July 19 2008 Necrons v Khorne
Today, I gave my Dragons of Moloch a spin this afternoon against a 2000 pt Necron army, painted and fielded by Thomas, a BTP artist.
The Dragons of Moloch are for sale: $950 for 2200 pts. That’s a super deal by the by.
PS- I sold the Questing Knights. They are gone. Sad. But I’m happy for the new owner because that’s a real nice set.
Here’s a list:
All that plus ten more Berserkers.
I am using the funds to seed other projects. After this I will be down to one 40K army: Lions Rampant Imperial Guard. What do I have planned: the Wyches of Thoth 9as I have nagged all of you copiously about) and Lizardmen. I painted up a whole gaggle of skinks for my D&D game (I’m using them as kobolds) during Paint Fest yesterday (which was a striking success).
And as many D&D figures as I can stand.
So, pretty much a few long days this week bought me a Saturday of luxury with pretty much everything caught up at the studio. I’m putting off a few things until Monday, though. Slacker!
I am very much enjoying life. I’m reading a book of inspirational stories. Sort of a “chaser” for Barack Obama’s book (review forthcoming). I went to the Pioneer Day Parade with my kids this morning. We were in it!
And this evening I pushed the boys on the swing while my wife grilled up some succulent salmon on the grill. It was amazing. She also made a side of fresh tomato, basil and some kind of white cheese.
Right now, I’m staying up late with all three kids watching Pokemon. My heart is full.
Blast from the past. I grew up in a tiny two bedroom home in southern Oregon. We had a pot belly stove. Every morning around 4am the house would be ice cold and I’d get up and bunch in crumpled newspaper and some split kindling. As the black beast heated up I would curl up on the carpet nearby, lulled to sleep again by the huffing flames and clink clank of expanding metal. The cats would come in one by one and curl up with me.
I didn’t realize that we were dirt poor. I was so happy. And that’s the key.
When I moved to Medford and lived in the Plum Street House with my room-mates ($250 a month rent split three ways) it had central air using natural gas. I thought I was in heaven. They called me “Bahamas Gately” because I liked to set the thermostat at 104.
Thursday July 17 2008 Staff Meeting
Other than a few emails, everything is caught up at the studio. That’s a really good feeling.
Today, I got to the studio early and got everything caught up. Then to my daughters birthday party. She is nine years old now. I can’t believe it. My wife is really good at setting up games and decorating the old-fashioned way. My kids are having a really good childhood thanks to her.
The we did D&D, fourth session and a lot of fun. They are all 2nd level now.
Tomorrow is Paint Fest. I’m super excited about that.
At this moment I am watching Star Trek: Enterprise with Tamie. She is glorious in her opulent pregnaciousness.
Aaaand here’s a quick update.
The following projects are due out of Painting in the next 4-10 days:
Inquisition 02 RT death korps
Empire 01 EC
Fantasy Figures 04 PM
Ulthwe 01 AH
Steel Legion 01 ES basilisks
Sisters of Battle 01 CS
Dark Eldar Blood Bowl 01 FC
City of Nurgle
Vampire Counts KS board ext.
Winter Eldar 01 PP display board
Greenskin Spirits extension
Dark Elves 01 JC dark pegasi
Daemons 02 PH
Black Templars 01 JY
Aliens and Ducks AK
War Machine 10 BF trollbloods
Inquisition 02 RT death korps
Empire 01 EC
Fantasy Figures 04 PM
Ulthwe 01 AH
Steel Legion 01 ES basilisks
Sisters of Battle 01 CS
Dark Eldar Blood Bowl 01 FC
City of Nurgle
Vampire Counts KS board ext.
Winter Eldar 01 PP display board
Greenskin Spirits extension
Dark Elves 01 JC dark pegasi
Daemons 02 PH
Black Templars 01 JY
Aliens and Ducks AK
War Machine 10 BF trollbloods
The following projects are due to be out of Assembly by July 22.
Aliens and Ducks AK (going under the brush right away)
Chaos Daemons 01 RY
Daemons 02 PH
Greenskin Spirits extension
Tau Verdaan 02 MM
Tyrion 01 AC
Flyer Bases AS
Emperors Champion BS
Biel Tan 01 CH
Imperial Guard 01 SM fw tanks (already assembled and looking great)
Dark Elves 01 JC dark
Orks 01 RR
Vampire Counts 02 LG
Dark Eldar Blood Bowl 01 FC
Empire 03 KO
Inquisition 03 RT
Ultramarines 01 MN
Imperial Guard 01 SM fw tanks (already assembled and looking great)
Dark Elves 01 JC dark
Orks 01 RR
Vampire Counts 02 LG
Dark Eldar Blood Bowl 01 FC
Empire 03 KO
Inquisition 03 RT
Ultramarines 01 MN
Bretonnians 01 JJ
As usual I am completely willing to communicate promptly with you. If you don’t see your project, please check in.
