Monday March 3 2008
Picture: an Inquisitor for the Sisters of the Argent Shroud army.
At last it’s Monday! Thank goodness I can get back to work!
It was a typical day, getting projects ready for pickup tomorrow. I splurged and ordered a pizza (combo/garbage type). I got in a bunch of figures (like thirty) for the Dark Heresy game. I’m stoked about that.
For Family Home Evening we had the usual song/prayer/lesson then headed out to McDonalds Play Place for ice cream. The kids love that. So much for my diet. Heh.
Land of Lost Projects: the studio Orks have fallen by the wayside. They will probably get attention in April. Trollbloods are really on the back burner for the time being. All my effort is getting burned up by Dark Heresy.
Sorry, not much more to report.
Sunday March 2 2008
Picture: a melting icicle shot by Chris Harris.
http://www.chrisharris.com/newsletter/2005-june.html
Warning: Oh, listen to me! Don’t read on, there’s no game-related material in here!
While we were in Vernal I saw some huge icicles. They must have been about five feet long.
The weather is getting warmer and the snow is retreating. This morning I went for a walk around the neighborhood. The clouds were low and grey, covering the peaks of the near mountains.
I love Sundays. Whenever my wife asks me to do something I just say “Day of REST!” really loud. It doesn’t work, but it’s fun to say.
During church, Griffin was having a hard time in nursery. It’s directly during his nap time. I’m really considering just taking him home during that time. Yeah, that has to happen.
This winter I decided not to shovel my driveway. Soon, it was a huge slab of ice, eight inches thick. It was unmanageable. Oh, how I wish I had just shoveled the snow as I went along.
How like that is to holding grudges, or letting bad habits go on year after year. Struggling to keep my life clear of these things (forgiving and repenting often) keeps these things from hardening into an impenetrable sheet of ice on my soul. And even if I’ve let things get bad I need to start picking away at it, day after day.
Help is often closer than I think. Heavenly Father is much kinder than I am to myself and I’ve always found His good grace; like a warm day that makes the ice melt away completely, and I can’t even remember it was there.
I am definitely not a very virtuous person. I have so very far to go.
One of my favorite discourses. It’s long, but there are some gemstones in there.
After church I went to do some Elders Quorum stuff, but not before making up some rice krispie treats. I like to make up a batch in a bowl and eat them with a fork while they are still warm, with a glass of ice cold milk. That’s the good stuff.
PS- Here I make my usual disclaimer: I am not a very good person. I struggle with what I suppose to be the regular weaknesses of mankind. I make no pretense. I’m just a guy who is trying to get better year after year.
Friday and Saturday March 1 2008
Picture: flashback to the “Tundra Nids”. This happy fellow is a Carnifex.
See more pics here.
Download the cost sheet for Tyranids here.
A studio Tau army is going on the block soon.
Friday
Every day I go into the studio I think it’s going to be a breeze and it’s more like a hurricane. So much to get done.
Well, it was almost wrapped up by 4pm when we started our Dark Heresy game. We decided to just do a low-key session and look up every last rule as we went along in order to familiarize ourselves with the game.
After that I went to help Brenda move (the sister of one of my Home Teaching families).
Saturday
This morning we headed out to Vernal for the baptism of one of my nephews. That was simple and beautiful. We spent the afternoon at the house of Tamie’s sister. They have a really nice place out there. Vernal is high, rolling desert, like out of a Western (in fact, many movies from the genre were shot out in Utah).
More details: I am a real bear on the road. I gripe about my wife’s driving, bark at the kids, and generally gripe and groan about every little thing. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I set my will to keep cool, it always melts down. My wife is the driver in the family. She has some kind of iron will that keeps her going.
Griffin loves transformers. He pretends to be any number of them. He wants me to “fly” him around. He gets an enormous grin on his face the whole time.
It was snowing on the pass on our way home and that was pretty scary. We finally got home around 1am.
Dark Heresy Imminent
Two thumbs waaay up for Dark Heresy.
I have some extra books. Cost is $50 plus $10 ship. Some have slight imperfections (like a scrunched corner– from shipping). I give $5 off for those.
