEdge bits and more
Llamahead wrote:Excellent work on the Weasleys and the bunkers brilliant.
You're both very kind.
And the weekend rolls around and beyond again.
So what's cooking in the Graven household?
Well, some progress on promo Bane and his base
I'll likely do Axe Man at the same time.
Reposed my Deathstroke.
After his whisper-thin wakizashi broke, I decided to cut down the katana to be the new wakiashi and have him drawing the sheathed katana from his back scabbard. I appreciate the daisho should probably be the other way round but still.
I built up my human female Dreadball team, finally, and am working on a couple of wee extra Succubi. Of course, now I realise I need more bases
And got on with Nimuë The Blood Queen, promo for Hellboy
Lovely fig. And as my 9 year old mentioned, you can see her bewby. We had a really good game today, played the first Easy/Short scenario from the Wild Hunt... By far the hardest game we've had! Barely survived hordes of enemies, Johann and Liz both unconscious and Hellboy down to his last health. Damn game
Bit more chill. Work is still harsh but, you know, getting there. One of my mates - also a gamer - has invited me to men's mental health night he's started running. Definitely to be considered.
Anyway, I think more Hellboy is to be expected this month. There's a sure-fire way of guaranteeing I won't do that
Hey ho
Graven
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/03/02 07:36:51
Subject: Graven's shelf of shame Mar 1 Bane, Deathstroke and Nimuë the Blood Queen
Thanks for the bits and all the amazing inspiration!
Viterbi wrote:Nice save on Deathstroke! He's gonna look great painted up, there's nothing better than quasi-ninja assasins
Cheers! Gotta love some
Solar_lion wrote:Love the change to Deathstroke. A lot of movement.
The original pose is pretty good too, to be fair, I just had to adapt to circumstance!
Right, where were we?
Mental Health Update
Spoiler:
Not coping particularly well, tbh. Despite actually being on top of 'school' work, getting more and more ragged. Am now trying to take things in hand and do some initial meditation/mindfulness techniques to help. Essentially, I just to have to commit to trying... something. I'm trying to embrace the idea of 3x5: 3 things for head, heart and body, minimum of 5 minutes per day each. Head is reading or writing - this post, for example, though offline is preferable. Heart is taking time to hobby or spend with family, so took the younger lad out for breakfast this morning just the two of us (we butt heads quite a lot usually). Body is obviously exercise, which is frankly never my preference, but even just a short walk is better than nothing. So went for a half hour walk, just locally, taking the time to wander around bits I wouldn't normally.
It's also about habit forming, so I have to commit to this for at least 8 weeks. More generally, I have to try to find opportunities for day-to-day positives and thing to look forward to - hence the rather mad plan you'll see below.
So, I'm cracking on.
More Succubi:
So now got a full roster built, as this gives me an extra Striker, a prone version and a couple of cheerleaders. I am smitten with my foul fiends Couple of bases short though, at least if I want to paint up the Void Sirens.
Feeling very stoked for the new hybrid Dreadball skirmish game, Arena Wars, which is essentially a half-time show of giants slugging it out (of course, it uses the one mat I don't own - Xtreme). Plus, I've signed up (along with Kid A) for the UK Dreadball Summer tournament at Mantic HQ! Driving 5 hrs to an event?! Madness! I'd never normally do such a thing, but why not eh? Clearly I've been led astray by all you troublemakers with your tales of Adepticon It will be a birthday present to myself, of sorts: the tourney itself is a bargain (£10, including lunch and a free dreadball team), so the only expense is travel. Trying to persuade Metropolis and erithromycin to come too. As Mantic are in Nottingham, I might even try to make to the motherland, Warhammer World. Road trip! An alternative is to use an overnight bus, which is in theory easier but does mean we'd arrive at 5am less than ideal for playing in a tournament all day. We'll see, it's in July, so plenty of time to plan obsessively
Got some zenithal shading on the junk-modelled building:
The plan is a big, possibly saucy, sign/logo across the front, and then lots of tags etc around the walls. It's a dodgy place.
