Books Read January to April 2021

Jan

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

Blood Bowl: The Game of Fantasy Football – the official rules (season two) by Games Workshop

Doctor Who Character Encyclopedia by Jason Loborik, Annabel Gibson, Moray Laing, and Emma Grange

 

Feb

Cold Days by Jim Butcher

The Affair by Lee Child

Skin Game by Jim Butcher

 

Mar

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

Walt Disney World by Walt Disney Productions

Warhammer 40,000 Core Book (9th edition) by The Warhammer Studio

                         

Apr

Zorro, The Novel by Isabel Allende

 

 

 

Covid update - vaccine booked

 We have opened up a bit and the cases started going up again.  They have locked down visits to the home but are allowing people to go to restaurants.  

We have booked in our appointments for our first doses of the vaccine on Mother's Day.  We were good for whatever was on tap.  It sounds like we are scheduled for the pfizer version.  It means we'll have to go back for a second dose.

We usually get together for the Academy Awards with the group that we used to go see movies with back in the before times.  This year we did the Oscars at our own houses and used Zoom to get together.  As usual, I did not win our Oscar pool.

While most people have been pretty good about following the guidelines and restrictions, there have been some people who feel that their freedom is being too harshly restricted.  There was a large protest of 'anti-maskers' at the Forks.  

Personally, I feel that any slight inconvenience I have to put up with by wearing a mask more than makes up for the chance to prevent spreading covid to someone else.  But I find wearing a mask like wearing tie - if you get one that fits, and wear it properly, it's not uncomfortable.

Figure Painting Total - March 2021

 When I had ordered the Dracula’s America Hired Gun pack, it came with the Stitch Doctor, and 2 Carpathian Guards instead of a Stitch Doctor, a Carpathian Guard, and a Native Arcanist.  I mentioned it to the company and instead of just sending me the missing figure, they sent me another entire pack. 

The Mera and Elseworlds Superman I had bought last year had been missing pieces and Knight Models had sent me replacements.  They took so long to get here that when I asked about their status, they sent me another pair.  The second Superman is fine but the Mera was broken at the wrists – which may be too fine to fix.

With Harley finally being painted from my Suicide Squad starter, I can now technically play the Batman Miniatures Game as I have completed both sides of that starter.

Bought         

BM – Why So Serious? – 5 (Joker, 4 Henchmen)

BM – Objective Game Markers Set 1 – 5

BM – Objective Game Markers Set 2 – 5

Dracula’s America – Hired Guns – 3

DCU – Supergirl – 1

DCU – Superman (Elseworlds) – 1

 

Painted

BM/DCU – Enchantress – 1

BM/DCU – Harley Quinn (from Suicide Squad Starter) – 1

BM/DCU – Rick Flag – 1

Dracula’s America – Dark Confederate Posse – 10

Dracula’s America – Hired Guns – 1 Stitch Doctor

Reaper – Hell Hound – 1

Reaper – War Dog – 1

 

March total – figures bought 20 figures painted 16

Running total 2021 – figures bought 112, figures painted 48

The next big thing?

 I’m still trying to put off buying Marvel Crisis Protocol.  There is a lot of it, it is pretty pricy, and it doesn’t seem as much fun as the Marvel Universe Miniature Game that I have most of already.

I have skipped some other games for the same reasons even though you would think they would be a good fit for me.  I didn’t get the Star Wars Imperial Assault, or even X-Wing.  They both have a lot of expensive expansions, and I have older games that cover similar areas like Star Warriors.

 

Even the new Star Wars Legion game would just be a newer replacement for the old West End Games Star Wars Miniature Battle Game for me. 

 

The newest one that is currently giving me pause to consider is the new Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps game from Gale Force 9.  It only has a few expansions, it isn’t that expensive as these things go, and it seems pretty good from what I’ve seen.

What is slowing me down though, is that it doesn’t seem as good as another Aliens game that I already have from Leading Edge.  I didn’t get all of the miniature figures for that one though so I might get the new game so that I can use the figures and upsize the old game.  Even with that though, I don’t have a huge burning need as I already got a set of figures from Treehouse to upsize the game.  The only reason I haven’t yet is that the Treehouse figures are 50mm and the Gale Force 9 figures are 25-32mm.  Both are much bigger than the original 15mm figures from Leading Edge to replace the cardboard standups in the original game. 

The other reason is that the new games have sold through their initial run already.  If I had access to a copy in the store that I could just pick up I would probably buy it.  As it is now, I will have to see how I feel when they finally get around to reissuing new sets.  Since I am already back to painting figures, I may be sorely tempted.

Figure Painting Total - February 2021

 I picked up some more figures for Dracula’s America. It was actually cheaper to buy the figures in blister packs instead of the big Posse sets.

I was also able to find a Hulkbuster for Marvel Universe for a decent price. This is great as I was having a hard time finding a suitable figure to use as a proxy. I’m still having an issue finding a figure for Thanos.

I was finally able to finish my Blood Bowl team. I had started them early last year and did not like the coverage I was getting from the cheap paints I had picked up for terrain. I might go back and paint the bases to match the colored rings from the second edition. I also painted their coin, two markers, the two templates, and the range ruler from that set but did not count them towards my total.



Bought

Dracula’s America – Dark Confederate Posse – 10

Dracula’s America – Red Hand Coven Posse – 3

Dracula’s America – Twilight Order – 8

Dracula’s America – Hired Guns – 1

MU – Iron Man Hulkbuster MK44 – 1

Reaper – Hell Hound – 1

Reaper – Soda Machine – 2

Reaper – War Dog – 1


Painted

Blood Bowl – Human team – 12

Blood Bowl – Ogre – 1

Feb total – figures bought 27, figures painted 13

Running total 2021 – figures bought 92, figures painted 32

Covid-19 one year update

 

We are still working from home.  There is no word on when this might change. 

 

The vaccines are starting to be administered.  Due to our ages, we will not likely get ours until the fall.  The virus is starting to mutate into variants.

 

They changed the rules again.  Masks are still required to be worn at most places.  They are going to open up again to 50% capacity in most stores.  We had been allowed to have 2 people visit and they are opening that up slightly.

Financially, we are doing fine.  We both remained working and, with less travel and entertainment, have been using the money to pay down some bills.  I have been using my extra funds to pick up more figures for various game systems.  Now that I am painting again, I feel better about getting them.  I’ve been getting into Dracula’s America, and working on my Blood Bowl, as well as continuing on the Marvel/DC Universe Miniatures and Batman Miniature Game. 

Not going out, we aren’t seeing movies in the theatre like we used to but are still having a weekly movie night where we order in food and watch movies from Netflix, Cineplex, or On Demand.  Because we don’t have to travel from work, we are usually watching two movies.  Trying to come up with a theme for both has kept it amusing.

We remain caught up on our PVR.  We tend to watch regular recordings during the week and binge through series on the weekend.  We have yet to watch the Mandalorian but have watched Titans, Doom Patrol, and WandaVision.  We watched the last week of Jeopardy with Alex Trebek, and the weeks following with new trial hosts.

I have finally got around to playing a few of the games I have with solo variants.  I hope to be able to wrangle the kids into playing some games in our spare time.  We may have to wait until after exams.

 

They have changed the holiday year at work.   It used to run from May to April and now it will run from January to December.  This means I get extra holidays for this year on top of the ones I had already booked.  We still have nowhere to go though.

We haven’t yet done much in the way of renovations done.  Nor any further sifting of the storage locker.  We’ve been just dealing with the new situation instead of making the best of our opportunities.  Hopefully we will get better about that as this doesn’t seem to be coming to a real end anytime soon.

On the wiifit, I had been bouncing between 270 and 275 pounds before all this.  After a very sedentary year, I am now between 280 and 290 pounds.  As it warms up, I will really need to get up and out more.

 

Figure Painting Total - January 2021

 I found the Indomitus box online and snapped it up while I could.  I had passed originally as I didn't like the rules cover but the one that comes with the full edition of the 9th edition is only a softcover so I figured I would get Indomitus after all.

Bought

40K Indomitus – 61

Unmatched – Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 4

 

Painted

MU – Rogue – 1

 

Dracula’s America – Shadow Dragon Tong – 9

Flint & Feather – sample figure – 1

Pulp Figures – Sgt Prestown of the Yukon – 3

Pulp Figures – The Scarlet Patrol – 5

Running total 2021 – figures bought 65, figures painted 19