Looking Ahead...

I miss the days when this blog was much more active and I'm not happy with the minimal posting I've done over the last several years. I'm at a point where I need to make a decision about what I'm going to do moving forward.  I'm not going to erase the contents of this blog, but I might just shut it down and leave it here in case anyone tis interested in the posts or some of the other content; I do have people still downloading the Adventures in Fantasy character sheet from time to time so that's cool. Some of the things that will affect my decision or my ability to post regularly will be discussed below.

WORK COMMITMENTS

In January of 2024 it will be one year since I accepted a position in the Quality Assurance department of my employer.  Of course, the increased salary came with more responsibilities and more time commitments so that will definitely affect how often I can post on the blog.  Fortunately, the decision to accept this position was the correct one because I do enjoy my job and the challenges tremendously. On top of that, we are in the process of launching two new models of school bus so that will definitely be demanding on my time as well.  I would assume that from December of 2023 to the end of the first quarter of 2024, it will be the most challenging period for us.

SUBJECT OF POSTS

The main subject of this blog will still be roleplaying games and related subjects with various posts about reading, miniatures, fan films, and pretty much whatever else grabs my attention.  I know the OGL drama seems to have settled down, but I think I'm going to look into moving away from using the OGL to post anything.  I'm most likely gong to post nothing but house rules like new races, new monsters, etc. from my campaign but I think I'm going to play it safe and use a different format other than Delving Deeper to post the information. Make no mistake about it, Delving Deeper is still my game of choice and I will always recommend it and my home campaign will be ran using it. I just think for posting stuff in a public area such as this I'm going to use a format inspired by the old gaming products of the past that were "close but not quite D&D".  Maybe I'm being too cautious?  I'm not a lawyer by any means and I don't have the time to commit to writing a new clone from scratch at this point. I did take the time, however, to come up with this new format in a 2 page pdf.  It still needs a little bit of tweaking, but I will post it here in the near future.

POST FREQUENCY

At this point, I think the best estimate I can make for 2024 is committing to post once per week. I can use whatever subject I like so the post may come any day of the week.  I could post for "Miniature Monday" one week and then "Fan Film Friday" for the next.  That does NOT mean I won't pick up the pace at some point but once a week should not be an unrealistic goal. 

REACHING THE DECISON

I plan on evaluating progress every 90 days of 2024.  I've also started bullet journaling for work and for home/recreation so that has helped me quite a bit.  I like having concrete plans on paper that I can look at and track progress. I never used the bullet journal method before, but I used to track things much better and I lost that in my recreational activities, so it fell by the wayside and took a backseat.  Hopefully, I can maintain a healthy and productive work/life balance from now on.  It's not unhealthy right now but it is somewhat lopsided, and I need to correct the course.  Let's see what happens on the road ahead...

[Miniature Monday] Grave Wraith

 

Ugh...work has been demanding lately.  I just realized it's been a month or a little over since my last post.  We had a four-day weekend at work, so I decided to paint this Grave Wraith miniature that I've been meaning to paint for a while.  I began by opening the miniature, cleaning it with dish soap and water, and then mounting in on a base.

The second step was painting the main color.  I went with a Skeletor inspired color for the robe.  I also decided to add in some black in the face area and a few other small areas.

Then I painted the gravestone and the sword as well as the tiny Skeletal fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword.

Then I painted the earthen area by the feet and gravestone.

Next, I did some touchup in the areas that need it done.

 

Finally, I did a wash on the miniature and then put a coat of Brush on Sealer once the wash had dried.  

[Miniature Monday] Naga Part II

I completed the second Naga using mostly Vallejo Xpress Color paints for the majority of the miniature.  I would have used them for all of the miniature but there are not metallic paints in the range as of yet and when I returned to buy more the display rack was already down to less than half full. It went much quicker than the Naga I painted in another post.  I will definitely buy more of the Xpress Color paints because they make the process so much quicker to complete.

[Miniature Monday] Vallejo Xpress Color

I made a stop at one my local FLGS locations on Friday and noticed they had a rack of the Vallejo Xpress Color paints setup in their shop.  I tried the standard Vallejo paints when I first started painting and I have remained a fan of them ever since.  I have tried a variety of paints, but I still maintain a healthy selection of the Vallejo range in my collection.  

