{"id":6741,"date":"2025-01-04T14:23:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T18:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/?p=6741"},"modified":"2025-01-04T14:31:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T18:31:20","slug":"the-year-of-the-dragon-or-how-not-to-host-a-painting-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/?p=6741","title":{"rendered":"The Year of the Dragon, or How Not to Host a Painting Challenge (again)."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I know. I already have a post entitled “How Not to Host a Painting Challenge.” Turns out I suck at hosting painting challenges, because I had an entire fucking year to paint a dragon, and I failed. This dead dragon represents my efforts. It’s a resin piece by Dave Stone. I completed it for the Season of Scenery in 2022. (I failed to take part in the Season of Scenery last year, one of the many things at which I failed.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now, lest anyone think I didn’t put in ANY effort whatsoever, I planned on painting this classic Sandra Garrity T’Char, Dragon of Flame and Fury. This is how far I got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was going to prime him (I’ve decided T’Char identifies as male) white, because I was going to paint him blue. Screw Dragon of Flame and Fury, I have enough red dragons. Now I think I’m going to prime him black after all, because I’ve reconsidered the blue (but he still won’t be red). I filled all the gaps but left the wings off, because while I was fitting them it became obvious that if I glued them to the body prior to painting, I would have problems painting and shading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then, I set about finding stuff to add to the base. I added some Nolzur’s treasure piles. but I still have more space to fill. If I was a talented sculptor (like Dave or Roger) I could sculpt some more treasure piles, but I’m not, so I didn’t. Instead, I decided to use the “dungeon dressing” bits from an old Kickstarter I backed, along with an assortment of weapons and stuff to round out the treasure hoard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was in late November, when I knew I had to get on the stick and paint this fucking dragon, because I only had a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently reorganized my “miniatures I will never paint before I die” (aka my miniatures), and one of the boxes I labeled clearly indicated that the dungeon dressing bits were inside. They weren’t. That set me off on a quest to find where I put them. A quest that took me two weeks, because of course it was in the last place I looked, because WHY THE FUCK WOULD I PUT DUNGEON DRESSING BITS IN WITH MY OLD WEST PROJECT (which I also will not complete before I die)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I blame gin. Or whiskey. Something alcoholic, anyway. Like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll get it done eventually, and I’ll post it. Just know the shame is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My 2024 painting output has been dismal. 43 miniatures. On the plus side, I managed to paint the miniatures for three board games (one of which I actually managed to play): Indiana Jones: Sands of Adventure, Horrified!, and Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. I painted all the old TSR Adventures of Indiana Jones miniatures, something I’m guessing not many folks have done. I even painted two of Dave Stone’s cowboys, which means I now have painted all of Dave Stone’s cowboys (the ones that are human, anyway). I hosted Monster May(hem) without fucking it up and took part in Forgotten Heroes, which is my favorite painting challenge. (When I stop doing that, you know I’m either done for good or dead.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the downside, I painted 43 miniatures, which is disgraceful by almost any standard. (Unless you’re one of those unbelievably talented folks who spends six weeks on a miniature and it looks FUCKING ALIVE when you’re done. I’m not one of those people.) I also pretty much dropped off the blogosphere (although I have been active –somewhat–on Instagram), so I am 100% sure I missed some Year of the Dragon submissions, and failed to give proper recognition. I know Dave did more than one dragon (and I’m guessing he probably made at least one himself), but I haven’t been around to see. If you’re so inclined, drop your submissions in the comments section here. I deeply apologize for missing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my defense, 2024 has been a fucking year here in the States (and everywhere else). It’s been tough to focus on anything that brings me joy. To say I have been unmotivated is an understatement. Every year around this time I make some hobby resolutions. I’m not gonna do that this year, since I’ve pretty much failed at the ones I’ve made for the past five years or so. I’ll paint what I paint, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as gaming goes, I’ve actually made some progress. I ended my self-imposed isolation from gaming to run a few games last year: some old-school Marvel Super Heroes and Star Frontiers, some OSL Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a session of Slasher Flick, a session of Hard City, and a couple of sessions of my own original 1970’s Street Crime RPG (to be released at some point). All these game sessions were virtual. I wrote several gaming scenarios for various games, including a new one for my game, entitled “Nicky Fucks Up”. I even got to PLAY in a game rather than run it for a change: a session of Dragonbane, which, despite having anthropomorphic ducks in it, I found to be really fun and a great system I would like to run in future. I’m committing to running at least one campaign in 2025. I even have four players already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really enjoyed the “Year of Pop Culture” in 2023, and I have a bunch of miniatures to paint that I didn’t get to back then, so why not bring it back for 2025? I’m not promising anything, mind you. Just considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope to be around a bit more going forward. Happy New Year, everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I know. I already have a post entitled “How Not to Host a Painting Challenge.” Turns out I suck at hosting painting challenges, because I had an entire fucking year to paint a dragon, and I failed. This dead dragon represents my efforts. It’s a resin piece by Dave Stone. I completed it for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,30,3,52],"tags":[89,119,71,28,120,105,33,45,56,143],"class_list":["post-6741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hobby-musings","category-insanity-pile","category-miniatures","category-painting-challenges","tag-aliens","tag-fantasy-flight-games","tag-forgotten-heroes","tag-heroclix","tag-imperial-assault","tag-indiana-jones","tag-ral-partha","tag-star-wars","tag-tsr","tag-wargames-terrain-workshop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6741"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6756,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6741\/revisions\/6756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/angrypiper.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}