Painted Model Pic-Destroyer

Here you can see that I still need work on details and "cleanliness"- I have a lot of bleedover in tight areas,  as well as un"square" corners. I'm also seeing seams from molds I probably should have filed down prior to priming/painting. However, I still love the colors.

 


















I can't figure out how to turn that one. I tried 2 or 3 times.

Hope you like him.

Next in my "show & tell" series will be some unfinished figs that I am stuck on, but love. (Doomies, folks!) Look for them in a week or so.

Old Favorites

I recently moved, so unpacking has been a way of life for the past few weeks. I am down to 3 boxes to deal with and I have actual living space (rather than a living room stacked 6' high with boxes).

I ran across many fun things from my past either while packing or unpacking. Yesterday, I came across one of my all time favorite "characters".

I put characters in quotes because I did not play him in a tabletop RPG or a LARP. In a galaxy far far away, a long long time ago, my husband and some of our friends played in an electronic wrestling federation.

The premise was that you came up with a wrestler and wrote "promos" or "shoots" with the wrestler talking or doing something to set the scene for the matches to come. Whether your wrestler won or lost was calculated in part by the "shoots" (written roleplay sessions, essentially) and sometimes by actions described in private emails sent to the refs (the guys running the show). Those kinds of actions could include things like ambushing an opponent prior to a match, wooing girls, or set kinds of tactics for the upcoming match. Extra points were awarded for creativity, originality, and writing parts of your own matches. (The fed owners often hand wrote play by play descriptions of matches and less work was an awesome deal for them.)

I enjoy wrestling, and this looked like fun. I wanted to play, but I did not want to get accepted because I was The Dude's wife. I wanted to be accepted on my own merit. I came up with an alternate name and email, a character concept, wrote up a sample RP, and applied. I was accepted.

Thus began the life of Chad Black- also known as the Exemplar.

I played Chad for almost a month without anyone discovering my identity. I really enjoyed what I did, and I'm going to share a little bit of it here with you today.


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[Scene opens to a shot of a large closet. The closet is full of white dress shirts, perfectly pressed, black pants, pleated until they could stand on their own, rows of shiny black wingtips and a legion of black leather belts. The camera pans to another closet to the right of the current closet. This closet is a walk-in, and it is overflowing with silk jackets of seemingly every imaginable color. They are all obviously expensive, designer, custom items.

The camera shifts, bored with the wardrobe display, looking for the interviewee. As it continues to pan right, the Glorious Greatness is discovered standing at the huge bay window. His back is turned, and he is seemingly enjoying the sunset over the bay of some harbor.]

The Prime of Perfection is an example of the exquisite, with hair that is touched with streaks of red throughout the light yellow curls, cut to above the ears.  He possesses a fine form, made neither miniscule nor mountainous.

Cameraman: Ahem…*coff*

(The Exemplar turns, with a slightly saddened look on his face at having been interrupted. He looks as if in thought and then addresses the camera with deliberation.)

tE: Oh, my apologies for any delay you may have experienced. I was observing this spectacular display of natural beauty. Thank you for being so kind as to send your cameras all this way. I simply wanted to elaborate a point.

(Gestures with his hand to the window)

Impeccable, isn't it? No amount of computer technology, mirrors, or editing can reconstruct that which the environment effortlessly produces daily. We witness this phenomenon repeatedly throughout our lives, yet few recognize the marvel of this accomplishment. So it is with so many other things in our daily lives. We see them appear in front of us, yet we do not recognize their greatness. We simply do not register them in our mental databanks, and it is our loss. I however, strive to acknowledge accomplishment wherever it occurs, in any form it may be shaped. This sunset is but a mere example of the many splendors submitted to my mental mainframe as guidelines for my giftedness.

