Goodbye

I am not saying goodbye to my blog, but I am saying goodbye to my Heroclix. I sold them all on eBay as part of my plan to make money towards my start into miniature wargaming. They brought in a little more money than I expected, so that was good. Unfortunately, we have a few bills piled up, so I will be putting most of the money toward living expenses. I did set aside enough to buy the rest of the miniatures for my Skaven army and some Warhammer 40K books.

It's kind of hard to pack up some of the Heroclix, as I had a lot of the rarer pieces, as well as a lot of pieces that had some sort of sentimental value for me. You wouldn't think that you'd be attached to a bunch of plastic, but I guess it's just the memories of where you got that figure or the time that one of your figures won the game for you or whatever. And it was my decision to let them go. If it had been a case of my wife saying, "It's them or me!" I think I would have been pretty bitter about the whole experience, but at the moment I think it'll be good to get them out of the house. I just am dreading the trip to the post office with around 40 boxes to mail out.

For Warhammer, my Wood Elf Tree Spirits army will have to wait until I'm done assembling and painting my Skaven, so that project is way in the future. And the Skaven army is on hold until I can get my "Man Shed" all cleaned out and my desk moved into it. I have big plans for the shed, as it's going to become a sort of study/hobby room. I don't expect to see much progress on any of it until mid-April or later.

I am formulating a plan for Warhammer 40K, though. I read something about a small-scale, skirmish-type option for the game in one of my White Dwarf magazines, so I ordered the back issue that has those rules in it. My brother-in-law (who is also my new neighbor) has expressed an interest in Space Marines, so my plan is to draw him in slowly and then hook him into playing games with me. I figure he can come up with a couple hundred points of Space Marines and I'll get a couple hundred points of Witch Hunters. Then we can add points as time goes on.

I think he might be intimidated by the prospect of painting these tiny figures, but that's something everyone goes through at some level. I know I was pretty nervous about putting the first layer of paint on my Skaven. I figure Space Marines are pretty basic, without a bunch of fiddly bits, and once he does a squad or two he'll be an old pro. It'd be nice to get some gaming time in soon, so I don't get burned out before I really get started.

In other news, we (my wife, me, my sister, and my brother-in-law) are going up to Seattle the first weekend of April for the Emerald City Comic Con. It should be pretty fun. My wife and I had a good time at the 2004 Comic Con. I will spend most of my time trying to get sketches from the various comic artists. My brother-in-law will probably spend his time flirting with the Penny Arcade guys. My sister and wife will probably go to the convention the first day for the costume contest and whatnot, then spend the rest of the time hanging out elsewhere in Seattle. It's my big trip for the year, and I've been planning it since I was in Iraq, so I'm starting to get pretty excited.

Also, I wish I was a ninja.