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Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 6, 2011, 4:47 pm
by Fairweather Pure
Anyone else played this? It's a modular board game with a DM type of player vs up to 4-5 people playing as heroes. It looks like a typical dungeon crawler in board game form. I was impressed by what I read about it and my wife bought me the box game and all it's expansions for V-Day. I'm just getting into the expansions today, but the main box contents are pretty fucking amazing.

Here is the wiki for those interested in stuff like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent:_J ... n_the_Dark

It seems to have a turn sequence and other things in common with Space Hulk, but with monsters, spells, and treasure. I'm looking forward to painting the models and pimping out the game, even if I am barely ever able to actually play it.

I'm a sucker for modular board games. Space Hulk is king, but Zombies!! and Betrayal at House on the Hill are also fantastic fun. I think this game and all it's expansions has the potential to be pretty darn amazing based on what I have seen so far!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 6, 2011, 6:46 pm
by Fairweather Pure
Well, it's taken about 1.5 hours so far and I only have the main game and the first expansion punched out of the card stock. Very high quality pieces, but there are so many it's a little intimidating. I was going to do a total piece count, but that'll take more time/effort than I'm willing to put into it. I'll ballpark it at well over 500 pieces total by the time I'm finished with the whole game and all expansions. Keeping everything organized is going to be challenge. I'm keeping all the parts separate for each game right now, but I foresee combining all the sets into one giant set later just for ease of storage. My hobbies tend to take up a lot of storage room and I'm really running low on space!

I'm going to put brush to paint at some point in time and paint up the heroes. There are a lot of those guys, and even more monsters to paint (which I'll get to eventually).

Good times ahead!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 6, 2011, 7:05 pm
by Winnow
Christ, who has time to set that all up these days?


This would have been awesome in the late 80's, early 90's when I was playing boardgames with friends.

Here's a review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQlQkZg6sL8

Looks cool if I had anywhere near the time. These days it would be impossible to get people together for long enough to do board games. Pretty cool if you still can.

I used to play Talisman which is a little more under control for board pieces:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyAS1TYdGPo

Unfortunately, the PC version was canceled during development.


-----

Sidenote:

Here's a cool short clip of VIn Diesel talking about Dungeons and Dragons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36_-DauQi0s

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 6, 2011, 7:23 pm
by Fairweather Pure
I play these types of games maybe once or twice a year. I am the only friend that buys them, learns them, paints them, and hosts the get togethers. It's worth it to me because deep down I just love these board games and, of course, I appreciate the accolades my friends throw my way when we have our rare gaming nights! My wife likes them too, but we never play them with just the two of us.

I think set up time on this one won't be too awful bad, and the guys and girls I play with are pretty competent and experienced gamers (even if it was years ago). The only bad part about this type of hobby is that just as everyone is getting the hang of things, it's time to go home. By the time you get to play again, everyone needs a refresher, and the process repeats. That's why an extremely simple game like Zombies!! gets a lot of play around my house.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 6, 2011, 8:35 pm
by Ashur
I game (board games/RPGs/CCGs once upon a time/ and even LAN games in the late 90s) with guys I mostly met in college and my brother. Repeat weekly and combine with annual pilgrimages to GenCon since about 1986.

Spacehulk and games like this don't see much play in our world. We have about eleventy-billion other games that take a large amount of time (mostly railroad games like Railroad Tycoon/Eurorails and all those crayon-based rail games/Ticket to Ride etc, but also Power Grid, Race for the Galaxy etc, and even regular runnings of Advanced Civilization).

Talisman used to be a staple, but inevitably someone wants to leave mid-game. Meh! We try to target games that take under 3-4 hours unless we set aside a day for a more complicated one like Advanced Civ with 8 players).

Winnow - yeah, I was disappointed the Talisman PC game went by the wayside.

