Sunday June 6 2008 Reasons I Shouldnt be Alive
Hey all, it’s open mic Sunday.
When I was a senior in high school, my buds and I went to Port Orford for spring break. We played a lot of D&D and rode around on ATVs. We stayed with the grandfather of a friend (Chris A.) who had an impressive sea-side house.
Chris had this idea that we should get to this small, private beach. But we would have to navigate a cliff face. He explained to us that as long as we kept three limbs in contact with the cliff face that it was impossible to fall off. Well, duh, that made complete sense.
So it was that at age 17, seventy feet above the angry surf and jagged rocks, toes gripping on to a six inch ledge that I looked down and realized, “Blaaaargh! I’m mortal!”
I now challenge all blog readers to one-up me with your tale of why you shouldn’t be alive!
Saturday June 5 2008 Pure Indulgence
Hello all. I took a day off today. No calls, and just a few emails.
First order of business: I took off to the mall with my eight-year-old daughter to pick up a few books. I found “The Audacity of Hope” by Barak Obama. I love hardcover books, way worth the extra money. My first thought as I picked it up was, “This is way bigger than I thought it would be.” After an eye-roll and a chuckle I took all the copies of “Revolution” by Ron Paul and put them face out on the display; my little act of guerilla warfare in the cause of liberty.
I also picked up a second copy of “Revolution” since my first copy is almost always out on loan. I loudly recommended it at the front counter. Loud enough for the whole store to hear.
At the grocery store on the way back I picked up two watermelons and some burger fixins.
By the time I arrived back home Tamie’s sister was there with her kids and we had a fabulous fourth of July celebration with plenty of meat and fireworks.
I also brought home about seventy figures (mostly night goblins) for the D&D game. I just plowed through them without mercy, trying new techniques and colors without regard to rhyme or reason. For example: a green glaze on top of a deep flesh then highlighted with a mix of green and deep flesh. Crazy.
I painted up a Rhinodon from the Hordes game. It’s a good model, very original, but I can’t get away from the idea that it’s a Pokemon: Rhinodon evolves from Rhinoplex evolves from Herpesimplex.
I ended a fabulous and un-productive day watching Balls of Fury with my wife.
Independence Day
First things first: I would like to give a shout out to the men and women in military service, who have answered the call of duty; who are willing to sacrifice everything. Thank you. We’ve got numerous clients in the military and they are a delight to work with.
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I am grateful to live in the U.S.
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I spent two years in Chile (mission). I lived and served in some of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the country, both rural and urban. I remember seeing the profoundest miseries imaginable. Things that had not entered my imagination before then, though I am sure that even worse conditions exist in human existence.
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I remember the day I got back to the US. When I got off the plane in Miami I knelt down and kissed the floor (and you have to be pretty worked up to put your lips on the floor of the Miami airport). I bought two king-sized Snickers and sat there in my worn-out shoes and trench coat eating them gratefully.
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I remember flying into the Medford, Oregon on a little puddle-jumper and seeing all the mills and lumberyards encrusted with snow. From that day everything was sweeter. I was amazed just to go into a produce section of the grocery store. It seemed over the top. A swimming pool was a luxury beyond belief. My clothes smelled and felt softer. And we had these two great machines that did our laundry for us! Oh, and no fleas.
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I remember describing a washer and dryer to my first pension mother. She didn’t believe me. She said I was lying and that such machines did not exist. Besides, why would you need them when a clothesline and fresh air were free!
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Now that I’m in Utah I feel like I’ve moved right into the heartland. I live with a fiercely independent people, who fled persecution in the mid-1800s. There is a tremendous sense of community and self-reliance. We take care of our own (and visitors/others, too!).
Friday July 4 2008 Apples of my Eye
Picture: Solomon Lok. This is an Inquisitor that meets an unpleasant end in the Anphelion Project (a rule- and source-book from Forge World). See more pics.
