How do I do this, again?

Hello!

It's a... it's been a minute.

Some stuff has happened since my last post.

I mean, I went to NoVa and played toy soldiers, had a good time. Ended up coming home a day early because I'm a homebody and missed my kiddos, but overall got what I wanted out of it. I'll post in more detail below.

Between going to NoVa and now, I've only really played a few games: I've been in a consistent D&D group, I've played a handful of games of Star Wars Legion, and then I've played some various things with my sons.

Painting... eh, really I've just managed to work on a sizable Star Wars Legion commission (pics below).

Hobby in general: I made the leap into 3D printing! It's truly like just adding an entire second hobby onto the primary minis gaming hobby, though, when you consider everything that goes into it. It's quite fun though, and has consumed a fair amount of my time.

What else, what else... Oh, the Mandalorian series came out and finished season 1! It was incredible. Everything I want out of Star Wars. Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker also came out. It was not incredible. It was not everything I want out of Star Wars. In fact, it was the first time I've ever experienced that negativity I've seen so many times before in other nerds for myself. I mean I still like Star Wars, and it was fun enough to watch, but whew man was the story and pacing/editing painful to endure. You have to remember, though, that Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is probably my favorite of the 9, haha!

Oh, and the pandemic.

No, like the real pandemic. "The coronavirus" or, by its proper name, COVID-19.

As a recording for posterity and a note to my future self: March 2020 is a dark time, made to seem even darker by the heavy shadow of the immediate future. Tennessee is behind in its efforts to quarantine and order "shelter in place" guidance to the public, but many other states and larger cities have already gone that route. Aside from the grocery store and fast food places, pretty much everything is closed. No game stores, no movie theaters, no restaurants, etc. The economy is devastated, with hundreds of thousands not working in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and keep the hospitals from being overwhelmed. Being part of the "essential" services (construction), I'm still at work every day. Well, for now, at least. It's a crazy time.

Anyway, back to the game stuff... ?

So, NoVa:

NoVa consisted of two main events for me, with a bit of other games sprinkled in at night with my travel companions (namely "Betrayal at House on the Hill" board game and learning to play Battletech with a starter box I purchased), which were Horus Heresy 30k Zone Mortalis, and Guild Ball!

The area of 30k room set up for Zone Mortalis. 

My Chaplain leads some Word Bearers to their inevitable doom. But, like, gloriously. Of course.

The Gal Vorbak prove  to be an ample distraction to a Dark Angels Dreadnought before the Breachers can flank in to save them.

My Miner's Guild learning how to play the game against some Cooks.

My Miners won Best Painted for the event!

As far as painting at home, I've really only been working on a Rebel army commission for a good friend. I'm hopefully going to wrap it up this week, though. (I'm a slow painter. I really shouldn't take commissions.)

Commission Star Wars Legion piece. Yes, it's a trap. Fishman gon' snipe you.

On the gaming front, mostly it's been playing games with the kiddos. We're several games deep into a Warhammer Quest Silver Tower campaign, as well as a Star Wars Imperial Assault campaign and a few games of X-Wing.

Soon, Alec and I will get our Rangers of Shadow Deep / Frostgrave hybrid game going, where we'll be able to play the campaign together against AI. I'm working really hard to get together nice terrain for it, though, so that it's a premium experience.

I can't remember if this is merely my son putting up with my constant character-voiced narration of Warhammer Quest, or him dealing with a particularly rough roll of the dice. Probably the former. :D

Flynn's badass murderdudesman for Warhammer Quest

Alec's sneaktastic elf assassin for Warhammer Quest.

Really 3D printing should be its own blog post, but considering how long it's been, I'm going to shoehorn it in a little bit here. This whole thing kinda snuck up on me, as I'd ignored it for years as being too expensive, but then another good buddy of mine showed me something he'd printed and related how low the cost had gotten, and now I have another addiction. I'm running an Elegoo Mars currently for my resin printing, and while it's got a small initial learning curve to get things printed and into your hands, the art of perfecting the supports for a model and positioning and all that is definitely taking a while longer master.

Also, seriously, the availability of fantastic sculpts from a multitude of different artists out there is truly astounding. And so affordable!

A fresh print!

Mandalorian Militia - converted speeder bikes for my personal Star Wars Legion stuff. 

A fantastic Arbite miniature from the patreon Monstrous Encounters, that I will use in Necromunda at some point.  "I AM THE LAW!"  

 As for what the future holds, especially with the ongoing pandemic, I'm not too sure. At least I've compiled an incredible backlog of stuff to work on should I find myself unable to continue adding to the pile of minis.  What's immediately next, though? Oh, probably just this little project of football playing frogs I've been waiting on for the past year from Kickstarter. :)

Hippity hoppity, yo.