Picture: Deathwing Terminators. One was a sample sent by the client from a project we did over a year ago. One big thing about Blue Table is that we are pretty good at matching previous projects. We keep pictures archived (usually) indefinitely.
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See stuff we have for sale. I’ve got four 40K armies on the block: IG, CSMs, Eldar Iyanden, and perhaps soon the “Roach Nids”. I hate putting things on sale. I like to maintain steady and fair pricing. You’ve probably noticed that when I run specials, there’s always a fair caveat (eg for December, get 25% off on painting if you give artistic license for certain armies). Which reminds me, I still have two slots open for December. You can still have something done.
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As usual I am pondering my next army. The Dark Elves are nearly complete. I have a unit of Shades on order. I’m going to add a new unit every week for the next three weeks. After this probably a Manticore OR use a McFarlane scavenger dragon as a mount for a Dreadlord. That will push the army into the 2500 range, nice and comfy for any sort of game.
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I do hope, though that the point level remains around the studio at 1500 or so, because then it’s not a power game so much. It’s still friendly games, with the thrill of new discovery, and that’s a magical time that never comes back.
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As most of you know I am in my life in the process of divestment. I’d be happy to get rid of almost all the various figures I’ve accumulated by the end of December. Both in my personal and business life I am paring down to the essentials. I’ve got plenty of clothes, food, blankets, and the necessities of life. I don’t want anything else. Except maybe to rotate in a few new armies a year. However, I think I need to play more– savor more, eat less. I’m dedicated to playing at least one game a week.
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I’m also reading Ron Paul’s “The Revolution” for the fourth time. That’s a good read. Good stuff.
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It would be cool to make an Empire army made using Khandish or Harad LotR figures. They are dirt cheap (less than a dollar per figure), simple to paint, and really cool theme-ish looking.
I spent the entire morning with my young son while my wife was out on errands. We watched Cartoon Network and I took him for a few shoulder rides. We also raided the halloween candy stash my wife thinks is hidden. Sweet.
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Everything is running smoothly at the studio as usual. I got everything lined up for assembly this week, well almost everything. They are behind on account of the holidays. I need to plan for that better. We should be caught up in the next few days. Everyone shuts down for Thanksgiving. It’s a poor reason for picking a man’s pocket everything December the 25th.
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What else? We put together the baby’s crib. That room is every so cute. We re-did it with a white-slat wooden skirt and pink paint. Tamie is in full nesting mode– knitting borders on the edges of baby blankets and getting laundry cleaned, disinfected and folded. But she needs to be resting more now. If the baby comes too early (like the next four days), we can’t have it (her) at the birth home and have to go to a sterile, unfeeling, and expensive hospital.
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There may be a temptation to leave me alone after the baby comes. Don’t you do it! If there are inquiries and orders, that will make my life less stressful. And if there is money/security it will make Tamie’s less stressful, not to mention the workers at BTP.
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Someone asked how the company is doing. We are doing well. Things are slower than I like, but they are picking up and they haven’t dipped down to 2007 levels, so I have a lot to be thankful for. I am well aware that every order is a miracle. We’re lucky to have such great clients.
My wife went in for her baby checkup today. The baby’s coming in about a week.
The problem is that the Birth Home has to be paid before we can go there, in the sum of about $2200. What I’m trying to say is… I would encourage the noble reader to take a look at the various items I have up for sale, and very reasonably priced I might add. I am ready to make group deals.
Thank goodness for Sunday. Otherwise I would work myself to the nub.
Last night, my ultra-pregnant wife went to bed early at my request. She has really had it and seems to be overly round even for 8 months along. That left me with to put the older kids to bed. I let them stay up til around 10pm.
The little three year old didn’t make it to the bathroom and poo-ed his shorts. Not knowing what to do with the stinky product, he wiped it on the wall. That was a fun late-night shenanigan… cleaning that up. I kept my cool with the poor tyke*, though, which I’m always glad of. He’s a sweet boy, and I think he actually screws up less than I do.
I watched part of Hellboy II and drifted off into long and strange dreams. In one random dream I arrived at Angela’s house (but different than her real one, this one way out in the countryside) with some other painters to help her with a project. Her mother was there trying to get two greater daemons of tzeentch to go to bed. They talked with surfer-dude teenage voices.
Seriously, don’t eat a big meal right before bed.
Today, I’m pretty down. This has been a rotten week for my quest for betterment. Well, nothing to do but take a deep breath, pray for the grace and goodness of God, and give it another go the coming week.
