2019 Crafting challenge wrap-up

As 2019 winds to a close, my self-imposed crafting challenge was a success.  A week was enough time to do some reasonably sized stuff but spaced out enough that on super busy weeks it wasn't too big of a commitment.  If I have a regret, it's that it felt like too many of these ended up being video-only weeks.  I'll probably do something similar next year, too, so watch this space!

Week 39 interesting goblin minis
Week 38 horde of goblin minis
Week 37 Elethar map
Week 36 Thriemar map
Week 35 mini peg board
Week 34 mounted tree props
Week 33 a danger of kobold minis
Week 32 Eridani blueprints
Week 31 Lego Envoy and Barracuda
Week 30 dungeon stacker stackers
Week 29 Lego gunships
Week 28 Lego Pelican tanker
Week 27 video only
Week 26 video only
Week 25 video + SHIPtember
Week 24 video only
Week 23 video only
Week 22 video only
Week 21 video only
Week 20 video + 5 skellington minis
Week 19 video + Lego Eridani
Week 18 video + Kelldra map
Week 17 video only
Week 16 video only
Week 15 video + Regault battlepods
Week 14 video only
Week 13 video + Veritechs
Week 12 video only
Week 11 video + giant spider minis
Week 10 video + Oriens blueprints
Week 9 video only
Week 8 video + cobblestone tile repaint
Week 7 video only
Week 6 L-shaped building
Week 5 Lego freighters
Week 4 Lego gunships + mecha + alcohol article
Week 3 cobblestone tiles + dwarven brother minis
Week 2 Ezren, Rogan, female human ranger minis + coinage article
Week 1 Rolling box
Kickoff

Crafting challenge, week 39

Squeaking in just before the end of the year I hit my 100 figs painted with these four goblins.  These were the interesting ones in the set from Bones 4 and in a better world I wouldn't have rushed some of the details.  I think they'll be fine on the table but don't work under scrutiny.

I'll do a longer wrap up in a couple days in my increasingly non-award winning year in review post but I'll say a few things here since I'm thinking about it.  Even though I hit my goal, it feels like a hollow success.  I tried some new stuff out and learned a few things but feel like I ended the year only slightly better off than I started it.  I bought a lot of gear and got gains out of that but feel like everything this year was rushed to hit a deadline.  While I went faster, I feel like I did so at generally lower quality overall and I'm not sure that's a good trade.  I'll write more about this later.

2019 finished mini counter:  102/100

Crafting challenge, week 38

These are most of the goblins I've been working on over the last few weeks.  There have been good days and bad days and I tried a bunch of new stuff.  These and took somewhere in the range of 30ish hours over the 24 of them at fairly low quality--under table top quality which I am not happy with. 

For my own historical records, here's more or less what I did:

• Kind of cleaned mold lines (looked better while I was cleaning but the figs are white plastic)
• Primed, zenithaled with the airbrush
• Home-made wash + drybrush value sketch
• Green skintones put down with airbrush (painfully)
• Wet blended the different color coding; everything else was normal base + highlights
• Picked out some small details, pulled up some highlights
• Ruined everything with badly applied washes

These are in no way my best work but get me to within striking range of my goal.  I've got the four more interesting characters for next week as they're already mostly done.  

2019 finished mini counter:  98/100

Crafting challenge, week 37

Slightly filler-y entry this week because I've been really busy and burning hard on my small army of goblins.  This is another of the neighborhoods in Cedarwood and one that some stuff will probably happen in when we resume the campaign in the new year.  There might be another one of these next week because of typical holiday stuff.

So.  Goblins.  I'm at 74/100 for the year which is super disappointing.  There are 28 of them maybe just over half done given most of a day of painting yesterday.  I figure I've got eight to twelve hours left to finish them so there's still hope.

Crafting challenge, week 36

This week I've been super busy but ended up making some maps for Saturday's game.  I've made several of these this year and this isn't the first one to show up here.  We don't always use them but then again, they aren't hard to make, either.  The advice I gave in that post still stands:  GMing magic happens in the spaces between and every time I've filled in all the blanks I've been sad about it.  As usual, (c) 2019 me but feel free to use in your home games.

