A rough stretch.

 

Forgive the vagueness and ambiguity, but I am going through a tough patch at the moment. July was full-stop awful, and August, while better, is well short of good.

I've never been a fan of publicly discussing personal difficulties, and will continue that here. I will simply say we have taken heavy body blows as a family in the past and gotten back up from them, and look to do so in this case, too.

It has sapped my urge to bloviate on major matters of public import. 

Everything's going straight to hell anyway, so further emphasis from me on that obvious point can wait.

 

But at least my bleak sense of humor is intact, so that's nice.

In the meantime, prayers are welcome and I can recommend the Stoics, starting with good ol' Epictetus.

And my son is an apprentice wizard with woodworking, helping me convert a snowmobile trailer into something more suited to hauling the cargo associated with a larger family. He calls it the "S.S. Father & Son," which is as flattering a name as I can imagine. We have since added some coats of "International Harvester Red" to help it last.

 

Anyway, the bottom line remains the same, as Dan Abnett repeatedly writes:

 

Meme for a Friday.

Just not as hope-filled as a Warhammer 40K meme, alas.

But, yeah, 'tis our contemporary world:

 

Fine, some hope:

Dante, Chapter Master of the heroic Blood Angels chapter, Warden of the Imperium Nihilus and the oldest surviving Space Marine not honorably interred in a Dreadnought, doing what he does best: striking back at the encroaching darkness.

 
Seriously, Guy Haley's Dante and The Devastation of Baal are two of the best 40k books, period. Not a flawless Mary Sue, Dante is just a man turned into a superhuman who carries the heavy burdens that come with leadership.

Even victory can be almost too much to bear.

I'm all posted out at the moment, so I'll just meme instead.

 

 

 

 

 

Miniature Painting Update.

Memos to self:

1. Never make a Techmarine your intro to 40k miniature painting.

2. Never use blue as a basecoat when 5% of the finished mini will be blue. And you'll end up repainting the blue anyway.

3. Painting is far more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

4. But never make a Techmarine your intro to 40k miniature painting.

This is about 85% done.

Been a while.

 At least the 40k Memes are cheap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to start somewhere.

When I was a child, neither coloring nor painting--even by numbers--was one of my bags.

"Jackson Pollock Seizing" is the best way to describe my style in those rare forays into the visual arts.

So when the first miniatures arrived and I realized I was going to have to paint them....hoo, boy.

Base-coating is a breeze.

The detail work is forcing me to develop something I have never had: a light touch.

So I figured "why not start your very first miniature painting with something ridiculously-intricate like a Techmarine?"

After a harsh "Delete" of a first draft with paint thinner, I decided to switch gears (rimshot!) and try some detailing. 

I focused on the metallic tools, breastplate and Mechanicus right pauldron. I am going to make his powerpack red, too. But he's going to be an Ultramarine tech nerd when I am finished.

The bright light shows I need some extra dabs in spots. But so far I am...not appalled.

I need something light, so: memes.

Self explanatory.

Having a Space Marine Uncle could be really cool. 

Not so by the way, I used to toss Maddie up to the rafters like this. I'll have to find that picture.

"There are no aliens at Area 51" is confirmed.

The Black Templars are kinda loopy. 
But Grimaldus is pretty awesome, even if he was rude to Vulkan's boys at Helsreach.
"Excuse me, Miss--I speak Lore."

Yeah, everybody knows who the Ultrasmurfs are. Can't let that slide.

"And I'm putting this cup down and un-holstering my assault bolter. No hard feelings, old man."

Louis Armstrong like you'll never hear him.

A good, short vacation.

If a bad end. 

The good: the children were spoiled by their grandparents over the Fourth.

A heatwave stretches over the State, but the lake helped, as did good air conditioning.

A nice view of the lake.

My brother and I chipped in to get my Mom this lighthouse. A solar charger powers an LED light which offers a soft glow seen from indoors and out.

Mom feeds the local squirrels so that the birds get something to eat. Even the ones born this year have become quite "meh" about humans nearby.

Insolent, even.

The fishing off the dock is impressively easy. All catch-and-release for the kids, though Louis is itching to tangle with a pike.

I prepped for other options should the weather turn bad. The weather was reliably good--but the sunburns prompted a move indoors. Above is the Floating M2 Bradley In Space! called the Repulsor.

And here's a front view of the Wall of Guns, as it is sometimes known.

Now for the bad: it appears the transmission went out on the Ford Expedition on the way home yesterday. We were mostly home, close enough for a good friend to come up with her family van to transport everyone else and their luggage home while I waited for the wrecker. So everyone was and is safe.

The towing bill from I-75 between Detroit and Flint was $257. The almost-certain transmission replacement will be staggeringly higher. I might be wrong, and it might be something else other than the transmission. But it's a 2005 vehicle, and I have probably run out of luck.

My son has Typhus.

At least the Warhammer kind.

For some reason, the little heretic has taken a shine to the Death Guard's First Captain.

And he's looking forward to melee combat using the figure. 

He will be a formidable foe in that respect.

If there's a duel, the Ultramarines' weapon of choice will be a Flamestorm cannon....

The insane, pinpoint details on these things. Oof.

And yes, said details can be ouch-sharp. The English gamers originated the term "Spikey Bits," and it stuck for good reason.

Louis has started painting one of the regular Plague Marines. Here it is after a base coat and some detail work. He's going to be good with the brushes.

The Land Raider Redeemer.

Now complete.

[6/29 Edit: weeell...now it is. Turns out I needed to add some front tread armor and rococo Imperial decorations.]

Yes, it's a Mark IV WWI tank which had a love child with a Landing Craft Assault transport from the Second World War.

But the Land Raider is one of the iconic vehicles of the 40K setting. And Tommy and I completed it today...after a near-disaster redeemed with hobby knives and a quick reset.

That's a regular Space Marine manning the lethal "Melta gun" on top.

Diagonal view of the left hatch (held in place with my friend the hobby magnet) and the Flamestorm cannon. GW loves it some sponson mounts.

The right side, with the Flamestorm cannon and more magnet work (visible in the upper left hand corner of the hatch).

The assault ramp deployed. You can run out a formidable batch of Marines after torching the landscape with the main weapons.

Note that GW is very inconsistent when it comes to scaling vehicles and troops. And that's just as well, as consistent scaling would make it a hobby only for the Robb Report set.

Memes!

Here you go!

The Church VERY Militant.

Yeah, this happens.

I'm with Grandma. The Weeaboo Space Commies and their ludicrous battlesuit units are really annoying.

Except for Commander Farsight. He's awesome.

Explaining this to the uninitiated would take a lot of pixels and just leave you looking slumped at the end like Captain Picard.

Lego Rogal Dorn is most excellent.

Being a Sister of Battle is hard sometimes.

The first of Bobby G's many, many disappointing moments of discovery after hovering near-death in stasis for eight millennia. Here, he discovers that the traitor space marines have been quite literally warped into something else during his nap.

In the lore, the battle around his former stasis chamber ceased for several seconds after he stepped out of it. "Because Loyal Son of the Emperor is Alive and Well" was hard for everyone to process. Then a Black Legion berzerker lunged at him and got bisected by RG.

Whatever else you want to say about Guilliman, he can certainly adapt on the fly.