The Nutty Buddy

Go to http://thenuttybuddy.com right now and watch the video. It will be worth it.

I did some more work on my Night Runners today. I finally figured out what my block was. In the books and online, the Night Runners are painted in black armor with hard gray highlights. That color scheme didn't really go with my army, but I still wanted them to be dressed in dark colors. My problem was that the Midnight Blue was too dark and too purple. It looked ugly. So I switched to Regal Blue and they're starting to look all right. I've only blocked out parts of the armor so far. I still have to paint straps, wristbands, weapon parts, boots, and wash and highlight everything, but any progress is good progress. I'd like to have these units finished by the end of the week so I can paint another character or start on another unit. I may even tackle the Warp Lightning Cannon. I don't have a lot of big infantry units left, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I did some research for a Dwarf Army list today. I already had one written out, but I wasn't satisfied with it, as I had too many small units. So I printed off a few lists that are more balanced and will be working the kinks out of mine. At some point I will start acquiring the miniatures for that army, so hopefully as soon as I finish up these Skaven I can have some Dwarves ready to paint.

I also need to get my little Warlord armies painted up so I can build them up more. There are a lot of awesome miniatures in the Warlord line, and I'd like to get more of them. But I'd feel bad about buying more if they just keep getting pushed back behind Warhammer stuff.

I babysat my sister's baby for about an hour today. By babysat, I mean that I sat on the couch and took a nap while she slept on my lap. She woke up and farted a couple of times, but went right back to sleep and I figured that was that. After my sister and her husband came back, he and I went the the store to get some stuff for dinner. Apparently the baby farts were more than just farts. I am a bad babysitter because I didn't even realize she had pooped a lot. Like exploding out of her diaper pooping. If it doesn't stink, how are you supposed to know it's there?

Tonight I tried to paint the armor on my Night Runners, but I wasn't feeling inspired at all, so I did the dishes. I still wasn't feeling very inspired, so I painted their weapons instead. I have a unit of ten with hand weapons/throwing stars and a unit of nine with dual hand weapons. I have several problems with the armor. Part of it is that there are so many levels. They have shirts underneath, then breastplates and straps for the breastplates, and above all that they have all kinds of throwing stars, knives, and ornamental bits. I'll have to stare at them for a while tomorrow before I get it all sorted out. I may even have to paint them on an individual basis, which wastes time and paint, but may be the only way for me to get it right.

I am worried about at least one of my Fantasy Football teams this week. After yesterday's games, I was two points behind my opponent. To win, Rex Grossman and Thomas Jones on my team would have to outplay Edgerrin James on his team by three points. I felt pretty confident going into tonight that I had an easy win coming on, but that wasn't the case. Edgerrin James didn't really do anything, but Grossman turned the ball over like six times and Jones didn't do anything at all, so I'm probably going to lose. Thanks, guys. I guess next week I'll play Hasselbeck instead of Grossman. So I should go 3-1 for the week, bringing me to 18-6 (5-1, 5-1, 5-1, 3-3) for the season.

I decided to pass up on doing anything special on my Warlord's weapon in favor of getting him finished up. I think he turned out pretty nicely, and I'm especially proud of the severed head on his standard. In the pictures the clearcoat is still wet, so you can see it pooling in some areas. I also started on my two units of Night Runners, but didn't get too far with them.

In Fantasy Football this week Torry Holt is pretty much carrying all four of my teams to victory with this three touchdown catches. I'm pretty happy about that. And Denver is about to beat the Raiders, which doesn't affect my fantasy teams at all, but it makes me happy.

I am a little stuck on my Skaven Warlord's weapon. I've chosen to give him a Weeping Blade, for which the description reads, "This weapon weeps a black and corrosive venom which eats through armor and flesh." I would like to model the weapon with a droplet of this venom about to drop from the end of the blade, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it. I've considered using water effects, but I don't know how long they take to dry or if they would stay in the droplet form long enough to cure. I've thought about using the gel superglue, as it might not run as much as regular superglue. I still haven't done a lot of poking around on the internet, so I will have to run a couple more searches. I'm thinking a site on terrain-making or model railroading might have something.

I've also been thinking about a Dwarf army, but I'm disappointed by the lack of options that Games Workshop puts out for the Dwarf Lord. Inspired by a post on The Miniatures Page about some Reaper Dwarves that could fit in with the Games Workshop models, I looked through the Reaper section of Hobbytown today. I didn't really find anything I liked as far as Dwarves, but looking through the Reaper blisters is like Christmas for me. I always find a neat model I've never seen before. The trouble is that aside from the 20 models I bought for a couple of small Warlord armies, I can't justify buying any of the miniatures. I've already got so many miniatures to get for planned armies that I can't really pick up any random other stuff that doesn't fit into an army. I think that this Christmas I may ask for those around me to look through the miniatures for a few single models they think are cool and give me a variety of things to paint up.