I was up at 4am, uploaded a batrep, then went back to sleep. I’ve been recording the Mork and Mindy marathon on sci-fi. That show brings back a ton of good memories. It seems like such a more innocent age. Funny, because supposedly it was all debauchery.
The downstairs of our house (a finished basement is a common item in Utah) is where the kids and I are lairing these days. I’m taking charge of all the bedtime routines and laundry to take some pressure off my wife, and I’m having a good time. I had the kids get all their Sunday clothes ready first thing so there would be no rush to find socks and shirts at the last possible second. Everything went off without a hitch and we were actually early to church. Sweet.
G is still having trouble in nursery. I think he’s getting too old for it. He’ll be in a new class next month. Tamara took him home early.
I taught the lesson in Elder’s Quorum today, a task I am wholly unsuited for. Oh, sure, I love to do it. I can get up in front of any number of people without any unpleasant sensation. The problem is that I’m an self-centered grand-stander. Anyway, I got to pick a General Conference talk and boy it was like being in the doughnut section– they’re all so good!
Other than that it’s been a long and lazy afternoon. The boys are bickering over toys. I put the clamp-down on that, having them gather the offending items to be stowed away for the week (this was mom’s idea, I wanted to throw them out). Parenting is tough. When to be hard and when to be soft?
Random idea: use a spark plug for an Ork Zzap Gun. Is that safe?
I brought home three army books today: Dark Elves, Daemons and Vampire Counts (I have to brush up on Renn’s army!). I’m going to add a unit of Shades to my super-mobile dark elf army.
*tyke or tike Noun 1. Brit, Austral & NZ informal a small or cheeky child
Here’s the special for December. I’m still booking projects for the last half of the month.
These are really good deals. Artistic License tends to give a good result because the artist will use techniques that he or she is really good at. Artists are always excited to get an Artistic License project.
Give Artistic License* for one of the following armies and get 25% off on Painting:
• Warriors of Chaos • Vampire Counts • Tomb Kings • Tyranids • Cryx • Skorne • Orboros • Chaos Nurgle (40K or Fantasy) • Necrons • Tau • Space Marines • Wood Elves
If the order is at least 1000 points you get 30% off the cost of materials. . Minimum order $200. . You should request the special by name. . You can contact me for a quote at bluetablepainting@gmail.com I can send an a la carte pricing guide. . *Artistic License means we get to pick how it is painted and based. It needs to be within the genre (ie no pink marines!). You get to pick armament and army list.
In other news. I am in the process of updating the various pricing spreadsheets (eg they will now include auto-calculation for various specials like L2), so you may need to request some of them. They might not be on the website.
I played TWO games today and it was awesome. Completely irresponsible. I have a very plump inbox.
Tomorrow I’ll be paying in spades: I’m going down to the studio for a fat working day. Among other things I’ll be editing and posting the juicy 90 minutes or so of footage I shot today and yesterday.
Good stuff.
For my part, I am a happy man. I got it all. Keeping it simple.
OK, here’s more. I played a game of Warhammer Fantasy with Mike. We played at 1500 pts. It was really out of sight. All I want to do is play again. It was a very close draw at the end. Every turn was a nailbiter.
This game, then, was 500 points more than the last one.
I fielded my Cold One Knights this time. And another sorceress. And a third unit of Dark Riders.
This game helped me figure out my army’s razone d’etre a little more. How does it win? How is it supposed to play? It’s really a hammer and anvil type of army– a big tarbaby unit (the Black Guard) and then a ton of very maneuverable units that harass and harry, picking apart the enemy’s cohesion, getting to where they are needed. I think that sometimes if a unit is close combat only there’s an enormous temptation to get it “stuck in” sooner than is prudent. I’m definitely like that. I like to do things and I get into trouble.
Anyway, the Cold One Knights (COK) really screwed up during this game, presenting a huge number of problems on account of Stupidity. We call this a “COK block”. So, I’m tempted to “fire” them from the roster, but I’ve decided to leave them in, and just play them better and smarter and choose magic items that will keep them on track (eg the cold-blooded banner that allows for one turn of enhanced LD).
I also need to consider that I won’t always be playing against Orcs! Renn is coming along nicely with his Vampire Counts which will be a tremendous challenge. Returning to the Cold One Knights– they have Fear which will help.
Well, I think that I’ve been maintaining the blog for two years now.
Here’s the day in a nutshell:
Sleep in.
Studio to pick up metal plates, glue and wrap up some loose ends.
Watch episode of Star Trek: Enterprise while painting up a few Dark Riders.
Get nagged by wife for not helping clean up for Thanksgiving dinner guests.
Whip the kids into shape– making them clean up while I continue painting.
