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(Airbus to Las Vegas)

So I just spent $12 for a coffee and croissant at Illy. That is part of the reason I just can’t love Las Vegas. The gambling dens and stuff shirt food locations I can ignore, and there is a least some honesty there–they just want your money–but the ridiculous cost of a coffee is just going too far. Well, I am on the strip in The Palazzo, but I get a free drink at the slots! I do wonder if I could just sit at the slots and put in $10 on the cheap one (if they exist anymore) and get a free coffee.

(me just after finishing security in PDX)

I am happy to be here for TechEd. I flew in on Sunday with no interesting events. This is good as my wife, Susie, fell and was injured on Friday night. I was in Portland at the time headed into playing a board game at Guardian Games. Susie called me to tell me she was alright. Corwin who lives with us was with her and had bandaged her up and said for me to continue with my plans. So I played Game of Thrones (second edition) and then passed on another game and came home early. The GOT game went a bit strange (odd set of random conditions happened that none of us had seen before in GOT) and ended with an easy win for Cody (I lost again in a six-person game).

(Game of Thrones–just at the start)

Susie’s glasses where bent; she had face-planted on them. The happened in the kitchen onto the hard floor. The hinge of the glasses had cut her temple. I was able to repair the eyewear (I have special plyers for my model work that are good for this kind of work).

So I bought all the groceries, did laundry, cooked, cleaned, and all that jazz and packed. Susie and Corwin are set for the week, I hope. Corwin has been teaching Susie a new word, Uber, and I think they can find what they need. Also Safeway deliveries for a minor fee to our house.

Fate being a bit unkind this weekend, delivered two new games to me. On Saturday, I drove to Vancouver, WA, to get my copy of Vindication: Leaders and Alliances, which is an update and extension to one of my favorite Kickstarter games: Vindication. Of course, we picked up the game extension in a coffee place–This is the PNW. We chatted with the folks that made the game. I knew the designer and was one of the playtesters for an early version. Back home without time to play. I did open it and replace the fixes for Vindication as I had the first printing. Already to play…when I get back. And then one came in the mail: War of the Worlds: The New Wave. This one I have been waiting for. Fate gives it to me now. So in the middle of dinner, dishes, cleaning, laundry, and all that jazz, I also unwrapped and played a game against myself (it is a two-person game). I also wrote a review (just approved today and posted).

(War of the Worlds at the end of first practice–Tesla card out just because it was so cool looking)

So got here, Las Vegas, the regular way and enjoyed our fine PDX airport on the way. There is in PDX I had Mo’s Clam Chowder before flying in the back of an Airbus. I find PDX comfortable with good WiFi and food and even a little movie theater. While waiting for my flight, I watched a video on how to play War of the Worlds game and found I had missed only a few rules. The game designers often put out play-through videos so the buyer can learn how to play and to see if it is something they want.

I met Michael G for dinner on Sunday night as is our usual process and we spent too much for a few beers, salads, and a shared pizza. We then went for a walk on The Strip. MG was surprised by the number of gals wearing large feathers, and these gals wore little else. There are more than last year. We also marveled at new places and tried to remember what was there last year. It is always

We then saw a pair of girls walking quickly by with riding crops and dark outfits and a large bottle of water. MG said, “their shift must be over.”

The plane gave me a migraine headache–does not often happen to me but it is a form of altitude sickness caused by the low pressure in the aircraft. My legs also ached on the plane, which is also a sign of that. I was happy this was a short flight.

I was not able to bring the migraine under control with aspirin. The walking and food helped for a bit, but the bright lights of the computers brought it back when I got to my room and made it far worse. Sleep usually works, and so I delayed this until this morning. I am much better today.

 

Photo by me

I completed the undead and then sprayed them in Army Painter no-shine to balance the reflections. I did not take photos between steps. What I did was just correct all the errors after painting the diluted colors, which run a bit. I used undiluted paint and painted around the edges. You have to be careful to not remove all the shading from the dilute process when you do this. I also brightened up the white as it was looking gray. This would not make fascinating photos!

