First Centaur Finished!

Though I got a late start last night I did finish the first Centaur of Ezekiel's Own Life Guards ! I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. I think he's looking pretty good and very determined to do his job on the field!

By the time I finish this special unit I think they're going to have to get a +1 combat and morale bonus. They're going to be so pretty and fierce looking that they'll deserve it! Beside they have Duke Ezekiel to protect.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm painting next; whether it will be the other two Centaurs I need to finish this base, or whether a unit of AElves will be next.

I don't know just how much painting time I'm going to be able to get in during the next couple of weeks. We're doing the Guild's Christmas Sale at the Folk Art Center this Saturday. A week from Wednesday our special Jewelry Focus pieces are due at Arrowcraft. That Friday and Saturday we'll be the visiting jewelry artists at their Open House when the Jewelry Focus opens!

It'll be a lot of Fun. They are wonderful nice people, and have been very helpful and good to us. I do need to decide what kind of munchies I want to take! They always lay out a great spread for the public and themselves. Craig's meat balls are pretty special. This year it'd be nice to come up with something suitable to contribute.

I stayed up too late last night re-reading HotT and thinking about The Secret Plan. The cold front came in and Pat and I were both up hacking and coughing and feeling crappy. I was literally finsihing the Centaur when I started to drown. Definitely gross.

This morning we both have sore throats and sounds crappy. I don't think either of us is really sick, but we sure don't feel good. So we're giving ourselves a slow morning, then we'll both hit the ground running and get everything done that needs doing today.

I am addicted to my evening painting routine now! It's a lot of Fun and I am making progress. I'm beginning to give more thought to just what we might do for The Secret Plan. I definitely need TtE's help with designing this scenario . . .

This is a long post because I am writing as I experiment with uploading images. So far they seem to enlarge when clicked if I don't move them from their initial top center placement. ??? I'm trying one last variation before just posting this!

Okay, a medium at the top and then a small on the side seems to work! Thanks to the Author at the great blog http://lordashramshouseofwar.blogspot.com/ for the tip! Now I feel like I can really start to post some of our game photos.

Friday's Progress

Here's what I was able to get done Friday night. I got a much later start than I had hoped, but still had a good time. I finished up the gloves, back of the shield and it's strapping, the bow, the quiver and the arrows.

I really like the Americana DA62 Terra Cotta for strapping. But it seems a little too close in color tone to the figure itself. I decided the hair was too different from the mane, so I ink-washed both of those areas. I may yet go back and highlight them a little more. I also finished the touch ups on the saddle cloth.

Do Centaurs call it a saddle blanket? Or is it an armour cloth? Hmm . . .

I used Stone Mountain's Rebel Butternut for the bow, which is what I also used for the AElves' halbred staves. It's an okay color for wood. But I'm not sure I'll use it again. I just don't feel like I have gotten enough contrast between it and the figures.

This view of the other side shows were I am going to have to go back and touch up a couple of blue slips on his body. I generally have a couple of toothpicks ready, with wet tips, for taking care of paint slips. Sometimes you can get it all off without damaging the main paint job. But not this time . . .

It looks like I may finally be getting my photos uploaded correctly so that they can be clicked on for larger views! Yeah !!!

Oh, great ~ the first one is working correctly and this last one isn't! ARGH. They are almost exactly the same size, the second one is a very slightly larger file, and all of the upload parameters were identical.

I'm baffled . . .

Thanksgiving Day Thanks

I do have so much to be Thankful for.







Friends and Family and Love above all.






Ezekiel Anderson Gibbs was delivered by c-section after Arie was in labor for 26 hours. They, and Lucien, are well but still tired. Ezekiel will be in the NICU for another day or so before they can go home.

Pat was in the hospital about to have Carl over a Thanksgiving. She definitely relates. Somehow no one thought to bring her a Thanksgiving dinner ~ I wasn't in her life then or I would have. We'll start to make up for it today.

I am going to spend the day cooking. It's what I do for Fun. Cooking is also how I show my Love; how I make it real for others to feel, to taste, to understand . . .

At times I think that we don't think about things enough, especialy the really simple, fundamental, things ~ like Food or Living, or sometimes even Love.

Today I will do my best and I am going to have Fun ~ doing and preping and cooking and being.

Carl and I will drink some beer ~ judging by last night, probably more than we should! We did have fun and we stayed up way too late talking about just about everything. Who knows if we solved all of the world's problems? But we did talk. It was good.

We'll make up plates to take to the kids in the hospital and we will share our love with them.

I know that everyone says it . . . But, Ezekiel really is a beautiful baby! And I am tearing up thinking of him.

