USAF Fly-by

During the last half hour of work today while painting something special for Gencon, I was greeted with the roar of jet engines as the flight path of a United States Air Force F-18 flew nearly over my office building.  At first I didn't know what jet plane was the cause, but I rushed out the back door for a quick check as it rushed past.   The noise was tremendous and it was quite thrilling to see one of the great workhorses of freedom in action!

The F-18 was doing a few touch and goes at the local airport and I could still hear it flying around as I left work.  My commute takes me right past the southern end of our airport and so I stopped for a moment on a little pull-off and was rewarded with a few fly-bys right over the top of my truck!  As he flew off into the distance and curled around to the northeast, the parked aircraft started moving onto the tarmac so I knew that was the end of the maneuvers so off to home I went.

Thank you to all our servicemen and women who protect this nation.  You have my gratitude for your efforts and patriotism.  God Bless you all!  If you happen to see a member of our Armed Forces, take a moment and thank them for their service.  It puts a smile on their face, and brightens everyone's day.

How do you make ruins more ruined?

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to work on the blog.  I've been busy doing some remodeling around the house.  I did manage to get a sweet deal on some old Khorne Beserkers while at Historicon  and enjoyed some good meals and tasty drinks with the Warstore crew.

So here's a picture of a classic Khorne Beserker that I recently painted up.  The model was primed white, then basecoated with GW Blood Red. Details were picked out with Bleached Bone, Snot Green, Chainmail, and Vallejo Glistening Gold.  Then the model was painted with Army Painter Dip Strong Tone.  A coat of Army Painter Matt Varnish removed the shine from the model and then I painted the base Catachan Green.  I plan to go back in with some GW Gloss Varnish to make the metallic areas shine.

August is going to be filled with painting Perry Miniatures Samurai for an article on how to paint samurai for Wargames Illustrated.

And the answer to the question is here.  You make ruins more ruined by having them fly off a moving vehicle at 70 mph on a busy interstate and watching it shatter into pieces when it hits the road. No joke! I picked up the classic Outrider Thunderhawk Down tables and terrain, which were a big hit at Games Day USA back in 2003 or 2004, from my buddy Rick a few weeks ago.  We strapped the tables and most of the terrain down and sandwiched one piece of terrain amongst the rest.  45 miles later right in the heart of Baltimore, I glanced back in my side mirror and saw it peeling off the back of the truck and hit the asphalt and explode into hundreds of pieces.  Being made mostly of foam, it was a goner and I kept on going for there would be nothing left of value.