"Where the hell has this doofus been?!"

I'm sure the title is a question some of you have had lately. Truth be told, I've been way too busy burning my ass at both ends of the candle, and in the middle as well, at work. Last March, Southwestern College's Math dept. said it had a LOT of money in basic math skills funds to blow away. Being one of the first to volunteer his service, of course I offered to spend their cash!!! What started as four review sessions for the department's developmental math finals rapidly (as "within hours") turned into ONE HUNDRED EIGHT workshops over a 4-week period. Needless to say, I was kept extremely busy doing a lot of the work for these workshops: recruiting faculty to run them, writing the actual workshops, running the scheduling of the workshops throughout the college district, collecting & disseminating the workshop materials, and then actually running the workshops I was assigned to run. 70+ hours of work later, the district had a final exam review workshop unlike any other I've ever seen in San Diego during the 11 years I've been teaching college math.

So what has all this work lead to? Well, it formed a good capper on all the work I've done over the years as a community-college math instructor. I interviewed for a full-time tenure-track position at Southwestern College and ........ I got it. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaw!!!!! So as of this Fall '07, I will be a full-time instructor at Southwestern College (of course, pending my passing the 4-year tenure probation period). This is truly a dream-come-true for me. I've been hoping for this opportunity since the late '80's and I'm glad I finally got the opportunity to serve at my alma mater.

So what the hell does this have to do with my involvement in the hobby? Well, my new schedule makes the 2007 Chicago Show look as a lost cause. The only way I'll be able to make it there is if the club allows me to set up after their 9:00 pm curfew, a certain friend from Wisconsin is willing to pick me up at the airport (hey, no pressures there, KPeck!!!), and the airlines make more direct flights from San Diego available.

Okay, so what if I don't make it to Chicago? Then I'm definitely making the Atlanta show and MFCA next year. By then, I'll have the freedom to pick my own schedule, and I fully intend to arrange so that I won't have to work on Fridays. Pretty neat, eh?

So, what have I been up to?

I've been kept pretty busy at work lately. I've been tapped to work on a pretty big project, of my own creation, at one of the colleges I work at. I seem to have forgotten one of the basic lessons in life - never ever volunteer for anything! I also spent quite a bit of time putting together a surprise birthday party for my wife, so that meant little painting time for me.

I have, though, remained active over on Timelines - www.timelinesforum.com. I'm currently finishing up a step-by-step article on making your own name plates for your bases (http://www.timelinesforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3819). I've also been busy getting my stuff ready for this weekend's Southern California Area Historical Miniatures Society (SCAHMS) show. I'll also be bartending in the hospitality suite, so make sure you stop by and say "hi" for a free margarita - I'll be the one wearing the obnoxiously bright Hawaiian shirt ;) I'll make sure to upload a show gallery on Timelines, including photos from the hospitality suite, this Saturday night (17 Mar 07).

Cheers!

So, what have I been up to?

I've been kept pretty busy at work lately. I've been tapped to work on a pretty big project, of my own creation, at one of the colleges I work at. I seem to have forgotten one of the basic lessons in life - never ever volunteer for anything! I also spent quite a bit of time putting together a surprise birthday party for my wife, so that meant little painting time for me.

I have, though, remained active over on Timelines - www.timelinesforum.com. I'm currently finishing up a step-by-step article on making your own name plates for your bases. I've also been busy getting my stuff ready for this weekend's Southern California Area Historical Miniatures Society (SCAHMS) show. I'll also be bartending in the hospitality suite, so make sure you stop by and say "hi" for a free margarita - I'll be the one wearing the obnoxiously bright Hawaiian shirt ;)

Where have I been?

Hi there! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and an unforgettable New Year's. I apologize for not updating this blog in over one month, but December is never a good time for me timewise. I was wrapping up my courses at three colleges by December 22, which meant I had to deal with the usual end-of-semester stuff: grades, student complaints, and red-tape. Add to that the fact that I couldn't do any Christmas shopping until December 23, and I ended up with very little time off. However, I'm now on winter vacation so I've got lots of free time until January 22.

I've been very busy at my workbench, working on several projects and have actually completed some, such as:
1. Warriors' 1/35 US Army Sniper 1944 - almost complete, and it will be used for a step-by-step thread over at Timelines Forum.
2. Warriors' 1/35 Fallschirmjager Ardennes 1944-5 - complete. I'll post pictures here later.
3. S&T's 1/35 SS Panzer Commander - about halfway done.

I've also been busy over at Timelines Forum - www.timelinesforum.com - writing a step-by-step article on modeling snow for your groundwork. My good friend John Long also did a great step-by-step article on urban groundwork. You can view both of them here: http://www.timelinesforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=31 In the very near future, I'll be writing another step-by-step article on using Silflor products on your groundwork. So far, these products look like they've got amazing potential to make your groundwork really stand out. I've seen friends of mine use them already to good effect.

"Waffen SS Hunter/Killer Team"

This was one of those projects I can't take creative credit for - this was originally thought of and put together by Kreston Peckham. In 2005, Kreston and I were talking about his "mother of all mud projects", which is extremely similar to what you see here. The only difference between our projects are that I used one different set of 1/35 figures by Warriors, and his would've had a lot more mud.

All figures and the T-34 "wedgie" are from Warriors. I followed Kreston's suggestion of adding photo-etched anti-panzerfaust screens by Aber. The T-34 was painted with oils over acrylics (no airbrushing here). Each figure was painted with different camouflage patterns. From left to right, the first figure is wearing pea-pattern trousers, the second figure's jacket is in fall oak leaf-B, and the third's zeltbahn is in spring oak leaf blurred-edge pattern.

"Draw"

I decided to have some fun with this figure. Although it's Andrea's 54mm Yul Brynner figure from the motion picture "the Magnificent Seven," I chose to go with another one of his classic roles - the gunslinger from "Westworld."

I hollowed out the face from the nose to the chin, and then sculpted in some robotic details as seen in the film. At first glance, it looks like I really screwed up the mouth (ain't that right, Anders?). However, you can see the robotic detail if you know what to look for.

Overall, I had a lot of fun working on this figure, not to mention watching "Westworld" several times. Let's just hope Hollyweird doesn't mess up the remake ... of course they will.

"That way, towards Arnhem!"

This is Pegaso's 1/35 British Paratrooper, but with a Hornet head. I chose to change the head for one wearing a para beret in order to add some color to the piece. The destroyed church wall is by United Empire Miniatures. I also made some shattered stained glass with a clear overhead transparency, glued to the backside of the wall. The rubble was sculpted with Magic Sculp, and the groundwork is a combination of Hudson & Allen products (groundwork, static grass, tall grass, forest litter, Ivy).