I read an article in the new issue of Inquest on the WoW TCG, and the section on the loot cards (random cards that allow you to get upgrades in the online game) was a little disappointing. Apparently there will be three instant-win prizes, including a tabard, a hippogryph pet, and a turtle mount. The disappointing part is that the rarity for the redemption cards will probably range from 1 in every 50 packs (probably for the tabard) to 1 in every 500 packs (probably for the turtle mount). That makes it prohibitively expensive to try to get the online upgrades by buying packs of cards, and it also means that the loot cards will probably go for ridiculous amounts on eBay. In packs without the instant-win cards, there will be point cards that you can save up to buy real merchandise like pictures, playmats, and other collectibles. There will also be a selection of online items you can purchase with points, probably tabards, trinkets, costumes, and fireworks to start with. I was really hoping that the loot cards would be somewhat less rare and offer a larger selection of stuff, like maybe one or two cards per box offering several different items. I think that having more of that stuff out in the online game world would bring more attention to the TCG than potentially only having a couple of those items on each server. But, I guess Upper Deck knows what they're doing.

More Painting

I ended up mostly leaving the Clanrat Slaves alone after the last pictures I took. I did a few spot highlights and a lack wash on the weapons, then clearcoated them. I also did a clearcoat on the last unit of Clanrats I painted, as I forgot to do it before.

Last night I started on my army's leader. I've pretty much finished the cloth parts of his armor, started the flesh color on his standard, and blocked out the metal parts of his armor. The armor will have more colors in it, sort of like the Stormvermin, but I wanted to get it all blocked out in silver before I started adding details. Once I get him finished up, I'll have 111 miniatures finished, with 83 left to go.

I am very close to finishing the unit of Clanrat Slaves I've been working on this week. I just have to do some highlighting and a couple of small details. Today I did a couple of ink washes and painted noses and tongues, for those that have open mouths. So far they have turned out how I intended.

When I first started working on the unit, I considered painting them a lighter brown than my other Clanrats, or maybe even grey, but I couldn't really get a good color that I liked and I was using most of my light browns on the armor already. I didn't want to end up with armor the same color as fur. I decided it would be all right to paint them the same color as my other Clanrats because according to the fluff, Clanrat Slaves are basically Clanrats that have been captured in battles between Skaven armies. So, the Slaves would basically be just Clanrats from another tribe.

I wanted to paint them with duller armor and weapons to distinguish them as the lowest of the low. I picture Skaven as being very much like regular rodents. They like shiny stuff and status might be based on how much shiny stuff you have. The Warlord would get the shiniest stuff, the Stormvermin would get what he didn't want, the Clanrats would get the leftovers from the Stormvermin, and the Slaves would get whatever scraps they could find. I decided to use a lot of dull brown colors on the Slaves armor, and to tie them in to the color scheme for the army I threw in a couple of my duller green colors. I block painted everything in my five armor colors and when it came to shading I got really lazy. I used the same green ink wash for all of the green colors and the same brown ink wash for all of the brown armor and all of the fur.

I took a couple of pictures of them as they are now, which I will post. I stood them next to a unit of regular Clanrats for comparison.

Dice Addiction

I forgot to mention that I think I'm addicted to dice. I have a lot of dice, probably more than I'll ever use unless I fabricate reasons to use all of them, but at the game stores I visited this weekend I found myself lusting after many different hues, sizes, and types of dice.

I went to Utah this weekend with my wife to visit her grandmother, whose health is rapidly going downhill. It was a pretty good visit, considering the circumstances, although my brother-in-law's rabbit nearly killed me. We were supposed to stay at his house, but about two minutes after we arrived my allergies hit me hard and my throat started closing up. Apparently I can add rabbits to my long list of allergies. So we had to try finding another place to stay at three in the morning. All of the hotels were full and expensive as there was a BYU game that night. After about an hour of searching, we finally found a place that had an available room. When we got to the room, however, the lights were on, the TV was going, the bed had obviously been used in the last few hours, and towels were all over. So we had to go back to the desk to get another room. That room was unoccupied and we got a few hours of sleep before it was time to check out.

On our way out of Utah we stopped at a game store called Blakfyre Games in Orem. It looked like a pretty nice store, with lots of terrain and according to the calendar board there is gaming there almost every night. They also had an in-shop painting service that looked pretty nice, although I have no idea what the prices were like on that.

There is also a new gaming store in Boise called Empyre Games. I went in there today to check it out. The prices aren't too bad, and they carry a selection of Flames of War stuff, which is something Hobbytown doesn't have. They also have a Warhammer escalation league set up, but they play on Sundays, which means I can't sign up. Overall it's an okay-looking store, but I don't know if Boise can support three game stores. I may buy some Flames of War stuff there, though, and try that out. I've been wanting to do some historical miniatures, but I've got a few other projects in the way at the moment. I've heard people talk about Flames of War in a derogatory manner, calling it the Warhammer of Historical Games, but I think it's an okay concept and I'm sure the figures can be used with other rulesets without a lot of hassle. I'll probably at least get the rulebook and see what it's all about.

