Lord of the Dish Pit

Yep, when I get out weirded by the general population, and thier electeric leash, I feel the same. Granted I've had the passed on spirit of a recently deceased ex accost me at work, but at least communication with the dead is telepathic, the supervisor was none the wiser. (Either it really was her, trying to get me to agree to spirit attachment, or something pretending to be her, trying to get me to let it in, either way I refused, some things cannot be forgiven. Still, congress between the living and the dead is frowned upon, and my words to the Lords of Karma, whose servant was standing by, were not gentle. I paid the price for such dealings all the same.*) Forgive any grevious mispellings, or oddness out of the ordinary, I find myself currently a bit more inebrieated than I bargined for. What I believed to be a vitamin definciency some days back, has turned out to be a dental issue that I am valiently suppressing with a combination of Oralgel and Hamms**. I have found a local tooth puller who offers aid to the uninsured and will be setting up an appointment upon the morrow, but currently I am feeling cool and froody (a Hitchhikers reference I think) for the first time since 2017***. On my walk down to the corner store I saw the local gas station, not as it is, but as the old 76 station that was replaced by Speedway in 1989, true to life, if only for an few moments. An omen perhaps. This echos what I felt when I returned from Austin, a dead place spiritually, in 2017****. That November I sensed/saw clearly a mansion that had been torn down a block East when the County building was built along with other strong impressions from the Unseen...the incident with the dead ex seemed to bring an end to that in March 2018, so a return to my previous sensitivity, even if it makes me sound mad, writing it out like this, would be a welcome development.(I am convinced that a Spiritual reality underlies the Material we percieve in life, and various experiences I have had confirm this.) I have had a fun time, trying to seperate the symptoms using Web MD and other repositories of knowlage, to determine if this was scurvy, vitamin definciency, or tooth absess , learning in the process how tooth absess was a top 5 cause of death in previous eras*****and whether or not the neglect of my youth has caught up with me....when I was stricken by the plague in early Feburary of 2020 I made my peace with what regrets I have, fearing the end was nigh and since then have endevored to continue my regime of brutal honesty regarding such...should I fall to whatever cause, I shall not do so unprepared, and as morbid as that sounds, it brings me great comfort, knowing that each day I see as a bonus, not a given. I realize that by now I must sound as if Ive gone completely around the bend, but no, this is where my mind has been for quite awhile now, Im not planning anything drastic, and that none of what I have written is indication of anything save acceptance towards whatever comes. I have always been something of an unorthodox voice here, with my larping as the Inquisitor of the Coffee God, and the Great Pumpkin, I am an Aquarian after all, and this fits within my wheelhouse as such, but now I feel the need to unburden myself somewhat, and if I sound like a nutter so be it. The companions of my youth I was seperated from by political differences, and I have never been able able to fully trust the younger generations, whose embrace of irony elicits my deep misgivings, so it is with the members of this forum I find my peers, and so now in vino veritas I come round to speak unfettered, although even in my cups I fear the cost. *I am quite sure it was my Sagitarrius who came to me then, she sought an anchor against the Second Death I refused to provide. Had things gone differently between us, I would have defied the Gods themselves on her behalf...but things proceeded as they did, and so I make my decision accordingly. Despite refusing her, it has been since then that my ability to proprerly sense things has been infringed, my ailment seems to be changing this back to what I once knew. **In my youth I retreated into booze, two DUIs,although I never harmed anyone other than myself, it is only recently I dared partake again.I do not drive, or even leave the house much these days, so I am no threat to the townsfolk. (insert basement dweller joke here.) ***The pain relief of Hamms is entirely a placebo effect. It was the house beer of the House Cafe in its heyday, and it's taste brings back the happy days of yore, when myself and the usual regulars wouls extoll its praises unto the heavens, citing it as a Universal Exiler for all ailments, that era was the last time I found a purely organic community and I miss it fiercely. ****The midwest changes little. If one was to dress as a Union soldier and venture into the fields, one would easily forget the current year. "Period Rush" is what it was called amoung the Civil War reinactors I knew, and the same I felt when I would embark upon the the moonlit backroads in 2000, dressed in a black t shirt and jeans as Alan Sragg's Sanctuary radio show would come on a 11pm and transport me back to an era I was born too late to see. The Midwest holds it's memories and change comes little, once you get away from the haunts of men. The Unseen for whatever reason is easier to touch, to blend with here in the fields that stretch with the eternal corn, once in high school I saw the shades of the trees that had stood upon the Kendall County Fairgrounds, where the new high school was built...in Austin, only a hotel from the 1800s that had a natural spring at it's base, and the top of the UT tower, where what is left of Charles Whitman is trapped, awaiting the end of the natural lifespan of his victims...only there does the veil part. When I took the Amtrak back North, I felt the Unseen return at St Louis, (built over Cahokia of old), and it intensified from there. When I passed through Oregon IL, I felt the contact of a local girl murdered in 1949, who haunts a local tavern, and it is only now, some years after my last contact with my ex, that I again find myself open to such, and the breath of fresh air that accompanies it is something I have not the words to describe. *****I have for the last two years or so, attempted as best I can to living as someone from the past. On my mother's side I am Polish and mixed with most of Eastern Europe(my forbearers got around, there are both blond blue eyed Prussians and Romany in the woodpile), and on my fathers I am Spanish (fled from Franco) and American Indian(I suspect Algonguin). As such I have always felt the need for a tradition, but have never had a stable source for such, and so it has fallen upon me to create my own wherever I can. So the idea that death by tooth abscess might claim me, as it would my great great grandfather is in an odd kind of way something I view as natural, even almost appropriate. Don't get me wrong, I'll fend it off if I can, but the idea that I have reached some manner of commonality to my forebearers is in it's way comforting. I have been homeless, I have been locked up, I have survived many things that modern middle class folk might not. I have learned my strengths and weaknesses, I know my limits. I once challenged the general manager of a resturant I worked at to swords at dawn, over how he treated the employees whose intelligence he felt threatened by, I have walked into loaded guns pointed at me, talking broccolli all the while, because to do otherwise would violate my principals(by which every Aquarius lives and dies.), I have pondered just how and when my death might eventually come, and if it is to come in the manner of old, I shall feel no shame nor regret.(I don't know why it jumped to italics there, but I shall leave it as such, as it seems appropriate, and I'm two six packs in.) I ask again, that you forgive my inebriation and meloncholy, I know not how progressed the infection/gum disease is, and so I write as if this be the end.(Which hopefully it be not, I am Leo rising as well as Aquarius and I will have my melodrama dammit!!) As well as with the turning of the recent decade, the world itself has gone mad, beyond even my utterings, and I wish you all, my brethen and sistren in the brush, that the upheaving touching you only gently, and that we may arise from the World That Was to spread the Word of Two Thin Coats.

