So this week I thought the stars would align and I would get loads of work done with me not having any travel at all, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. I had loads of time but for the first time in quite a while I just didn’t have any mojo so as I result is spent most of time this week watching re-runs of Farscape and Atlantis. Now that’s not a bad thing but it’s not good if you want to crack on with a project.
Keeping with the theme of things not going to plan there was no game night this week because it clashed with this valentines thing. But I did get a chance to catch up with Al later in the week and had one of the funniest moments of the year so far and he’s going to kill me for this. When I went round he had been laying some laminate flooring which by all accounts had been a nightmare because it just wouldn’t go together. Whilst he was explaining this Dan also turned up and being a builder he decided that he wasn’t getting roped into this. Eventually though curiosity got the better of him and he had a look at what Al had done, looked at the laminate, and looked back at Al. Then proclaimed that it was good stuff but why was he laying it back to front. I tried to keep my composure but one look at Al had me giggling all night. Dan got a brew for his consultation fee but wisely avoided getting roped into laying the floor.
On the gaming front I didn’t get a game in as Al and Dan had already arranged a first game of Drop Zone Commander. They had gone halves at the two player starter set with Scourge and Dan had the UCM. It took us about five minutes to build the cardboard buildings and lay the table out ready for the game. With us checking that Al was building things the right way at every opportunity. Being the first game it was a bit disjointed because there was a lot of refer back to the rules but by the end of the game things were speeding up. It likes it flows well and once you get to grips with the basics will be a fast and interesting game. Being a much smaller scale game than we usually play caused havoc with ranges though. When you are used to shooting across the table the ranges here were miniscule. All in keeping with the scale and it frees space up to move around the table, you just need to re-adjust to it. I don’t actually know who won in the end as we didn’t work out the victory points but I think it was Al.
We started to plan out a trip for next year. I’d been thinking about going back to Schaumburg for Adepticon next year and the spookily Al sent me a text asking if I’d be up for a trip next year. So as far as I’m concerned that is now firmly on the radar. Considering this year’s event hasn’t even taken place yet there isn’t a lot we can do at the moment but it means I can start to save up now. I did have a look back at some of the dates for this year’s event and it looks like the hotel bookings go up in August and the tickets go on sale in November so I’ll be keeping an eye out for those. Even though we’ve only just floated the idea I’m feeling quite excited about it. This year promises to be absolutely manic with work so it will be nice to think that I have good trip planned for next after everything quietens down.
On the hobby front font I’ve made some progress on my Smoke and Mirrors crew with Cassandra being nearly finished. The face needs eyes and lips doing, the base needs some highlighting on the wood grain and there are some other details that need doing. One of things I thought I had got to grips with when I was doing the Deathwatch was the skin tones I managed get on the faces. I thought that would stand me in good stead for these ladies but I’ve really struggled with this on Cassandra. I think it’s because there are more ‘flat’ areas of skin so you can’t rely on the contours helping to get the highlights and shades in the right places. With the larger flat areas of skin such as her back it was much harder to get contrast and to keep things smooth and even. I have to say that I’m not a hundred percent happy with the skin but I know that I can’t do any better at the moment so I’m going to leave it as it is and move on. Otherwise I think I will end up completely ruining the whole model.
I’ve also made a start on one of the Coryphee by trying to get a couple of colours started to give some definition between the different layers of the skirt. There’s no skin on these with them being a type of manikin to I will be looking go with an off white material look in those areas, although I’m not sure how I will do that yet. I think going with brighter colours will work for this crew and is also a bit sinister considering how nasty they can be.
And that’s it for this week. More travel for work next week so I have no idea if I’ll manage to get anything done but I’ll be back next week, like an old penny, regardless. Have a good week and I’ll see you all again next week.