As well as this, I've done lots of other priming, as we've had a couple of milder days. Not much else to show, but that's ok: if I feel forced to paint, or build, or share, I'll start to disappear down the rabbit-hole of hobby stress-guilt. So whilst painting was helping me before Xmas I'm just going to work steadily as and when the muse is upon me. It's why having stuff primed is so helpful - I can literally just pick up a figure off the shelf and paint it as and when I fancy. Or, if I want to build, I've got the Batman starter stuff, two different robot teams for Dreadball (totally going to be Autobots - probably for the tournament, even thought they're rubbish - and Decepticons) plus a couple of Grot Bombers I picked up off Amazon, of all places, on the cheap.
No doubt I'll continue to ramble on at you, fair warning Till next time,
Graven
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/03/04 21:32:13
Subject: Graven's shelf of shame Mar 4 Succubi, Void Sirens and a saucy building
Arena Wars sounds interesting. Great cloak on Ms. Bewby.
It's certainly saucy. Arena wars looks great too, but I'm going to have to use my modular Xtreme X-pansion board for now. It's being done as a fun game that they're intending to release as online freebie. I think they're honestly missing a trick not making a new, self-contained game though. Still, can have that chat with the designer in the summer, as he's running the Summer event and thanks! do like a bit of cloak work.
Anyway, finished this:
Come to Rocket Babes! Completely legal legitimate social club!
Cardboard box, Maelstrom's Edge terrain sprue bits, sprue and waterslide decals.
I enjoyed this.
I still hate waterslide decals, however.
All sorts of silly posters Got to have a roof tag I actually found another of those ladders, and am debating whether to add it or not.
Goes well with the dice tower. Or rather, that goes well with it.
Fun to do. Meanwhile, trying to stay steady as she goes.
Hey ho
Graven
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/03/06 12:39:43
Subject: Re:Graven's shelf of shame Mar 6 Come to Rocket Babes! Legitimate Club for the Discerning Gentleman!
It's a battle for me to even think about putting paint on models, so I'm feeling your current downturn. Keep at it, and it is OK to stop and take a deep breath for a bit.
--B
Falling down is the same as being hit by a planet — "I paint to the 20 foot rule, it saves a lot of time." -- Me
ddogwood wrote:People who feel the need to cheat at Warhammer deserve pity, not anger. I mean, how pathetic does your life have to be to make you feel like you need to cheat at your toy army soldiers game?
2020/03/06 13:24:43
Subject: Graven's shelf of shame Mar 6 Come to Rocket Babes! Legitimate Club for the Discerning Gentleman!
Briancj wrote:It's a battle for me to even think about putting paint on models, so I'm feeling your current downturn. Keep at it, and it is OK to stop and take a deep breath for a bit.
--B
Thanks old son.
Gitsplitta wrote:I love that graven. All the little details and realistic touches. You've really got it sorted.
Cheers
Kid_Kyoto wrote:Aces!
youwashock wrote:Chopper!
Looks awesome. Blue Sun. Always a good choice.
Soul on fire! And, two by two...
So I was working today, which is a bit sucky, but managed to get back in time to see Onward with the kids (it was... good but not great, better than toy story 4, and personally enjoyed more than Inside Out even though objectively it's not as clever).
And then, rather than painting, me and the boy spent an hour and half building scenery:
It's not bad, not at all bad.
You get extras of the vertical clips which is smart as some WILL get bent. I built the ferris wheel and one large tent thing and he did the rest, as well as punching out all the tokens. Slave labour gets a lot done
Hoping to get a layer of purple on the Void Sirens this weekend too, but no doubt the wife will make do something around the house that is "useful" sigh..
Hey ho
Graven
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/03/08 02:00:10
Subject: Graven Blogalong Mar 7 Back to Gotham Joker's Funland assembly
Happy intergalactic women's Day gang! The pint-sized Purple Power Princesses will be my wife's team, base colour and first highlight on, along with first green for lenses.
She wants silver accents, so that'll be... fun. I suspect I'll do them as grey. Just got to figure out the pattern. Oh, and get some more bases...
Continuing the female theme, I also started Cheetah.
