Day 31 of 365
Day 31 was filled with all kinds of updates and one new experience.
I'll get the updates out of the way. I grew the most delicious mushrooms and if you haven't checked that blog post it happened on day 9. I grew a pretty good SCOBY and have now advanced to brewing my first batch of Kombucha. I started to plant rocks for my #365rockdays experience. If you find one follow me on twitter or instagram @edgyartist and let me know if you replant it. I've made paper about ten times and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a problem for me. You might find that popping up in a future adventure.
On to day 31!
As a parent we sometimes make terrible decisions that lead us down a horrible road. We've done this a few time in our house. Once was when my husband didn't change the channel on PBS before Barney the dinosaur came on. The next 4 years were filled with "I love you, you love me." It was cute once, just once. Another incredibly unfortunate incident occurred before our children hit their teen years. I raise my hand. It's my fault. I led them down the fantasy filled path to miniature wargaming. It happened by accident. I saw the lure on the sidewalk and walked right in to it. So bad for me because all of those thousands of dollars could have been spent on practical things. Instead, our children GAME.
Today's adventure was all about confronting what I have avoided for over 8 years, building miniatures. My delighted and enthusiastic kid helped me select the perfect team of Warhammer Space Marine Terminators. They come in a box, attached to a sprue (its the plastic frame crap that gets recycled) with tons of tiny pieces. Remember that my eyes turned 49 too and they're kinda shitty. I put on my super adorable magnifying glasses and proceeded to cut these tiny little pieces from the plastic frame.
I built five model figures. Each one had about ten parts. The most fun and joy inducing task was sanding the cut edges off of all those tiny bits. YEP! They are called bits and after you pick the bits you want there are left over bits. Where do these go? In a bits box. This shit is real people, there are conventions and trade shows and gaming groups that will blow your mind.
After I spend about an hour sanding off the seams from the molding process I'm pretty over this adventure, but I look beside me and my kid is smiling because I'm finally here building minis. How can I be anything but happy because most people wish for the kind of relationship I have with my adult children.
I get all of this sanded and assembly begins. You know from previous adventures that I'm not a patient person. It turns out that miniature builders understand my pain and invented a spray that accelerates the speed at which super glue dries. I'm serious. It's like an alternate world where bits go in boxes and glue dries so fast it keeps you interested in the building process. Magic!
It's adorable as I glue the guys together that I'm singing "Heads, shoulders knees & toes," in my head.
I'm having a great time all the while my super happy kid is smiling beside me checking my work. I'm getting the thumbs up and even more exciting is I haven't glued myself to anything yet. Once assembly is complete we need to wait for all the glue and accelerant to dry. Time to complete a few side tasks.
Flash forward a few hours and it's time to move on and prime these guys. I take my adorable killing machines outside and spray them with a flat black primer so all the tiny cracks are filled and it creates a base for future color. I've been inside of gaming shops plenty of times and I know that these minis need to be painted with tiny detail. That won't happen today. That's a future challenge and I hope you can all wait for that because getting time with my kids is very limited these days.
That's the magic of day 31. I've got an army of guys and I can't wait to use them.
Love & Light
