Noel's Log 6-18-2012

Well it is now half way through June, and my kids only have today and tomorrow in school. Summer is fast approaching. This weekend was as full as a weekend can be. Saturday: 9am soccer game (the girl's last game), 12 soccer all star game(the boy's last game), 2 kids went to a birthday party for a family friend's son (I needed a break). Then it was off to Monster jam, this was our birthday gift to our son now 7. I have been to many monster truck shows back in the 80s, and very early 90s,  and this was not even close to them. I did not know a truck can do a back flip, and one tried to do a double back flip. I was very happy, oh and my son was as well. I forgot I was there for him, it was that good of a show.

Sunday? Well that was Father's day and my wife and kids gave me a great day. My wife asked me at the end of the day if I had fun and I told her I did. I also told her she kept me from my minis but I did not miss it. Oh as a fat guy one would think I have had brisket but no I have never till yesterday. We had dinner at an award winning Texas BBQ joint. It was very good!!!!! My son eat all most half of my meal as he loved it as well.

On to the minis I did take time Saturday to work on minis. I was able to base some of my painted Dwarfs, and finish some bases of others I had not gotten to in some time. Here are some photos of what I based. I  did not take photos of all I worked on as I took the photos before going to work today. I also worked on a Demon, and a greater demon both for my lizard man army.

First 4 photos are Black Raven Foundry, from Old Glory 15s.

Next two are from Mirliton Dwarfs.

Next three are Rank & File from Old Glory 15s

I am currently reading books from Elizabeth Moon. Sheepfarmer's Daughter and Divided Allegiance both of these books are great. The first is about a girl who run away from home and joins and army. The next is about the same girl after she leaves the army and starts out on her own. The first book plays to my mass combat side of gaming, ware the later plays to my D&D side. Both are great. I will be picking up the 3 book in the series, but not before I go back to the John Carter of mars books.

Movies: I just saw the movie John Carter, and I do not care what people have said I loved it! I think that Disney made a big mistake by releasing this when they did. This should have been a summer movie. More me the one draw back was the actor who played John Carter was not good in this role. The rest of the movie was great from the beginning to the end. This is a must own for me, and I do not buy movies much.

Well that is it for me.

May the Die fall in your favor.
Noel

The Ent

Well I gave my self till the end of today to finish this Ent I call Tree Beard, and I really finished it yesterday morning. I was lucky and every one in my house left me alone for a few hours.

To start this Ent is from Black Raven Foundry, and I have had is so long that I got it directly from BRF, and not Old Glory 15s. I got this and 5 more after seeing them in the LoTRs, but I did not have an army for them. So I got sick of  seeing them and decided to work on it.

I started wit the base model, and this one was unarmed, with his hands raised up. I fit a knight in to his hand, and it was a match. With a slight curve to his fingers i was done with that. Next how to make it look like a tree. With some copper bell wire I took 3 strands and twisted them to make the limbs. To hide the core I coated the wire in PVA glue mixed with water putty. Durham's rock putty I use this stuff for every thing, like the bases. I just mixed a bit in till I could still paint the PVA on, but it would not drip off, or shrink.

With Tree the way I waned him i was time for paint, flock, leaves, and clear coat. Have a look.

Here is the Ent with one of it limbs cut off.

Little man I will rip you in two!!!!!!!

Ent next to Demonworld knights.

Ent next to BRF Dwarfs.

Ent next to unknown Dwarf artillery.

Noel

Noels's log 6-6-12

So what have I been up to. Well I have gotten the fantasy bug more after reading the books about the Legend of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. So I started to look at some new rules for 15mm mass combat. For years I have been a fan of Chipco's Fantasy Rules 2 & 3 then the new simple tournament rules. But I see that Chipco has fallen off the map. Not really they are just not active any more. So I picked up Rally Round the King from Two Hour Wargames, and the new Pride of Lions v2. I have gone through both and find I still like Fantasy rules. Do not get me wrong both rules sets are great, they just have some thing I do not care for. Rally has a focus on command, and this is cool but the units are a bit off for me. Pride well the army construction is odd. I have to by units in 3s, and that left me thinking of how to field single units. Both systems need a how to play video. As I can not make it to cons to see demos of the games this would help. One of the best for this is Robin From Gruntz. He has made videos to explain most of the rules. So it seems like I am sticking to Fantasy rules for now. Oh Chipco you need to cut the price down to $10.00 for both FR!3, and TCE together. You will then have a product back on the market. Now my hat go off to both Doc and Ed for two great rule sets. Whit the rules out of the way I have also set my self up to fail. I have till tomorrow night to finish my 15mm Tree beard mini. I have it bases and primed now just waiting for it to dry. Will post photos soon. May the die land in your favor.
Noel