Just blocking in, but good to get started as I have bonkers amount of DC to do. For example, my Justice League Dark version of Man-Bat
An internet cookie to the first person to spot the JLD reference. Also, Scarecrow, Bronze Tiger, Joker Rebirth and promo Bane got a couple of spot colours but nothing worth showing.
However, I did get finished the greatest robot overlord that Mega-City One has ever seen.
Nero Narcos, the Doomsday machine himself.
And got the plague of frogs all painted up for Hellboy.
As always, mini tokens count as 1/2 for the challenge.
Still, 17 models painted that this morning were just primed, never mind the other stuff. Pleased with that takes me to 109 so far this year.
Best not peak too soon...
Graven
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/03/08 20:35:09
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/03/08 20:53:23
Subject: Graven's Bloggit Mar 8 Intergalactic women's Day, a robot and a plague of frogs
Someone has been quite busy! Too much to comment on it all, so Weaselys , Joker wheel is a great piece how much fun would it be to play on a table with that for terrain. Wonderful!
As for other things in life, one day at a time. For me exercising, painting and playing with the grandson helps tremendously.
2020/03/09 13:06:14
Subject: Graven's Bloggit Mar 8 Intergalactic women's Day, a robot and a plague of frogs
Reminds me I really need to catch up with that run, loved the first trade from it. Does Man-Bat have DCU rules these days?
Yes indeed! The comic is patchy but I'm still reading it, which is more than I can say for a lot of DC. The Wonder Woman stuff struggles to fit with the rest. Bobo, however, is the best.
Yorkright wrote:Someone has been quite busy! Too much to comment on it all, so Weaselys , Joker wheel is a great piece how much fun would it be to play on a table with that for terrain. Wonderful!
As for other things in life, one day at a time. For me exercising, painting and playing with the grandson helps tremendously.
It's a good looking set. My only worry is the legs, so I may add a base.
Solar_lion wrote:Awesome terrain. Though I admit I expected nothing less than amazing
You're most kind.
monkeytroll wrote:Ahhh!
Good to see my favourite manic grin is still churning out a variety of interesting bits and pieces.
Definitely loving the big meg stuff.
Well hello sir! My March Pledge is to do the other Arch-Villains also.
A little more news on the Batman front: Knight are sending me even more stuff, woo! All the League of Shadows stuff (Ra's Al Ghul etc), which is going to make a monstrously good prize. I am not keeping them they're also sending me a Big Barda - this is a huge deal for me as I love the character but you can only get her as part of the Apokalips box set normally, which given that I have all of its other contents plus an extra set of parademons already, I'm not shelling out another £50. The trade off is they want two articles, one on new releases and one playthru of the gamebox. So, having built the terrain with my eldest, we've decided that learning BMG will be this Spring holiday job. Means I have to get the BMG minis built
So on that note, there's a couple of DC things on the go that are on the go:
Scarecrow
Cheetah
And Bane
And for Hellboy, the Tentacles of Shadu-Hem, plus a couple of resin skull piles for tokens:
Meanwhile, the pint-sized Purple Power Princesses are done!
Colour scheme to the wife's specification.
Jacks
Strikers
Captain and Guards
Gratuitous butt(s)shot
15 more off the list... check!
I *suppose* I'd better start on the BMG stuff *sighhhhh* is a hard life In seriousness, I don't like feeling as if I HAVE to paint certain things. I am aware that seems ungrateful, but still.
So till next time, Bat-Fans!
Graven
Theophony"... and there's strippers in terminator armor and lovecraftian shenanigans afoot."
Solar_Lion: "Man this sums up your blog nicely."
Anpu-adom: "being Geek is about Love. Some love broadly. Some love deeply. And then there are people like Graven.
2020/03/11 10:40:38
Subject: Graven's Bloggit Mar 11 pint-sized purple Power Princesses! And more...
They are great, I love their aesthetic and their top-tier in game even post-nerf.
sad. Still, was amused to give Mean Machine a "deck" plate. Also, Death is suitably HUGE!
I had planned to do my human females purple & pink but an all Black Widow themed team might also be fun.
less than ideal for playing in a tournament all day. We'll see, it's in July, so plenty of time to plan obsessively 
I am not keeping them 
