ORIGINS 2009: Favorite Pictures

Iron Wind Metals

Lou Zocchi Forever!

Wisconsin Cheese

Canadian Ham

Teaching Time!

At the Ad Astra Demo Table

Concentration at the
Paint-and-Take

and costumes

and finally, evidence that I was there!

ORIGINS 2009: Photo Album

You can find all my photos of ORIGINS 2009 in my Picasa Web album.
http://picasaweb.google.com/EastwoodDC/ORIGINS2009

My connection is very slow this morning, but I will try to get more pictures up later.

[Update]
I had a really great day, did interesting things and met fascinating people. Now all I need is time to write about it!

Custom Dice

Our local Battletech group organized to order some custom dice from Chessex. I say "we" organized, but Jeremy did all the work (Thanks Jeremy!). That's our group emblem to the right. [original artist/source unknown]





These dice have a single custom side, with the six-pips replaced by our mascot hungry shark. They really turned out nice.









Shiny new dice in hand, I proceeded to try them, and in their debut game ...

... I had absolutely terrible luck.

("Jeremy, I'd like to have a word with you about these dice.")

Maybe they just need more practice. :-)

Anatomy of a Black Hawk H - Part III

I've added a few more images. Not a lot of progress to show, but some better pictures. You can find the entire gallery here. These should be images 41-46 in the gallery.

From GBR: Anatomy of a Blackhawk H

From GBR: Anatomy of a Blackhawk H

I've been working in a very thin white-green tone to even out the shading and smooth out spots I missed before. Likewise with the blue stripes, I'm lightening them with a very thin white-blue mix. I don't know if this is efficient, but it is my usual approach - multiple layers to blend the colors together.

Anatomy of a Blackhawk H - Part II

Picking up the brushes again after a break. This is where I left off last time. You can also pick up the entire photo album here (picture below is about number 22).

I applied a white primer and rough green base coat (Vallejo Game Color Dark Green) . I actually did that last session, but had already put the camera away.
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I evened out the base coat with more Vallejo Dark Green with some black (Vallejo Model Color Glossy Black) mixed in where I want a darker base tone. I thin out my paints with blending medium and extender to get the consistency and working time I like.
I haven't put the paint on so thick where I intend to put the "stripes" because that will get painted over anyway. Not that you can tell from this picture.
It's about at this point that a little voice in my head started telling me:

GAWD that is ugly! You should drop it in the Pine Sol and start over!

Ignoring this little voice is one of the hardest things I have to do, but some of my best work has come out of these jobs that started out looking so very wrong, and that little voice yelling in my ear. I haven't done much blending in green-tones though, a lot of which will be needed to make this work, so I'm a bit uncertain of myself at this point.
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Some time later --> The blue stripes are mostly on (but not finished), and the green tones are working out well. I'm beginning to think this might work (The little voice seems to have gone home in disappointment, but it will be back with the next mini). I haven't begun to obsess over the details yet though, and there is a lot more to do.
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Camospecs Diorama, GENCON 2007

Some pictures of the CAMOSPECS diorama I took at GENCON 2007. This set makes a nice post.
I only wish I had made a few notes about this, and factions were taking part in the battle. Maybe if I zoom in ...
[UPDATE: Randall Bills writes - The diorama depicts the battle on Acturus where Word of Blake forces attempted to destroy a coalition force that “Uncle Chandy” had assembled to attack the Ruins of Gabriel (the 2008 diorama). - Except I think he means 2007.]
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There is also a video of this from Catalyst Game Labs: