Distractions: Song of Ice and Fire

A couple of weeks ago George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons came out. Its book five in his Song of Ice and Fire series. The first book, A Game of Thrones was recently adapted into an excellent TV series by HBO. Anyway its hard for me to emphasize how good this is. Martin's worlds is fantastic, and his willingness to do anything to any character has developed into a well deserved legend. If you ever read any fantasy novels I really suggest you check it out.

(As usual this is simply what I have been spending my time with rather than painting. I don't get anything in any way if you buy this book, I don't know the author, I just think its an excellent read).

One Painted Model

This is shaping up to be the next to last post for Project Scythe. Here is our monster, completely painted, but not yet based. I am already at work on the larger quark rocks for the base. In short order this should be ready to be sealed.

Back in Black

This doesn't look like much. After all the work I did its just one more layer of paint. The strange thing is though that getting the black on the plates of the this model is the most time consuming step. With the extreme contrast any mistake is obvious. Worse the plates have all kinds of nooks and cranny's and missing any of them leaves a bright spot in the middle of a sea of black. Still he is looking good not. Shading is all that's left.

Distractions

So periodically I get distracted by something that eats up my painting time. That has been happening a lot lately. It occurred to me that maybe I should share. Lately, my biggest distraction has been a computer game a friend of mine introduced me to. Space Pirates and Zombies (SPAZ) is currently still in beta and therefore available for 25% off or $15 (US). Its an old school top down pace shooter. You build a fleet and blast your opponents while gathering resources and upgrading things. It can get a bit repeatative, rather like traditional grinder games like Diablo, but that isn't always a completely bad thing. There is enough flexibility in the game that you can get a good ship that suits your style. For example, I prefer beam weapons because they hit instantly rather than having to lead your targets. I also like to load up on powerful launchers. Thus my current ship lets me hang back and beat off enemy fighters with my beams while my wing-men harass a larger target. When my missiles are ready I close, strip their remaining shields with my beams, and the let them have it with a big missile volley. Its perfectly legitimate to play other ways however.

I am including a link below, but I want you guys to know that I am in no way affiliated with the maker of this game. I just like it and thought I would share.

http://www.spacepiratesandzombies.com/