Another State of Mind

So the biggest stressor on our plate is finally off the plate. We closed the sale on the old house on Friday which makes us officially debt free. That little project started in August with work on all the outdoor bits (replaced the concrete driveway and 3/4 of the old fence) and the work moved inside on 12/1 when the tenants moved out. New kitchen, new floors, new furnace, new appliances and paint were on the list. Then we got hit with removing the old deck (which we then replaced with an expanded concrete pad) and replacing the fuse box. Of course there were a few more curve balls after that; a radon mitigation system and a sewer clean out (tree roots, so many tree roots). We put more money into it than we expected to, but it sold for way more money than we expected it to as well. So happy days there.

This sale will completely fund the workshop, the last few big tools we need (a jointer, CnC Router, Laser cutter/engraver and a dust collection system) and a greenhouse to replace an old shed in the back corner of the yard. Looking good for the part time job for retirement. We have been "collecting" wood and this past weekend we were given a 50 year old stash of walnut; 12 pieces each 4" square and 4+ feet long. That will make a lot of pens among other things!

These are among the first pens that I did. I have finished about 20 more since then. I find the whole process quite relaxing.

I'm doing research into NASA mission patches, a serious a can of worms! Fortunately there are a couple of really good websites out there that are actually helpful trying to figure it all out. The core will be the patches from my uncle and I'll add on to it from there. It has the advantage of having historical interest, family history and it can be stored in small albums. Storage is always an issue so I'm seriously considering down sizing the game collection again. I don't really need a copy of every version of Clue that has been produced.

And of course life itself never stops, we lost Lani back in October to cancer and my son lost his dog Sadie, just to old age about a month ago. She literally passed away in her sleep next to his bed (it was quite startling, I had to go help him, she was in the bed, her head resting on her front paws and her ears straight up just like she heard you coming into the room). But that means new beginnings as well and while Sadie and Lani can never be "replaced" new dogs come into ours lives.

Sadie, 1/2 Blue Healer, 1/2 Catahoula Hound

Lani (Kahlani) giving driving directions, 1/2 Great Pyr, 1/2 Anatolian Shepherd and 134#

Meet Tulip, an 8 week old German Shepherd puppy. She is adorable and very sweet!

While the blog doesn't really show it, I am still here and actively working on hobby items its just tended to be a lot more on the research side than the building and gaming side. While I did just do a state of the blog recently I think I have refined things even more.

I still love trains and I fully intend to have a layout. I have designs for an HO layout based on warehouse row in Denver and an On30 layout set around the town of Sunset on the Colorado & Northwestern. The HO scale would be a more "serious" layout while the C&N would be a bit more whimsical with less emphasis on historical accuracy and more on just having fun. Both have aspects that really appeal to me. So trains, one way or another, are still on the list.

And that leads us back to gaming. Like I mentioned above, the Clue collection is likely to become a victim of space (if I have something you are interested in let me know and we can work something out). I think the rest of my games are safe...for the moment. I have my eye on reducing the train game collection as well and I do have some sought after games in that bunch.

That takes us to game design, specifically 18xx game design. I'm still, slowly, moving forward with my version of Colorado, still trying to work my way through some concepts to see what will work and captures the feeling of railroading in Colorado. On top of that I have finished typing 1869, The Golden Spike and 18GM, Game Maker back into the word documents. The electronic files disappeared somewhere into the vast saved space on Colin's computer(s) and no one has been able to find them. I'm seriously considering republishing those again possibly as a print and play games.

Then, of course, there is miniature gaming. I don't think much has changed here yet. I still want to build Calamity for western games and with the coming of the laser cutter that becomes much closer to reality. I think the key to Calamity will be remembering to keep most of the buildings pretty simple and only going whole hog on the most frequented haunts (i.e. the concept of buildings as major and minor NPCs from a build point of view). I still have visions of lighting all the buildings though!

I don't think the rest of the list has changed much:

Dropping out of 15mm WWII (I have an Afrika Korps army that will need to find a home)

Staying in with 15mm Napoleonics (British), ACW (Union) and Ancients (Vikings, not really ancients I know).

Staying in with 28mm WWII

I'm tempted to get started in with Stargrave, I discovered a stash of Hasslefree miniatures that would be perfect for that.

