Animal

For my band's last show, I dressed up as the Muppet Animal.

I used colored hair spray for my hair and my skin. For what I could spend, it seemed the most durable and had the best coverage.

The ankle and wrist shackles I made out of craft foam. I cut the strips out of a large sheet, and bought a package of shapes. All hot glued together with strips of Velcro for easy  on and off.

The chain was from a Halloween decoration. I made a choker out of Velcro and looped it through the chain.

The gig was a huge success!! We were offered a weekly spot at the bar, but unfortunately we had to turn it down. We said we could do a monthly show and it looks like that may happen.

Car Wars

My GM, is looking for someone to take the mantle either intermittently, or after our DH campaign has run its course. I ran two D&D campaigns prior, and the second one is a popular choice within the group as the next game.

While I am not opposed to that, I have a hankerin' for something else. A Car Wars campaign! My idea is that the group would be employees/co-owners of a small local shipping company. The structure would be small delivery runs, some accounting/business, and when money is tight, head off to the local AADA arena for a rumble.

I envision the cars as the focus. But am looking at either boosting the primitive character development in Car Was or running an altogether different character system. Out of the 7 of us, only 3 have played Car Wars before (back in the 80's it was one of our favorite games).

As an introduction to the game for the other 4 players, I am planning an Division 15 arena battle. Everyone would have the same car. I based the vehicle off the Armadillo in the Vehicle Guide vol 3. Essentially, I dropped about 1/3 of the armor F, B, L, R and the AP rounds in the RL to add a ram plate and an extra magazine for the RL.

This is v 0.1 of my vehicle record sheet. At this point it is heavily based on the standard sheet. After we play the arena battle, I will make adjustments as we see fit.

The Game of Life

My wife just spent a week in the hospital. She has been struggling quite awhile before hand and it is not over yet--Out patient treatment for the next 3-4 weeks and another 2-3 weeks at home before going back to work.

Taken from the interwebs without permission

This impacts us financially as the up-to-2-months she will be off work will be unpaid. We do not have disability insurance. We do not have any other significant form of income (I stay home to care for our son and my mother-in-law). Nor do we have access to assistance programs.

We also have no savings. My wife has been sick off and on for various reasons over the last 10 years. She underwent 13 surgeries (including breast cancer and foot surgery) plus my 2 month hospital stint (brain tumor). This has drained us, an inheritance, and we still owe money.

I have painted a grim picture. What is my point? My wife and I keep forging ahead. People often say to us "It will get better". Well, I can say after hearing that for over 10 years, sometimes it doesn't--Sometimes it gets worse. But that does not mean we are giving up in any way... Its just reality.

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Spending time with my friends through games (as a true hobby) has been a pastime of mine since 1980. It is who I am, how I express myself, and an important part of my life. Its NOT just because I like games...

Created by Zorcon as a fan wallpaper for the video game
"Bikini Karate Babes"

I am socially awkward, even with close friends at times. Games put me on an equal playing field and I am more comfortable. But most importantly, games are a way for me to escape from the stresses of life and actually cope with it better.

Without games, I do not know how I would have made it this far.

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I have been keeping an eye on my post count. In 22 more posts, I will have posted in 2013 the same number of posts as the previous 4 years combined! With everything going on, it will be a big challenge, but I am up for it! 

Quick Pickled Pepers

This is one of my favorite things to make and always keep on hand!

QUICK PICKLED PEPPERS
Inspired by (http://projectsmall.blogspot.com/2011/01/quick-pickled-peppers.html)

Ingredients:
2 qt water
2 qt cider vinegar
4 Tbs agave
4 Tbs salt
4 bay leaves
4 Tbs coriander seeds
4 Tbs black peppercorns
15 Jalapeno Peppers
8 Serrano Peppers
3 Bell Peppers
2 Anaheim Peppers
2 Poblano Peppers
3 cloves garlic, peeled

I also like to add hard boiled eggs, baby onions, elephant garlic (instead of regular garlic), and cucumbers.