After browsing through the rack, I decided to pick up three bottles of the Xpress Colors to test them out on an unpainted miniature this weekend.  I still had an unpainted Naga miniature in my collection.  I decided to paint it so I could compare it with the other one I painted a while back. I did not finish painting the Naga but it wasn't because I was disappointed with the results.

I used Snake Green (far right) for most of the body and yellow for the mid-section of the front.  You can tell the difference between the other Naga (left in the picture) and this new one.  The reason I chose to stop painting is because I'm enjoying using this paint and I'm going back to pick up the other bottles before I continue painting.  We get our bonus payout at work this week and that's going to be my splurge item.  

The Xpress Color paint is really smooth and flows like milk.  It's going to take a minor adjustment on my painting method but that's not a bad thing.  I can skip the wet palette for these, and it seems like one coat will most likely do the trick.  Simply put, I can paint more miniatures in a shorter amount of time.  Since my miniatures are for in-game use rather than competition or showcase then that's perfect for me.

 

[Miniature Monday] I Need a Working Space

I have no completed miniature to showcase in this post but here's a look at my current painting area.  Yes, it's part of my kitchen countertop and I need to change it.  I'm going to be on the hunt for a reasonably priced desk or table and some sort of paint stands (or something similar) to get this mess moved from my kitchen to the other room.  I always thought I was just going to have a few bottles of paint and a few miniatures because I intended to give this part of the hobby a try and put it back down.  Now I have over 40 bottles of paints, several sets of brushes, and an accumulated collection of miniatures waiting to be painted.  I'll update in the future when I get a dedicated space.

 

[Miniature Monday] Mind Flayer

 

I've had this miniature for a while, but I was holding off until I thought I was good enough to paint it reasonably well.  I finally got tired of waiting and decided to give it a whirl.  I didn't have to remove any paint or any major rework during the painting process so I'm pretty happy with the results.  I now have a table ready Mind Flayer for my collection.  I need to look into some of the other old monsters such as Beholders and Ropers sometime in the future.

02/5 - 02/11 is a Wash

For the week of 02/05/2023 to 02/11/2023 there will be zero content posted other than this post.  My new position at work finds me really enjoying what I'm doing but this week was a curve ball and required an extraordinary amount of overtime.  I put in 70 hours, and I just don't have it in me.  A temporary lull in posting and then it should pick back up soon.   

[Fan Film Friday] Never Hike Alone 2: A Friday the 13th Fan Film

A sneak peek at the Friday the 13th fan film, Never Hike Alone 2.

[Miniature Monday] Goblins

I began the paint job on these goblins almost 2 years ago.  I only painted the exposed akin areas and then I closed on my house so were lost in the shuffle for a bit.  During the last week I was at a point where I was between painting projects, so I settled on these Goblins.  I was originally planning on painting only one of them. I wasn't really satisfied with the results, so I decided to continue on with some more.  As you can see from the picture, I wound up painting three of the Goblin miniatures.  

I know I've stated several times that I'm not a competition painter and I have no intention of becoming one. I kept thinking that the results would eventually turn out better, but it didn't matter what I tried to do to produce a better paint job. I'm really not happy with the results.  I'm pretty much meh on these three Goblins.  They do pass my arm length test of not resembling a blob of paint, but these are definitely the miniatures I am least satisfied with in my collection. 

What are my thoughts on this experience?  I did experiment with painting the base of one of the Goblins black.  I do like that and may continue to do so but I will use the black circles instead of the tiled circles in the future.  Maybe it's the lack of a strong contrast between the color of the Goblin skin and the clothing that doesn't quite work for me? Maybe my paints were properly thinned or mixed for this project?  Maybe I'm overthinking it and being too critical?  I honestly don't know on this one.  I do have three more Goblins to paint so I will give it another go sometime down the road.

 

[Miniature Monday] Kobold

 

I completed my first Kobold miniature and I still have 5 more left to paint. This is one of the few tiny miniatures I have attempted.  I am not disappointed in the results, but I do see some areas that need improvement.  I need to give in and open up the smaller brushes I bought just for this size of figures.