Overall with the sale of the house out of the way I'm starting to feel a bit better about things. We are also planning on attending ReaperCon this year. Its the only trip we have planned at this point and we are a little nervous about it but its time to do something that is a bit closer to the things we used to do.

Hopefully you will be seeing some more action here on the blog. The BFG is being dusted off as an entry for ReaperCon, something I can dive into with a prayer of finishing it in time for the convention. Not quite sure how I will get it there but that's the plan at the moment.

So stay safe, stay well and be happy...never regret anything that makes you smile!

State of the Blog and Mind

Phoebe on guard at dawn. 

To say I have been struggling mentally lately is a bit of an understatement. Losing Lani (our Great Pyr/Anatolian Shepherd mix) back in October left a huge hole in ours lives (at least there are three others doing their best to fill it) and was probably the trigger for a lot of this, but there are a lot of other factors at play. 

The biggest single stressor has been getting the 2nd house ready for sale. We acted as our own General Contractor on the remodel as the owner of the original company that we would have used literally died while he was working on the quote, that really throw a spanner in the works as we didn't know that had happened for a couple of weeks. We were also up against supply chain issues, so the mantra became "must be in stock" came into being. It limited some of the selections but it also guaranteed that we would have everything we needed for each step in the process. 

The house has received a complete make over at this point, more than we had originally intended. New problems came to light as we tore out and replaced the kitchen, primarily  plumbing (thank goodness we knew an excellent plumber). Tearing out the kitchen revealed a problem with waterlines in the second floor so those had to be redone. In fact probably 80% of the copper lines in the house were replaced. A new furnace went in since the existing one was in a grey zone for replacement, the fuse box was actually illegal (apparently its now considered a fire hazard, our entire neighborhood uses this old style fuse box as do about 90% of all homes in the Denver area built from 1978 - 1985) so we had to bring that up to  code. The list went on and on and it seemed never ending. However, it has come to and end and it goes on the market this Friday and its almost a completely different house than when we started. Its been a long 3 months to get it ready. Of course its currently snowing here and which means I'll have to go over and shovel it on Friday before the showings begin.

I recently learned that the virus has struck a bit closer to home than I would like. A friend of mine that I haven't seen for about 5 years, passed away from it. He decided not get vaccinated and paid the ultimate price for that decision. My wife has a cousin in the hospital with the virus and we are not sure if he is going to make it, again a decision not to get vaccinated in this case by a 1st responder. These things weigh heavily when they strike that close to home. Fortunately our vaccinations are up to date and we have not been exposed although my brother and his wife did catch it during a vacation to Hawaii, they were vaccinated and pulled through without a problem. So a positive note there.

Getting the house ready has had a huge impact on my hobbies and I have literally not lifted a paintbrush or built a kit for months now. I have three Stugs and one Stuh still waiting for their weathering, I think I started those almost a year ago. The Sophie's Revenge pirate ship still sits in pieces, at least its in the box and not strewn across my desk. Also cleaning out the house has really made me re-evaluate what I'm still interested in playing.

On the project front:

1) Rebuild the Sophie's Revenge, with an eye to using it only as a display piece, possibly a competition entry for a future ReaperCon. 

2) Finish the Sledgehammer, again just as a display piece and a competition entry for ReaperCon

Wargaming armies I will continue with

1) 28mm WWII Skirmish - While I may cut back on what I will actually paint, I'm still interested in this period, at this scale along with the terrain to play on.

2) 28mm AWI - More likely this will still be oriented towards a skirmish level but maybe army oriented since the "armies" are not particularly large.

3) 15mm ACW - Still one of my favorite periods so I'll keep these around. They are not likely to see any action in 2022. But the finished portion of my Union army is plenty large enough to play with.

4) 15mm Napoleonics - Kind of on the edge on this one still, but I do have a fair amount of British infantry finished, mounted and ready for battle.

5) 28mm Wild West - This one is probably still on the top of my really want to do list. Including a "portable" board for conventions.

6) 15mm Vikings - I'm on the edge with this one at the moment. The promised set of rules from the kickstarter have yet to see the light of day although the miniatures are great.

7) 28mm Rohirrim - Another one on the edge. I rescued everything that I have for this and I still get excited to paint them but I'm not sure its worth doing a whole army at this point.

Periods being dropped:

1) 15mm WWII - Dropping this which means I have an old 15mm FOW Afrika Korps army that needs to be sold off.

