Some stuff from the shelf

Here are a few of the models I've done that never made it on to the web, whether my old painting blog or my old MySpace or Facebook. Although I haven't been getting in as much painting and modeling in as I'd like, I always managed to squeeze in a model or two a year.

Gundam Zaku II 1/144 scale Bandai

I painted this model about 10,000 years ago or so. It sat on the shelf of my office while I thought about how to do the base for it. I had seen a few Gundam Plastic Model competitions here and there over the years and when I first returned to Japan a few years ago, I thought that the Gundam modeling community would be the way to go. And I thought I was introverted! If only these guys' parents had basements! Not knowing anything about Gundam, or the fans, I was quick to learn that Gundam appreciation is a solitary affair.

The models by Bandai are great. 9.9 thumbs up on assembly and posing. The building this guy is hiding behind is a railway building and the base itself a picture frame from Daiso. I made the sign from some old photos on my PC and the statue is a 15mm Essex American Civil War cavalry officer. I tried a lot of new weathering techniques and I think they turned out well. The eye I totally replaced with a bit I found at Daiso (when the 100 yen shop is your best hobby resource, you got to do what you got to do...) I magnetized the model to the base. It seems to impress colleagues and other nerds that see it. I quite like it, but I'm not a 'Gundam' guy. I prefer Western Sci-Fi over the Eastern fare.

Games Workshop Saruman

I'm not sure of the name of the set this figure came from, but it also came with a Gandalf the Grey sans hat and the Palinteer stand. Here I had to figure out how I was going to do three shades of white.  Most of the paints used were Americana that I had bought at Michael's in Canuckistan. This figure was a break from my Chaos army and was a breath of fresh air at the time. I entered him in a painting contest at the Calgary GT in 2007? 2008? and won a 'Warpstone', a handshake and a mention or two on a friend's blog.

Tamiya 1/35 M5 Stuart

This is the first 1/35 kit I had done since I was maybe 16. I didn't try to do anything special with it at all and built it straight out of the box. I copied the paint job from the box and may zero attempts to find reference. (I've been to the Tamiya Factory in Shizuoka and I reckon they did their due diligence). This model was more of an exercise to see where my skills were at the time. I assembled it one day and then painted it the next. The paint on the tank is mostly Tamiya, I think. With the figure, I used whichever paints suited me at the time.

Games Workshop Beastman Lord with two hand weapons

This figure was the figure that kicked off my re-birth into gaming. I bought this figure at Yellow Submarine in Shinjuku in 2005. I painted him over a week and had to do him in starts and stops. All the paint is GW. The paint job is alright, but I have done better. I had a lot of fun painting this guy watching Conan (Howard's) and LOTR on my PC. The first figure in my 10^N+1 point Chaos Army, I've never used him in a game. He has a storied and exalted place in the cabinet in the Fortress of Solid-dude.

Currently, I'm trying to finish off projects that I thought I never would get around. I'm working on about 4 or five units at once to finish off all the GW stuff I have laying around once and for all. (I looked at some of the prices online the other day and laughed and laughed and laughed. And you thought faberge eggs were expensive...). 

I've been re immersing myself in World War II in a run up to Bolt Action. Lamentably, the weather this weekend looks terrible. I'm going to have to wait to pick up the minis or just have a gamer melt down and just order them on the internet directly from Warlord.

I may have found a new crew of.....NERDS!!!!!

Well, after GW Chiba closed its doors way back when, I thought, 'well, that's it for gaming, buddy.' All my ex-opponents seemed to simultaneously get a hard-on, or stimulus evoked contraction, for card games, which, for the most part, are totally gay.

Years went by. I traveled to some far out places, drank my weight in beer 100 times over and smoked enough to decimate a small army whilst in Nepal. (the authorities will never catch up with Fredrick Flintstone,  I assure you) I thought my days of sitting around in a Star Wars T shirt talking about Star Trek TOS episodes  while fondling dice were over as most of my corporeal friends seemed to be more interested in surfing and spear fishing (and running away from the cops) than anything smacking of, let alone hinting at, nerdom. Then, one day I came across Bolt Action, a World War II (before television!!) skirmish game that gave me the biggest stimulus evoked contraction since my first trip to Thailand before I became a bodhisattva. (lol).

Being no slouch to modeling or gaming, I knew instantly that this was the game I had been waiting for since I was 16, all fat, spotted and angry. Finally, units of the Britischefreikorps could see battle under my command. I'm busy shaving dice as I write this! Will Hauptman von Durham lead his rag-tag deserters to glory in the birth of the 1000 year reich? Or will he lead them to their own doom in the defense of the Berlin zoo in April 1945? (Choose option 'B'...it's more correct.)

I found a club to replace the 'Ultimate Gamers' in my hometown in Canuckistan. It has been so long since I rocked the dice and waved a tape measure about like some sort of magic wand cursing my opponent and their juvenile, mal-interpretation of given rules. The years since I have been back in Japan have had a critical element absent from my incarnation; gaming. And as tongue-in-cheek as all of this is, I am sincerely stoked about gaming again. Nothing beats hanging out with gaming nerds. Gaming nerds are the best. Nerd 4 lyfe.

Watch this space for reports, articles and editorials that will never be read by anyone but their author....and perhaps his wife.