Got a few things finished this morning... Winter Wolf is done. Biker Werewolves on foot are more or less done. I still need to freehand the Devil's Advocates patch on the backs of the vests, but I'm holding off on that until I get the rest of the mounted ones done. Finished the Male Texas Ranger from my misc. pile. Filled in the teeth and eye on the Bones Werewolves, also went over thier skin in Stormy Grey. Finished the base colors on the Brute, Stormy Grey on the intestines, Woodstain Brown on the loincloth, Dirty Bone on the bones, and Sample Green on the exposed muscle. Glued down the trees. Test fitting of the gazebo bits showed that I need to do some hot/cold water bending on the roof. What's currently in progress. Con Crud has been brought up to the same level as the other Reapercon zombies as well. Non project figures are the Bones Desert Thing and Vermina from the Chronoscope line.

A bit more progress over the last day or so... Started base colors on the WizKids Zombie Brute. He'll be a Halloween gift so I'd like to get him done this weekend. Started with Bronzed Shadow on the skin. Con Crud has been puttied... The Biker Werewolves got a drybrush of Woodland Brown over their fur, and a thin Black Wash... Still need to do thier eyes and weapon highlights. The Bones Werewolves had quite a few spots where there were gaps in the Black undercoat I found when I drybrushed the Luftwaffe Uniform on them, so I doused them in a medium Black Wash. The Winter Wolf got drybrushed with Luftwaffe Uniform/Snow Shadow/Frosty Blue before being doused in a thin Black Wash. He'll probably be the first one finished of the current batch, and I've got a Bones Warg waiting for a holder to open up.

