I went to Wal-Mart last night to purchase an Optimus Prime Transformer. I've wanted one ever since I was a kid, but I've never actually had one. Most of the Optimus Prime figures they've released recently have been too pricey for me, but a couple of weeks ago Wal-Mart put one on the shelf for only $20. So yesterday I went to get one and the display they had been on the day before that was covered in tiny plush dogs and cats. I looked in the toy aisles and found every Transformer except the $20 Optimus Prime. They had a $40 Optimus Prime and a $70 Optimus Prime and a $90 Optimus Prime, but no $20 Optimus Prime. That was disappointing. So I bought this instead. It doesn't make up for the fact that after 20-some years I still don't have an Optimus Prime figure, but at least it's a tribute to one of the greatest non-animated (although he did have a cartoon, as well) pop culture heroes my generation has ever seen. I also picked up some more WoW cards and a couple of steaks. My wife woke up while I was cooking the steaks, so I had to share them with her.

I am having a hard time getting into painting these Orcs. I'll get over the painting slump at some point. I think my biggest problem is that the sculpts are not very distinct at certain points as to where the armor ends and the skin begins. I end up having to draw a line where I think it looks okay. Actually, I think my real biggest problem is laziness.

I've been looking through the latest issue of White Dwarf. I'm not too big on the whole Chaos Space Marines thing that's going on right now with the release of the new army book and miniatures, but I usually find something interesting in every issue. I like the battle reports and I often go back through my old issues to find painting tips. They've had some good articles on skin tones, corroded metals, and a whole section devoted to painting the Giant that really helped me out when I was painting mine.

Depending on how late I work tonight I'm going to start rebuilding the list of figures I need for my WWII project. I'm still pretty sure I want to do the 6mm thing, but sometimes I look at those tiny figures and wonder how the heck I'm going to paint them. I could go with 15mm, but space is an issue. With 6mm the largest space I would need for the Skirmish Campaigns scenarios is 2' x 4'. If I go with 15mm, I'll need to find a 4' x 8' space to play, and there really aren't a lot of spaces that large in our trailer.