My Assault Marines are sitting very close to completion, but I chose sleep over painting this evening. All that's left is brown highlights on the armor and some skulls and eyes and other little details. From there it's on to the Scout Squad, which is about 35% done. I am hoping to perfect a quick method for painting faces and arms for the Scouts, something that doesn't take fifteen layers and looks good from a couple of feet away. After the Scouts I will need to paint my Razorback to finish out my original 750-point force. Rather than building another army out to 750 points right away I may just keep expanding the Marines to make them playable at a higher level so I can more fully participate in the action at game night. Or I may decide to just start painting whatever unit grabs my fancy. I'd like to paint some Stormboyz and Gretchin for the Orks, I've got a couple of custom Regimental Advisors and a Commissar for the Imperial Guard, and it would be fun to get a full Squad of Space Marine Terminators on the table. I've also got some Skaven I'd like to work on, several Dogs of War Regiments of Renown for Warhammer Fantasy, and some Vikings and WWII figures that it might be fun to work on. I think my main focus right now is the 40k armies, though.

I am embarking on a new Pledge of sorts. I am proposing (to myself) that I refrain from purchasing any new figures until the first week of August. Why the first week of August? I get a double paycheck sometime that week or the week after, and I will probably divert some of that money to new toys. This will be painful, as there are several releases between now and then as well as figures currently on my wish list, but honestly anything I bought in the next couple of months would languish unwanted on the shelf for months or years before being painted anyway. Things I will be allowed to buy include paint, maybe some magnets, and basing materials. If we get a new house before then I may allow myelf to buy a paint rack in the name of organization. But no new figures. I'll try to update here every week or so to track my success.

I will not bore anyone with the details of my Fantasy Baseball teams, but I am doing very well this year. If things keep going well I should earn several trophies this season.

Now I should go to bed, and hope that the neighbors don't decide to have a rave,, show off their new gangsta rap album, install an air conditioner in the middle of the night, engage in loud arguments, or any other noisy and distracting behavior. It's been a good week for loud noises in the middle of the night.