The Fur of the Bear that Bit You

Though I have now made two different homemade battlemats that entirely satisfy my wargaming needs, yet whenever I see even the hint of a new article on the subject, I'm on it like fur on a teddy bear. Or off of a teddy bear, as the case may be.

In fact, it turns out that the stuff is an excellent, inexpensive material for making grass wargaming surfaces that are even more durable, portable, hugable, and storable than the canvas versions I have previously dealt with. 

Apparently this was a secret to exactly no one except for me. Historical wargamers have been doing this for stuffed dog's years. Some of the better examples that I've found (which is to say that they're stunning) are here and, especially, here (make sure to browse through the articles, as this guy has done several mats and each one is better than the last. Inspired, I made my way to this (admittedly kind of creepy) craft website to purchase a couple of yards of neutral colored, short-pile, synthetic bear fur.

So here's a test piece for your delectation. Above is after a rough trimming with scissors to rough up the fur a bit and to make it easier for minis to stand. Below is after I haphazardly smeared some thinned out greens and yellows in. 

I was so pleased with the results that I immediately measured and cut out a 4' square to get started on... 

...and then promptly moved apartments and forgot about the project for a while. But now I'm (quite more than) settled in, and this project is at the top of the list. Stay tuned for the detailed results of my experimentations.

...Should you post a comment in the meantime? Does a teddy bear shit in the closet?

Maker of Mountains

A long time ago, I tacitly promised myself that I wouldn't be one of those miniatures hobby bloggers that go on and on about their lead pile. I decided that I would collect figures that I thought looked too cool to pass up. I don't own duplicate sculpts (well, except for bloodbowl teams). I don't build armies, I don't buy large boxes, I don't have a mountain of figures waiting to be painted that can weigh me down.

Well, I didn't anyway. You can see above that I've done a little bit of shopping in the last year. Some nice metal from GW/Citadel and from the now-defunct Megaminis alongside some new Reaper plastiresin.

I get that I'm making a lead mountain out of a lead mole hill here, but even this small portion of minis can be intimidating to a sluggard painter like me. It all, as some old wizard said somewhere, depends greatly on our own point of view.

The idea was that if I collect in this way - handpicking models based only on what I like, and not on someone else's system - I would always have something I was excited to finish. I would never get bored. I would never have to bother some poor blog reader with how tough it is to have a hobby.

Of course, it doesn't always work that way. Creativity ebbs and flows. That's why these aren't done yet. That's why the blurry blood bowl team in the background isn't done either. But for the most part, it keeps me interested. And it keeps my warbands from being bull-shitty race-centric pseudo imaginings; every model is a character. And that's cool.

I picked these up at Games Plus out in Mount Prospect, IL, after a CSW meeting. It is hard to walk by that Bones rack without picking something up because they're so effing cheap.

Above are the rest of my Megaminis figs (as well as a GW holdover or two, and a couple figures that I sculpted but haven't gotten around to painting) that I've actually managed to prime and put on the corks.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I should have plenty of material to show you, constant readers. I'll paint these up in ones and twos and post them with pictures, fluff, and shiny new character cards for SoBH. So look for that soon.

In the meantime I expect a mountain of comments, below.

Life is a Tentacled Beast with Hypnotic Eyes

It crushes and paralyzes you in its soothing grasp and gaze of fond loathing, before holding you under the tide of sweet forgetfulness.

And now I am (as far as you know, anyway) washed up again, many months later, gasping on the shores of the internet. The sun is cold, the day is new...though Life dribbles and chuckles in the shadows of a nearby grotto, teasing with a beckoning tentacle...

A lot has happened in those lost months, and a list is no more boring a way than any other in which to recount them:

• I converted a Pro Elf team and took them to Chaos Cup 2013. I'll do a slightly more detailed post with pictures of the team and shout-outs to all the wonderful, wonderful people I met and played against.
• I spent a week keeping m'Lady company in the hospital. (She's alright now.)
• I moved apartments. Twice.
• I brewed some beer.
• I painted some new figures.
• I revived my Custom Blood Bowl Pitch project. Look for a new post on that soon.
• I took lots and lots of pictures.
• I sorted and edited those pictures.
• I discovered after restarting my computer that I had saved all of those pictures to a temporary location. Of course, I had already re-formatted my SD card. So no pictures for you.
• I was pulled over by a cop while riding my bicycle.
• I joined the Chicago Skirmish Wargames Club.
• I made a random weapons and items table for SoBH, inspired by the work of Tom Fitzgerald (and stealing much of his vocabulary). Watch this space and that of CSW for more on that.
• I started investigating Old School DnD.
• I built a table. Not a wargames table. Just a regular one.
• I decided, inspired by the work of Randroid, that this blog will now branch out to some other aspects of my hobby life. Id est brewing and drinking beer.
• I learned the actual meanings of i.e and e.g.-- i.e., id est and exempli gratia. Exempli gratia, [restart this sentence].
• I learned how to use GIMP for more effective and evocative miniature photography.
• I devised a method for making custom character cards (ala Delaney King's Skulldred Cards) using my newfound proficiency with GIMP. You'll see those soon too.
• I revamped my technique for making trees, and proceeded to make a bunch of 'em. there'll be a post on that too.

So really, this post is just another weapon in the tentacles of your own hypnotic life-monster. It beckons with the promise of many interesting things in the weeks to come.

It beckons.

Back From the Wild & Hobby Time To-Do List

I must apologize to my follower for the lack of content over the last several (yikes) weeks. I have spent my exile in the silent wilderness beyond the edges of this blog stalking that ever elusive pray... a job.

Also, Sveta and I have moved into a new apartment. Naturally that whole process has taken a lot of time. Good news, though-- I'm going to get my own study!

Picture this little room with a big ole desk in it, covered in hobby goodness. Actually, if you want a currently accurate idea, picture it full of boxes. *Sigh*

 Anywho, I have managed to get some things done, so look out for them over the next few days.

In the meantime, I find that the projects I want to do are starting to multiply in my head-- to the extent that if I don't put them down I fear they too might be lost to the silent wilderness.

Projects to do:

Bloodbowl:

• Finish painting/ modeling the Bashington Redskins
• Assemble, sculpt, and paint the Axe-Pick Murphys (dwarf team).
• Paint my human team (probably not going to bother making it complete, but we'll see)
• Get my hands on some Mantic Games elf scouts to convert into a high elf team.
• Finish my custom Bloodbowl Pitch.
• Pre-register for the Chaos Cup and book a hotel room.

Skulldred

• Make a couple of warbands! This will include a lot of sculpting.
• Make a battle mat out of VFF Suede
• Make some scenery-- this will include more trees, some hills and rocks, ruins, a couple of magical objectives, and some treasure/item tokens.

 Red Sand, Black Moon 

• Make up some gladiator profiles (I'll use my skulldred warband figs to represent them. Kill two birds with one miniature!)
• Come up with my own setting, compatible with my skulldred setting.

Beer Brewing

• Get a job, make some money to buy ingredients, and brew some dang beer. Oh yeah, and move all of my equipment from my old apartment. Ugh.

 Aside from all of this, I've been thinking about ways in which I might be able to design a multi-system, multi-scale narrative campaign incorporating Skulldred, RSBM, Warmaster, and maybe even some dungeon crawling. I think I could make a pretty awesome and engaging story this way.

But that's a long way off and a lot of thinking from now. If you're reading this, leave a comment on any cross-system campaigning you've done, and what you thought. Or just leave any old comment. 

I should probably just start by playing a campaign in each of these systems separately. That in itself will take some time.

And on that note, I must away! There is much to do!

Oh, and Peace.