Imagine a sandy-haired boy, page-cut, about three in flourescent orange trunks (no vest, floaties or other gear). He goes to the deep side of the pool, gets on the diving board. He walks confidently to the end, raises up both hands and begins to count.
“Fourteen, Eighteen, Seventeen, FOURTEEN!”
He jumps!
His little body sinks about three feet. Little bubbles trail downwards. Then he struggles to the surface.
“Go way daddy.”
blurble
“I can do it!”
sputter
“Daddy help!”
I reach out for him and guide him to the edge of the pool.
This is how my son Griffin is. He really grabs life by the nose-ring. Other than the near-drowning, repeat this twenty-six times. That was our experience at the Ward Fourth of July party. And a lot of good food! Tamie and the older kids went to Stadium of Fire to see Blue Man Group. They had a blast. I, for one, was glad to avoid traffic and crowds and spend the afternoon with my young son. We had a great time.
We ended the night watching about ten episodes of chowder, eating cheese and apples, and finally I layed in bed with him, watching locals light fireworks through the window.
I spent hardly any time at the studio. Materials came in: a bunch of Tau mostly, but also a set of Daemons. Things are caught up in shipping and digital photography. Packages are going out on Monday.
I also took the kids to the local game shop. I picked up a bunch of figures for the D&D game. I am ever so excited! I will be painting them over the weekend. Among others I got a Rhinodon (from Hordes) and a few Reaper figures. I even found a perfect one for Uletsabe, a warrior type female with a long single braid down the back. Good fig. You’ll get to see them all
I highly recommend their inks. If you’re not happy with the new GW stuff (not saying they’re bad, just not really the traditional colors) that’s a good place to go. You get more ink for the money, too. Plus they are in droppers. Very helpful.
Thursday July 3 2008 Cool It
Picture: One of my favorite Reaper models.
First off, you won’t hear any more Politics for a while. I started a few great threads this last week and that’s plenty. Those interested I’m sure are following somewhat attently.
Second off, some of you may remember my beloved Lions Rampant army. I had about a hundred infantry painted up for it, but they were not cohesive and I was generally not satisified with how they turned out. Soooo, I got rid of all of them (and at a steal of a deal I might add). This week I’ve ordered a new set of Kasrkin, which I love dearly (both the models and in the game).
When I play IG I go with the Grenadiers doctrine and take about 40 storm troopers. They’ve hardly every let me down! With the advent of the new edition it’s really time to pump up my Imperial Guard with a lot of troops.
Aaaaand, I’m still percolating the Wyches of Thoth army. It all makes sense. The only thing I have to figure out is how to represent the Discs of Tzeentch. I want to do something super special. Oh, wait, I think I got it. OK, problem solved. Ooooh, just you wait and see.
In other news, we had a “staff meeting” this morning. ie we played D&D 4E. As I’ve said, I think it’s the best miniatures battles game ever. It’s smooth, easy to learn and full of little tricks and finesse. Very smooth. It has the most ultimately fast resolution of any game. There’s a class of monsters called “minions” that have ONE hit point. So basically one roll determines the whole outcome. But since there are so many of them, they play a tactical role. Of course, most creatures are more complicated and have other options. Yeah, it’s a smooth operation.
After that, Angela came by and turned in a Dwarf army. One of the heroes was deformed so we had to build one from scratch and paint it. I found this really cool OOP model and we tricked it out with some good conversion work. There were a few other items to address as well. We set up a time for Paint Fest this month, too, which is held at her house.
What else? I have an assembler in to pick up slack this week. Just a week or two. His work is good, but he’s slow. Not slower than to be expected. That’s really helping us get caught up.
Everyone is gearing up for the Fourth of July. My Inbox is really slow. I will be in the studio from 11am to 3pm to tie up some loose ends.
PS- I hope no one gets me wrong about government and taxes. I really am grateful to live in the US. I lived in South America for two years, and not in a hotel, but in a regular house and moving and working among regular folk so I’ve seen the other side… the downside of no regulation is that people live in crap-shackle houses, for example.
PPS- I advise any reader of this blog to be polite and thoughtful in your comments. Don’t use profanity or impugn me for evil motives. If so, you won’t be welcome here. I work too hard to endure any grief.
If you can stand it
“Heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial services, along with cuttbacks in retailing, eclipsed job gains in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government.”
Jobs getting sucked out from the “producing” sector to the “takings coalition”.
“But Shawn, what does this have to do with Blue Table Painting?”. It has everything to do with it. There is an invisible person at BTP. This person gets a paycheck, but does nothing to help. This person eats our money and craps out paperwork.
This represents the sucking out of resources from the private sector (which creates services and goods from scratch) to government (which cannot inherently produce anything without first taking it from somewhere else).
I started Blue Table Painting in my garage with $90 worth of paints. I had no outside help. I invented it and worked like a madman to get it off the ground. I risked everything. So, answer me this: who has a right to show up at my farm and haul off my crops? The sugar industry (who get taxpayer subsidies)? Or perhaps foreign aid to warring factions in the Middle East?
Get to the caucuses people! Get to the voting booth! What will be said of our generation? That we spent 300 hours a year playing video games and zero hours a year guarding our Freedom?
Step one: find out three names– the congressman for your district and the two senators for your state. Track what they do online. If they vote for the printing of money they have effectively stolen from you, yes you individually. Or maybe they are good defenders of your constitutional freedoms. Then act appropriately in November.
A good article by Utah Senator Bill Hickman
Stonemarch Campaign Session 01- Pyre of Jathor
Uletsabe
[This is the first session log for my miniatures battles D&D game. My goal is to run six sessions then take it from there. I have already painted about forty figures for it! Most of these are Warhammer Fantasy figures which will be for sale later.]
The party of three travels north to Winterhaven to meet up with their old mentor, Duven Stahl. One member of the group, the warlock, is missing. On the way north, a farmer named Tappy and a merchant named Horkus joins up with the group for security. During a Kobold ambush, Tappy is nearly killed and his son dragged off.
The Kobolds jump on Tappy and seem to be threatening him, and demanding something in their croaking alien language. After slaying all their attackers the party recovers two small orange gourds of what turns out to be flame retardant.
Upon arrival in Winterhaven the group is in time for an all night vigil and a the morning cremation of Jathor, a local hero. They then find out that Duven headed out a week ago to poke around for an old Dragon gravesite. Two locals provide a map to the site. He is four days overdue.
Pyre of Jathor
- A local hero named Jathor Brightfeld is being cremated in the public square just before dawn.
- His kinsfolk are clad in deep blue and have stayed up all night in vigil to mourn him.
- Local cleric does a spell to make the pyre burn with a pearlescent flame.
- Women, including his wife and her two sisters, and his young son, look on.
- The women of the town throw on paper birds of white and blue that are caught up in the heat pillar and fly up into the night sky.
- A captured Salakha is tied X-ways between two stakes. It croaks in it’s creaking language. But no one understands. The warriors have driven nails into its joints and cut off its tail. At the conclusion they ride off with the creature in tow and drag it to death.
Stonemarch Dramatis personae
Duven Stahl
The former town wizard of Winterhaven and the mentor of the six heroes of the tale (four have come back to town). He is a portly guy, but not fat, and has a square face, white hair (shorn short) and thin blue eyes.
Delphina
Half-elf that helps out at Wrafton’s Inn. Drew you a better map to the dragon gravesite. She keeps wildflowers in her hair.Eilan the Old
Crazy old whittling coot, neighbor of Duven Stahl. Drew you a wiry map to the dragon gravesite.Sir Jathor
A slain Warder of the town. He has a single child, Dathon, who is ten years old.Jathor’s older half-brother is Lord Padraig the Second. They share a mother; Ninarin.
