Christmas Cheer

Merry Christmas, everyone! (I know I'm a bit late but I've been busy so cut me some slack, okay?) This was my first Christmas as a father and it was just so amazing and special. Best. Christmas. Ever... seriously. My little daughter is fantastic and brilliant, she took her first steps on Christmas morning right in front of the tree! Also my wife got for me the coolest gift I've ever received. She commissioned an artist to paint and oil-on-canvas original of my kitty cat Isabel sitting on the desk of C. Montgomery Burns, having a meeting with the man himself. I've never been so surprised, overwhelmed, and touched by a gift before. My wife's the best! As magical as Christmas was as a child, I can now appreciate it all over again from an entirely new perspective. It's like the magic is back, but better than ever!

I've been making some changes today to the website, in particular my links. I decided to delete outright the Manufacturers and Retailers list that I had maintained, primarily as it no longer served much use to me. I have since gotten comfortable enough with my new computer to start making use of the bookmark folders and simply transferred my preferred sites to one of them. I did add a few of them (GW, Forge World, WarStore) to the Wargaming Resources list for my own convenience. I think the list of links now better reflects the shift in focus I've made in going from historical miniatures to primarily 40k. I will also probably be making some other changes in the coming days, like removing some artwork poached off the net. I'm thinking about deleting point values from my army lists as well, though I'm not quite sure how I feel about that on 1st Amendment grounds. Whatever I end up doing, I hope to have all of it complete in time for the new year.

I'm close to finishing all of the Dreadnought's subassemblies and should be able to get the rest put together tonight. I've got a pretty clear idea of how I want to paint it and so I'm looking forward to getting into that phase quickly, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. The four arms are all magnetized but I think I should have used the larger diameter magnets to better support their weight. They hold them sufficiently well but not as strongly as I would have liked. I made spaces for the magnets using my largest pin-vice drill bit but it was just large enough for the smaller magnets. I don't believe it would be possible to find a larger bit and still use the same drill, so when I want to magnetize something in the future I may look into getting a Dremel or something. Otherwise I am satisfied with my first attempt at working with these little things, though it can be frustrating when they become glued together. Oh my!