The Dollar
Here are some interesting articles, providing various viewpoints:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Hyperinflation_in_Post_World_War_I_Germany
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst040907.htm
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog/?p=190
http://www.ameinfo.com/69637.html
I’ll leave it to you to decide if any of this is useful.
Now Booking Projects for August
Blue Table Painting is a well-oiled machine. We have produced no less than 600 armies in the last four and a half years. We love our customers, give top service, and the best possible price the first time.
I put my face and name and reputation on what comes out of this studio. I want to win and keep you as a client long-term. I wring my hands at night about projects being on time and up to par.
The following slots are open for painting:
July 28 to August 4: Two Slots
August 4-11: Four Slots
Any project in need of Assembly can get immediate attention.
I have the following specials running:
- Tank factory
- Vampire Counts core-tastic special ($2.75 for L2 painting on basic troops/infantry)
I have the following armies for sale:
- Questing Knights (2000 pts) $950
- Dragons of Moloch (2000 pts) $950
My phone number is 801 372 8545. I will be more than happy to set up anything on the phone with you, if you want. Otherwise, just drop me an email saying what you would like done.
The inside story is that the crew is powering through projects way faster than they are coming in. The product is good. The artists are dedicated.
Sunday July 13 2008 Spilled Milk
Another beautiful Sabbath day! It’s another chance to recharge and recover.
What’s going on in Gately’s mind? My main concern is that I’m not progressing. I worry that I’m not teaching my children the gospel. What do those little eyes see? They see an impatient man, who gets all worked up over nothing. I am lax in my observance of scripture study and family home evening. I can only hope that they also see me repenting and improving.
The first time Griffin pulled the egg-breaking stunt there was quite a bit of hair pulling and jumping about. The second time we were stern, but got about the business of teaching him how to clean it up.
[For those of you wondering: as a rule we have no corporal punishment in our home.]
Well, enough griping about it. It’s pre-dawn on Monday morning and I have a whole week before me like an untouched valley that no man has ever travelled. Or a blank page. What will I write on it?
As you regular readers know, Sunday is open mic day and I get to say what I please, usually politics or religion (which I don’t think are nearly discussed enough in our society). My topic today is Forgiveness for which I will take as a text a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley the late mormon prophet. I bring this up by way of encourage-ment and not as a preach-ment.
“It becomes us as a grateful people to reach out with a spirit of forgiveness and an attitude of love and compassion toward those whom we have felt may have wronged us.
“We have need of this. The whole world has need of it. It is of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He taught it. He exemplified it as none other has exemplified it. In the time of his agony on the cross of Calvary, with vile and hateful accusers before him, they who had brought him to this terrible crucifixion, he cried out “Father, forgive the; for they know now what they do” (Luke 23:34).
“No of us is called on to forgive so generously, but each of us is under a divinely spoken obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy…
“…We see the need for it in the homes of the people. Where tiny molehills of misunderstanding are fanned into mountains of argument. We see it among neighbors, where insignificant differences lead to undying bitterness. We see it in business associates who quarrel and refuse to compromise and forgive when, in most instances, if there were a willingness to sit down together to speak quietly one to another, the matter could be resolved to the blessing of all.
“How difficult it is for any of us to forgive those who have injured us. We are all prone to brood on the evil done us. That brooding becomes as a gnawing and destructive canker. Is there a virtue more in need of application in our time than the virtue of forgiving and forgetting? There are those who would look upon this as a sign of weakness. Is it? I submit that it takes neither strength nor intelligence to brood in anger over wrongs suffered, to go through life with a spirit of vindictiveness, to dissipate one’s abilities in planning retribution. There is no peace in the nursing of a grudge. There is no happiness in living for the day when you can “get even.”
(”’Of You It Is Required to Forgive,’” Ensign, November 1980, p. 61.)
For those of you with children you know the great frustration of it. I love my kids beyond what I ever imagined I would, but when they are bickering and teasing it makes my eyes pop out. My inclination is to rush into the room and put on the general “beatdown”. I have become a lot better with this.
In a family there is great opportunity. This is the place where my true self comes out. And sometimes it’s not so pretty. But on the other side of this is to see the true beauty of another soul. I know my wife ever so well. At first she was a goddess, and then a ball of neurosis, and now fourteen years later I see her as a complete soul. The combination of all of this makes her (in my eyes) something even greater; a human being who I can respect. It flows unrestrained.