Uletsabe
Sir Jathor’s wife and mother of Dathon, her only child. She is an accomplished huntress. She has chiseled features, paper white skin, hardened ice blue eyes and white hair in a single long braid down her back.Ninarin
Wife of Lord Padraig I, the lord of the vale. She is stoic, but quick to smile, moving from cold to warm in an instant.Dathon
Sir Jathor’s son. He has blonde hair and a bowl cut. His right leg is missing from an accident on a woodcutting expedition when he was four. He is an outdoorsy child and loves to play with animals and is often seen about the keep riding a goat or a sheep with a wooden sword.Horkus
a white-haired portly man with small black eyes. He is armed with a crossbow and a shortsword. He keeps a pet ferret with a weak bladderPicture Credits:
http://www.squidoo.com/elegantfantasy
http://www.janesfantasyartworld.com/home
Wednesday July 2 2008 Slow News Day
This is a great example of a themed army. It’s called the Hounds of Khorne. The client called me and we talked for perhaps an hour. I am a storehouse of information on various model ranges and we finally figured out what would work. It helps a lot if we can go outside the range (eg in this project we used figures from both Privateer Press and Rackham).
I am making some preliminary sketches of my Wyches of Thoth Chaos Daemons 40K army. Basically it’s three or more heralds of Tzeentch on disc (based on dark elf wych elves) and a ton of Tzeentch Daemons as well as some other types sprinkled in there, notably Fiends of Slaanesh. I just love those models, they are out of sight. I’ve always been a secret devotee of Tzeentch.
Specials: I am still running the Vampire Counts Core-tastic special– $2.75 each for painting basic troops at L2 (dire wolves, too!). If you dig down a few posts I still have that rockin’ deal on VC materials. I still have all that.
The Phantom Titan is shaping up. It is quite a wonder to behold.
I would also LOVE to paint some Daemon armies. Not many of those have come through. If you were interested in a Khorne army I would do a deal on that.
I was up until midnight typing last night, but managed to clear almost every last item from my Inbox. That was a relief. My wife and I watched some Great Debaters movie (or somesuch) with Denzel Washington. That was all right. At that moment, somewhere else in the country there was a government worker sleeping soundly, having got off work at 5pm sharp; snug in his little jammies with health and dental coverage. YOU’RE WELCOME!
This morning (yes, I’m jumping around) the family headed off to a local pond, but I headed to the studio. Now, I know I should have taken off with them. My dirty little secret: I really didn’t want to go to the pond.
As most of you know, I’ve had a sort of political awakening recently. Here are some random thoughts:
- I don’t know if I’m a Libertarian. But it sounds like it. Right now, I just think that 40% taxation is too much.
- On principle, I can’t get on board with the “tax the rich” thing. Everyone in the US is rich by international standards. It’s wrong to take from them by force and redistribute what they have created.
- When you buy, say, a gallon of milk, a certain percentage of the cost goes to the Income Tax paid by the company that produces it.
- I soundly reject the notion that the government can “do” anything without taking something from someone else. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
- Income tax is similar in effect to a labor camp. I work three months a year at the government labor camp. How can I call myself a free man?
- It is my will as a citizen that the government ONLY do the things that they are supposed to do and NOTHING else.
- I do not think that corporations are virtuous and good by nature. Corporatism is not desirable either.
- Dispersion of power is generally good. Concentration of power… usually bad.
- Here’s the best one: when you create something, you have invested part of your life into that something. When you are taxed, you are having part of your life taken away. The life part Life and Liberty doesn’t refer to the firing line, it refers to what you create with your time and work. Taxation pre-supposes that the State owns part of you.
- BTP paints about twenty armies a month. The government carts away four of them.
- I do not encourage anyone to fail to pay their taxes. I pay mine. Everything above board. I encourage you to chafe at your bonds.
