Leaderboard

Love this whole line of models

So I was at Michael's and stumbled on this little craft paint ceramic dog figure. I couldn't get over how it reminded me of my dog. I had to get it. I primed it in black and started to do my work. I wasn't sure how I'd make this work, but doing most of the work with a big dry brush and scaling down each layer ended up working great. I can't even describe how happy I am with this stupid little project, but I love it! This is my actual dog (model) And here's what I started with.

Hello all your Reaperrocious folks! So I've got a few 3D prints of some Stonehaven Miniatures minis, and here is the one I just finished, a female gnome druid. I based her color scheme mostly off the pre-sculpting art that Mike Evans did, and one thing I tried this time which I actually like how it turned out was I used Gingerbread Tan, one of the Christmas colors from Reaper, as the base color of her skin. and to reflect that Gingerbread Tan skin, did a few close ups of her face, which I'm actually quite pleased with, eyes turned out okay and didn't have to retake pictures after seeing the first time like I do a lot when I see the first set of pictures and I notice lots of dust or specks or a rebellious piece or grass, et cetera. Anyhoos, she was a very fun figure to paint. I was a little intimidated with her size and some of the details, but ultimately pretty easy to work on, and her eyes very exposed to the point and large enough that they turned out pretty well too. So hope you enjoy!

This was a bit intimidating to start painting. I was expecting absolute hell with all the eyes and teeth, not to mention the shading. I pulled out the new Army Painter speed paints and slapped down the base colour in seconds. Instant win. Other than having to spray varnish it to avoid the paint reactivating, it was a very quick win. The eyes were, ...surprisingly fast and relaxing. It was almost therapeutic to paint eye after eye. The teeth were similar, but took longer than the eyes, which was not my original expectation. In the end, I think it turned out suitably horrific.

Another one I painted the base layers and then got stuck over-worrying about the scale pattern. I finally just went for it and did it fast. The results work I think, it makes it look more like scales not being perfect lines. Still learning to let go and paint faster and enjoy the flow. This one was a success for that.

This is an original sculpt by daughter a few years ago I forgot to photograph. I had no idea what this was and had to ask, apparently it is an Andalite from the Animorphs series. She sculpted this from scratch, and considering it was one of the first things she made I think it turned out amazing.

It's upload day! Please excuse the deluge of posts incoming. First up is one that has been on the go for a LONG time. I started cutting and resizing this to a more appropriate height and proportions years ago. Then it sat in various stages as I was afraid to work on it. I did the tattoos and was happy how it was going. The I painted the mask and was not happy with how it came out so I just left it. With my new 'just paint it and have fun, don't' worry about the results so much' mentality I revisited it, decided the mask was not so bad, and she is finally completed. I went with a Native American/Inuit theme. Most of the Reaper frost giants have this same NA/Inuit feel to me and I really like the history & lore. And besides, the Norse thing is so old and overdone. The base was an attempt to give the feel of walking up to a rocky precipice overlooking her frozen kingdom. It also gives the mini more height to get it right up to proper frost giant height. Her pet wolf was a fast and easy paint job. Happy with the results. It partly inspired me to finish off the princess. Here are green stuff pics to see the modding that went into it. One of my first attempts at human physique so I think it turned out well.

This was fun to paint. Happy with the high-contrast between the skin and fur, not something I usually do, but should try more of.

Last one for today, apologies for the mini painting posting spam. (Unless you are into that kind of thing.) Nemean lion from my daughter, suitably golden.

Some creepy cave dwellers. Old GW bats I found in a bits box and a cool cloaker sculpt my daughter painted.

As with most winged creatures, especially dragons and horse-like beasties, these ones got scooped up and painted by my daughter. The hippogriff was a surprising take when I first saw it with the spotted coat and wings. I think it is a really fun take. The harpie also turned out great.

Some super quick and fun spell effect minis from the Bones V KS.

The worst part about getting older, is that people you care for are getting older too. Just spent all day yesterday getting my dad taken care of, and into hospital, for what looks to be, and hopefully is, relatively minor angina pectoris, aka, a partial blockage in the veins leading into the heart. Hard accepting your parents are in their 70's, when half the time you are still trying to convince your brain, "no I am not 21 any more"

I'm an incurable night-owl. But, since the world has decided it's going to be driven by daylight I have to adjust. Generally, I find I paint more in the evening. I don't necessarily know if I'm more creative or that's just when I do the work. I would really like to try poutine one of these days. Mrs. Strawhat and I should just head up 29 to a Winnipeg game one of these days and try to catch a Jets game and score some poutine while we're at it.

Three different character minis, one painter (my daughter).

My daughter painted this one a while ago, just got around to photographing it. This one was a challenge for me to put together, one of the old school warped bones.