Fair - I have a friend big into Warhammer that raves about Spacehulk (and I'm pretty sure he bought it). I always appreciate it when someone puts a lot of love (time or money) into a game (often similar to GMs for RPGs) that other people get to enjoy. It's also why I always respect game developers (SW and BGs). If you design ways for people to enjoy their spare time /salute.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 6, 2011, 10:21 pm
by Fairweather Pure
The thing all my board games have in common is they have a modular board, miniatures, and flexible rules. No matter what, I get my money's worth out of the minis because I paint them. A modular board and flexible rules leave room for myself and others to create our own scenarios, which I think is both challenging and fun. A modular board helps ensure that games rarely turn out quit the same, or at the very least hold some surprises along the way. If the designers give me the basics and then allow me to make things more complex if i want to, then I consider that the best type of board game for me. Zombies!! is easy as shit. Some might argue it's way too easy. But the game has 9 fucking expansions, and a separate game called Humans!! that can be integrated into the main game if you wish (and that has an expansion as well!). I pick and choose rules, mix in a tweek or 2 of my own, and Zombies!! can become an entirely different game. I love that in board games. Betrayal at House on the Hill takes it to the next level. The modular board is based on a haunted house and environment, and the game has a crazy number of scenarios included. They are almost completely different games depending on which scenario you draw. Many are based on horror movies and are a great fun. The core of that game is that everyone works together, then at some point in the game, 1 person betrays everyone and it's them vs everyone else. Lots of tension and fun in that game.

It sounds like you're into the more "serious" board games. I'm a beer and pretzels type player really. I couldn't get my friends into something that was overly complicated, and the minis always seem to bridge the gap into these types of games.

Next, I have my eye on The Last Night on Earth and it's expansions. I told myself I would have to finish up pimping out both Descent and my Space Hulk before I took the plunge on another expensive board game.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 13, 2011, 6:08 pm
by Fairweather Pure
I found out that I'm missing an expansion. I have the main game and 4 expansions, but one called The Road to Ruin is actually OOP. I was lucky enough to scoop up the last copy from an Amazon dealer yesterday. That particular expansion sets up campaigns and alters a lot of the rules of the main game and it's expansions for longer, continuous games. It's also the only expansion to not have miniatures. Still the rules and scenarios are worth it to me.

I've attempted to start painting the minis a few times, but I keep putting it off in order to make things as nice as possible. For instance, I've decided to clip them from their plastic bases and affix them to larger bases which I will detail before painting. I'll need to order some citadel square bases, plasticard, and a few other details for the bases before I move forward. I'm leaning towards round over square bases atm, but either choice fit the game board just fine.

I plan on each Hero to have a custom, scenic base that will help make them unique from one another and compliment the particular character model. I already have a small display case just for the heroes, which I may deck out in a dungeon motif if the mood strikes me. I'll have to wait and see how the bases will turn out first and see how much room I'll have left in the case.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: February 15, 2011, 11:11 am
by Ashur
My unpainted miniatures are legion.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: March 27, 2011, 12:10 pm
by Fairweather Pure
Well, I chose 2 hero figures at random and gave them a paint job. The results are below. I'm giving each one a custom base and trying to get as close as possible to the drawing, yet also exercising some creative license if I think it will make the miniature better. Now, these haven't been "cleaned up" and are missing their matte spray coat (knocks the shine down) but you get the idea of what I'm going for...

Tahlia

Here she is based and primed white
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Complete (pretty much)
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Shiver
Sculpted base and primed black
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Complete
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Also, since I've been trying to find PDFs of various things to put on my iPad, I found out that Fantasy Flight games puts the full instructions of all their games on their website. Pretty amazing!

Here are the PDFs for Descent and all it's expansions for anyone interested in taking a look!

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_ ... m=5&esem=4

I have since picked up several other games, including The Last Night on Earth and am really looking into Mansions of Madness as well. I look forward to pimping out every single one of these games eventually!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: March 27, 2011, 9:57 pm
by Winnow
I will defer comments on this matter to Jice.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: March 28, 2011, 11:45 am
by Fairweather Pure
Grey Ker