I've found myself hesitant to set up any Warhammer games with local people. I think some of it has to do with my general social anxiety. I also think I may be reluctant to run into the same situation I ran into with Heroclix. I spent a lot of time at Heroclix night being bored out of my mind because I was there for different reasons than some of the other guys. I always brought a team based on some comic team or theme, because I like the narrative that goes on in the game. I enjoy the whole spectacle of the game and being "in character" for the army or team I'm playing. I found that a lot of the guys I played against in Heroclix didn't care about the characters, they only cared about the powers and numbers on the dial working together in killer combos. I think that if that's all you care about, you might as well break the figures off their bases and call it "Number Clix." I suppose either style of play is fine, but when you mix the two, the Number-Cruncher will not find much of a challenge from the Theme Team Guy, and the Theme Team guy will not find much entertainment in the Number-Cruncher's lack of interaction in the storyline of the game. The short version of all this is that I don't want to show up with my Skaven army and play against a bunch of power-gamers. If that turns out to be the case, I suspect that I will probably spend a lot of time painting and modeling and not game very much at all.

Today I tried to speed-paint my way through a unit of Clanrat Slaves, but I burned out after they were about 60% painted. I figure I can finish up the rest of the unit over the next couple of days and still feel pretty good about myself.

My Fantasy Football teams went 4-0 this weekend, bringing me to 15-5 for the season (4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 3-2). Things are looking pretty good, although I still have a couple of teams with big holes in the RB and QB slots.

Apple Pie Is Good

My wife made an apple pie this week, and it was awesome. She certainly knows her way around an oven, and she used my mom's recipe, so I didn't even have to get used to something new. Just the same awesome pie from my past. When I turned 18 my dad told me that I would never again eat as well as I had for the first 18 years of my life. Which probably would've been true if I hadn't married this girl.

My Playstation 2 died today, which is unfortunate. It had been lagging quite badly while I played Madden 2007 this week, but today it kept freezing up during loading screens and I couldn't get it to stop. I'm actually kind of surprised that it lasted this long, as it's been through a couple semesters of college, a few moves, and a ton of dust. I've had it since before I met my wife, so I guess it was time for it to go. They probably only made them to last until the next-gen system came out anyway.

With no Madden to play today I pouted for a while and then I put together the rest of my Skaven army, except for the Jezzail team I don't have a base for and the Warp-Lightning Cannon, which I will have to paint before I assemble. But everything else is done. Before I play I will at least have to prime the remaining miniatures and make up three or four more movement trays. I guess I'll have to paint the Warp-Lightning Cannon as well, since it can't be assembled until it's painted. Here's a picture of the whole army:

I didn't do as poorly as I thought I would in Fantasy Football last week, going 3-1 overall to bring me to 11-5 on the season (3-1, 3-1, 3-1, and 2-2). Just as in Fantasy Baseball, my goal is to make the playoffs with all four teams. I have realized that although I never watch baseball and I love to watch football, I enjoy Fantasy Baseball a lot more than Fantasy Football. I guess I don't like the fact that in Fantasy Football you only get one shot each week to get points from a particular position. The rest of the week you just sit around and wait. With Fantasy Baseball, you will have 6 or 7 games every week, so if someone is having a bad week, you can switch them out on your roster and still get three or four good games out of that position. You also have to rotate your pitchers in and out as they start. I guess maybe I enjoy it more because it's more involved rather than just being a game of setting your roster and forgetting about it until Sunday.

I am still thinking about the '51 Ford that my dad has, but I think he's out of town and I don't really have enough of a plan put together to approach him with an offer. From the websites I've seen, it will be at least a two or three year project, possibly five or six. It would take less time if I were made of money and could hire people to do the labor, but that's wishful thinking. Besides, it's not really a project if you don't put in some elbow grease of your own.

I scored the Napoleon Dynamite 2-disc Special Edition for $10.99 the other day. I was going to buy the new Killers cd, but in the checkout line I saw the DVD on sale, so I took the cd back and took a copy of the movie from the shelf. When the cashier rung it up it scanned as $20, so I said, "They're advertised on that shelf for $11." She went over to the shelf, looked at it, ripped off the sale sign, and came back. I pretty much expected that she would charge me the full price, but she gave it to me for $10.99. She was some sort of lower management, so I guess she had the authority to give me the lower price. And who am I to argue with lower management?

Also, my blog's Hoff-o-Meter reading is sort of low at the moment, so I am going to give it a little boost here: