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July 20th, 1999
This is the first of what I plan to be regular updates on my latest activities and deepest thoughts about GW games, fiction etc.
I've been playing Necromunda after a lay-off of about 4-5 months with a new gang: The Skankpipe Scavvies! This is my second gang, and the reliable Cawdor Gloryfire boys are taking a breather. I've got some Spyrers that could be filed and based to make a third gang available, and am happy to be trying something new in Necromunda. Playing with the same gang over and over can get tedious. The variety that comes with using different outlaw gangs really renewed my interest in the game.
I've been painting a Ravenwing attack bike, and am close to finishing it. I painted all the sidecar metal pieces seperately (chair/rider/gun/fender) and then assembled them. Looks good. Now I'm working on the bike and driver. Haven't figured out what to do for a base yet. Maybe combine a couple of bases together? That might not be sturdy enough.
Picked up some of the new barbed wire the other day, and had it painted in like ten minutes. It's great to work on scenery when you paint miniatures so slowly. Spliff, sploff, spish! Finished! Now I'm thinking about how to base up the wire so it doesn't get destroyed.
Saw some of the photos on the New Wave Mail Order website. The new miniatures coming out for Mordheim look great, as does all the rest of GW's stuff. I can't paint fast enough to keep up with all the games they keep releasing. I'm saving my dollars for Epic-scale Fantasy battle.
Well, that's what I'm up to these days, and I hope these Notes get read by somebody. I'll keep updating this page if I think anybody's interested.
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August 9th, 1999
I finished the attack bike this weekend, except for the driver. I found some of the 50x50mm monster bases last week, and the bike just barely fits on it. I assembled and primed the driver last night, and will begin painting him today. Hopefully it won't take too long; I've been working on this attack bike for about 2 months now! I think it looks better than any of the bikes pictured in White Dwarf so far, so it should put some fear into my opponents on the tabletop.
After the attack bike is completed, I'll be painting up some more tactical marines. They should be a comparative breeze. Then, maybe it'll be time to tackle the dreadnought.
Portent has some fuzzy photos of the unreleased Warmaster fantasy battle game. Hard to tell how good the sculpting is, but I hope this means the game will be released sometime this year, instead of next Easter, as Portent is currently reporting.
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September 1st, 1999
Well, I was planning on updating these notes a little more regularly than this, but life gets in the way sometimes. Here's my latest activities: The attack bike is completely finished, with a coat of semi-gloss varnish, and a second coat of flat varnish. The semi-gloss varnish protects the paint job, and the flat varnish gets rid of that super-shiny look. I wish there was a varnish that has just a little reflective quality, but GW's 'matte' varnish is way to shiny. I'd like something about half as reflective.
I also finished a veteran sergeant conversion with a storm bolter (from the Space Marine Commander mini). The base was decorated with spent bolt shells (2mm brass tubing cut and filed) and some Forgeworld barbed wire. I also added a page of ancient text hanging from his right shoulder pad, like you see in the detailed illustrations in the Space Marine Codex. I used a piece of lead foil from a bottle of wine and painted it in about 30-45 minutes (very fast for me). Someday, I'll get a scanner and upload some pictures.
I haven't done any wargaming in about a month, but there's always hope. I picked up two blisters of the Dark Angels veteran marines. They look great. I plan to use them with Bethor, the Dark Angels standard bearer, as my command squad for my army commander. Five Dark Angels in robes, with a tough commander loaded into a Razorback should look pretty formidable.
Also, up to this point I've been doing all the html coding for this site by hand so far, and recently got ahold of one of those fancy programs that makes websites fancier and spiffier, so who knows, they're may be improvements to this site in the near future. Well, those tactical marines are calling me back to the painting table, so until next time . . .
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September 6th, 1999
I went to Millbrae, CA for Conquest '99 this Saturday, and had a great time. This was my second gaming convention, although I've been to several comic book conventions. There were people playing all sorts of roleplaying/card/LARP/board games etc. The miniatures room was filled with people playing primarily historical battles, but they also had Pirates! (like Man O' War), Aerial 3D dogfights, and all kinds of stuff. There was a Fantasy Battle demo going on pretty much all day, and Battlefleet Gothic as well.
The flea market was absolutely nuts, with people racing around to look for the good deals in the first ten minutes. It was interesting to note that most of the activity centered around GW products, selling and buying, but the majority of the games being played at the convention were NOT GW games. I saw one guy buy a converted Chaos Land Raider (bad paint job, missing pieces) for five bucks. He got there about 30 seconds before I did. That's OK, I'm sure the new model will be much better than the old one. I can wait.
I picked up a copy of Chaos Gate for $10, and found a box of the original plastic space marines (30 marines) for sale. The guy was asking $50 for it. "Cool," I thought, thinking of the identical box underneath my bed. Now I know how much it's worth. I'm making up a list of stuff to sell at Dundracon next year, and price shopping is very helpful.
Armorcast had a booth with all their scenery for sale, and painted models on display. They had some new models for Battletech, or something, since they lost the license for 40K titans. They sponsored a huge 40K battle that night called Steel Streets I'll have a seperate battle report for that game soon.
Well, the convention got me all psyched to work on my miniatures, so it's off to the painting table . . .
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November 24th, 1999
I haven't updated this site in almost 3 months, but with good reason as I moved for the first time in 6 years, which of course took massive quantities of time. Things have settled down now and I'm able to do a little gaming, painting, etc. I've got pictures from the Steel Streets event, but haven't loaded them yet. Only the wide shots came out (disposable cameras suck for pictures of miniatures). I'll get to that ... later this week ... yeah, that's it. Painting-wise not much has happened; I touched up a few of my unfinished Cawdor minis, painted up about 25 bulkheads, glued and based two Necromunda buildings and painted the bases to look like concrete. One thing I've learned from Josh (gaming co-conspirator) is not to put too much rubble on your buildings; they make it impossible to move miniatures around, knocking them over and chipping the meticulous paint jobs.
I've just started playing Spyrers in the current Necromunda campaign and had some small successes despite my 0-2 record. No serious injuries, a few good advances, and a better grasp on how to use a 5-man team effectively. I'm staying away from Mordheim, although it looks like fun. Too many games and not enough time.
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January 26th, 2000
I'm still pretty busy these days. I got accepted to the Seattle Grand Tournament and am devoting all my time to painting my unpainted army. I borrowed a camera from a friend and took some pics of my mini's. I've uploaded 4 so far, but there's many more to come in the near future. That's it for now, sorry, but I've got to paint!
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