Getting a Handle on the Vision

Over the past few days I've had some time to sit down with my notebook and write down a short paragraph explaining my vision for each army or period. It's not anything too concrete, with figure lists and color schemes, just a brief description of what I envision when I think about the project. A lot of my projects are pretty well filled out as far as figure acquisition, but I really need to do some painting. I also need a lot of terrain. But there are a lot of projects that just require some paint before I could start playing small games. Most can be built up in small blocks, starting with things I've already got.

I was also able to download a couple digital issues of Battlegames magazine, so I've been reading through those. Of course, the danger of reading about the hobby is that new project ideas rear up in your mind. I'm planning on doing Dark Ages games in 28mm, but after reading issue 23 of Battlegames, I'm becoming convinced that 6mm is the right scale for later Medieval action. I may have to add that to my project notebook.

Mississippi is still muggy and warm, although not as much as it was earlier in the week. The leaders in my new unit finally discovered that I have a little more time-in-grade than many of the other guys at my level, so I got a job title upgrade and some extra duties. It's nothing spectacular, mostly tracking down information and volun-telling guys to fill work details. It doesn't help my popularity, but I try to pull as many details as my guys do, so hopefully they won't be too butthurt when their turn comes around. I'm looking forward to taking a few days on pass soon and finally getting to my post overseas. I wasn't made to live in the South, so I'll gladly get on that plane, hopefully to never set foot in Camp Shelby again.

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Planning Mode

I am still in Camp Shelby, enjoying the humidity and those good Army rations. I've spent my free hours considering the wargaming projects that interest me. I've considered trying to get some sort of plan or timeline down on paper, but that would probably require several hours (days, weeks?) of consideration and list shuffling. I inventoried all of my Warhammer and Warhammer 40k figures before I left home, but didn't get around to the other game systems and historical periods in the hobby room. It is occasionally quite maddening to be here, away from all of my books and toys. I'm actually looking forward to falling in on our positions overseas, as the pre-mobilization process seems to be the worst part of being deployed. Once there, rumors are that we will have a (relatively) decent amount of personal space, where I will be able to make some progress on personal pursuits, like miniature armies and higher education. I've been looking at online education opportunities, and may try to take a few university courses through the BYU distance learning program. But for the most part I've been itching to get at my paints and my figures. It'd be really nice to play some games with my figures before my kids are old enough to move out of the house.

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The Boy

My wife sent me this picture of my boy frozen in awe by the sight of a whole wall of shoes. He likes shoes a lot because putting his shoes on usually means he is going to go outside. He also likes to put my boots and shoes on and walk around the house.

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Window Shopping

Today there was a break in training and a bus running into town, so I rode to the mall and did some window shopping for shoes. I tried to find some gaming or comic shops, but there weren't any where the bus was running.

It was an okay trip. I saw plenty of things I'd been looking at online and spent some time being tempted by the Jordan Retro IX Citrus, the Six Rings, and the Pro Strong in Stealth/University Blue/Light Graphite. I also looked at a whole pile of running shoes. Other than shoes, there wasn't much of interest. I looked at hats and jerseys a bit, but there weren't any featuring players or teams I'm a fan of.

A lot of folks were walking around with babies and toddlers, which made me a little homesick for the wife and kid. They're in the South right now visiting her family, and from what I hear my boy has enjoyed playing with his cousins.

Earlier in the day my platoon went to the Armed Forces Museum here on post. We kind of got rushed through it, but there were some pretty neat displays, including an M2A2 'Mae West' Light Tank and a lot of rifles, swords, pistols and knives. I'd have liked to have more than 45 minutes to get through it all, but I'll take what I can get.

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Absence

I'm still in Mississippi without a whole lot to report. I took an operator's course on the MRAP family of vehicles and I get another course on uparmored SUVs in a few days, so I've been doing plenty of driving along with the usual pre-mobilization stuff. The lack of a good internet connection is a little taxing, but I am able to read blogs, visit The Miniatures Page, and keep up with my Fantasy Sports teams on my phone. The thing that really hurts is that the music on my music player includes stuff that validates my permissions occasionally, so without the ability to sign in I am locked out of a good portion of my songs. The training events have been back-to-back-to-back lately, so I haven't had much personal time outside of reading White Dwarf before I go to sleep.

Although I am almost always at some sort of training, it wouldn't be the Army if I didn't spend much of that time waiting in a line of some sort. I can't paint figures or play games during that dead time, but I can think about all of the projects I'd like to be working on. Now that I'm away from my painting table, all I can think about (besides my family, of course) is all of the projects I want to be working on. Most of it is just fleshing out projects that were already on a burner or fantasizing about ordering a big batch of books and figures, but it helps to pass the time, and hopefully will spark me to get a lot done whenever I get back to my painting table.

My wife went in for the big ultrasound a few days ago. The babies both look healthy and it still appears that we'll be having another two boys. It's going to be crazy, but I think we're both looking forward to having some new additions early next year.

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I've spent the last couple of weeks enjoying Mississippi with my Army friends. The weather and humidity have calmed down quite a bit, so the last few days have been rather nice. We are pretty well locked down on post, so I haven't been able to see much outside of the immediate area. The training is all right. I wouldn't be a soldier if I didn't have complaints, but nothing stands out as particularly miserable.

In my free time I've been trying to play through Dawn of War: Winter Assault, but I've been stuck on one specific mission. I think I just need some extra time to make a plan and do it right instead of winging it and getting overrun by Orks.

There hasn't been much time for any other gaming-related stuff, but my wife sent me the latest White Dwarf and I'm looking forward to giving that a read.

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