Projects and Progress

Projects, projects, projects. One of my goals for 2015 is to complete several projects. So far I’m making progress, progress, progress.




Saturday I had a long discussion with the brunette about my obsession with “things.” She was mildly annoyed that every time I get something, I want to buy other things to accessorize or upgrade it. This is an old topic—one I’m not likely to ever truly get ahead on. I like building things. It’s the same instinct that drives me to cook, to run games, to build armies, and to prep. The process of creating and customizing a system is at least half the fun of ownership. To an outside observer it probably looks like I just like owning “things.”—and that’s still true to some extent. The difference is that now I seriously control that urge where as when I was younger I let it control me.

I don’t talk about the stuff I don’t buy because it seems kind of pointless. I used to have a completionist collector’s approach to my hobbies—I wanted it all! As I’ve matured, I’ve begun to focus more on good stewardship. I simply can’t buy “everything.” I don’t have the space. I don’t have the time to support that kind of approach. I don’t have the money to make it happen. As an example, I used to have a robust warmachine collection—everything in the Khador range plus a heavy selection of mercenaries. I had literally everything available to big red—even models I didn’t like very much. Time passed—I sold that army and got out of warmachine entirely. Now that I’m reentering the market, I have a very focused approach. I’m only interested in models that compliment my chosen casters and their theme lists. I also look at how easy it would be to play a given model/unit. As a result I’m ignoring ironfang pikemen, winter guard, assault commandos, gray lords, and their variants. I still buy “stuff”; but my goal is to create a collection that works together and lets me play; not a pile of models that lets me say “I has all the things!”

I’ve done pretty well with warmachine of late. My initial Farrow collection is painted and ready. Pigs are great for me. The model range is small and will probably stay so as a secondary faction. The units are mostly 6 figures or less. There’s a lot of flavor mixed with asymmetric movement and shenanigans. I still have a ways to go, especially with the meat thresher coming out, but I’m good for now. So far I’ve got:

• 3 warlocks

• 5 heavy beasts

• 5 light beasts

• 8 lesser beasts

• 1 solo

• 1 character lesser warlock unit.



The problem with pigs is that I can use every one of their current models. This puts me in a bind as I have other projects to complete. Still left to pick up and get painted:

• 2 units of brigands.

• 3 units of bone grinders.

• 2 units of slaughterhousers.

• 2 meat threshers.

• 2 boneswarms

• A bunch of solos

• 2 warlocks.

I could keep on with this group, but I’ve got a playable army now. I’ve got some model selection. So I’m going to move on to other items until I get some games in or other modeling projects finish up.

I’ve been working for a while to build a legion of everblight army. Conceptually, this is supposed to be my artistic competitive power force. Deathquaker agreed to do some of the project while Corc agreed to the rest of it. I was stoked. Soon after I bought the first models Deathquaker had some scheduling conflicts which pushed the project back indefinitely. Corc took my initial heavy beast pack project and has been sitting on it for months. Some of that is his schedule and some of it is his inability to focus on one thing for more than a couple weeks/months. I hit him right at the end of his painting cycle and have been poking him ever since—hoping and praying for progress. I’m very close to just dropping the entire project. I want to make this force a reality, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen—or at least not any time soon. I’m one of those people who likes to keep a somewhat clear to-do list. If Deathquaker isn’t going to be able to handle the project and Corc isn’t going to get me to a point where I can play more than battle box games, then I’ll just farm off the remaining models in credit for other work done. I’ll send Corc an email explaining my situation later this week. Hopefully that will work out.

All that being said, I have some work lined up for Khador. Deathquaker may have some time coming up—not enough to take on my legion project, but some. Squish has dibs on getting his convergence painted—yes, another person to play with. After that I’m considering seeing if she’ll paint up my mounted manowar model, 3 heavy jacks, and 2 variant butcher casters. This is more likely if legion gets tossed as I’ll have even less competing for my hobby dollars. I’m in no hurry to expand Khador. I have a good force as it is and my friends have limited time and resources to play. This is the buildup. This is when I complete some projects before pushing for more table time in the coming years.

Blood bowl, despite only being played twice in the last 12 months, is getting painted and assembled. Last year I bought a dwarven team from a new sculptor on kickstarter. The figures have been sitting in their shipping box waiting for me to get around to them. Last year I ran into a new painter/employee at alternate worlds. He has since become a good friend and is looking for additional work after finishing up my initial Farrow collection. What with the upcoming January gaming outing, I decided that now was as good a time as any to get them done. I kind of want to grab an Amazon team, but with blood bowl competing for space with warmachine and FOW, that’s not a good buy right now. Maybe later if a team really catches my eye.

Speaking of FOW, things are moving along. Jay’s next project after the dwarves will be my motorized early war French horde. I’ll see if I can get him to clear coat my 4th Indians while I’m at it. That will give me 2 fully assembled, painted, and stored flames of war forces—or it will after I buy a battle foam case for the French.

Dragon storm is done, ca-put, finito. I shipped off our cards to a fellow player. He’ll be paying us in installments over the next few months. I’ve got more to say on the subject than will easily fit here. Suffice it to say that as the online community fell apart, Mark’s death put a damper on the game, and I grew away from the managing players, it was one of those things we didn’t have mental, financial, and physical space to maintain anymore. I’m sad to see it go for the sake of all the memories DS gave me. I’m happy to be out from under its shadow though.

The man cave is coming along. I have three of four shelves up, a desk in place, and some basic decorating done. My brother is working on a final heavy shelving unit so that we have enough space for all our games and my hobby products. That should be done around the holidays. I still need to decide on a workstation for firearm projects, especially if I decide to start reloading. Office depot had a nice multipurpose work table, though at $500 I might be better served by something a little more traditional. I still need to get some of our pictures up and build in a radio/preparedness center—though that’s more of a long-term goal.

The kitchen refurbishing is well on its way. Actually, for practical purposes it’s complete. We replaced the microwave, upgraded my pots and pans, grabbed a dehydrator, and picked up a vacuum sealer. At this point I have products to help with things I haven’t even begun to make yet like cheese cake. I have a vitamix on my wish list; but like I told the brunette, that’s more of a want than a need. I’ve consolidated all our Tupperware around a couple styles rather than the hodgepodge we had before. I still need to clear out the freezer and start reorganizing around Beef, chicken, and veggies, but that will come.

Regarding firearms, I finally have a cleaning system I think I can work with. I went through a series of non-toxic products—all of which are sitting on my card table currently. I have Remington’s rubber bore cleaners, a pull through kit, and several bore snakes. I have all of froglube’s products—it just remains for me to sit down with wmtrainguy and figure out how to clean each of my clockwork bullet throwers. I’ve been buying up discounted ammunition in anticipation of the run we’re going to have on any kind of common calibers next year when the election season kicks into high gear. I have a ways to go, especially on the maintenance front, but it’s getting there.

I feel like I’m finishing up more projects than I’m starting, which is good. The brunette is right to question my purchasing habits. I’ve traditionally spent more time accumulating useless stuff than actually using said acquisitions. Now just to keep in budget and on-plan.