Christmas Is Coming

Be Warned

Importance Of Family - Obviously Not A Gaming Post

It is said that Christmas is just around the corner. At the moment it feels like it more round a blind alley. I have been to the local Christmas market today, all eight stalls of it, just to have a hot dog. Except that it's a bratwurst because we all know that German sausage brings out the true meaning of Christmas. Tell me if I need to up the irony for anybody at any point.

To be honest I haven't done much other than some computer gaming for a few days. My cousin has been up for some work and I have had him staying with me whilst he is up here. This is no bad thing. he is not a bad bloke and I am happy to help out.

But Christmas is coming. lest we all forget that. A time of good cheer, beer turkey and massive bills. I can't help but think it's about family. I have lost the two most important members of my family in the last years so it ha made me think more and more about the wider family. And Christmas is coming. It's a bad time of year for all, in a lot of ways but it does have it's good points. One of those is family. So, take my advice, as someone who is not going to get to see his mum and dad this year, family is important and if you have a chance to do something with them, make it happen whilst you can.

Late Night

It's been a long day and a day of hard work, by my standards at least. It's getting to the end of the month and I feel my work is never done. And the space orcs aren't done either. I was kind of hoping to have them complete today and have strayed onto a new background project. That said, I am pretty damn close to finishing them. Sadly, I am no closer to deciding what to do next.

End Of The Week & Ghouls

I have had a good week this week and The New Cruelty is happy. I have managed to achieve all of my goals from last week. I did get all seven of the ghouls I started, done. Done, based, varnished and completely finished. As far as it goes I am never happy but I am happy enough with these.

On top of this I have been working on six space orcs. Well in truth I have been working on eleven of them but I have been concentrating on just six. The six are pretty much finished, with a few details needing finishing off. For this reason I am not counting them as complete. The remainder are not that far of being finished either.Another good day should finish these off. If memory serves, I got that at a show at Leeds last December. So a year turn around time is not that bad, for me at least.

In terms of writing  have been working on the Viking Game again. I have finished one of the background myths about the Romans and another which is roughly based on the Volsung Saga which has already been liberally borrowed from. I have done relatively little on the later but I have done some thinking about it.

Next week does not have much of a plan yet. The space orcs will not take all week. They will not be my finest work (still tabletop standard but not much more) but they will do nicely for what I want. As ever the question is what's next? I've had a look at what is about on the desk. It is finishing things of rather than doing something new. The plan is to do another basing bash but this is not the immediate plan.

Rough Month On The Blogging/Life Front - Not A Gaming Post

It's getting to the end of the month and I have just realised that I have managed to miss posting on three days. I had planned to post every day this year and at the very least post once for every day of the month and that seems like a target I am unlikely to meet. Christmas is now on the horizon. Whilst I love the day and the spirit of Christmas, it's looking like a month of hell at the moment. This calls into doubt my ability to get enough stuff done to make the daily blogging thing anything worth reading. That said, it seems a shame to stop now, especially as I have gotten so close to my goal.

Whilst it really is a state of mind thing, there is a lot going on at the Jacko's place at the moment and none of it is conducive to getting things painted. This is starting to annoy me in fact a number of things are starting to annoy me. The worst of it is that I don't actually see anything changing that anytime soon. This is not all bad. It has been at the heart of the burst of effort early in the week however it is getting in the way now.

When I think back, I am starting to see a pattern. I am looking at what has gone on recently and it all seems to be related. This means that I need to start looking at the bigger picture to see what is going on.

Work In Progress

Today has proven to be another busy one. Whilst I seem to have been busy enough painting I haven't got that much done. My mind has jumped from one project to the next. The ghoul figures are pretty much done but I am now working on the bases. They looked pretty bare so I thought I needed to njazz them up. Although they were purchased for a fantasy game I also have a plan for them in a post apocalypse setting. This means that I want the bases to do for both settings. So I have done a few bricks to dress them up a bit. I also got the GW box of skulls a few weeks ago. I can see every project from now on having at least one skull on them. Given that ghouls feed on the dead, pr anything they can make dead, I figured adding a few skulls would fit this. If I can find a few more bits to add to make them look busy I will.

I have also done a bit of work on the space orcs for Titansgrave. The figures are a pain and their arms bend in such a way that they can cover up a lot of details making it awkward to paint them. the base coat is pretty much done now. Some inking and highlighting is still needed. With abit of luck I should finished the six orcs and the seven ghouls well before the end of the week and maybe even have moved on to doing some more.

Speeding Ahead

Today has been a really busy day. My other half is ill again. The fourth bug in five weeks. I've had a plumber in changing the sink, laundry needing doing, do,g needing walking, not to mention a pile of work needing doing. This morning I was expecting to crash during the day but have been too busy to sleep. This means that I have been up and about and productive. When I have had time I have used it for painting. In fact I have managed to do a lot of painting. My target for the week is almost complete.

As well as doing all of this I have done some work on a dozen or so other figures. Another project I put off is the orcs for Titansgrave. Then there is a stream of fantasy figures that are background projects. These are not really any closer to being finished but it makes me feel good that they are just a bit closer to being done.