Wrapping Up the First Half of the Year

June's done and with it a number of dangling projects that I've finally managed to put to bed.

Horses

Crummy light, iphone camera, but at least they are done.

I don't enjoy painting horses, and decided to tackle all of those that needed painting in a single go. The great herd thwarted me for the better part of six weeks, but I've FINALLY managed to get a small portion done. The Numidian light cavalry that was pressed into early service recently just got a final touch up and some basing. I have another 12 Norman horse to finish up, but at least these fellas are done.

Bones

I received my Bones shipment today with a mix of excitement and dread. 6 pounds of plastic miniatures is now waiting for paint. Chris Palmer is already logging his progress through the Kickstarter goodies, but I may hold off until after Historicon. Getting through all of these minis is going to take some planning and pacing. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Move

The biggest event in June is that my wife, son and I finally departed our home to temporary quarters while our new house is being built. Most of my games and hobby equipment are in storage, save for a traveling paint kit and a few summer projects.

While we were packing I took the opportunity to clear out any old game or hobby bits that didn't need to be relocated to our new home. Digging through an ancient box of busted models I unearthed the very first scratch-built wargaming units I ever created.

25 years ago my very first exposure to wargaming was Rogue Trader. Games Workshop's earliest plastics were more affordable than the various metal figures I was used to painting, and I saved up my lunch money for the original plastic Space Marine boxed set.

Those Space Marines and books are long gone, but I remember an article by Rick Priestly encouraging young gamers to cobble together vehicles from spare bits. I created a copy of Rick's "deodorant hover tank" with pieces of sci-fi and military model kits I had on hand to support my freshly painted Space Marines.

Ye Old Spice hover tank. That poor dorsal cannon lost its barrel.

For some heavy support I got a little more daring and built a quadruped tank from plasticard and sacrificed Transformers toys.

My crippled mecha tank, missing his feet and roof structure.

Both vehicles saw battle only a single time before being neglected to the bits box, bumped and broken apart across half a dozen moves until I rediscovered them last month. The rest of the bits got dumped, but these two managed to be saved at least one more time, though they'll likely wind up as wreckage scenery for some post apocalyptic or sci fi games.

Looking forward to the rest of the summer I'm super excited about Historicon. I've got lots of choice games lined up and a growing shopping list. I may not be getting in too many games otherwise this summer, but the time away from the table should help me catch up on some painting.