Primed Gray
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Complete with custom base
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I haven't painted (seriously) in about 5ish years. The hobby has grown exponentially in that amount of time. The techniques and skills I used to know are part of ancient history. Each one of these 3 heroes was a test for me to try new things. The chick got a dip in quickshade strong tone, while the thief got a treatment of miniwax wood finish (ebony) so I could see the difference between the two. Well, the miniwax almost ruined the goddamn mini IMO and it is pretty amazing he turned out like he did all things considered. Too bad, because a tiny can of quickshade costs 40$, while a huge fucking can of miniwax is 6$. That thief mini was nothing but "happy accidents" (as Bob Ross called them), from beginning to end. You'll also notice that each one received a different color primer to see how it effected layered colors and such. I'm undecided on the gray, but the white and black did what I intended them to.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: April 10, 2011, 2:36 pm
by Fairweather Pure
I'm working on quite an amazing character right now (if I do say so myself). Don't worry, I know everyone is dieing for me to post it, lol. I will when I'm finished! I had a dream about it last night, so thought I would try to recreate what I envisioned in my sleep.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: April 10, 2011, 3:40 pm
by Winnow
Fairweather Pure wrote:Don't worry, I know everyone is dieing for me to post it, lol.
Don't worry about other people on this board. Most of them are dead weight and contribute very little. Post what you want.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: April 10, 2011, 9:29 pm
by Fairweather Pure
Well, I finished him but it's too dark to take pictures so I'll do it tomorrow sometime. He turned out pretty well IMO! I'm loving these minis as experiments. Every single one so far has been used to try new things. The one coming up is pretty epic (as far as painted little plastic figurines goes that is) and I tried all sorts of things I have never done before.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: April 11, 2011, 10:04 am
by Fairweather Pure
Here's the hero card
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Components include Rock
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Character
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Scratch built candles for base. This wasn't easy. At all.
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Candles with "wax" added
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Finally, the painted and assembled mini. I have some new washes coming in the mail that will knock down the candle lighting to more of a "glow", but this is good enough for now. Excuse the lighting, it's terrible this morning. It really makes the mini looked washed out. I'll take better ones later.
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And here's a group shot of all the ones completed so far
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Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: April 13, 2011, 1:51 pm
by Kwonryu DragonFist
VERY nice Pureweather!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: April 14, 2011, 11:25 am
by Fairweather Pure
Thanks for the compliment Kwon! Just for that, I'm going to dedicate my next mini to you. I'll even rename him Kwon. He's a barbarian tank, so I figure that would fit the bill for a Kwon themed Descent miniature. I'm waiting on some supplies I bought earlier in the week, but watch this space. I think you'll be impressed with what I come up with!




The more I get back into this hobby, the more I realize it's all about money. As with most hobbies, you have to invest in the proper tools and equipment to help achieve the best results. Painting little army men is expensive. Not just the miniatures themselves, which are pretty outrageous in price on their own, but all the supplies needed to do everything right really add up fast. I notice that the best painters are the ones who can afford all the hobby luxuries.

In just the last week, I've gotten an airbrush kit, an illuminated magnifier, and a desktop vice. Prior to that, it was plasticard and special glues, scenic basing materials, weathering powders, washes/inks, sculpting tools, and 3 types of quickshade (at 40$ a pop). Add to that, all my existing paints, exacto knives, saws, brushes, greenstuff/milliput/sculpy, hobby files, and a slew of miscellaneous items too varied and numerous to mention. The basics of this hobby are around 1,000$ for the initial investment. I say "initial" because you have to maintain your supplies and pick up new stuff for specific projects. I just grabbed a whole bunch of clear acrylics to help with one idea alone (about 20$ for 7 of them). I also have a bunch of balsa wood for some scale scenery ideas laying around, and I still have more ideas in my head than will just keep costing money! At least the leftover supplies store well and are easy to incorporate into other projects.

Finally, I have the next major project I'm looking into that entails buying molds and dental plaster to create a 3D dungeon. The supplies alone will be around 150-175$ for that single project!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 2, 2011, 3:26 pm
by Jice Virago
Nice work on those, especially the basing conversions. My wife and I own all the expansions for this game (as well as its sister game Runebound) but we never even considered painting the figs for it. We are doing a campaign game with some friends (Road to Legends) and there has been some interest in painting the figs we are using, but I have too many other modelling projects going on right now, plus I am not the greatest painter to begin with... big fat bastard paws and all, plus I cut my thumb last winter.