In other news, my goblins are going really slowly.  Despite batch painting being overall faster, the number of them makes it seem more daunting than it actually is.  I don't get many blocks of 3-4 uninterrupted hours and I have a hangup for not finishing a step completely.  Luckily, Vince gives this advice which I'm going to experiment with as soon as I can get back to the painting desk.

Crafting challenge, week 35

If there's a thing I like to build other than spaceships and buildings (and games...and stories...and probably other stuff) it's tools.  But before we get to the main event we need some background stuff.

I'm in the process of moving furniture around.  Earlier this year I moved my crafting area from downstairs to a small bedroom upstairs that also contained a bunch of office stuff.  While this was an improvement, it was awfully cramped.  While this house is significantly smaller than my last, I'm offended that I've been using the space so badly.  This round of moves frees up the large master bedroom complete with its own sinks which will be the new crafting/office/misc stuff room.

When I moved the crafting area upstairs, the first thing I built was a pegboard for storing mini blister packs since I have so many.  This didn't get logged here for...reasons (I can't actually remember why).  It was one of my old painting blotters with some bamboo skewers hotglued to it.  While this worked OK, the hot glue wasn't strong and couldn't hold much weight.  I had to move stuff anyway, so I took the time to rebuild it.

Instead of the janky "this was a paint blotter" pattern that was on it, I primed it with one of my ancient cans of mini primer.  I also poked holes at an upward angle to a) keep the blisters from falling off, and b) to allow for a stronger connection.  These were then glued on front and back.  So far it's holding but hopefully it won't need another go around.

I'm also painting a passel of goblins but they're going very slowly.

Crafting challenge, week 34

This week we have a late post more because I got super busy cleaning and moving furniture and less because I had nothing to show.  Granted, there isn't a lot to show but here you go.  These trees were purchased months ago and replace the low-rent Lego trees I'd been using.  They're hot glued to bases and are surprisingly sturdy though the bigger ones probably still want a washer or coin glued to the bottom.  It's been on my list for a while and I finally got around to sort it out. 

Crafting challenge, week 33

This week I've got kobolds.  Lots of kobolds.  A danger of kobolds.  There are seventeen of them here, some of them very poorly molded (the dudes on the right).  My painting has not helped this. 

The dudes on the left are super fun in all kinds of super fun ways.  I spent some time experimenting with finer details than I'd normally capture because these sculpts were so fun despite the fact that I really wanted to crank through them so I could hit my target of 100 this year.  If I had it to do again (and I might) I'd possibly spend more time to get a better result.

So next up we get some orksgoblins.  there are 26 which, if my basic arithmetic checks out, means finishing those puts the 2019 total at 102.  They're already primed, zenithaled and value sketched.  I'm going to experiment base coating with my super cheap airbrush because a) I like using it, and b) this's supposed to faster.   We'll see.

2019 finished mini counter:  74/100

Crafting challenge, week 32

I'd hoped to have more but things didn't work out the way I wanted them to.  The image over there is the schematics for the Eridani pictured somewhere.  I rushed through it if I'm honest but I don't think that's too big of a problem. 

This is probably too big of a thing for running actual fights but it's pretty useful to establish fictional positioning.  Also, good for catastrophes.  Feel free to use in your personal games and for non-commercial purposes.

In other news, the thing I hoped to put up here is a painted danger of kobolds.  Yes, that's the plural for kobolds according to me.  They still need a couple layers of washes but otherwise the 17 of them are done.  That would put me at 74 total.  With seven weeks remaining in the year I gotta finish like four per week to make it.  It's looking unlikely at this point. 

Crafting challenge, week 31

It will come as no surprise that this year also isn't my year to do nanowrimo so I got that goin' for me.  Instead, I'll throw some lego builds here.

The Envoy is the last of the bulk freighters I'll do for now as a variation on the Pelican earlier.  The other bulk freighters (Mule, Zephyr) had containers port and starboard.  The two newest have containers dorsal and ventral.  I don't know which of those is actually better--it probably depends on the configuration of the stations they're loading/unloading at. 