My Reaper order came in today... 02861 Abram DuskWalker (reinforcements for my Witch Hunters) 03535 Halloween Mouslings (which I can hopefully finish by Halloween) 04039 Con Crud Convention Zombie (who will round out the zombie unit I'm currently painting) 07034 Grave Wraith (more Pumpkin Army reinforcements) 07017 Sister Hazel Plague Doctor 07024 Brother Lazarus Plague Doctor (I've been meaning to get these for awhile now, will be joining the Witch Hunters) 91009 Deadlands Noir Stone 91010 Deadlands Noir Hougan 91011 Deadlands Noir Femme Fatale 91012 Deadlands Noir Patent Scientist 91013 Deadlands Noir Occult Detective 91014 Deadlands Noir Grifter (which rounds out my collection of Bones Savage Worlds stuff.) 07073 Kaspar Von Mondstein, Vampire (who is now official Battle Yodeller for the Pumpkin Army) 77386 Andriessa Female Wizard (reinforcements for the Autumn Elves) 01031 Ghoulie Bag (another Witch to command the Pumpkin Army)

Thanks, without the flash from the camera, they register as being a bit darker in person. These and the ghouls are probably to best flesh blends I've achieved so far. I think a lot of people fall into the trap of new=better, but a well designed sculpt is still a well designed sculpt regardless of what decade it was made. What impressed me while working on these was how easily the Reaper Beastmen, despite towering over the BattleMasters ones, fit in with them. A lot of that was the consistancy of the colors used, but also the fact they weren't overly covered in details.

I used the Bronzed Flesh triad on the cape. With the greys on the dress, I kind of blundered into the edges of the blue/orange contrast zone so popular on 2000s movie posters. Thanks.

Seen with some old Marx Toy Factory trees. A close up of Not Conan. I really should have given him the hot/cold water bending treatment prior to painting him, but this works well enough. I left off the buzzards for a desert project, and the female victim will be incorporated into my Witch Hunter Army.

A foam cemetery from Games Workshop made in the early 2000s that finally got some detailing. How it originally looked, here being fought over by Witch Hunters and Ghosts. ...after a repaint, flocking, and leafing.

Since part of my Halloween Army goes off the idea that Montage Summers wasn't completely wrong, I painted up a force of "Black Goats of the Woods" for the Infernalist Witches to frolic with at their Sabbats. The newer Beastmen 4 pack from Reaper. An older Bones Beastman Champion... Some repainted BattleMasters Beastmen that came out surprisingly well... And here they are in thier debased rites along with a couple other Bones Beastmen and a Wolf Demon...

At long last, and in time for the Halloween Season, I finished the last of my Ghouls, who now have a Queen... She also came with a nice gothic window scenery bit, but that will be part of another project later. Here she is with the rest of her minions...

Yep, like with the Witch Hunters, there is a sliding scale of eras and time frames here. West Wind had I think it was called "Vampire Wars", and both the Biker Werewolves, and the Biker Monks in my Witch Hunters thread are from that line. West Wind has quite a few series of Gothic Horror stuff I'd like to eventually get. I've got two boxes of Zombicide VIP zombies in modern clothes that I'll eventually fit into the army as well.(They're finished, but I don't have display room for them.) I figure the Great Pumpkin draws from various worlds/times and really the Halloween/Autumn theme can fit so many different things in it that I could probably split it into Witches/Pumpkins, Witches/Angry Nature, Infernalist Witches/Beastmen/Demons, Vampires/Universal Horror, and now Autumn Elves that worship the Great Pumpkin, which is probably why this project is the one I've spent the most time on. The Ghouls are also right at the point where I could probably build what I have into a decent little skirmish army by themselves. Speaking of which, I've finally gotten around to some pictures of the recently finished stuff... The full Ghoul Pack under the watchful gaze of their Queen... The Beasts of the Woods performing their Unhallowed Rites... Some closer shots of them... The Marx Toy Factory Forest being herded by an Angry Ent... The Tree of Woe/Despair in a blighted grove.

I prefer sunsets, but it is an irony of my life that I see more sunrises due to either shift work or a whacked out sleep schedule.

All felines have ancestral memory of Dragons, and Draconic Body Language is still used by them. This pose is "Contentedly Settling Over The Nest After Setting A Dinosaur On Fire". However, the loss of their wings allows only the general smugness to come thru. Subtle and personalized insults were conveyed by wing position.

A bit more progress... Watered down Black Wash on Conan. Just need to do some grey highlights on the hair and this will be done. Watered down Black Wash again, need to fix the dress where the last dying gasp of my wash brush took some paint with it. Final highlight of Harvest Brown on the Biker Werewolves, also got the teeth with dirty bone and Honed Steel on the glasses and belt buckles.

I painted these up a while back, looking forward to seeing your take on them. Some of the smaller details, like the stuff in the Crone's hatband, can be a little difficult to make out.