One thing I do have to ask is how you managed to get the primer to not chip or flake on those. I have tried painting soft plastics before, but the maliability always causes the primer to flake off when the figures are used. I went though this with trying to paint my talisman figs. The metal figs they make for the campaign lieutenants are excellent, however.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 2, 2011, 5:14 pm
by Fairweather Pure
I have no secrets to share as far as keeping the primer on. I just use typical hobby primers. Some people encourage a huge process like washing your sprues/minis in dish soap and scrubbing them first before priming, but I have never done that before and my stuff is just fine. I think the Descent minis are actually quite stable and workable to paint. The "squishiness" of the plastic isn't an issue at all. Besides, once I put them on different, larger bases, I notice people tend to move them around by touching the base, as opposed to grabbing the most convienient part of the model (which coincidentally is usually the most fragile, imagine that!). If you have an airbrush, you don't even have to prime the mini first, which is a major bonus. It saves time, money, and saves detail. Also, that Army Painter dip alone is equal to about 2-3 coats of gloss varnish. It really adds a significant layer of protection to the mini. I always go over the mini post dip and pick out highlights and what-not, but there is a definite thickness to that stuff that makes the Descent miniatures rock solid.

Basing takes the majority of my time. It's also the most fun for me right now. That's where I can get creative. I just look over a model, glance at his stats, and start trying to imagine a back story that I can capture in the very limited space that a larger base will give me. I try to make theives look more theify, wizards look more wizardy, and tanks look more tanky. I would like to think that just about anyone with even a cautionary knowledge of the fantasy genre can look at the miniatures I posted above and immediately understand what type of role they would play. Now, I certainly can't accomplish that for all 50-ish Descent miniatures that I own, but other purely scenic miniatures are needed to fill in the narrative gaps so to speak.

All this talk about Talisman sparks my interest. You can get the 4th edition game, 2 big box expansions, and all 3 small box expansions for a grand total of 155$ through Amazon. That's another 40ish miniatures to paint right there. I'll buy that soon along with Mansions of Madness and Dungeonquest (this includes 6 new characters for Descent/Runebound!).

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 3, 2011, 1:13 am
by Fairweather Pure
Here is part of a great tutorial by this guy doing a dreadnought. It's a long, multi part series, but he covers pretty much every technique out there.

In this episode, he uses an airbrush to base coat and put a highlight coat on. (Skip to 3:50ish to see him actually spraying)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUNT5we4BWc

The entire series is actually really good. I used it for airbrushing techniques, but there's plenty of other great methods used on this model.

Here's another of him using an airbrush to create non metallic metal on a sword. The effect is amazing IMO. Things like this are why I bought an airbrush.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePrimalAc ... xe8mlAduUw

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 3, 2011, 6:53 pm
by Jice Virago
Yeah, I guess I need to dig my airbrush out of retirement. I have just been doing large armies for 40k and fantasy so much lately that I have gotten lazy and just used primer spray cans for all of my base coating.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 3, 2011, 8:02 pm
by Fairweather Pure
It seems like doing large armies is where an airbrush would shine most. Doing these individual Descent miniatures, there really is no opportunity to use an airbrush at all. Mixing the colors and cleaning the brush over and over for a single tiny mini is kind of pointless. My first real test will be doing all of the Space Hulk miniatures at once.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 5, 2011, 11:41 am
by Jice Virago
Keeping the same mix for a large number of figs is difficult. I ran into this when airbrushing my 100 or so bloodletters. Where its really good is vehicles in 40k. We did my wife's dark angel stuff and it came out looking really amazing. For a large number of infantry, I generally prefer spraycan primer (and then assembly line the guys one color at a time). As I have said before, I am not the best painter, but I can churn out large armies to table top standard in a quick amount of time. I will take time to detail unit leaders, however.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 12, 2011, 11:01 am
by Fairweather Pure
Another Descent mini down.

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My "Kwon" mini is a work in progress. I've re-imagined it twice now, so I need to come up with a firm design before I actually build and paint it. I do have all the supplies that I need though, so maybe this weekend.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 12, 2011, 11:14 am
by Fairweather Pure
Current WIP

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Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 12, 2011, 11:30 am
by Fairweather Pure
Here's a pic of the Kwon mini prior to cleanup and basing. I think we all know Kwon well enough to know he'll dig it!

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Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 22, 2011, 7:11 pm
by Fairweather Pure
Image

The Kwon Mini is complete. I took enough of a break from my weekend work list to knock this out. It's my first time doing blood. All in all, the mini turned out pretty much as I expected, although the pic does it no justice due in large part to the sun hiding behind the clouds at the moment.. It looks pretty striking in person. I'll do another pic later.

The mini story that goes with this is of a barbarian warrior who looks to be facing overwhelming odds. He just tossed down his shield and he's ready to take as many with him as possible. He looks like a Kwon to me!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 25, 2011, 10:13 pm
by Kwonryu DragonFist
Nice one Pureweather! :D

Could you give me a quick resume about this game, is it like Talisman?

