Camera blues…

Lost my battery for my camera… no pictures for a while…

I am a dirty cheater…

Not intentionally, but that hardly matters to the outcome…

So in D&D you have a bewildering variety of bonuses that can be applied to attack or damage rolls. Those could be “feat” or “power” or “luck” or “enhancement” or about a dozen different types of bonuses. The thing is, that like bonuses don’t stack. So if you have two “power” bonuses, then you only gain the benefit of the greater bonus.

Well, this weekend Kataar, my legendary ranger in fourth edition D&D, was in an encounter where multiple bonuses were in play. I did not check to make sure that none of the bonuses stacked. Some of them did. To make a long story short, I gave Kataar a +4 more than he should have had on one turn and a +2 more than he should have on a couple more turns. And that meant at least one, and probably more, “hits” that should have been “misses.”

I am ashamed…

Morigami

Or… “more origami” anyway..

Here’s some stuff I’ve been playing with (you’ll see me using the word “origami” a lot in ways that seem redundant, but that’s for the search engines’ benefits):

The origami chairs need a bit of work, but I’ve got two other chair patterns I can use too. This one is just the sturdiest. The origami table isn’t bad, really. I’ve got quite a few of these I folded on the flight to and from Atlanta…

Surprisingly good origami desk, really. I really need that wood-grained folding paper… Especially if I can get it wood grained on both sides. The desk isn’t all that sturdy, but how sturdy does it have to be? Again, lots of these folded…

Another simple pattern for origami beds. Not real sturdy. Well, the pink one in front is, but the other two aren’t. I will probably end up dunking most of these furniture bits into varnish, which makes the paper real sturdy, almost like plastic.

An origami eagle. This one is too big, but I can make ’em smaller.

A different origami dragon pattern. I might like this one better than the one I’ve been folding for years.

And another origami dragon… This one seems a bit too cute, but it will serve I suppose…

Origami treasure chest

OK, so here’s my first try at an origami treasure chest. It’s the right size and I’ve got quite a few more foil origami squares I could use. Of course you can make these with normal paper too, but the foil sorta looks like brass or something. Anyway, here it is.

It is worth noting that it was quite easy in my newly organized hobby room to get the origami paper from the origami section, fold a few boxes like this, one with the foil paper, then go to the closet and get my light box, then grab a mini and take the photo.

Really pretty cool… Wonder how long I can keep it this way..

Cripes… forgot to color balance it…. here it is color balanced…

It’s CLEAN! And Organized!

I just finished vacuuming my office, hobby room.

Vacuuming.

I don’t think it’s possible to express what an amazing word that is. A week ago I couldn’t SEE most of the carpet, much less vacuum it.

Now I’ve got a whole new outlook. For at least as long as it takes to fill the room up with junk again…

Origami for gaming…

I posted a photo (not a very good one I admit) of an origami dragon I made and saturated in varnish to make it sort of plasticized. I’ve got six or seven of them of either large or huge size. I could make a medium sized one but it’s a pretty complex origami fold to do that small.

So I’ve been thinking about other origami I could do that would make for decent gaming miniatures. In spite of my dragons I think that it’s a rare origami pattern or origamist who can make monster or character minis. I’ve seen some awe-inspiring spiders and horses and such from wet-folding origami masters, but at this point in my life that seems to be beyond my skill level, so I was looking at other things that might work.

So for our last gaming session I made a bunch of origami tables that I was able to use in game and which worked just fine. A little varnish on them and they’d be plasticized and probably last as long as any other tables. I’ve got some books with origami patterns for bookshelves, chairs, boxes, chests, etc. All of those seem like decent candidates for gaming, and coincidentally that’s a major area where my current mini collection is pretty weak. It seems that with a bit of cleverness I could make a bunch of origami siege engines, wagons, carts, treasure chests, boats, canoes, even some simple trees or bushes. Maybe my silverized origami paper could even be put to use for making mirrors… If I can get some time to fiddle around with some paper, I’ll post some photos here.

Still organizing…

This is turning into a nightmare… Just trying to get all my miniature making tools and supplies in one bookshelf has become a three hour ordeal… Of course I’ve got a lot of different containers and four shelves to put them on… but the tools were made to use, not to stick in containers… So, for example, my vise and my “extra hands” magnifying glass are taking up way too much space… I can’t figure out the best way to store all my terrain making stuff (much of it is bulky), and no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get my paints organized in any way that won’t just fall apart the first time I start working on a mini again…

Ug… I guess I’ll have to go with trial and error…. Was hoping to be done tonight, but it’s not looking like it now…

Getting organized… I hope

So, after going on my mini-making binge and making a dozen 12×24 inch foam trays to hold the hundreds of minis I’ve made, modified or just painted…

I finally decided it’s time to clean up the mess in here.

And I do mean mess. I wouldn’t take a photo because it would be too humiliating. I’ve got minis all over the room, half a dozen different kinds of epoxy putty, a veritable hobby shop full of craft supplies…paints, brushes, glues, tools, trays…

Anyway my terrain making supplies have mostly been in plastic bags where I’ve just grabbed some of what I need and then close up the bag again, only to find a few days later that my wonderful little pebbles are now creeping out onto the carpet…

So, besides clearing several boxes of junk out of the room, I’m trying to re-organize the room at the same time by putting all my stuff in some sort of logical order. Tools together, paints together, epoxy together, supplies … etc..

It’s a Herculean undertaking. It may take me a couple days.