2) 28mm Napoleonics - something I have always toyed with but definitely dropping it from the list at this point. It just takes to much time to do them justice,

3) 20mm Modern - I got started but I'm just not feeling it any more. I have enough vehicles to build for WWII without adding more to the list.

Other Hobbies

I love trains and I'll keep what I have but I might start selling off some of my accumulated books and only keep the ones specific to my interests. At some point I will find space to have a layout (I actually have a place scoped out that will work). Its time intensive though so it will be last on the list for the time being. I have plans still for an HO layout based on the old Denver Warehouse district and an On30 layout based on the Colorado & Northwestern.

Woodworking - this is moving up the list. Its the one thing that I was able to work on while the house remodeling was going on. I'm quite pleased with the pens, both acrylic and wood, that I have turned in the last month and it provides a much faster result that anything else I do which is really nice and quite satisfying.

This is the latest round. The one in the center is acrylic which is an interesting material to work with. I think I have turned about 40 pens at this point, most of which have been given away as gifts. This last batch is definitely some of my best work.

Hopefully things will start looking better in 2022 and I'll endeavor to keep the blog going at a reasonable pace, although probably drop my goal of 12 posts a month to something a bit less demanding.

Hoping everyone has a better year in 2022! Pay attention to your mental health its just as important as your physical health.

State of the Blog

What a strange year 2020 was. I think my production went up a bit at least in terms of vehicles and I acquired and refined some new skills on the modeling front. I also was able to stay gainfully and quite busily employed. As an IT Consultant for a major healthcare provider to say I was busy would be an understatement. 

We were in the midst of a major kitchen renovation just before the virus really hit and we were able to get that project finished. Fortunately isolation from the workers was already in place because of the dogs. We did make extensive use of our Jeep Gladiator (This is a pickup truck based on the frame of a 4 Door Wrangler and in fact from the front looks exactly like the new JL series Jeep, I have seen it referred to as a JLG in forums), hauling tile from the stores to home. Between two bathrooms and the kitchen I figure we moved about 3,000 pounds of tile, the Gladiator handled it all. I love that truck!

Like many of us I spent a great deal of time at home so the wood workshop say a lot more use and most of my major acquisitions for the year were tools. A new table saw, router, planer and drill press all took up residence in the workshop portion of the garage and all of them  were used on various DIY projects that my wife was able to come up with.

In addition we removed the soft top from our 2 door Jeep Wrangler and replaced it with a hardtop. I have never seen a worse set of instructions written for such a complicated project. I know a new top sounds pretty simple but we went all out and bought one with a rear defroster, rear window wiper and washer. All of which required running another wiring harness, hooking up the electrical connections (correctly!) in the engine compartment and the dashboard and replacing various switches. I had no idea what I was getting into, you can count on a post for that little project.

I also delved back into Calamity a bit as the tools acquired for our DIY projects also give me the capabilities to build the basic sub-structure for the Calamity boards. Hoping to move on that front in 2021 as well.

On the model railroad front, that may stay behind the radar for a while as well. I have a solid design for the D&RGW warehouse row in Denver, now its just finding the time to put it into action, not to mention that I still want to model the C&NW narrow gauge line running up into the Rocky Mountains from Boulder, I'm still trying to get my hands on at least one Bachman On30 2-8-0 for that project.

I still don't see a lot of wargaming opportunities for the coming year or conventions for that matter. Maybe ReaperCon will be live this year, Labor day could be viable from a vaccination standpoint.

I think I can continue keeping the blog going through 2021 without a problem. Should be plenty of things to do! Oh and I did manage to finish the Christmas cards for 2020, we were just so rushed that I never managed to get a picture of them finished with the black ink.

2019 State of the Blog

Another year has come and gone in the world of the blog. I didn't finish much in 2018 but I certainly started quite a few things. I need to do less starting and more finishing in 2019. Looking at a few numbers it seems that there are still a few of you out there following along so I'll try and keep things moving along for another year. I still find the whole blogging exercise useful in trying to keep projects moving, still not finishing but at least moving along.

From a numbers perspective, now encompassing 7 years of data:
676,568 page hits
106,147 unique readers
218 followers (Thank you for sticking with me!)