We’ll be playing at 3pm to 6pm tomorrow so I’ll be completely, completely incommunicado.
However, I’ll be doing my regular thing from 10am to 2pm. So, if you need anything please feel free to give me a call.
Thursday February 27 2008
Picture: Empire Captain on a Griffon. This army was done with Artistic License with a L3/5 split (L3 for everything except L5 for heroes). The Painter chose to do the models in Nuln color scheme.
See the assembled host.
Hear the army details.
Today I was up again at 5am. Wide awake and worried. I got an email from a client asking if I ever went to sleep. Usually quite well, just some extra stress recently.
I stayed home this morning with Griffin while my wife ran errands. Then I headed up to Provo for some business plus translating at the MTC. I’m actually getting better. It is very hard to listen and speak at the same time, and keep up with a very fast talker.
Then back to the studio for a few hours this evening. Nothing to report. Other than documenting the huge-normous Empire Nuln army.
Wednesday February 27 2008
Picture: a squadron of Eldar War Walkers, part of this Biel Tan army. This is our wargamer standard L3 work (L5 for hero types).
I was wide awake and worried at 5am this morning. So, I just got cracking on the ole Inbox which I was caught up on as of 8am.
Then it was off to a conference at the school for my daughter. That turned out well.
The following projects are under the brush and should be done in the next 5-10 days. If you are wondering what’s up with your project, just drop me a line and I’ll get right on it.
Ice Nids 01 JA
Tzeentch 02 JS
Empire 01 RH er
Fictional Reality 03 MT
Tau 02 MN
Vampires 02 DF
Chaos Flyers 01 FC
Orcs and Goblins 01 KO
Witch Hunters 01 RH
Grey Knights 01 AS
High Elves 03 CA
Skaven and Guard 01 TL
Tyranids 04 JC
Trollbloods 01 CS
The following projects are in Assembly this week:
Eldar 02 PM
Falcons 02 MN
War Machine 06 BF er
Eldar 01 GS (ongoing thing)
Fictional Reality 03 MT
Ultramarines 05 TO
Tau 07 TO
Vampire Counts 01 PB vorador
Daemonhunters 01 RK
Orcs and Goblins 01 KO
Hordes 05 JL
Imperial Guard vs. Tyranids Battle Report
Some Quotes
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” —Plato
When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘guilty’.” —Theodore Roosevelt
“Hope must be grounded in objective truth otherwise it quickly becomes wishful thinking.” —Cal Thomas
All Caught Up
All right folks, the tide has lowered. Not busy. Also, there’ll be a Batrep up tomorrow morning.
I didn’t give my usual “Sunday Devotional” but as I pulled up into the driveway tonight, this passage was impressed on my mind:
“While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men, causes ‘His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” — Joseph Smith
I just looked up at the sky and felt a moment of peace.
Soulgrinder
Hey all, I came across this on http://www.warseer.com/ Supposedly it’s a new Defiler type called the Soulgrinder supposedly due out with the new Chaos Codices coming up this year.
Flesh Hounds, pic also lifted from Warseer.
Bloodcrusher (bloodletter on juggernaut)
In fact, there are a TON of pics on this thread. This blew my mind.
Props for L2 Skaven
Hey Shawn – just a quick note – thanks for all of the work on my Skaven army. The miniatures were extremely well-packed and you have been great about communicating – It seems like you treated my figures as well as you would have treated your own and I really appreciate that.
Thanks again. – Todd
To be honest, when I first unpacked my miniatures, I wasn’t that excited by them, but I took them to the hobby store this week to play a game and I have to say, once they were all ranked up and together, they really do look very good (props to Patrick) – I received many comments from others who were equally impressed as well (I provided suitable plugs for your studio and reminded myself and everyone that as good as my guys look, this only represented your level 2 work).
Bottom-line – this is just what I wanted – turning a huge collection of unpainted and primered models into a nice looking army I can go play with. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the experience, and I’m looking forward to having you do my next army as well (dark Elves in August), or even a smaller project sooner, if one comes to mind.
Thanks again. – Todd