SNOW DAY!!

It's snowing.  It's snowing a lot.  It's 6:39 AM, been snowing for hours.  We've been flirting with snow stuff for days, but it's really coming down, enough so the Puyallup School District announced today's closure at 5:30 last night. So, while Snowpocalypse 2012 roils on, I am going to be painting and working on my Chickasaw stockade.  I hope to have a few new posts too.  Will put some pictures up of today's winter wonderland when it is light enough.

Saying Goodbye Was Hard

Early this morning I headed north to an Indesign workshop in Montlake Terrace.  For those who don't know, Indesign is a page layout program that is a wonderful tool  It can do far more than the Pagemaker 2 I started out with so many years ago.  Nevertheless, I am such a miserable schlub with the program.  I have CS3 at home and at school and it's the program we use to lay out the paper.  I am little or no help to my students, so I thought it was important to take the class the Washington Journalism Education Association was offering.  All I proved was that I need a lot more practice as well.

I made myself a promise to stop by American Eagles on the way back.  I've wanted to go the last couple of weeks to take advantage of the sales.  No, that's not really true, I really wanted to stop by to pay my respects.  I knew from visiting the shop after Drumbeat there wasn't a lot I was interested in, but I was sure I could find something, even if it was a token amount, I could use for one project or another.  I arrived at the shop at about 3:00, and it was pretty busy with a fairly consistent line at the register.  I was really hoping to find a nice 1/48th sale model of a P-6E Hawk.  The army flew these in formation at the Cleveland Air Races, and I thought it might be a fun addition to my collection.  Alas, there was no such thing, much to my chagrin.

So, I spent a lot of time looking.  There were lots of model planes, but not one that really floated my boat.  There were tons of role-playing supplements, but not many sets of game rules, definitely none of interest.  There were many leftover copies of Seekrieg 4.  There's a reason for that. Lots of very nice Clash of Arms games, but board-gaming really isn't my gig.  I finally settled on a a couple of 1/700 ship kits.  One was a Spruance class destroyer.  Designed in the 70's and retired after 2000, I figured I couldn't go too far wrong with that.  The Taiwanese picked up four of these just prior to 2000, so I can maybe use it in an Airwar C21 game.  I also picked up the Tamiya set of Japanese auxiliaries for World War II.  Comes with three handy small vessels.  Unfortunately the labeling is all in Japanese, so I'll have to check on what I actually got.

 There was something deflating about the entire shopping trip.  Though I never went to the Lake City shop enough to feel at home there, it did seem that I was saying goodbye to something familiar.  I've been going to American Eagles for years.  I remember George Edwards when he was a little boy running around the shop making his mom crazy.  I went to American Eagles when I was first married, and when I was carrying Patrick around in my arms. Today is Pat's 31st birthday.  And today I'm saying goodbye, as I said goodbye to Escape Velocity in the 80's and American Eagles in Tacoma a few years back.  They're places I grew up with, and now they're gone.

Quick update

It's been a week since my last post. I've been working on my Comanches, and I hoped I'd have some to share by this time. I've made progress on all twenty foot figures and finished a couple of them. I should be finishing them in batches of four or five per night. Unfortunately I've had a busy weekend and things just didn't get done as I planned.

This is the second year I've missed out on Salute hosted by the Trumpeter's Club in Vancouver, B.C. I really miss it, but it conflicts with the WJEA state convention and competitions and my students rightfully expect me to be there. There are great guys, those I consider my friends in the Trumpeters Club and I feel quite sheepish not being there to support them. Unfortunately there isn't much I can do at this point.

Deadline Weeks are Hard!

We're on deadline this week. I know I use that phrase sometimes, but what does it mean? As a newspaper adviser it means that one week per month we're working hard to get the paper designed and laid out and get it to the publisher. That's chiefly done by my five student editorial board. How does that affect me? I'm the last editor, so I'm busy reading stories. I'm not a designer, though I'd like to learn to use the software so I can help students as they encounter problems.

It does mean some late nights. Last night I left school at 9:00, tonight it will be 10:00, and tomorrow it will be later. It means I have less time to paint, read, sleep, correct papers-you name it. Other restrictions go with the territory too. For the second year in a row, I'll be unable to attend Trumpeter Salute because the state journalism convention is on the same weekend. The latter is something my students really enjoy because of the classes and write off competitions. I love Salute because I get to see my friends, play some games with Doug and spend the weekend in Burnaby.

So, I'll try to squeeze a few minutes of painting here and there. I'm nearly done with the figures for my three small battalions of Washington D.C. militia. I hoped to have them done last weekend, but no such luck. After that I have six HYW figs I want to paint, eight Space 1889 guys, before focusing on Lewis and Clark. I'm also in the middle of drafting some rules for an L and C skirmish game. I'll post pics when I get done.

2009

Gosh, it's the first post of the New Year and time to set some goals.

My first goal is to stay on task. No new projects, regular blog posts, at least one game to write about per month. That's not always easy, but I'll do my best.

Stick to the projects I am really interested in:

1. Space 1889-in terms of projects supported by a bunch of folk, this is by far my most active project. I also cover this with my other blog, The Shastapsh Chronicles, so I'll try not to belabor that here. I've ordered my last figures for this project, and hope to wrap it up this year.
2. War of 1812-this is a project that I've done with Doug Hamm, but I really only have Americans and a few Brits painted. I have a lot of unpainted figures, including unpainted Brits, I'd I like to have enough painted figures to host my own games when Doug isn't in town or I'm not in Canada.
   
3. Lewis and Clark and a hypothetical war with Spain 1794-1807/Anthony Wayne's Legion. These go together because American regulars wore the same uniform during this period. I have a lot of semi-militia looking figures for this period, I also have lots of woodland Indians painted-surely I can paint what I have, decide on a set of rules and host a game or two. This period has the most potential for figure growth during the year. I'll try to keep it to something that isn't willy-nilly.
   
4. AWI-I still have some unpainted figures and I would very much like to build on the success of Cowpens. There are a couple of brand new books on the war in the South that I'll blather on about in a future blog post that directly relate to this game project and the future of Tarleton's Quarter.
   
5. The Hundred Years War-I've taken a respectful little break from these and I anticipate painting more of the hundreds and hundreds of unpainted knights and etc., toward my Medieval Warfare/FOG and Arrowstorm armies.
   

There-stay on message as the political campaigns say. I've also reset my painting log for the year.

Oh, and one more thing. I'd like to thank each and every one of you who have stopped by to read these posts. I don't think this blog is anything particularly special. It's an opportunity for me to blather on about my little part in this fairly odd and wonderful hobby. But I thank you for taking the time to check in.

Transition

I have a lot going on right now. We're moving toward the holidays and all the requisite responsibilities that go with being the chief host for the big ones like Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Coupled with Casey moving home the first of the year, Lorri and I have been tearing the place apart, letting go of some cherished possessions (okay, she's letting go of crap, I'm letting go of cherished possessions.) Finally I have some leftover baggage from last year's controversial JagWire issue. The school district is being sued, and my name has appeared in the papers in most unflattering terms. It's been unsettling and unpleasant to say the least.

In any case, I've been trying to make time for painting and gaming as much as possible. I'm slowly making the move to focus just on my Martians and War of 1812 stuff. I haven't gotten too far with the transition yet, but I'm pleased.

The Space 1889 project is important because we're preparing for a SGoM and Space 1889 campaign. It should be a lot of fun, but I need to wrap up my RAFM miniatures for the land battles. At the very least, I need to finish up my 60 Shastapsh militia figures, and so far I have 24 finished with another dozen in the "ready to paint" category.

I've begun working on a pile of War of 1812 militia figures by Old Glory. I've gotten a real good start on the command figures, and should have nine figures or the command stands for three units done tonight-tomorrow at the very latest. My aim is to really roll on this project. It's just one of those times I feel energized about a period and need to take advantage of it. Militia first, then my remaining Amerian regulars, before heading on to the British.

Coming Down the Home Stretch

It's the last week of summer break. It's been a nice long break, and I think I've used the time reasonably well. I've painted a lot. In fact, you can see my painting calculations on the right. Mostly I've painted 25mm HYW figures. Because this is a new project, and I want sizable armies, it's going to take a while to get everything done. I've now finished 15 bases of archers, four bases of crossbowmen, three bases of cavalry, four bases of Irish kerns, and two bases of dismounted men at arms (with another six bases started. All in all, that's 114 figures painted or under way. Throw in a few hydroplanes and that doesn't look bad for a summer's work.

I'm going to finish the men-at-arms under way, and then take a little break from Poitiers. I'll probably take a little trip to Mars and work on some of the goodies I have there. There are some mounted troops, a some sepoy types, and I'm hoping that my order of militia men arrive soon. After that, it may be back to the HYW, or maybe a different direction. I still have about ten DBA armies to paint, more AWI, the War of 1812, and Wayne's Legion. Let's see what gets my attention.

Fighting the Funk

Been in a bit of a funk this week. I'm still recovering from a touch of the bug Saturday night, which has left me tired and feeling cranky. I am still picking at the Anglo Danes, though they are getting close, and have made zero progress on Slo-mo-shun IV. The latter is tricky because the paint I've used for the cowl and tale is just not going to cover the mahogany deck coloring, so it will likely take twenty-six coats. More margin for error.

David Sullivan called the other night to let me know he's received his basing material for Medieval Warfare. That's generated a little more interest for me in that project, so I may just take that one on for the time being. I got my Litko bases last week, so I am able to put together a bunch of stands too. I do need to finish the DBA army, Slo-mo, and my Austrian hussars for Mexico, but then I think I can work on the HYW stuff for real. I've got a dozen longbowmen ready to paint, but think I'll focus on the French around Poitiers.

One contributing factor for the funk is no games. I'm up to my eyeballs in family and social obligations this month. I've got stuff going on every Saturday. That doesn't include Dave Demick's 60th birthday, and I can't miss that. At least school is out in a few days. Maybe I can squeeze in a couple of weekday games.