In seven years I have managed to post 1078 times , not quite sure when I went over the thousand mark but it must have been about half way through 2018. I'm still aiming for 12 posts each month but I had a hard time hitting those numbers in 2018 coming up a bit shy at 126 posts, that's still a pretty good effort I think.

For 2019 I have a few things that I would really like to get to. 
1. Complete the Sledgehammer diorama for Reaper Con on Labor Day weekend. This is the most ambitious diorama I have taken on and its going to get the bulk of my posts this year.

2. Complete two or three more entries for Reaper Con. I still want to finish off the little sci-fi diorama that has been sitting here for three years now as well as the Hogan's hero diorama that I started messing around with last year. I need a couple of single entries as well.

3. Move forward on the Arizona project. While I don't expect to finish this one this year I'm looking forward to starting on it and it lends itself to a lot of sub-builds that can be finished and set aside.

4. Lino Cut print block. We did a Christmas card for 2018 using one of my dad's old block cuts. We were very happy with it and we want to do our own design for 2019. That will take some effort but I have 11 months to complete it.

5. Fill in the hobby gaps with the AWI project and various railroad projects. We just cleaned up the hobby room which of course brings all kinds of stuff front and center again. I have six kits from Stony Creek, in particular, and I would like to get one or two of those built this year.

That's as far as I'm willing to commit to right now!

State of the Blog for 2016

2016 was a pretty good year for me in general, and far, far better than 2015. However, it definitely lacked getting anything finished as far as gaming is concerned.

On the positive side of the ledger both houses received a lot of attention. The renovations are moving along in the rental pretty well considering the lack of time I have to work there. The large front bedroom upstairs was finished, the upstairs hallway bathroom was finished and I made great progress on the floor in the hallway itself. Feeling very good about all that.

On the home front the acre of land in the back was sold off, the side garden was demolished to make room for the driveway that now belongs to that property and a new privacy fence went up which opens up a whole new area for the dogs. The new patio is in although there is yard work to be done. Definitely a good year on the housing front.

The hobbies definitely suffered. While a number of projects were started, I think I only finished two miniatures during the course of the whole year. The list of unfinished projects that I need to get back to is quite lengthy now.

Off the top of my head I have this list:
15mm WWII Tank Destroyer Unit for FOW

15mm Modern M1 Abrams tanks for Team Yankee

Calamity's Hardware Store (plus Calamity in general)

WWII 28mm British Paras for the Kampfgruppe Von Luck Campaign for Chain of Command

WWII 28mm German Wehrmacht for the Kampfgruppe Von Luck Campaign

WWII 28mm American Paras (not for anything specific)

WWII 28mm convesion of a Warlord Marder I into an 15cm sFH 13/1(Sf) auf Geschutzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f) - sdKfz 135/1

Three plastic Eagle kits from the Space 1999 TV Series

Chester the Carousel Rooster (I was going to work on him in the garage but that is not looking like a good option at this point, its just not warm enough out there so he is going to have to come into the house).

One of the things I really regret not getting to was an entry for Reaper Con. Afterwards I was kicking myself as I could have brought one of the FT-17s that I finished in 2015 and at least had an entry in one category.

From a blog standpoint my posts were way down this year. I shoot for 12 posts a month or 144 a year. I managed a bit over half of that. For some odd reason though my page views were way up, my best year ever. I give a bit of credit to that with my series of posts on Old West rule sets. That seems to have been very well received by the community. I have intend to go back and update that as I have acquired another set of Old West rules and one of the listed sets has a new edition. I did cross the 800 mark on posts which makes that magical number of 1000 at least seem attainable although probably not in 2017. On the page view front I crossed the 400,000 mark with

I think I will take a stab at the backlog of projects before I start anything new, that will be my new years resolution, we will see how long it lasts!

Its a Blog Birthday! 4 years old.

Happy Birthday Blog!

I always intend to write a state of the blog every year but never manage to pull it off, but I hit a lot of milestones this year so I'm pulling out all the stops.

Overall the blog has done what I intended, helping me stay on track with projects. Its certainly not foolproof. You can see a lot of projects started in this space that haven't reached completion yet and some of them may never get that far. I think the two longest term projects that are likely to see completion are Calamity and my WWI AEF Marines. I'm easily distracted by shiny stuff and there are a lot of periods that I would like to be involved with that I have stuck my toe into and just haven't proceeded farther. Calamity serves a double purpose as it helps me stay abreast of what is happening in my model railroad hobby and my gaming/painting hobby. Its the only project that I have that combines both. The third project that will reach completion, at some point, is the LA Warehouse District project. Many of the weathering techniques I have worked on for Calamity will translate directly over to that project. Right now its mainly suffering from neglect due to space more than anything else.