I did keep myself busy while we waited, at home, to hear that he was born (with Carl calling Lucien every two hours). I got some painting done on the first of the Centaurs. The night he was born was the first night I worked on this one and I was determined to get his hair done in time. I did. Actually I got quite a bit more done.

I think I spent two evenings painting him so far ~ flesh and hair and saddle blanket that first night. Then his hooves, the armour, sword and shield. No, somehow, it has been three evenings! Last night I did some touch ups, the strapping and his base.

Ezekiel's Own are coming right along!
Appropriately enough, Ezekiel has the most amazing little pointed AElf ears. Just like this Centaur's! (He really does!)

The other two Centaurs have some flash that I need to take care of before I begin painting them. It's been Fun to paint one figure. I am really enjoying myself and it's a great feeling to see these figures coming to life under my brush.

I am thankful that I am painting again.

I am thankful for my very special Friends.

Today I woke, much later than I had meant to, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving e-mail from Tim the Elder. He's as into The Secret Plan as I am! Together we're going to have a great time surprising T the Younger and Poppa John.

I really would like to do this game as a follow up to one of our Castle Devin games. At first I was reluctant to ~ I didn't want to dirupt Tim's world. Knowing that he's as into the idea as I am . . .

Oh, we're going to have Fun with this!!!

As Tim the Elder said today: "Sheriff of Devinville leading a posse chasing the squirmy Welsh into a deep misty woods... but wait, what's that un-earthly sound? A growl? A scream? OH MY GAWWWWDDDD.....!!"

It gets my imagination flowing! And it makes me want to get even more figures painted! I really think we'll have to stage the grand unveiling to celebrate my 50th Birthday. It will make that day even more special.

I think that I will remember painting Ezekiel's Own and all of the Fun and all of the thanks that fill my heart right now.

I am thankful for my Family and Friends. They really are that special. My wife is amazing and I truly love her. My friends are mind boggling. Each is special in so many different ways. It's Fun to Live! It's Fun to Love!
Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Almost Baby Time !

I am ready, and due, for a short break and so I am going to paint up some Centaurs next . . .
Goodness.

We just learned that labor has been induced and that sometime in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours our first Great Grand Child will be born.

(Gulp.)

So in His Honour it is only appropriate that I begin to paint Duke Ezekiel's Own Life Guards !!! !! !!! !

I present the beginnings of His Grace Duke Ezekeil's Own Life Guard !

Almost Finished !

I have almost finished my AElvish Halbreds !!! I spent Sunday afternoon painting and watching cooking shows on PBS. Fortunately most of them weren't too interesting so I got quite a bit done. The hair is finished, eyebrows added where needed, halbred shafts touched up again, and then (while watching the classic Zulu) all of the rivets and halbred blades re-painted with a shinier silver. I went ahead and painted their bases, using an avocado green ~ which I've decided looks much better than the hooker green I had been using for the last few years.

If I can get blogger to load this image correctly you should be able to click on it for a larger view. I hope you'll agree that they are looking pretty good for figures that are about an inch tall!

I still need to work on their faces and the knotwork design on their scabbards. I haven't decided how I'm going to do the knotwork ~ whether to use blue or maybe silver, or mayber even different colors . . .

I think I'm ready for a little break before working on the faces too. I have to decide just what paint I'm going to use! I think I used a Humbrol flesh way back when I first started these figures. These days I really prefer the generic craft store acrylics, but I haven't found the perfect flesh tone yet. Well have to see . . .

After sitting back and just enjoying looking at these figures I pulled out my boxes of Ral Partha figures. After some more looking and enjoying I think I have my next perfect painting project!

I have a good number of, mainly Ral Partha, centaurs. All along I've intended them to be Allies of the AElves. I think three of them that will be my next painting project! A fun change of pace and beautiful figures.

Watching Zulu did get me thinking about The Secret Project again . . . I've gone back and forth in my mind for some time about different ideas. Reading some of the great 18th Century gaming blogs about different Imagi-Nations recently reminded me of the neighboring, and belligerant, Empires that Ted M. and I mapped out back in high school.

At one point I was had thought about maybe making the traditional barbarian kind of orcs actually technicologically further ahead. A bit difficult though on the figure front. Now Zulu has me thinking along more traditional, though a bit different lines.

HoTT has a neat points system that allows for easy army customization. So my orcs could be fielded as blades, warbands, auxillaries, or just about anything I want or need. Seeing the Zulus disappear and re-appear in the terrain reminded me of playing The Sword & The Flame with Alan H. years ago. The hidden movement rule for the Zulus really added to the game tension. Definitely something to remember when it comes time to field my orcs!

