We went camping this weekend and it was probably the worst vacation ever. We came home early from the camping trip because we were having a terrible time. There were some plusses to the weekend, but I was in such a terrible mood that the vacation weekend wasn't very relaxing or fun at all. I think from now on I'll just save up my vacation days to cash them in every year at the spring deadline.

We took our Lab to the vet today because she's been having a recurring skin issue. Our Basset Hound got so worked up about all of us leaving without him that we decided to let him tag along and sit with me while Annie went in to get checked out by the vet. He got really nervous and started pacing back and forth and climbing up on the bench to sit in my lap. After a couple rounds of that he climbed up on my lap and stayed there. A few seconds later I felt an extremely warm, wet feeling all over my lap. Buddy had lost control of his bladder and peed all over me. I had to go sit with him in the back of our wagon until my wife and Annie were done. It probably wouldn't have been such a big deal if Buddy was a small dog, but when big dogs pee they can move some large amounts of liquid in a short period of time. If that wasn't bad enough, Annie has a food allergy and we're going to have to give her food that will pretty much double the cost of feeding our dogs.

I was thinking about the idea of a miniature wargame featuring ninjas today, but I decided that it wouldn't be very fun. Ninjas are just too good at killing. There wouldn't be any sort of random table for wounds because if a ninja attacks someone, that someone will die. If a ninja is sneaking up on someone, the ninja will be invisible to that person.

Maybe if all of the ninjas in the game were equal in level to each other you could play a game that lasted more than a couple of seconds, but the ninjas would eventually fight to a stalemate and go their separate ways after exchanging respectful remarks.

If you played with ninjas of different skill levels against each other, the lower-level ninjas would all die. They might see a flicker of movement as the higher-skilled ninja began his attack from the shadows, but that would be all they saw before they were decapitated in various painful, yet silent, ways. You could argue that a large group of ninjas could take out one high-level ninja, but we've all seen the movies in which a single skilled martial artist beats up 40,000 lesser fighters without even breaking a sweat.

I am still making extremely slow progress on my four Space Marines. Painting the parts on the sprue is definitely the way to go, as I've started getting wrist pain and eye fatigue trying to get to all the little spots that are clearly visible but impossible to get at with a paintbrush.

I got my G. I. Bill confirmation letter today, and hopefully my tuition assistance request goes through soon or I won't be going to school this semester.

I very slowly got started on the rest of my Space Marines half-squad today. They are assembled and primed, and one of them even has a bit of basecoat on him. I am seriously considering painting the rest of the army on the sprue, as painting these guys when they're assembled is a real bear. I am still quite pleased with the way the color scheme is turning out. The main colors on the figures are (all paints are Games Workshop paints) Scorched Brown (torso, backpack, upper legs, and feet) and Catachan Green (head, shoulders, arms, and legs). I think it gives them a little more of a military feel than the bright-colored marines that seem to dominate the scene. The Command Squads will be a little more colorful as the company colors replace the browns on those figures, but the bulk of the army will be in the brown and green colors. I'm looking at using some WWII symbols from Dom's Decals for markings on the shoulders and knees, but I haven't really had a good look at what they've got yet. I'll probably have to e-mail them and see what size the various symbols are.

The wife and I are planning on going camping and fishing this weekend, but we're still not sure about the timeline and destination. If we do end up going it will be a nice break from the routine. We work different shifts, so it's not extremely often that we see each other more than two days a week. I think we're both a little burned out at the moment. Maybe upon my return I'll be energized and ready to paint some miniatures. School is starting soon as well, so I've got that to look forward to.

Today between games of NCAA 08 I painted up my first Space Marine. He stands up decently to the arms-length rule, not quite so much when you look at him close up. I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out, and now I've only got some 1100 more to purchase and paint.

This particular figure is a member of 2nd Company, 2nd Squad. I've decided to start with 2nd Company, as it is the first real line unit in the Chapter. I'll end up painting some Terminator squads from 1st Company and some Scouts from 10th Company while I work on 2nd Company, but for the most part I'm going to try building up one Company at a time. As far as identification goes, the yellow on his shoulder pads, knee, and Boltgun signifies that he is in 2nd Company, and at some point I'll designate squad number and type via decals on the shoulder and knees. I had planned to buy the molded shoulderpads from Games Workshop, but at $1 apiece, I was looking at spending $2000 on shoulderpads alone. Decals are much cheaper.

At some point I need to finish my Skaven army and start on my Orcs and Goblins, but I find I work faster if I jump from project to project based on whatever I feel most excited about. I also need to start working on my pirate tavern, but I'm not sure exactly where to start with that project.