I'm not sure what will be up for 2016. My goal is to actually get the town of Calamity finished so that will probably be the bulk of the posts during the year but I'm not sure I can sustain the level of effort that's going to require to get there. Genghis Con is fast approaching but that effort will be a lot lighter than usual, the group that is running it contacted us so late that we don't really have time to get the support we need or even to find instructors. After that there is nothing on the schedule till October when ReaperCon opens on its new dates. That should be an interesting show. I also intend to participate in the Lead Painters League in the LAF forum. I have never participated in this before because its always come right in the middle of getting ready for both the Genghis Con and ReaperCon painting competitions. But I'm going all in this year. It guarantees that I will paint at least 55 minis this year.

2013 – 83639 Page Views, averaging 6969 views per month and crossed the magical 100,000 page view mark. More than doubled the number of page views from 2012, quite a jump.

2014 – 91876 Page Views, averaging 7656 views per month and I crossed the 200,000 page view mark.

2015 – 89955 Page Views, averaging 7497 views per month and crossed another mark; 300,000.

Four Year total 304223

2012 – 19.67 posts per month (there were 43 in January which kin of skews the numbers).

2013 – 14 posts per month

2014 – 12 posts per month

2015 – 13.5 posts per month

My monthly goal is to write 12 posts. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t, sometimes I blow it away.

It is a bit harder to translate all of this into people but based on my stat counter (not google's!) the blog has had hits from 65,339 unique IP addresses from 135 countries. That same stat collector also shows flags from the various regions that make up any given country. Being a bit obsessive I like to keep track of those flags. I have a few countries that are "complete" in that respect; US, England (the UK was divided into four sections by the provider in 2015; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), Germany, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic (There are a bunch of countries that aren't partitioned off that would fit here, but that feels like cheating). There are 7 countries that I just need one more flag from; Spain (Melilla), Belgium (Luxembourg), Austria (Burgenland), South Africa (Limpopo), Israel (North District) and Slovakia (Trencin). There are three countries that I need two flags from; Canada (I'm not sure there are even computers in the two provinces that are missing), Finland (this one is odd, because on one screen it says I'm missing one flag and on another it says I'm missing two) and Italy. The number of regions or states that some countries are divided up into is nuts. Malta, as an example, has 68 "regions" listed.

Perhaps the most important number is 196, the number of people that willingly follow my blog! A salute to you, the hardy few!

A bit of a reward! On to 2016!

What this blog is really about though

Southbound UP train south of Ft Collins CO. UP5123 is an SD70M

All the stuff I get to sell at auction at one of the local convention game auctions. Yes, I am an amateur auctioneer and yes I can talk faster than you can keep up.

Rolls Royce Armored Car, Bronze medal at ReaperCon 2015 in vehicles. (Trenchworx model)

WWI French FT-17 (Trenchworx model)

On30 Stock Car (Bachmann)

On30 Mogul C&S #22 (Bachmann)

WWI US Marines, mixed uniform. Mostly Brigade Games Miniatures with a few Great War Miniatures mixed in.

WWI US Marines forest green uniform

A few citizens of Calamity

Ellen Stone by Reaper Miniatures

I'm not sure about this one. He could be from Wargames Foundry, or he might be from Battle Flag.

Male Huckster, Reaper Miniatures
An interesting fact; other than the actual production, packaging and shipping of the miniature at Reaper (and I may know those folks as well), every person involved with this miniature is a friend of mine. The "concept" art for this is a painting by my friend Dan Frazier that appeared on the Huckster book for the Deadlands RPG. The "model" for that cover is my friend Dave Mac. The mini was sculpted by my friend Bob Ridolfi.

Wichita Witch, Reaper Miniatures

Back two are from Black Scorpion, the front two are from Reaper

Shopping II; Best Hasslefree Miniatures entry at ReaperCon 2015

Ambush; Gold Medal in Dioramas at ReaperCon 2015

Calamity's Newspaper Office

"McKenzie" Silver Medal at ReaperCon 2015 (Hasslefree)