This is not a process that requires anything more than time and 3x bifocal safety glasses and the insane detail brush from Army Painters.

One trick is that the tiny brush can well brush better than make dots. This means you can brush details in by painting over with other colors. So I often dot in the buttons and then brush along them with the cloth coat to fix the misses.

I lastly painted Nuln Oil pure on the figures. Just brushed it on thick. They are undead, so I wanted the bones to be filled in with black. This is in replacement for Army Painter dipping or painting on their shading inks.

I have the photo of the figure put away. The yellow faction of lion people shows how odd they look unpainted. Also, one of the characters has a staff like the surfs, and this is confusing. I have seen some errors in play from this faction from confusing the character from the surf.

I am moving to the human faction next. I am continuing on with the Scythe characters. I have added Pandemic characters to my painting as they are part of a Christmas present.

I have painted three times about an hour-long each time to get the base coat painting done on the undead. I have found that when I do groups of figures that some groups get done first. The Scythe figures are all different colors, so they just get painted once and a while.

I did much of the painting with the regimental brush. I did dilute the paint for most of the work. I did not dilute the brass and gold colors as I find that gold just fills cracks and does not cover well. Also, it stands out so well that it is more a highlight than normal colors. I picked brass and not gold to get a different look from the king figure. Undead always look better with brass I find.

For the undead warriors, I painted the shield with bronze and silver and the teeth with skeleton bone (a tan like color). I painted the rim with a mix of oak brown and silver. The wood inside was colored a dilute oak brown. I then used the insane detail brush to touch it all up.

On the undead characters, I used gold, not bronze. I painted the hourglass with some red to hint at sand flowing. The glass I painted the same sand color I used for bases. As the wraith character is not on a painted base so that should not be noticed.

Touch-ups will follow with paints that are not diluted. I also used blue ink on the silver helmet and metal-like kilt on the warriors–that matched the art.

As I said, Scythe figures are still just started. I am again just doing a color here and there.

I am back to work this Tuesday.

We returned home after driving from Seattle leaving about 11:00 and arriving in Beaverton about 2:30 Monday. I drove fast with traffic.

Remembering Seattle, I got up on Monday and headed out to the Pike Street Market about 8:15-ish and purchased various baked goods and another bagel. The gal, her name is lost to me, remember me and was happy to see me back. I promised to be back in a year or so and buy another bagel. “I will be here,” she said. Their bagels, she told me after I asked, are usually only available at restaurants and like–this is their only retail store. The bagels are fresh and soft. The salmon, for a lox bagel, is local too. Yes, I will come back.

I also met the friendly staff at the original Starbucks. Early morning Monday is a great time to talk to the team, and the line is short–thirty minutes later it was almost around the block. I had coffee from the French Bakery down the street which I apologized for. They went for a “live-and-let-live” approach to that. “As long as it is good,” one of the staff said. I purchased a shopping bag, another one, and a thermal cup. Both the shopping bag and the thermal cup celebrates the original store. My purchases of memorabilia made the team even more friendly towards me, and when I told them I was from Portland and was happy to come and see them, they just ignored the crowd, and we talked about coffee for a while. I saw them again later, and they waved to me–even with the line around the block. Coffee is liquid friendship here in the PNW!

There is a leftist bookstore, Left Bank Book Collective, and I had to walk in and find something. I found a fascinating read there: Thinking in an Emergency. I am only on page 15, but I am already thinking differently about emergencies and their effect on freedom. This book is from 2011 and followed just after 9/11.

Returning to our exit, the hotel was very friendly and got our bags–there were two more now–to the car. They also got the car out front and loaded it up and helped me with Susie as it is a steep hill, a most excellent hotel: Inn at the Market.

The drive was uneventful with the usual stops and starts. We managed to avoid rush hour in Seattle and Portland. Susie crashed, I did my laundry and unpacked and got ready for today. I had an all-day planning meeting at the shoe company.

It was a short trip, it left us wanting to come back again, and I have a few new things to remember Seattle.