Wood filler

Or more precisely, a blog entry that is a filler post -- about wood.  A wood post?

By the way, yes, I thought of a dozen much funnier titles that use the word, 'wood', but I decided not to go there.

Anyway, I'm working on several projects, display pieces of all things, to enter into the Capital Palette at NOVA Open.  I don't often do display pieces, but most of these ideas are ones that I wanted to enter last year, and I didn't have the time to prepare them, due to settling in to my new digs.  This year, I want to get them done, because:  1) some of the ideas play on current affairs, and the ideas are slipping away in terms of their relevance; and 2) I'm motivated to paint display pieces, coming off my coaching session with Raffaele Picca.

But I am left with a conundrum for the blog.  I can't post work-in-progress shots of my projects until after NOVA.  That's because I wish to prevent the Capital Palette judges from seeing the pieces beforehand, and therefore risk contaminating their decision process, in either direction. 

So that leaves me with posting blog entries about: 1) gaming, 2) opinion pieces, and 3) the occasional, odd hobby post, like this one. 

I'm accustomed mainly to painting gaming miniatures.  My standard approach is to magnetize the base, when I assemble the mini.  The magnetization helps transport the minis to game, and it also allows me to mount the figure on a jar, so that I have a handle to use to grip the piece, when I'm painting it. 

Display figures present a different problem.  They'll be pinned to a diorama or to a plinth.  So I need a different type of handle.  All of that to say, voila, I have wood!

Who wood have seen that coming?

I cut these handles from a piece of stock wood that I bought for a buck at Home Depot.  I doubt I'll ever have that many figures going at the same time for display pieces, but, hey, you never know.  Might as well have too many.  I didn't know what else to do with the excess anyway.

The goblin is the last crew-member that I needed to paint for my Spear Chukka crew.  I knocked him out during a Hobby Hangout, when I didn't want to concentrate too hard.  I still need to paint the Chukka, though.

I am going to try to interleave my display projects with at least one gaming project.  I plan to play Lord of the Rings Strategy Game at NOVA, and I have a lot of Orcs and Haradrim that I should prepare, so that I will have some respectable options to bring to the table.  I also need to learn how to play the game and fit in some practice games, before NOVA arrives.  Boy, I have a lot to do this summer to get ready!