I’m going to start off this week’s waffle with a controversial subject that is nothing to do with gaming. It’s to do with a famous drink that I don’t particularly like. But everyone says you have to try it in Ireland because that’s where it’s from and it tastes much better. So having spent this week in Belfast I’ve made the trip to the Crow and had a pint of the black stuff but here’s where I get really controversial. I wasn’t impressed. Don’t get me wrong there was nothing wrong with it but it was just uninspiring, nothing special. What they did have however was a rather fantastic plum porter which did make me go back for more, so not an entirely wasted trip. Now that I’ve alienated myself from the lovers of the black stuff I suppose it’s about time to get on to the gaming update.
For this week the main thing for me has been booking tickets for Adepticon in Schaumburg next year. As some of you will know I had a bit of disaster with the hotel booking and Darren had to step in to save the day so I was determined to get this right. Darren kindly put together a Google workbook so everyone could tick off the events they wanted me to book for them which only left me the little tasks of being up and alert this morning at 02:00 (GMT), followed by navigating the rather clunky booking system.
I had considered just stopping up but it’s been a long week of travel and I was felling tiered so I decided to have an early night and set the alarm to get up in plenty of time. Phase one went well and I dragged myself out of bed in time, got the coffee on and then got myself settled in front of the computer whilst the clock counted down and the booking system opened. The plan for this year was go book the tickets first and then once they were secure to go back in and add the events to the booking. I did it this way as when I booked in 2016 I tried to book everything, for four people in one go. The result was that if one element was sold out or not available for some reason you had to go back update the whole booking and it took me forever to do this, resulting in us missing out on some of the things we really wanted to do. My plan was that doing things this way would make my life a bit easier, the pressure comes off a bit once you know the weekend ticket is secure.
This year’s efforts went a bit more smoothly than last time and I’m happy to report that I managed to secure weekend tickets for all of us. I didn’t manage to book all of the games and seminars that everyone wanted as some of them were booked up before I got to them, but I’m hoping everyone will be happy with what I have been able to secure. I’m not going to list what we did and didn’t manage to book in this post for a couple of reasons, firstly I want to let the lads know first so that they don’t have to read this to find out what I’ve booked for them, although that would be funny. The second is that I’m going to do a sperate article about all the key stages in our road to Adepticon so this will make for some extra content for that series. Plus it’s now xxxx (GMT) in the morning and I really want to go back to bed soon. Long gone are the days when I could stop up all night partying.
With the event tickets and accommodation now secure we just need to work out how to get there but that’s something we can work out over the next few weeks. My preference would be for a jet plain as I don’t fancy rowing across the Atlantic. Especially not with lots of models in tow.
Even the though the main focus for this week has been booking those Adepticon tickets I’ve done a little be of work on a new Grot Bot head. Wanted to try a couple of tweaks that I think will make for a better finished piece. Still got a ways to go but I’m beginning to feel like I’m getting some of mojo back.
I’ve also managed to turn out a few nuts and rivets using the moulds I got from Green Stuff World. The smaller ones I don’ think will be that much use, mainly because whilst the are nice an detailed they are bit too tall for what I’m looking for, but the four larger sizes will certainly see a lot of use. Now that I’ve got the hang of using the models and working with Miliput I’m going to keep churning these out so that I have a nice stockpile built up for when I need them. I used a few of them on a test of a body section and I like how they turned out but I think I may have gone a bit overboard with using so many of the same size. Having said that I do like it and think that will a lick of paint it will work really well.
I’m going to bring things to a close now and go back to bed for a few hours. The plan for next week is to crack on with the grot bot test pieces and also to bring up an update on what we manged to book, and what I failed to book for Adepticon. Plus if any of you are going to be at Adepticon next year congratulations on getting you tickets and who knows, I may even get to meet some of you in person. Have a good weekend and I’ll catch you all again next week.
