To Blog or Not to Blog?

Its been a sort of hell for the last two weeks. Forget any sort of quality hobby time. I've been trying to get a poster done for my trip to the annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting, before I leave Tuesday. I'm not going to go into details, but everything and everyone seems to be conspiring to keep me from finishing the darn thing. Well, its 11:41 pm. I am nearly done with the poster, expect my co-author, being his usual overly-anal self, sent me a bunch of revisions on it. A bunch of picky stuff that no one is going to notice. For God sakes, man, its just a poster!!!!

In between working on the poster and working on every other thing that I seem to have to do that isn't related to the poster, I've been toying with the idea of splitting off my imaginary world of Gambusia onto its own blog. Imagi-Nation blogs are in lately. They started off as being exclusively in the 18th century realm, but now are very popular for the Banana-Republic/Developing Nations types of games. I'm even starting to see them for sci-fi games. So why not join the bandwagon?

Pros:
1. it would keep me focused on one topic and allows me to track my progress on this particular aspect of my gaming/hobby activities.
2. it would keep readers who are interest coming back for more.
3. it can add more color to it beyond my model building and AARs (which are pretty much non-existent at this point).
4. for those very few who are more vested in the game, such as the General, they can keep up with any news and developments without wading through other stuff.

Cons:
1. I am not a prodigious blogger, but I don't like to have months go by without a post. Spitting blogs up might cause that to happen.
2. I am not sure if I would get new file space for pictures if I start a new blog. There are probably ways around that, like using something like Photobucket, but seems like more work.
3. I'm lazy. I like having everything in one spot. If I spin off one hobby project, I'd be tempted to spin them all off. Too much to keep track of!
4. this is a weird one, and I guess its due to the nature of my profession, but I like to classifying and categorizing things. It pissed me off when I go to a blog and they don't have Labels. Nothing bugs me more than having to open up a whole bunch of archives to find some topic. I think that if I split up things into separate blogs, there won't be enough topics to label.

Thoughts and comments are welcome.

I, Robot

My daughter had a project where she was supposed to make a robot out of recyclable materials. Here is the result:





So shoot me, I helped her build the thing, but it was all her design. She told me what went where. My only original contribution to its design is the use of tennis balls for the shoulder joint. I manned the hot-glue run and she held things in place. The robot's name is Ellie. She is a dress-making robot. According to her designer, she can put out 14 dresses a day. She has a robot dog as a pet, but we didn't have time to build that. Maybe a future project?

Past 15mm Fantasy projects

I was going through folders looking for some pictures for my research and I came across these two. I took them awhile ago. I thought I'd share them. First is a medieval/fantasy inn I made:

This building is over 10 years old. I made it when my wife and I lived in New York for a year while I had a temporary research position at the American Museum of Natural History. Its loosely based on a building I passed by one evening on my way home. When the weather was nice, I'd hike from my apartment on 161st Street in Washington Heights down to 81st Street, where the AMNH was. After work, if I wasn't working too late and my wife was out of town on business, I'd go explore the city on foot. I think I was in better shape back then than I am now because I walked so much. Anyway, on one of my adventures, I spotted a building that looked like an old inn. I made some quick sketches of it and then built it when I got back to our apartment. The main floor is of polymer clay, including the door. The second floor is cardstock, with the timbers being wooden coffee stirring sticks. The fancy windows are window screen. The flagstone paving are broken up egg shells. My pride and joy, and what makes this such a "Manhattan" original is that the shingles, both on this building and the one next to it, are made of discarded subway pass cards! You could find billions of them strewn around in subways. I still have a bunch of them. The building might not be exactly 1/100 scale. It might be more suited for 20mm figures, but it does the job.

This second picture is more recent. I think I finished them and took the picture about four years back:

He is a Demonworld general from their Empire range. I am not a big fan of Renaissance armor and warfare , but I kind of liked him. I envision him as a veteran mercenary general. I figure that mercs are always going to have the best in armor and weaponry because its their profession. He has been highly successful to the point where he can name his price for his services and can afford fancy armor. His standard bearer is a Essex mini whose catalog number I can't remember. I designed the flag in Adobe Illustrator and then printed it out on a laser printer.

Terror of Tiny Town

Two quick shots of Rebel Minis' Earth Force Mk.III Support HAMR suit. Normally, I'm not really a big mecha fan. To me, they don't make much sense as weapon. Nonetheless, I've been gravitating towards them for my sci-fi armies. They look like they mean business. I like the combination of missiles and gatling guns. I didn't know to paint it, so I just painted it green followed by a wash of black mixed with Future Acrylic. I tried to weather it by dabbing it with a sponge that had Vallejo's gunmetal gray, but you can't really see it too well except for on the feet.

No, I still haven't finished with its base.

"Billy, who's your little friend behind you?"