The following projects are under the brush and due to be finished around July 10 (there may be some delays due to the July 4 holiday):
Dark Elves 01 JC dark pegasi
Chaos Daemons 01 PR
Winter Eldar 01 PP er
Emperor’s Children 08 EB (expedited)
Tau 02 SL
Phantom Moon 01 JB
Hell Talon 01 NG
Emperors Gauntlets 01 SM
Grey Knights 01 ED
Ghost Warriors 05 AS
Vampire Boyar JB
Chapter Masters 02 JS
Vampire Counts KS board ext.
Tyranids 02 FL display board
High Elves 01 GO +prep
Aliens and Ducks AK
Ulthwe Skyhost 01 JB locked
Greenskin Spirits 01 JF
Dwarf Slayer Pirates 01 KO
War Machine 10 JL +assembly
The following projects are in Assembly and due to go under the brush in mid-July:
Zombie Dragon CP
Black Templars 04 GM
Ultramarines 07 TO
Greenskin Spirits 01 JF
Ghost Warriors 06 AS phantom
Slayer Nids 01 JP
Bretonnians 01 JJ er
Biel Tan 01 CH (yes, sooo late)
Fantasy Figures 04 PM
Inquisition 02 RT death korps
Legion of the Damned 02 MN
Menoth 13 GQ
Warhammer 01 WS bitz
Favorite Vallejo Paints
Hey all!
Here is my list of preferred Vallejo paints. Most of these have GW equivalents. They come in dropper form which gives a lot more control and prevents drying in the pot.
This is a solid list that will provide almost every basic contingence plus some fun colors like foul green and hot orange.
Here’s a good place online that sells them: http://www.thewarstore.com/vallejomodelcolors.html
For a Utah Valley local I recommend a local shop: Blakfyre Games in Orem (corner of 1600 North and State Street).
Name and Code
Vallejo Model Color Paints
Black, Flat 950
Blue, Royal 809
Blue, Dark Prussian 899
Brass 801
Brown, Chocolate 872
Brown, Cavalry 982
Brown, Saddle 940
Brown Sand 876
Flesh, Flat 018
Flesh, Light 006
Gold, Old 878
Green, Deep 970
Green, Scurf 72027
Green, Foul 025
Green, Russian 894
Grey, Gunmetal 863
Vallejo Model Color Paints
Black, Flat 950
Blue, Royal 809
Blue, Dark Prussian 899
Brass 801
Brown, Chocolate 872
Brown, Cavalry 982
Brown, Saddle 940
Brown Sand 876
Flesh, Flat 018
Flesh, Light 006
Gold, Old 878
Green, Deep 970
Green, Scurf 72027
Green, Foul 025
Green, Russian 894
Grey, Gunmetal 863
Hot Orange ?
Oily Steel 865
Purple, Royal 810
Red, Gore/Scar 012
Red, Hull 985
Sand, Pale 837
White, Foundation 919
Yellow, Lemon 952
Oily Steel 865
Purple, Royal 810
Red, Gore/Scar 012
Red, Hull 985
Sand, Pale 837
White, Foundation 919
Yellow, Lemon 952
Advanced Colors
Beige 917
Black Green 980
Bronze 998
Brown, Mahogany 846
Copper 999
Falcon Turquoise 72024
Green, Lime 827
Sand, Dark 847
Yellow, Tan 912
Tumbleweed Houses
Here’s an interesting idea. I was thinking at one point about six months ago, what would it be like if I rounded up like eight of these, each with a different purpose. They could be moved at a whim.
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
The idea was to build these one by one every few months in my back yard, the buy some land and then own it all. Because right now I own like ten square feet of my home. I’m a squatter on bank property. It bugs me.
I’ve abandoned this idea since then. But if I were a single guy I would totally build one of these. How much could the materials cost?
Does anyone know what the law is? Assuming it is not put on a solid foundation, can you just part this on your undeveloped property and live in peace?
Needless to say, my wife hates this idea.