This view is one of my favorites and really shows how they will look on the battlefield.

The unit is on the a cheese tray, with the lid behind them, that I use to store them on one of the living room shelf when I'm not working on them. It keeps them close by and available and keeps the dust off of them. I picked this up years ago for just a couple of dollars. It's perfect for my needs.

Painting Area and Progress

Somehow it's Sunday again and I haven't posted in a couple of days . . . I have made some progress though! I got a late start both Thursday and Friday nights. It took both of those sessions just to get the gloves finished, though I think they look pretty good.

It occured to me that with all of my talk of cleaning and re-arranging I need to follow the gaming/painting blogging tradition of posting a photo of my work area. So here's the roll top in it's new location, both closed and opened. The large vase in the center was made by our friend Hamilton Williams. The two flanking it were made by Betsy Gray. Both are fellow S.H.C. Guild members.

Still in keeping with tradition, here's a shot of my actual painting work area. I like to use a wooden folding TV table. Since I still haven't found the perfect chair yet, I took this while seated in Pat's glide rocker.

I spent a good part of Saturday morning checking out Ral Partha auctions on eBay. That made me feel good, since I found some of the early orcs and goblins that I like so much. I also found a bunch of the Ral Partha medievals that are the same line that Tim the Elder uses with his Castle! Besides just being so cool I'm wondering if I like his games so much because we get to play with his collection of Ral Partha figures! For me those Ral Partha figures from the Seventies are the definition of beautiful wargaming figures!

Pat went to a tea at Marlein's church, so Saturday afternoon I puttered around and then got some painting time in later while watching Shakespeare in Love. It's a perfect background movie for me. Unfortunately I slipped Friday night, and painted this AElf's face and hair and halbred staff! I hate do-overs, whether painting or in our work. But I do them gladly to make things right.

So Saturday's first job was to fix him! I' not sure what I'm going to do about his face though. Or, for that matter, any of their eyes. The eyes on these figures should be do-able. They're well cast and the detail is there. I'm not sure if I'm going to paint them in our do shadows in the eye sockets . . .

By the time Pat got home I was finishing inking all of the hair. I got a start on drybrushing some of them with lighter shades. But I decided to put them aside and we watched an episode of the brillant new PBS Sherlock Holmes series on PBS.

As soon as I run to the store today I'm going back to knocking out the hair!

Set Up & Consequences.

It's been a haul, but the living room is essentially finished. Well, there's a couple of stacks of books tucked into the coat closet, the speakers need to be moved and I need to clean the glass and put them back into the display case. Other than that (and cleaning the windows and blinds) our living room is cleaned and re-arranged!

I even got the two hall book shelves emptied, cleaned and re-loaded yesterday. That added a few more books for Mr. K's!

The living room looks and feels much better. My roll top desk holds my paints and there is a perfect place for my new painting chair ~ once I find it!

After dinner I, once more, borrowed Pat's glide rocker, pulled the lamp over and got some painting time in. I was all set to finish the last three heads of hair . . . But for background we turned the TV on and Monarchy was on PBS. It's such a well done show and so interesting that Pat put her book down and I laid my brushes down to watch.

Once it ended, I was ready to knock out the hair and move on to touching up and highlighting gloves . . . Pat decided that Across the Universe would be fun to have on in the background. (We both had Dear Prudence running through our heads all day.) Great music and visuals, and a really well done musical.

I only got the hair finished, on the last three figures that needed it. Too much visual stimulus in the background! Still, it was fun and the figures are coming along. I took a couple of photos before last night's session; which is why one of the figure's hair is only primed.
The figure second from the right has an odd reddish/brownish color showing on some areas of his mail. I'm not sure what it is! At one point I thought it might be a symptom of lead rot coming through the paint (and it might be, I don't know). But I have been able to scrub some of it off with the tips of toothpicks. I'll clean it up as much as possible and touch the paint up.

Detailing their faces, painting their lips and eyes, may be next rather then the gloves. By then the hair should be ready for inking and highlighting. Then onto some metallic ~ I think all of the rivets need emphasising and the halbred blades could be brighter, shiney-er. I still have to decide how I want to paint the knotwork pattern on the scabbards.

There is more to go, but I feel like I am over the hump now.

And, at least as important, I'm really enjoying my painting time. It is becoming a positive pattern or habit. This is Fun!

Oh, the consequences part of all this cleaning and re-arranging . . . now I have all sorts of clutter and piles of magazines, and ten plastic shoe boxes of painted Ancients figures, waiting for me to find a new place or way to store them . . . But the living room looks and feels Great!