It's big, it's a boar (bore?). A quick paint job. (Any resemblance to the Arkansas Razorbacks mascot is purely coincidental.)

I have an AS in Electronics Technology. As I'm employed in that field, I use it almost every day.

LOL, Calculus was my bane as well. The C's I was getting in calc convinced me to change my course from Bio Tech major with a minor in Tech Com, to a major in Tech Com with a minor in Bio. I liked Calc, but was dreadfully slow at solving the proofs and seldom was able to finish the tests, hence the C's. Funny thing is, now I am an Information Architect designing and programming XML publishing systems, and wish frequently that I had more formal comp sci training.

High School Physics and Biology. Never used them in my working career. But loved the learning!

Interestingly, in all my time on this earth I've never heard of a stuck-squirrel story locally - we've got the smart squirrels... No, seriously - when I worked at the toothpaste factory, which was in the middle of a city, the local squirrels would either cross the streets by running up a pole and going over the lines, or they'd actually sit at the crosswalk and wait until the light turned green before crossing with the rest of us... There was one time I walked up to the corner on my lunch break and there was a squirrel waiting there as I approached, looking back and forth at the traffic passing by. As I got closer, I thought he'd run away but I walked right up next to him, and he just looked at me like, "Hey. could you press that button for me? Thanks."

I don't get it. We women have been doing this in restrooms for years. We've never needed an occupancy sign, that's just how we roll.

Nighttime, and I swear it’s not tied to drinking, it’s just a coincidence… bonus: yes, but not a big fan. It’s okay, just a bit much.

Whatever Science and Maths courses I did in College. Counter question: Would classes taken post college in say, Computer Aided Drafting, count as scientific education..? Not currently. Unless we count notions about heat exchange and radiant energy with regards to heating my cheesesteak sandwich as using scientific education. TBH, Every time I go in the kitchen I feel like shouting, “stand back! I am going to do SCIENCE !!”

A BS in Physics. And do you actually ever get to use it in your daily life? Yes, I use it to stay on the Earth, predict the flight of my disc in Golf and predict where the ball will be to hit it with the paddle.

AP/college Biology was the heights of my scientific training. While it has had no practical application in my life, like all acquired knowledge, it changed how I think & how I view life.

I went as far as Applied Econometrics 2. Which is kind of like the evil spawn of calculus, statistics, and applied micro economic theory. I've used it a little bit post graduation to work on some papers with folks from the local university and it's even had some uses in developing some simple equations for use in a regulatory environment. But these days if I have a problem at work that requires that level of math I'll either hire a consultant or reach out to a local grad student.

I don't know how bad the damage was - it took out at least two ports - the one it was plugged into, and the port the car wash equipment was plugged into - but it can't have taken out much more than that because the site was only complaining about not being able to sell car wash codes AFAIK. I was on the phone with a distributor tech about that ongoing issue with the pay @ the pump module connection, and the pump/register tech was also on site to help. The pump tech discovered it in the back room while the distributor tech and I were running other diagnostics on the equipment behind the counter. Despite being a couple dozen feet away in another room, and me hearing it through a crappy cellphone connection, the pump tech's outburst was clearly audible to me. The distributor tech ended our call with "I think the problem was found" and no longer needed my assistance. He filled me in later that day/week.

College level biochemistry. Like most knowledge, it does get used to varying extents, but more importantly forms an underlying understanding of things that gets used all the time. Most importantly, having a mindset built on the scientific method makes life a LOT easier. Working in IT, it seems literally nobody understands fundamental testing concepts like 'isolating variables'. I only ever regret not taking more science classes (200 level college stuff, I did all the AP and regular science classes my high school had to offer, IFLS...and ironically I also took all the art classes my school offered...including working with the teachers to create new programs like fashion design). I also believe science is a pure form of worship, seeking to understand the reality we live in. But even just understanding stuff like nutrient uptake and transpiration, super basic stuff, helps out in the garden (at least when I had one going).

office Life: The waste cartridge is full and no one ordered a new one. I order a new one but no on can print anything. I take the cartridge out and figure out how to open it and empty it, clean it and put it back in. VIOLA! It's working again.

Well, depending, on your definition of scientific education, my degree is a Bachelor of Computer Science, which I use pretty much every day. If we are talking hard sciences, I started out as a physics major, right up until I discovered just how much I disliked calculus (I blame the terrible prof I had for first year calc.). So I have a bunch of first year and 2nd year physics courses. I don't use them very often......

