Fear the Crab

It’s been a year since parenthood became my full-time job.
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Took the broodling on his first Halloween adventure and walked the neighborhood near my parents’ home. It was a fun reminder of our own childhood, and the weather was cooperative enough to not rain on our parade (it was very humid, though; we were sweating in that getup).
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Also known as Children’s Day, but growing up I always recognized it as Boys Day. Girls had their own day on March 3rd.
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It took me several months to get to this point, but that’s only considering the time from the last update until this past weekend. In actuality, it takes less than one or two hours of “paint time” to get to this point, and much of that time is spent waiting for layers to dry.

I used the Citadel line of metallic paints. I don’t really have a preference for a particular brand, but I began the hobby with these as it is the same company that provides the models, and I don’t feel any particular urge to change.

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It’s time for an update since my announcement of impending parenthood back in April!

The broodling arrived early November, at 20-in (50.8 cm) long and a hefty weight of 8 lbs 9.7 oz (3.9 kg), and his name is Harley. He has a middle name of “Hiccup,” because that’s all he’s been doing since 10 weeks in the womb. Not consistently, of course, but at least once per day he’ll have an episode of cute-sounding-but-probably-bothersome hiccup noises.

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Primed the Grey Knight Dreadnought. I use Duplicolor Sandable Primer because it sprays a nice even coat and is readily available at both hobby and automotive stores.

The next step will be to apply a basecoat of color.

I had the sudden inspiration to build and paint a specialized Grey Knight Dreadnought, and thanks to a generous gift certificate I was able to at least acquire the model with minimal pocket change. While the previous Dreadnoughts I made were long-range shooty-shooty units (reach out and touch someone), this new model would take on a more intimate and personal approach.

Literally.

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In “miniature” news, I volunteered for a community project to raise money for Child’s Play. This was organized by the Warhammer 40K forum at Relic News, a THQ company that released the Dawn of War video games. This project involved forum members donating painted miniatures for the Blood Ravens space marine chapter, since they were an original army created by Relic with the approval of Games Workshop. The goal is to combine everyone’s contributions and put the entire painted force up for sale, with all proceeds donated to Child’s Play.

Of course, if all that seemed confusing, maybe the blog can explain it better. The buyer gets a fully-painted and playable army, Child’s Play gets money, win-win!
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Armed with a small screwdriver and a packet of O-rings, I set about fixing my childhood. Lo, were it so easy to really do that, but yes I meant my old toy collection. There’s only one screw in the back of each figure, so once that is out the body comes apart pretty easily.

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Like many who grew up in the 1980s, I was a child much infatuated with the savvy marketing skills of Hasbro and the gamut of cartoon advertisements for toys of all shapes and sizes. And, like a few who, whether by chance, luck, or sheer laziness, never actually threw away or donated these childhood mementos, I still have some of them. Chief among the old toy boxes and cardboard packaging are my GI Joe 3.75″ action figures.

Now that I’m expecting, I decided to see if any of my old toys were salvageable. I’m not one to pre-determine what kind of gear is “gender appropriate” so to me it doesn’t matter if I have a boy or a girl; if the podling decides to go old-school with GI Joe and Cobra and make pew-pew noises where there are a lot of imaginary explosions and no deaths, I will be ready. And very eager to join in!
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