What are the stats on the Kwon-mini? :D

EDIT: Checked around a bit

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... kehero.pdf

How about the Trait "Master" :D

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 26, 2011, 6:37 pm
by Fairweather Pure
I just bit the bullet and ordered 4th edition Talisman, both big box expansions, and the 3 small box expansions from Amazon. It was 150$ but I applied 50$ of credit for a total of 100$ out of pocket. I saved 65$ off MSRP for the full order before even applying my credit. My local gaming store charges full MSRP and I simply cannot justify paying that much more for the same product. With free 2 day shipping (Plus member) and no tax, I honestly have no idea how local stores stay in business selling at MSRP.

I've never played the game before, but the rules make it seem as though it has an easier barrier of entry than many of the other games I have gotten recently. And besides, it has miniatures!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 26, 2011, 6:43 pm
by Fairweather Pure
Kwon, that particular character is not a "100%" tank sice has rolls 2 dice in melee and 1 in ranged (his throwing axe). Pure classes will roll 3 power dice in thier respective ability (melee, ranged, spell). Still, he looks tankier than any if the other tank characters that I have!

Lol, I have never seen the character creator before! I'll have to compare size/scale of the Talisman minis and if they're comparable I'll make cards for those heroes (and vice verca).

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 26, 2011, 7:34 pm
by Kwonryu DragonFist
Fairweather Pure wrote:I just bit the bullet and ordered 4th edition Talisman, both big box expansions, and the 3 small box expansions from Amazon. It was 150$ but I applied 50$ of credit for a total of 100$ out of pocket. I saved 65$ off MSRP for the full order before even applying my credit. My local gaming store charges full MSRP and I simply cannot justify paying that much more for the same product. With free 2 day shipping (Plus member) and no tax, I honestly have no idea how local stores stay in business selling at MSRP.

I've never played the game before, but the rules make it seem as though it has an easier barrier of entry than many of the other games I have gotten recently. And besides, it has miniatures!
Fairweather!

I have all the Talisman-boxes, from the Old editions to the new.

I even made my own Talisman-board back in the day!

The good thing with Talisman is that its so easy to pickup that even those who dont enjoy boardgames normally can enjoy it!

VERY easy to learn. So many interesting characters and easy to make new "house-rules".

Some Chars were overpowered when we played back in the day, so you could never pick those lol

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 26, 2011, 7:36 pm
by Kwonryu DragonFist
Fairweather Pure wrote:Kwon, that particular character is not a "100%" tank sice has rolls 2 dice in melee and 1 in ranged (his throwing axe). Pure classes will roll 3 power dice in thier respective ability (melee, ranged, spell). Still, he looks tankier than any if the other tank characters that I have!
Who cares about tanking? It's all about dual-wield and dps baby!

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 28, 2011, 10:55 am
by Fairweather Pure
I received all my Talisman stuff via UPS today except the main boxed game. Doh! Looks like I'm waiting until Tuesday to give the game a try.

Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: May 28, 2011, 9:31 pm
by Kwonryu DragonFist
Purefair

If you play with many people, use house-rules and ban this character, she is Overpowered! :D

EVERY time anyone got her, that person won

Her Main Power is just too good, she can for example always go to 2-card Areas, and always get rid of the worst encounter, and some encounters can be gamechanging, like The Hag, The Poltergeist. She will just discard the gamechangers easily.

If she lands and gets a Dragon and Goldcoins, guess which card she will discard?

She will level up fast in the beginning and pick her fights at her leisure.
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Capcom once planned to make Talisman for PC, Xbox and PS :D
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Re: Descent: Journeys in the Dark (board game)

Posted: August 31, 2011, 1:16 am
by Fairweather Pure
The Talisman Dragon expansion is due out soon with a gaggle of new heroes and fresh rules for Dragons (of course). Unfortunately I picked a bad time to buy Descent and all it's expansions because a 2nd edition was recently announced. Doh! At least there will be a "bridge" set that will be cheap that converts your 1st edition to 2nd edition. Still, I might buy the new edition just to get more minis. I'll have to wait and see what the final package will look like.

I've been doing other hobbies other than painting lately, but I'm feeling a strong urge to jump back in and get some minis painted up.