Road Trips & Beaches

The last few days have been incredible. My husband graduated on Friday from dental school and my in-laws rented a beach house where we celebrated with family & friends all weekend. After the graduation ceremony, we hit the road:

The beach house was beautiful-- built right on the beach just a short walk away from the water! While the hurricanes had kicked up lots of red seaweed that washed up on shore, we were able to enjoy the sand & sun from the wrap-around deck. The pups loved it too!

My husband and I enjoy both tabletop and console gaming. While my husband didn't grow up with "game nights", over the past few years, we've been actively trying to convert my mother-in-law to tabletop gaming. This trip was no exception! We played 7 Card Samurai and I have to say-- I think it was a hit! We played 5 rounds and it was a close game in the end. I tried a few different strategies, and in the end I favored the steal-rice-early-and-defend-quickly strategy. (I won!) 

7 Card Samurai

Before the whirlwind of awesome hit, I made sure to make time for miniature painting between my last post and this trip-- and here he is! I brightened the stony Gargoyle up with a green wash, applied my first series of highlights on his skin, put a base coat on the armor, and focused on finishing the runes on the column. I still have a ways to go-- stay tuned!

The Results are In

Ok, so I know it's not Thursday yet, but I'm posting a day early:

After some encouragement from a new painting friend, I jumped into the Reaper Miniature Forum's Works In Progress thread. Basically, I needed help. I had more minis that I started painting than minis that I had actually completed. Two weeks went by and I'd been going back & forth between painting 6+ miniatures, with no apparent focus-- only adding miniatures as I got stumped by another. Coincidentally, this mirrors my former WoW play style: Bored? In the Outlands? Not enough time for a full dungeon crawl? Make another alt character!

With the helpful votes of my fellow forumites, the next miniature I will complete is Reaper Miniature #14028 - Gargoyle (or as I now call him, Scruffy):

He's missing a weapon & has suffered some chips. I'll be patching him up and his projected completion date is May 31st. While I wanted to complete it within one week, I failed to consider that within that time frame, my husband graduates from dental school, we'll have friends & family in town this weekend, I work on Memorial Day, and I have an out-of-state work day trip planned next Tuesday. It's the worst week to try and finish a mini but no need to start making excuses now :) Let the painting begin!

Works in Progress · May 2014

This weekend I realized that I have an increasing amount of Works-in-Progress and haven't completed a miniature lately. I find I'll paint the parts of the mini that I find both challenging & fun and leave the rest for later. I'll often complete faces, hair, skin, and the first part of the overall color scheme before "temporarily" setting them aside to start on another. I want to challenge myself to complete a Work-in-Progress miniature within one week from Thursday. So far I've narrowed it down to these four Reaper miniatures, though I may need some help deciding:

2. Arnise - Reaper MIniature #14098

4. Ursula - Reaper Miniature #13293

1. Taldalise - Reaper Miniature #13466

3. Gargoyle - Reaper Miniature #14028