Another example can be witnessed in ARMAGEDDON's ranks. I speak of no other than Shawn Page. He calls himself 'the Professional'. Of the many definitions of 'professional' are the words 'expert' and 'master'. These words certainly exemplify the quality of Mr. Page's talent, as was demonstrated at Cataclysm of Champions. This "Professional" came out to defeat a nemesis and odds that were stacked against his favor. He used his expert skill and his mastery of the mat to achieve the ultimate goal of many waiting in the wings of this fine establishment; the possession of the world title belt.


(The Paragon of Perfection moves away from the window in a nearly gliding motion, walking around the room, examining its stark and sterile nature. The room is consistent of the two closets, the window, and a small end table against a blank wall. The effect is strangely fitting, as the surroundings seem to fit the Definition of Delivery. He starts to speak again.)

It is not lost on one such as I that his fortune was dependent on random factors. I have not overlooked the animosity that exists between Mr. Page and Mr. Douglas.  I have not dismissed the formation of the united group of men par excellent in "Professionals, INC". I am acutely aware that Mr. Douglas' cohorts outnumber Mr. Page and his collegiate companion.  No, these realities are nearly branded in my cerebral capacity, and I have drawn but one conclusion. As the Prime of Perfection, the Majesty of Mastery, the Reign of Reliability, I am the prominent possibility to provide pragmatic protection to the possessor of pure professionalism. I intend to align my assistance to Mr. Page. This is of voluntary volition, without complex contracts to denigrate delivery.

When perceiving the paragon, the magnificent marvel, the euphoric entirety, one obliges to reject the remainder. If the remarkable cannot be replicated, it is upon us to enjoy and embrace that worldly wonder .So it is with myself. Enjoy me while I exemplify excellence.

(The lights in the room dim, casting slow shadows on the firm face. His expression remains motionless, as he simply snaps his fingers and the camera ….

Fades to black…

We hear a rushing wind, as if the windows have been opened, and an echoing voice proclaiming…

"I certainly will."

Grab Bag

-Warning: language-

1- I really and truly love reading BatReps (most specifically 40K, but WM too). They are almost always fun and informative. I learn a great deal about deployment (which absolutely confounds me), seizing initiative, HQ/troop selection, approach choices and rationale as well as overall tactics. BatReps are in many ways the best kind of education- most of them have pictures to describe the action, which helps me immensely.

Most writers are fantastic and fair. They describe their failures just as well as their wins. Many of them have great senses of humor with commentary like "Here's where the other guy's forces made Swiss cheese of my army" or "I actually had a chance until my dice decided to be traitors". Others are a bit more serious with excellent insights such as "in hindsight, separating my forces and sending half to advance on [X model] was a dumb move" or "Wow, could I have deployed in a more terrible fashion?".

There are a couple guys whose BatReps I read that are less than fair. One guy wins a lot, which apparently inflated his ego. His writeups are all glorious washes of his greatness and descriptions of how awesome his list and tactics are. His descriptions are great, but very inflated. There's another guy that has a pretty standard win/loss ratio, but his reports are always more than a little lopsided. His opponents are always dumb (but lucky, if they win) and when forced to partner with someone, his partners are morons that he has to prop up in some way. His reports are full of condescension and rationalizing, and his dickwashing never fails to make everyone else around him look idiotic.

So why do I read these guys? Well, the first guy wins a lot. I DO learn a lot from his approach and his explanations of tactics, even if they are douchy. The second guy is somewhat local, which makes me feel sort of obligated to read his comments, and in addition, he's a GREAT writer. If he was less of a turd, I would thoroughly enjoy his writeups. I don't know that there's any way to un-jerk-ify these guys, so I'll keep reading them, knowing I'll have to scrub the layer of slime off my brain when I am done.

2-- I had an awesome out of game session with my WOD ST recently, talking about motivations, directions, options and ideas for Eile. It was probably one of the single best head-to-heads I've had with a  GM type in YEARS.

3--- I envision Eile as a less moral Neil Caffrey.

4---- I'm trying to come up with a chicken dinner for Saturday's WOD potluck.

5----- Still working on Diamond. What do you do when you love the shell of a character but the inside is empty?