****Edit****
Photos posted.
http://theorky15mmscifi.blogspot.com/2012/06/ent.html

Noel's Log Back from Vacation 5-28-12

Well I am back from vacation and I would not say I am rested, but I am relaxed. My trip was on a cruse from NY to the Bahamas, and back to NY. I was on the Norwegian GEM.

The over all cruse was great, the weather was not so great. Our trip was from NY to Nassau, then to the island of Great Stirrup Cay, next was to port canaveral FL. We spent a day at each location.

The Ship was fantastic, with a ton of activities for the hole family. It was clean, and the staff was fantastic. There is a ton of stuff I never got to do as I was over whelmed by it all. Well worth a second trip.

At Nassau we went to Atlantis to enjoy what they show on TV. Well let me say this, this was an over priced day trip. The water slides were great, the tour of the hotel and grounds was great, the aquarium was really cool, but the over all park IS A DUMP. The pools a littered with pot holes, exposed electrical wires, trash, and just unclean. The best thing at Atlantis was Virgil's BBQ and this was not part of Atlantis. Do not take this wrong the water park was fun, but not worth the price. It was over $400 for two adults and 2 kids. I have had just as much fun at Dorney Park in PA for a heck of allot less money. I could have got to Disney for the same money and enjoyed a much better park.

Next was the Grand Stirrup Cay. I loved this island, and only wish I had more time on the island. The weather did not play nice with us on that day. We were on the island for and hour when it started to rain, and rain it did for the rest of the day.

Then can FL, and the beach there was just perfect, as well as the day. On the beach we got to see a treat.

 This photo was taken from the beach, and I love the way the pelican went through the shot. I have more of the shuttle and will share photos of it in another post. This shuttle was on it's way to it's new home in Huston TX.

So back on the ship we had a full day at sea before getting home. One thing we learned after the curse is do not eat in the buffet. My little Girl got really sick and spent the last night on the ship getting sick. The next day my Wife got sick. We Googled Norwegian + sick and found people get sick from the buffet, and all the people who do not wash their hands before they touch the serving tongs. All I have to say about this is Norwegian DID every thing to combat this, it is the sick people (filthy scum bags) who shit and do not wash after they shit. If you cruse on a free style and go to the buffet do not use the tongs, get your flat ware and use that to get your food. We will use the sit down dinning next time. Also  when my Girl was getting sick we call house keeping and this really nice guy (Johnathan) came to help. He stripped the bed, and gave us all new bedding. Thanks John. This was at 1AM and I did not sleep till 4AM.

So that is my trip in a nut shell, and do not take it the wrong way. I know I have posted the bad stuff, but the over all vacation was great, and I would suggest this trip to people, I just want to point out the pit falls that should be avoided.

As for TTG, and stuff on the hobby well I read 1/2 of the rule book Rally around the King from THW games. As this is not my true style of game I think this will be a great game. I will have to kick the rules around with some minis, and the rule book states read the entire rule book before playing the game. So I will.

I also heard that Pride of Lions II is out and it was on sale while I was on vacation. I will be picking this up as well in the next week or so. I have not had any ideas pop up during my vacation, and I have been reading my emails and blogs to get caught up. I had some 148 blog posts to read, some 200 email to go through, and this dose not include my work stuff.

I also have a crap load of minis to sort out n the next month or two. My wife want to re do the office/paint room and make it more of a craft/office/paint room. Sounds like I just have to make room for the crafts right? No it means take all my stuff and cram it into one corner of the room. So I will be putting up a few shelves and getting a corner desk for the puter, and printer.

Well that is it for now.

My the die land in your favor.
Noel