Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas one and all from Dice, Doubloons and Random Musings.

I took the day off work, and got a little bit of painting done today, including learning what an idiot I've been in the interest of being thrifty.  Reaper Miniatures includes a sample bottle of their brand of paint in every order placed on their online store, so I've amassed a bunch of them.  I never use them though, because I've always said, "I get perfectly good results from the 99-cent acrylic paints I buy at the craft store." Well, it turns out I don't have a good caucasian skin tone from the craft store, but I've got two-thirds of the medium flesh-tones triad from Reaper via samples.  So, while painting a Necromancer for my Frostgrave warband, I decided to give the Reaper samples a try.

I am an idiot, and could now easily toss all my cheap acrylics right in the trash.  Using this paint was like having an angel guide my hand while I painted.  Amazingly good coverage, no clogging of details, perfect flow.  Why haven't I been using this all along? While I've always balked at the idea of paying $3+ per bottle of paint, these are clearly worth the investment.

I will likely have some goodies to display tomorrow - Gina and I are exchanging gifts tonight, and she had me walk her through a half-dozen websites including Wargames Foundry, Reaper Miniatures, The War Store and Brigade Games showing her the sorts of things I like.  And she received a box in the mail with a return address which I recognized as being that of The War Store.  That box is now wrapped and under our tree.  I keep looking at it longingly.  Similarly, my mother wanted to do "fun" gifts for my sister and I this year, so I sent her a bunch of links to items at The War Store as ideas.  Between suggestions I made to both of them, I may have a Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant warband in the new year.

Gina's gotten really fascinated by the miniatures painting process, and has tentatively asked about painting up a miniature of her own to try it out.  She's also asked me, starting in 2016, to paint a miniature a year to convert into an ornament for our Christmas tree.  We're going to be starting off with Foundry's Scary Santas, specifically the handsome Orc to the left.  She especially likes his pick-axe left foot.

The allure of a new period and scale has been very strong the past couple days - I ordered the rules for Sword and Spear as my Christmas gift to myself, and am strongly considering building a couple armies in 20mm (1/72 scale) plastics for it.  Right now New Kingdom Egyptians and Sea Peoples are the strong contenders.  Hopefully I can keep myself busy enough with Frostgrave and any new acquisitions from Christmas to let these urges pass quietly by.