The Barracuda started as an engine table scrap I liked so I kept going.  I liked the engines a lot and got up to the guns and realized that it wanted to be a lot bigger than I wanted it to be.  There's a better ship in there, I think, and if I get some time this week I'll try to find it.

More design work as well this week but as usual, nothing to show yet.  Maybe a screenshot of the character sheet will find its way here if I can get the bugs shaken out.

Next week:  video?  If not next week then I'm feeling good for the week after.

Crafting challenge, week 30

I finished off my dungeon stacker stackers this week.  Well, my second try at, anyway.  The first ones were built too small and wouldn't fit on top of the stackers.  These are supposed to be ancient light stone constructions that have been left out in the elements for millennia.

The wall tops are Readi-board with the paper pulled off of one side and textured with a Green Stuff World rolling pin.  The walls are XPS with the smaller sections textured the same way.  The larger piece intended for gates was hand-textured with a ball point pen and rolled up foil wad.

If I had it to do over again (and I might) I'd probably draw on the bricks like the big gate piece since that looked the best.  The texturing on the smaller pieces is weak and the wash didn't pick them out as well as I'd expected.  I probably should have started with a darker base coat in either case.  The only piece that looks reasonable is the big one so I might have another go at these.

This week I also did a bunch of design work but there isn't anything to show there.

Crafting challenge, week 29

This week marks the first in five months that I haven't done a video and I might not make one next week, either.  I made it through 22 consecutively which is its own accomplishment and looking back, I probably made six or so that I thought were OK (the rest were crap).  I'm not going to miss the stress of figuring out what to say, how to say it, and then shouting into a microphone for several hours each week. 

Instead, I've been doing other creative things.  The ships shown here are more bits from the post-BrickCon excitement.  We're planning a collab hopefully to be shown at BrickCan 2020 if all goes well.  I've got a lot more to build but there's time yet so other than my pals crushing it in the "build ships for a collab next year" department, I'm not in any particular hurry.

Also this week, I started building some dungeon stacker stackers because we're going to have some wall combat action sometime real soon, maybe next weekend, and I like to be prepared.  They're built and primed but painting will be a couple days yet.  Unless something goes terribly wrong, pictures should land here next week.

Last but by no means least, I've started redesigning my fantasy game.  I've got some ideas on how to make it work better and honestly, I can't leave well enough alone. I'm pooling my learnings from the Sci-Fi game I mostly built earlier this year and additional learnings from Fate and Blades in the Dark to hopefully streamline some stuff even further.  Part of me wants to wait until I've had time to study Genesys but given the size of that book, I figure that's a ways off yet. 

So far, the new system looks a lot meaner and a lot leaner.  Combat and other resolution rolls should be streamlined and some of the last corners get knocked off of the majority of mechanics.  As an added bonus, something akin to aspects in Fate should replace the normal belief system that players find so hard to wrestle with.  I'm not 100% sold on it yet, but it's also in its infancy.  If all goes well, we can trot it out sometime soon--hopefully in time for chapter 2 possibly in a couple weeks' time.

Crafting challenge, week 28

I am starting to be stupidly busy (again) and it's way past time to wind down the video a week thing that's been such a rollercoaster.  At the very least I'd like to not have a release when my Saturday game runs because I feel like the quality of the game is dropping because I'm thinking about it less.  This week's video is here.

Last week was BrickCon and one of the things I like best about going to cons is all the ideas and excitement that they ignite.  The problem is that I'm usually suuuuuper tired and by the time I've recovered I'm busy with something else or the excitement has died down.  This time I made a conscious effort to build right after the con and here's the first postable result.

In other news:  we're looking pretty doomed to finish 100 minis by year's end.

Crafting challenge, week 27

This is a video-only week (here) but mostly because BrickCon ate up most of the time.  And for those of you who noticed that I post-dated this one, it's because I forgot to publish it amidst all the BrickCon festivities.