Bachelor's. I have a minor in Biology, should have been a major, but I was sick of school and didn't want to do one more semester to get the 6 credits I would have needed when they really would not have helped my career (my major/degree is English-Technical Communications/Linguistics). Do I use it, yes, but not in a functional work way. I use it as a base for further learning and study on my own. I love the natural world and will never stop being curious. Anatomy itself has been very useful both when talking to doctors and as a miniature sculptor. I also think I have brought a lot of my understanding of biology, physiology, and ecology into my sculpting and painting to make my critters feel more real, even as fantastical as they are; at least that is what I try to do, whether I succeed or not I will leave up to you.

So after I posted that, the dispatcher tells me "he told me he used to be an electrician, but I'm starting to think he's part of the problem." I knew he was part of the problem the first moment I spoke to him. And if he was an electrician, he never wired anything more complicated than an outlet, because the guy had no understanding at all that just because two plugs look physically identical doesn't mean they're electrically identical. They must be voting for sober Stevie, because stoned Stevie sucked. Back in the mid 80s, we had 6th row seats to see Moody Blues, and Stevie & Double Trouble opened for them. He went on a 10 minute "solo" that was so bad it had us plugging our ears and consider leaving. I wouldn't knowingly listen to anything by him/them until I worked at the guitar accessories company in the mid 90s, and was introduced to some of his good playing.

Depends on which science, I guess. Either high school chemistry, anatomy and physiology, or maybe the one science course I took in college, but I don't even remember what that was anymore, lol. None of them are things I use for job-related purposes, but the general knowledge is pretty useful to have.

College Level Physics and Chemistry! The understanding of them help me in my career as a construction manager/civil engineering. Actual use probably not.

I forgot to mention it takes anywhere from two to six weeks for these transactions to clear and the money to actually be credited to your account. Business moved at an entirely different pace then. GEM

They’re really excellent. The miniatures destroy their artwork by comparison. This one I got from a couple of KSers ago.

I always worry when the lil’ red dude in the sharp black suit sitting on my left shoulder comments, “yeah, that’ll work! Elf ‘em” when I write something in response to a request, and the feathered guy on the right pretends he’s busy with something else. So. Got a request to explain why I didn’t want to change a drawing due to a problem report. Said problem report addresses a set screw that didn’t get to full torque because they stripped the head. While they were trying to decide what to do, the glue on the threads cured. It ain’t coming out! But, it’s in the correct position, has more than three quarters of what torque it should have, and will prevent the slotted nut from backing off as intended. Dab some epoxy over the top and call it good. Why in the wide world of sports would I want to change the drawing to allow that?! My response was toned down a lot from what I wanted to say. In the end, I stated that I wasn’t changing the drawing to allow for flying damaged pieces because it wasn’t the preferred condition. It may be more snarky than I like.

that seems like it could have explosive results

It's always been weird to me, but the number of "tech" people I've met who can't tell the difference between RJ11 and RJ45 is hard for me to wrap my brain around. RJ45 is almost twice the size of RJ11. I get non-techy people confusing them as they're the same form factor and both are still less than an half an inch wide. Of course, these days a lot of places have started using rj45 for phone jack's too because it handles multiple wire phone systems better, though sometimes with different pin configurations than the T568A/B, or sometimes with only 2-4 wires actually inserted into the jack, making for all kinds of fun confusion.....

Aaloo gobi is so good. Craved it for almost a month.

Level two done!!! Was easier with wood floors

Just got done listening to the SiriusXM Top 50 Guitarist Countdown. These were voted by SXM subscribers, had I remembered to vote I would have but this is the top 10: 10 David Gilmour 9 Jeff Beck 8 Prince 7 Slash 6 Carlos Santana 5 Stevie Ray Vaughn 4 Jimmy Page 3 Eric Clapton 2 Jimi Hendrix 1 Eddie Van Halen

Some people just need to be punted into an alternate universe where phones are still rotary dial, credit transactions have to be run through a manual transaction device, by hand and each one with multi-part carbons and flimsies, and fraud alert is a phone book size actual book. GEM

G.R.F.F.N Food Log Stardate: 20230409 (Easter) And behold there was candy! METAL WotC miniature for scale. All bought before the holiday and some of it survived until Sunday morning. And I didn’t even finish it all, there is still some left.

As long as we count topping the cheese with a hamburger patty, then I’ll be following the guidance tonight. Meanwhile, I apparently have to find a replacement strain gauge for the strain gauge I used to replace a strain gauge that was replacing a strain gauge. If the supply chain could kindly stop making so many parts obsolete, I’d really appreciate it.

It's National Colorado day, so if you're from there, congratulations! You can celebrate with a grilled cheese sandwich, since it's also National Grilled Cheese day.

I usually feel most creative when I have something else more important to do or I'm not at home. When I am home it varies, but generally whenever there is good sunlight. I've had chili cheese fries and consider that close enough.