News flash! Man who claims to be a miniature gamer uploads a scenery post!

Against all odds, a new post purportedly by the unfocused gamer shows a work in progress.
Can it be possible that he has actually dared to go back into his gaming room, and work on something?

If so odds makers take a beating!

Well, that was a waste of time

My C-19 project came to naught, but it did occupy my mind for a wee bit o time, and considering that I have had no interest in miniatures, it did fill some empty hours.
Above you can see what the world would have looked like had the players been able to fully explore the land. There had been 28 barren hexes, only a few of them explored before the game collapsed.
Mighty Empires is a very random game, but so long as it is not taken too seriously it can be quite entertaining.

This, is the aquarium temple, a little bit bigger

Yet another item stting around gathering dust. Finally pulled out the Dremel and cut the base down. Original base was close to 2" thick so took off around 1 1/2 inches, and amazingly the temple is still level.

Something to post, not much but something

Finally finished off something, something that has been hanging around my basement, unboxed, for years.

So, it really has been out of a box sitting on a shelf for 3+ years, but amazingly, it was all intact.
Building it was not too much bother, the problem was painting it but because I chose a wrong base colour.

I was aiming for a grey base that would lighten up a bit, but instead of looking at source pictures before I started painting, I assumed I knew enough without research. Wrong! Most of the pics showed a whiter finish than this project was going to end up with. Also more of a tan/grey aging.

After painting a couple of layers on this I went back to the start, and worked my way up from a tan to a variety of off whites, a white and then a sepia wash.

I like it.

Map test 2

Map test

So, how was my day today...

Apart from attending a spitting contest, or an apple bobbing event, or even participating in a throat singing competition, what other place do most people want to avoid in this time of contagion, could it be a hospital emergency room? Yep!

Sadly that is where I found myself for six or so hours today! Now fear not, those who might care, it was not because of C-19 (my new hip name for this plague) it apparently was due to a kidney stone passing from my right kidney to my bladder. Oh the fun we had this morning as I was seized by the shakes, and experienced pain that I have not felt since my appendix blew back in 1999, and that went septic! To be fair, I was a greater idiot back then, thinking I had indigestion for the entire weekend. By the time I consented to go to a hospital it was just shy of too late for me. Passed out in the examine room, then packed in ice to avoid brain melt down, then a week in ICU for good measure. By the end of the week I looked to be 90, and a survivor from a death camp/death march.

This time was not so be, and boy am I a fan of morphine! It was just the thing to take the edge off of this mornings sweats and shakes. I still feel some pain tonight, but no doubt from the trauma of something too large passing through something so tight.

That all said, I must commend the staff at the General Hospital, and C-19 for keeping the number of people in the waiting room down. It was almost deserted when we arrived, and when we left. Lots of space to spread out away from others. The ER ward was well staffed, and low on patients. Overall just about as much fun as one can have while passing a stone from a kidney to the bladder, from what I can remember. I elected to spend as much time as possible drifting in and out of consciousness, it certainly makes the time fly by!

All in all another swell day in my life, one not to remember!

Wednesday night game night

Well tonight it was another series of card driven games, first up was Star Realms, which we played to a close finish, twice. We then continued with our tradition of losing in the cooperative game Sentinels of the Multiverse. We managed to get defeated twice! That leaves us at 1 victory and 8 losses, not a good start to the year, does not bode well for the remainder of the year.

Despite the losses, and it should be noted that I lost in both games of Star Realms, so 4 losses for the night, I had fun with the games. Both of these games are on my favorites list, as they both offer a variety of play options, and play challenges. Not just a matter of pure random luck, there are elements of structure that presents opportunities to plan and execute strategies to win.

All in all another fun if, late night of gaming, running from 8:30 until 1:30 AM!

Off to sleep now as I see it is 2:15 in the morning and I plan to wake up in a few short hours.

All Quiet on the Martian Front - First game AAR

Life in a snow globe

It is days like this that make me happy that my former employer pushed me into early retirement!
Many employees in Ottawa were told to work from home, had I still been employed that would not have been an option for me, as I was more directly involved in face to face interactions with my clients. Just thinking about how this type of day played out in the past sends shivers through me and once again reconfirms that I really needed to get away from my previous working life. 

From Value village and elsewhere...

Two different kids toys, the top one is some weird collectable set, each contains a different figure (of no use to me) but I think the containers, especially with the goo, and the 'useless' figures, look like vats with strange experimental subjects in them.

The other item are two Paw Patrol hovercrafts that I found at a value village.