Crafting challenge, week 26

This week saw the construction of a video and not a lot else.  (video here)  This one included three maps which I built from free textures found online.  I like building maps even if I don't use them and I'm starting to wonder if I couldn't build a few more and put them up on DriveThruRPG or something.

Next week is BrickCon so there isn't going to be a lot of action here, though the video is already shot.  The week after that also looks rough.

The best scene in any streamed RPG(TM)

This is The Best Scene In Any Streamed RPG(TM).  It's from the early part of Nebula Jazz season 2 which I'm still watching.  I'm not going to break it down but you should super watch it.  I don't think this would have worked if Adam hadn't played it up at every turn.  Sam, for his part, played into it perfectly.  It's a thing of beauty.

Crafting challenge, week 25

I meant to post this yesterday but got busy and forgot (go figure).  Video is here which concludes the multi-part discussion I'd been going through.  On the one hand I'm happy it's complete as I think it's my best advice.  On the other hand, going back to the days of not knowing what I'm going to make isn't great.

The good news is that my obligations for SHIPtember are now complete.  You can see the goods on flickr.

Crafting challenge, week 24

This week was mainly building one video and avoiding doing what I'm supposed to be doing, namely working on SHIPtember.  My build is not going well which shouldn't really be a surprise except that at this point last year I was already done.  I didn't really have much going on then which isn't true today but I don't think I've even hit the 1/4 mark with this build yet.  That's a little concerning.  To make matters worse, I know I'm missing some parts but don't want to put in a pile of orders right before brickcon.  It's looking a lot like I'm not going to finish for the show and that sucks. 

I'm at that scary part where I don't really want to continue building.  This happens on every big build and on every big multi-day project.  I get it most weeks for videos especially if the scripting isn't going well.  It's now happened so often that I expect it and have powered through it in the vast majority of cases, usually to good result.  This time feels different and I don't know if it's because so much creative energy is going into videos or what, but I really, really want to stop.  I'ma build like crazy today and see how I feel this time next week.  I don't like quitting on creative endeavors but something doesn't feel right and I don't like it.

Crafting challenge, week 23

I think I'm over the halfway point on my "make prep suck less" multi-part thing at which point I think I'm going to seriously explore other ideas for making videos easier.  The response from last week's video was underwhelming and again I note how terribly ironic it is to have that one voted down and the previous one at the top of the subreddit.  I have no idea how these things work but I'm really starting to not like it.

This week does have a bunch of crafting in it but other than the video it's mostly SHIPtember stuff which you can watch at my flickr.  This one's a departure from my normal scheme so we'll see how it goes.  Brickcon looms in the distance, too, and I really need to get on bricklink to buy some parts.

Crafting challenge, week 22

This one gets filed under "that's the definition of irony."  (video here)  Story time.

I saidtyped this last week:

I might feel differently if the response was higher.  It's been overwhelmingly positive for sure, but they're not driving many views and it is a pain to have to go try to drum up support every week.  

I've been going through a roller coaster of emotions every week revolving around whatever the script is and how terrible it might be.  It's usually better once the video is posted but not always--last week was one of those.  I hate having to advertise stuff and it's a real feel-bad moment in my week.  One of the places I'd been posting is the Matt Colville subreddit as it's a place that has mostly reasonable folks and occasionally good discussion.  I didn't post this one specifically because the last one did so poorly there.

I also saidtyped this:

If something significant changes in that time I'll reconsider but for now that's the plan.

Turns out that someone else posted my video to the Matt Colville subreddit.  It was heavily upvoted and drove a ridiculous amount of traffic.  It's driven more than double the channel's total views and more than tripled the sub count.  It's a pretty significant change.  A week later it's still driving subs and views more than the previous 14 videos combined.

The truth remains that building videos takes too much time.  It's also true that I still hate advertising stuff--none of that has changed.  This month I'm doing SHIPtember despite my better judgement so I'll have even less time for other stuff.  I'm not entirely sure how to make sense of all of this but for now I'm content to ride the wave and see where it goes.