Rob Dean

@Corsair Sometimes the internet works like it should. I had no trouble turning up a manual for my ~1939 typewriter when I acquired it in 2019.

It was a nice clear day at the top of Pike’s Peak yesterday. I took the cog railway up, since I’m out here for business and had the day off. But it was about 30F up there, with a windchill of about 0. I came prepared with a hat, a hat liner, warm layers, etc., but I had to take a glove off to take pictures, so I kept that to a minimum.

Bicycle, with the caveat that we’re talking about running errands rather than touring. The farthest I’ve biked is ~65 miles, and I’m not in shape this year to do that multiple days running. But for the local coffee roaster, the FLGS, or the library, it’s the bicycle.

I posted a link to some painting back on the 10th, but was on the road to help move my son last week, and today I’m packing for another trip. I want to fit in some paint on this one, so we’ll see. Miniatures will probably be more 1/72 fatnasy, since they are light and don’t look odd on the x-ray machine. 🤨

We moved my son back to Washington DC from Michigan, so he’s now within gaming range. (And his brother already is …)

It’s roadtrip day again. We’ve loaded half of my son’s remaining belongings into our vehicle and are heading to the east coast again, bidding a fond farewell to the land of the mitten. It’lll be good to have him back in gaming range.

Yes. My father has always been a train fan and model railroader, so I grew up with vacations built around railroad museums (though not actual distance-covering train trips). If I need to get down to DC from where I’m at, commuter rail is my first choice, and I enjoy the subway trains too. The nearest operating preserved steam train is in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, about an hour from here, although I haven’t been up to ride recently. Younger son, about to be back in the area raised the question of whether we might go soon, as he hasn’t been lately either. The train bug has apparently been passed on. I got a text message with a picture one day when my younger one had been to the Capitol with a science policy event visit and had a ride on the Capitol subway about getting a super-rare rail achievement. 😆 My most unusual railroad experience has been two chances (at different museums) to pump the handcar.

Not really…which means *I* am probably the one driving everyone else nuts. 😀

@Grand Slam I still hope that Caesar will reissue the Adventurers some day, though not because I personally need more trolls. It had been the best source of archetypal PCs, so it’s now harder to recommend that someone consider taking up 1/72 to support their D&D (or whatever) game.

I have always like the gnome scholar as a sculpt, and particularly like your basing on the stack of books!

I got some painting done this weekend; some of it is for the Portable Fantasy project, but then I got sidetracked while waiting for a wash to dry on some warg riders, and when I was done there were ancient Nubians instead.

I planned a quiet weekend and have been pleased to have the chance and energy to slap some paint on some miniatures. Last month I painted almost two dozen 1/72 fantasy figures for my portable wargaming set up, and I wanted to do a few more. However, I set the warg riders aside at one point and ended up finishing a couple of large monsters. The cyclops on the far right is from a recent Dark Alliance set. As can be seen by Sir Forescale, he’d be a tolerable ogre even in 28s, but the old Airfix Robin Hood figure gives the scale comparison in 1/72. I’m hoping to get to some sort of Homeric Bronze Age project one of these days, as the Dark Alliance Cyclopes are also accompanied by sets of Egyptian mummies, Anubis warriors, minotaurs, centaurs, and Amazons, so there’s some scope. Caesar Miniatures has produced an extensive Bronze Age selection in 1/72, although much of it is sadly out of production at the moment. The big thing is a …. Something … from the Caesar Miniatures Adventurers set, also sadly out of production at the moment. Most people I’ve seen online or in magazines have styled it a “troll”, but my elder son, drawing on a childhood memory of an Eric Carle-illustrated book of poems about mythical creatures, dubbed it a “bunyip”, so that’s what we usually call it. I believe this is the last one we have to be painted; we’ve got four between us. Like the cyclops, it’s big enough to intimidate Sir Forescale and it truly monstrous compared to the Airfix Merry Man. My younger son is relocating back to this part of the world next weekend, and is currently staying with his brother briefly while he looks at apartments. They have been playing some De Bellis Antiquitatis with the elder’s Bronze Age collection (e.g. this recent game) while visiting, so I decided to see if I could make some progress on adding another DBA army to the Bronze Age pool. (As an aside, DBA and its fantasy counterpart Hordes of the Things have been more-or-less the family default tabletop wargames for a couple of decades, although the current DBA binge only started a few years ago.) I sorted out an army of ancient Nubians some time ago, from my stash of Caesar boxes. It isn’t some of my best work; they have some poorly defined leopard spots on their kilts, and I am not entirely certain what the belt wraps and shoulder throws are supposed to be, which also have some shallow incised detail. I’m thinking that it’s probably intended as embroidered cloth, so I’ll have to see if I can’t do better with the next batch. Here’s an Egyptian painting of Nubians delivering donuts and a sleeping cat in tribute: (Which reminds me that I should vary the skin tones more in the next batch…)

I have taken next week off from work; Wednesday we drive up to Michigan to collect my younger son and get him back down here (generally) for his job (for at least the next year). So, I have a few quiet days, and my desk is pretty clean. Time to pur libations for the Muses and see if some inspiration is forthcoming. My older son (32) has been going over the army lists and considering what sort of game days we might have, with everyone living within two hours’ drive…

Since I’ve usually been in, I’ll note for the record that I’m out this time.

I’m not sure what I want to do this month, and it’s going to be a disrupted one; my younger son has finished his PhD and has a job back in this area, so we are headed up to visit my parents and help him move. Last month was all about the 1/72 Portable Fantasy Campaign, and, for various reasons, I think that it would be best to lean into that. On the other hand, my brother and I have agreed that this year’s Christmas meet-up will feature Dragon Rampant with vintage 25mm fantasy figures, so I have a few units I’m considering painting for that. So, wishy-washy, but those are my stated goals. 😀