Get nagged by wife again for not cooking the dishes I was supposed to cook and now it’s ten minutes until guests arrive.
Finally go upstairs and appease wife, who finds me dead-sexxy in my chef outfit.
My cranberry relish is to die for.
OK, so Joseph and his wife show up with their little cherubs and we really get a spectacular meal underway. What else? The kids were having a blast watching the muppet show and playing out in the frosty back yard.
After dinner, Joseph and I made flush movement trays for our Warhammer Fantasy armies. It’s official now, I have 2000 points of Dark Elves all painted up, with movement trays, everything ready to go. OK, well, maybe one thing missing: the hydra I have was painted by If all goes according to plan I’ll be playing a game with Mike tomorrow and will have some vids up.
Then we headed out to Blockbuster to rent a few movies: Get Smart and Hellboy II. We watched the former all four of us as the kids dropped off to sleep one by one. Get Smart was good for a few belly laughs.
Tamie put her swollen calves on my lap during the movie and I worked them into shape. Poor darling, she’s a vision of misery. Imagine hauling around a twenty pound bowling ball in your abdomen for three months. The turkey timer is almost entirely extroverted (ie her belly button, in case the metaphor isn’t clear).
So, what am I grateful for? That’s a pretty long list. I really have it all, everything important, healthy family, great wife, community, church, dream co-workers, and dream job… and clients which really, in a way, make it all possible.
As usual, we are working diligently and methodically on various projects. I don’t give updates every week because the schedule is so fluid, so changing, that it’s hard to pin down. This is natural. All sorts of things can delay (or set ahead!) a project. But I probably should do updates more often. Clients seem to like it.
The following projects are finished, awaiting documentation (digital photography), or will be done very soon (2-5 days): Big Daddy 02 CL Tyranids 01 BH B Gritty Orks 02 BC Tau 10 TO Space Marines 01 JR red/yellow Decapitator 01 JD Alien Terrain FLDLV Wyches of Thoth 02 BV AI 02 MN bombers Crimson Fists 01 RB Blood Bowl Dark Elves 01 AA Khador 03 MW Tyranids 01 ED by nov 22
The following are under the brush (or soon will be) and have an expected completion time of 5-10 days:
Old West Buildings 01 CC Gritty Orks 03 BC Heroes 01 ML Black Templars 01 RH Mortifactors 01 ST Imperial Guard 01 JF Iyanden 03 BH Salamanders 01 DD BFG 01 PM Cygnar 01 RC Eldar 01 DD Assassin 01 AK Alien Terrain War Machine 13 BF Deathwing 03 CG er Khorne 04 JB
The following projects are in Assembly or are just exiting Assembly:
Dark Elves 01 TB War Machine 14 JL Heroes 01 ML Black Templars 01 RH War Machine 12 JL Salamanders 01 DD Cygnar 01 GV Tau 03 SL Imperial Fleet 02 EB
The following projects are in a holding pattern– waiting for materials, instructions or something else:
AI 02 MN Chaos 04 JC Deathguard 02 HT Tomb Kings 01 RY
Tzeentch Lord 02 AC Warmaster 02 GQ Dark Elves 01 RC Assassin 01 AK
Sisters of Battle 02 CS Khorne Daemon Princes 01 MS Wood Elves 01 JL Ultramarines 02 SA Vampire Counts 04 LG Ultramarines 02 DS
The following projects are coming up in the next few weeks:
Warmaster 02 GQ Wood Elves 01 JL bf Tzeentch Lord 02 AC Tau 03 SL Ultramarines 02 MN Deathguard 02 HT Dark Elves 01 RC Dark Elves 01 TB Imperial Fleet 02 EB Cygnar 01 GV Sisters of Battle 02 CS Tomb Kings 01 RY bf and er Chaos 04 JC termies Khorne Daemon Princes 01 MS
See how time-consuming that is? And in 48 hours it will all be switched around as packages go flying in and out. We are careful, we keep good track of everything.
Now, if you didn’t see your project, or you have ANY questions at all, I am completely at your disposal.
A young man named John received a parrot as an early Christmas gift. Theparrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word outof the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. Johntried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently sayingonly polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could thinkof to ‘clean up’ the bird’s vocabulary. . Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelledback. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. . John, in desperation, threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and shovedhim in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Thensuddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. . Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the d oor to thefreezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arms andsaid ‘I believe I may have offended you with my rude language andactions. I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressionsand I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude andunforgivable behavior.’ . John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. As he was aboutto ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior,the bird continued…. . ……..’May I enquire as to what the turkey did?’ . Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
