Gor-rok WIP: The Basement-Dweller's Lizardman

After a long... Hiatus lacuna*, I've finally started painting again. And what better way to get back "in the game" than with a pasty Aztec** dinosaur? I'd made a few attempts at Gor-rok using GW's normal Saurus Oldblood, but they never looked quite right to me. On top of my own inadequate interpretations of albinism, there was the difficulty of replicating his Mace of Ulamak (a beating stick even Aztec dinosaurs would look at and say, "This is just getting ridiculous!"). Then I discovered  a singularly angry fellow produced by Avatars of War.

Fig. 1 Gor-rok rushes the camera, thoroughly enraged that I've taken so long to start painting him

Fig. 2 An impromptu viewing of "Jurassic Park" successfully distracts him

The great weapon's head mated to the shaft of the hand weapon makes for a suitably overkilly mace.

At this point his skin is pretty much finished, but the scales an spikes could use a little more work. He'll also need some pigmented Sauruses (Sauri?) to be stuck in with to really stand out... Just one more thing to the To-do List

*Sabbatical? Break? Lacuna? Yeah, lacuna. let's go with that...

**Though I suppose they could be Mayan dinos, or Olmec, or any number of Mesoamerican thunder lizards

His Majesty's Airship Daedalus: Is Pre-Steampunk a "Thing"?

A couple months ago, during a particularly boring Saturday at work, I drew an airship.

Fig 1. Artist's rendering of a shittly scanned airship

This image taunted, mocked, and intrigued me for about a week before I forgot it. Then one day, while wandering a hobby store, I found Revell's Caribbean Pirate Ship on sale. The sketch popped back into my head and I knew what I must do: Build the hell outta that sumbitch.

Fig H. Artist's rendering of a hastily MS Painted photo of a model kit

Unfortunately, like most of my other projects, this one is currently on the back burner because... Um... Well, I mean "Modern Family" is on tonight, right? gotta watch that...

I guess I'll have to hope that the changing weather motivates me to get this thing built enough to spray paint it before... Well, before the dog is able to make his special lemon sno-cones. 

Arts & Crafts: A Lovely Little Thinker but a Bugger When He's Pissed

I paint miniatures. Warhammer, Infinity, Warmachine, &c, &c*. I don't really play them, but they're fun as hell to make and paint. For example, from Reaper's 28mm Cronoscope line, Socrates (yes, that Socrates):

Famous last words:  "Dear Ath-holes**: Eff all y'all, I'm Audi 5000. PEACE!"

Why do they have a mini for Socrates? I have no idea, but I bought the hell out of it.

One mini down, uncounted legions to go... Still nowhere to put them...

*Doesn't "&c" look just plain classier than "etc."?
** Socrates's favorite portmanteau of "Athenian" and "asshole" I was a Classics major. I know these things.

From the Vault: Givin' the Finger to Big Oil, Thermodynamics

Thing I miss about being a kid # 37: Not having to give two shits about physics.

 Back then, all I needed was an episode of Beekman's World involving electrolysis and a book about the space shuttle mentioning fuel cells and I was off like a shot solving the energy crisis:

Fig 1.1: Artist's Rendering of the CAAAAAR OOOFF THEEEE FUUUUTURE-TURE-TURE [fanfare and applause drowns out the reverb]

The battery zaps the water, turning it into hydrogen and oxygen. the gases are pumped to a fuel cell which turns the gases back into water, then juices the electric motors while simultaneously charging the battery. 

In summation: Electrolysis + fuel cell - basic understanding of physics = vroom vroom.

Sometimes I'm amazed I survived past puberty.

The Great Experiment Commences

On the advisement of my "people" (of whom only one is a person - the others being a dog, cat, and a solar-powered owl which shakes its head in disapproval of nigh everything -- maybe "Steering Committee"is a better term?), I have created this blog, this on-ramp to the Super-Highways and Mega-Byways of Information upon which I shall dispatch trucks of bits and bytes, hauling the mental ejecta which heretofore has only found outlets in the creation of the "Kittyphone" and conversations with the canine representative of the Steering Committee*.

Of course, now that I have put myself on the spot, I am at a loss as to what else to package in this first shipment of digitized thought-goo -- 

Oh. Right. Dancing Elephant. Of course he needs to be here, for he is the vanguard. The harbinger of things to come.

*Yeah, "Steering Committee" is better than "people - It's more official sounding. Perhaps I shall make them team jackets or commemorative pins.