There are rumors of a Warhammer Mighty Empires campaign locally, but I don't know if my schedule will allow me to play. I'd really like a chance to play my 2250-point Skaven army and get the Dogs of War Giant out on the table. I spent two weeks painting him so he'll probably just die in the first round of shooting, but I do want him to see some action on the table.

This week I clinched a berth in the TMP Fantasy Baseball League playoffs. A playoff spot in that league is important because there is a fair-sized pile of miniatures on the line. My team has dominated for much of the season, but I ran rampant through the TMP Football League last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Once the playoffs start it's anybody's game. I should get a couple of Fantasy Baseball trophies this year, and hopefully the football season will be good to me. I've been enjoying my spot as the unofficial TMP Fantasy Sports Coordinator. Everyone has been quite sporting this year, and no one has given up, whuch makes for a better season all around. Even the last place team is still making roster moves and trying to beat their opponents every week.

Somewhere (I think it was on The Miniatures Page) I found a link to The Bolter and Chainsword and their Space Marine Painter program. I've been using it to get the color scheme for my Space Marine Chapter all done. Here's a link to my 5th Company colors, I hope it works.

Other than that I've just been playing NCAA 08. Madden 08 releases in the next few days, but I may have to wait a while before I go pick it up.

I've been hard at work with my nose stuck in the various Space Marine books, trying to come up with an organization and color scheme for my Space Marine Chapter. So far it's going well, but I have yet to get to the composition of each squad in the army. That will be roughly 100 squads, plus various HQ figures and some Dreadnoughts. They all have to have a list of equipment made, and I'm hoping to work them out so that I always have a complete squad available with the equipment I need so I won't have to have units made up of figures from different squads. Hopefully the planning will keep me busy for several months so I have time to get my Skaven army all finished.

In my time off from playing with my Space Marine books I've been playing NCAA 08. It is unfortunate that the University of Idaho has such a terrible football team, but with my character as their new Halfback there is hope for a bowl game berth in the next season or two. I got beaten by Fresno State tonight 14-13, but I think I should be able to win a few more games this season and hopefully win the WAC.

My wife told me that it's about time I wrote something on my blog, so I guess I need to put up a post. I spent the weekend drilling with my National Guard unit, which is always a great time.

We bought my wife a decent car, as her old one broke down and we didn't want to put anymore money into it. Advantages of the new car over the old one include air conditioning, a cd player, a driver's side door that opens and closes, and four windows that close all the way and stay closed as you drive. Also, there's a lot more room in the back to haul our dogs around in.

I am at least going to plan out the full Chapter of Space Marines, as the project has caught hold of my imagination. I've got some little coloring sheets and some colored pencils so I can work out a color scheme for the Chapter and the individual markings to designate Company, Squad, and type. I'm thinking that the easiest way to show who is who would be to purchase a bunch of the different shoulder sprues from Games Workshop. Perhaps the shoulder pads could designate unit type and company, and one kneepad could be color-coded to show which squad the figure belongs to. Anyway, it's a huge expensive project that really has no point beyond being extremely cool to think about. I think I'm going to have to make the attempt over the next several years.

I've not been enthused about painting at all lately, so I've been passing the time prepping and assembling the various miniatures that I've got sitting around. At the moment I have 15 Skaven, 2 Pirates, 21 Orcs, and 5 Space Marines in various stages of assembly and priming. Today I figured up how much it's going to cost to finish off my Warhammer and Warhammer 40k armies. It's still a pretty big figure, but not extremely insane. Almost as insane was the price check I did at the Foundry website today. I had 3 Horde deals (Pirates, Old West, and Gladiators) as well as some packs to represent the Governor and his troops (for Pirate games) in my shopping cart, and that was quite the number. Luckily I plan on being around for a few more years, so I don't have to buy it all at once.

Today I toyed with the idea of planning out and assembling an entire Chapter of Space Marines (~1000 Space Marines divided into ten companies of ~100). I'm curious as to the math of it all and how it would all price out. I'm looking at it as an all-infantry force (with the exception of Dreadnoughts, who to me are just really large infantry) as my concept of the Space Marines is more along the lines of small outnumbered forces facing extraordinary odds and overcoming them by sheer refusal to die rather than a large army zipping around in tanks, motorcycles, and landspeeders. Leave the vehicles to the Imperial Guard. Even without the vehicles, it would be quite an undertaking to purchase and paint 1000 Space Marines. That's like painting 4-5 Skaven armies. It's fun to think about.

I finished up assembling the Orcs that I've got. I hate watching the clock wind down until it's time to leave for work.