Preparations:
Wash the peppers (plus hard boiled eggs, baby onions, elephant garlic, and cucumbers), then take a sharp knife and stab them a few times so the brine can permeate. You can keep them whole or slice them. I say do both, that way you have more of a selection to choose from! Pack into mason jars.

In a non-reactive pot, combine all the other ingredients and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Pour over the peppers and allow to cool on the table. Once cool, move in the fridge. You can start eating them tomorrow, but honestly they taste way better in a week or month!

Tau Progress Chart

Doh! after scheduling 5 posts out on a 3 day interval, I lost track of when I had to come back and write up some more posts!! I will have to catch up over the next few days. This post will be a little shorter than originally planned...

Here is a progress chart for my Tau Empire army. I intended to include group shots, but I haven't made much progress beyond what has already been shown in previous posts.

Tau is my newest army. I played the heck out of my Space Marines in 1st-3rd editions. After a long hiatus of playing I started collecting Tau. But a friend and I only managed to play one game of 4e and two games of 5e at 500-750 points. So, there isn't a lot here completely painted. I also got sidetracked with scratch building and painting various Forge World units and a set of objectives.

To further put me behind, I am changing the color scheme of the Army. From a variation of the Iconic T'au sept to a white with red and black scheme. My goal is to not repaint the finished models until I get an equal mount of models painted in the new scheme.

Mining HeroClix (part 2)

Very quick update on my HeroClix to Dark Heresy conversions.

Only one conversion for this group. I replaced Morrow's hands and bone knives with WHFB Elf hands with swords.

No conversions for this group (yet), but I swapped out Witchblade and Hydra Medic for Domino and Skullbuster.

Three head swaps from very old IG sergeant heads.

If you want to follow this project from the start, take a look at Mining HeroClix (part 1) and Clowning Around.

BFG Progress Charts

I am an Old Skewl GW fan boy. As such, Battlefleet Gothic is one of my favorite games. Since I just added to my collection in a recent large loot purchase and  showcased some old pictures of my painted fleets, I thought it would be appropriate to create and share these progress charts.

The Imperial Navy is the back bone of my forces. They were originally painted purple with gold trim and a yellow prow. But over the years I have began to think this is too much like a Slaaneshi-scheme. The new scheme will be a battleship grey with a yellow prow.

I have been collecting Space Fleet ships over the years to be used as older ships of the fleet. I am still considering weather of not to paint them slightly differently or not.

My Space Marine fleet is painted up like my 40K home-brew Space Marine chapter--Turquoise with orange trim. I have 2 cruisers painted as Grey Knights in homage to my old opponent, who played chaos. I am considering painting a squadron of escorts on the same scheme and doing the same for the black ship. 

For now I am calling this my "Pirate" fleet, but I envision it like either a planetary defense or Rogue Trader Fleet. The list is currently based on the Wolf Pack list formerly available of GW website. If I choose to make this a Rouge Trader fleet, I will likely find another list to base it off of. I plan on the colors to be an an assortment of reds, whites, greys, and gunmetals--More random and weathering if a planetary defense fleet, and more structured if a Rogue Trader fleet.

Clued In

Here are my finished Clue figures. This project was started about 2 months ago I posted Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Obviously, these are the men. I really fought against adding more detail. But I wanted a more cartoonish look, and honestly, I didn't want to commit any more time to this project.

I am very happy how the conversions turned out. A quick rundown: Sculpted a barrett on Mon. Brunette; Removed top 1/3 of head and sculpted a new one on Prof. Plum; Sculpted shoulder straps, tie, and holster and added new hand with gun on Sgt Grey; Sculpted a sun hat on Miss Peach.

Colors are close except for Miss Peach, who's dress has a little more pink. Job well done (IMO!), except in hindsight I would have made the tiles on the base a little smaller--Almost half.

If you have any C&C post 'em below.