Only through long dedication do you “punch through” to the other side.
Every day is a chance for little forgivenesses. Shall I calmly teach my young six-year-old son, or just nag him? To put my hand gently on his cheek and tell him earnestly and with all the feeling of a loving father that he should not tease or bicker? And to what extent should I mingle this with tangible consequences to make the point? To give his sister a hug; to clean up the floor; to apologize to a neighbor.
I suggest that it is to understand God himself to have children. To love someone so much that you would dive headlong into a wood chipper if it would save them.
Like looking at a valley from the other side, after having travelled through it. The same place, but now part of my being.
To all those reading I give you a word of encouragement. Set the past behind. Set your face toward the coming week. Go now and give a family member a hug.
PS- I make my usual disclaimer here: I am not a very good man. Only one who is trying to do better.
Stonemarch Session 03- Shrine of Sune
The intrepid heroes enter a subterranean complex below the dragon graveyard. They are ambushed by various undead and defeat them. They solve a puzzle involving to large quartz obelisks and a leaden door with a spiral on it.
They find an ancient Ulari stone monolith in a deep cavern, but are unable to decipher it. Loose end.
The end up in a chamber of pale green stone, like a cathedral where they meet the demi-goddess Sune Firehair, a consort of Bahamut. She marks them in their right hands as champions of mankind; there are seven total. A darker power has marked nine ab-human champions. After Sune departs they find a portal that leads to the forest ten miles northwest of Winterhaven.
Items of note:
- Arck and Brack form an adventuring company.
- In the chamber of green there are seven sets of robes and slippers. Loose end.
- The party picks up an enruned plate that activates the portal.
- Arck and Brack are marked in their right shoulders.
PS- for those that haven’t noticed, I weave in elements as I see fit, from lots of different sources. The official story in the published books represents mis-information that the heroes might have heard!
Saturday July 12 2008 Simmering Pot
Hey all. As usual, my mind is brewing with ideas. But more on that later.
This blog is the story of a man’s journey. I hope you get something out of it. It’s mostly business, just like my life. I hope to put up more about the other people involved in the near future.
The idea for the Wyches of Thoth army is fully formed in my mind now. The army concept is bases around the wyches themselves; powerful sorceresses who summon various daemons. These are Heralds of Tzeentch on disc. I plan on using 60mm flying bases as an extra large disc with a cluster of tentacles underneath and curved and modified large tyranid scything talons to give the general appearance of what is now known as a disc of tzeentch.
The Wyches will be based on dark elf witch elves.
The rest of the army will be mostly tzeentch daemon types, with daemon princes (no soulgrinders), and some other daemon types sprinkled in for tactical reasons. I’m very fond of the Fiend of Slaanesh models.
A problem with most themed armies is that they collapse under their own weight. They are too complicated and expensive. I’ve found it’s best to start with cool models then make the army fit around that.
The best thing is that they can do double duty in my D&D game!
I picked up my 5th edition 40K rulebook today. It’s too early to make any comments, and I’m sure this is covered extensively in other forums. Besides, who wants to hear my opinion?
D&D 4E question
When rolling damage from a weapon you “Add the ability modifier specified in teh power description.”
Does this mean that you add your Dexterity Modifier to damage from a bow?
I am also generally confused about “Ability Modifier”. Is it just the base you get from the stat OR base plus half level?
If you answer this, can you give a page number, please?
The Emperor’s Hawgs
I have in my possession a 2300+ point army consisting entirely of bikes. They are partially assembled.
Here are some still pics. Note that these are all in varying stages.
Now the painted figure is the ONLY figure painted and is just a sample of what could be done.
They could be painted as White Scars or Ravenwing or better yet a variant of Ravenwing. There is a LOT that could be done with this army thematically. A whole lot.
If you take Sammael as an HQ then your bikes count as TROOPS. Under fifth edition this makes for a very fast moving army that can zip around and claim objectives with the best of them.
And watch how fast any object vaporizes when six attack bikes with multi-meltas home in.
The special here is the materials are 90% off if you set up the order before Friday July 18th.
- Materials $80
- Painting $988
- Assembly $568
Friday Night Hustle
Hey all. This is a general notice: I’ll be in the studio until at least 9pm on Friday (central time), wrapping up business.
Packages are going out on Saturday morning.
Please excuse any delay. I bit the bullet and took a day off with the family on Thursday. A whole day. I got to spend some good quality time with all of my children. It was a big deal, so I thank you for your indulgence.
The artists are currently short about three armies on the schedule. By all means contact me if you have something on your mind.
We went to a local water park called Seven Peaks. I got en-pinkened.
Picture: by this guy http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapeckham/