Welcome to 2016

Happy New Year and welcome back to Fragments from the Rim!

It's been a long year. I haven't really posted anything of consequence since Gamer Nation Con.  After that, it was a whirlwind trip to Celebration Anaheim, a very long couple of months dealing with the water damage in my home caused by ice dams from the Great Snowpocalypse of 2015, and...general lack of time and drive to write anything for this blog.

Which is sad, I really enjoyed writing and sharing my thoughts.  So with the new year comes a new focus, a new mandate to try and write as much as I can for this blog, while sharing what knowledge I can drop on you unsuspecting peoples in the interwebs.

D20 Radio

As some of you know, I've been an occasional writer for D20 Radio's gaming blog. There have been some handy and entertaining articles posted up on that site; hopefully you find that mine are some of them.  I do still plan to write for them in addition to writing here.  I'm not sure if some of my articles will be cross posted, or if I'll keep content to either page exclusive to one or the other.  I know my readership is more over there, they simply have more viewers.  Still, cross pollination of blog posts can't hurt, right?

Aside from that, Chris and Dave have graciously kept me involved and a part of the Order 66 Podcast, and it's still a lot of fun to do.  We're trying to get the shows down to 2-hours in length, partially because Dave wants some shows he can submit for Ennie consideration, and partially because they were honestly getting long and off-topic at times.  If you never listen, you should.  And "if you never listen", thank you for your patronage.

Another Longshot

Ah, my current flagship; the Longshot Campaign.  It's still going, and tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of it's birth. I'm celebrating with the second of two "Side Bets"; games that incorporate characters from both teams (I have one PC group consisting of Force Users from various factions, and another PC group consisting of Galactic Alliance troublemakers called The Idiot's Array). Tomorrows game involves one of the Legacy Era's watershed events, and the PCs get to deal with the backlash from it in the Hagen Sector. Or not. They're PCs after all, they could surprise me.

More about the Longshot Campaign will be shared in this blog as we enter Season 2 of the story.

Fallout 4

Another source of seemingly endless time-consumption lately has been Fallout 4.  I've been playing this game like a mad, mad fiend.  Juilian Cross, sole survivor from Vault 111, has crafted quite a considerable Minuteman Protectorate in the northern Massachusetts region.  I'm finding the game a lot of fun, but as usual I'm getting massively sidetracked from the main plotline by exploring the wastes, managing my multi-settlement Mutfruit-and-Purified-Water empire, and using the proceeds to construct bigger and better towns.  I'm glad I picked up the PC version, as the Settlement Creation Editor's size limit can be bypassed, allowing me to make some pretty elaborate towns (much to the dismay of my frame-rate, at times)

Playing Fallout has got me thinking about roleplaying Fallout.  It's the only real deficiency that I have with the IP, the fact that it doesn't have a dedicated RPG supporting it at this time.  I've kicked around a few ideas to home-brew something, or adapt it to Savage Worlds (pretty easy) or to Edge of the Empire (a little harder).  I even wrote an article about it for D20 Radio called They Came From The Vaults.  Doing so inspired me to come up with an Edge of the Empire module to play at Gamer Nation Con 2016 that takes place entirely in the Fallout world.

It's still under development, and a lot of that development is going to be shared here in the coming weeks.

Costuming

Remember how I advertized this as a costuming blog too?  I haven't forgotten about that.

I'm working on a few costumes for 2016, not all of them mine.  For the 501st Legion, I'm involved in a group project to make a horde of First Order Snowtroopers for the local garrison. My father and I are waiting with bated breath for all our pieces to be complete, and start assembly as soon as they are. I like the look of these snowy's, and while I wish they got more screen time in the movie, at least they were in the movie, you know?

After that, I'll be keeping my eye on something for the Rebel-side of the group, or should I say the Resistance-side.  I really dig the new X-Wing pilot outfits, and there's already talk of supplementing our pilots up here in "Phantom Squadron" with some T-70 jockeys.

Finally, I'm working on a more practical suit, something to be used for the upcoming Crossover LARP in my area. I've been working with EVA Foam to make (a rather mandalorian looking) armor suit for my new character, and my lovely wife picked up an airbrush kit for me to learn how to use. The airbrush can be used for painting and giving the armor some wear, but the main reason for the kit is for use with liquid make-up for my character.  Think something rather Darth-Maul-like, but with blue and white instead of black and red.  Along with that comes repaints of the various weapons I'll be using in the game; nerf guns painted a more appropriate shade for use in the game. I'm moving towards painting nerf guns for other players for commission, and am painting up 5 of them for the NPC camp's use.  I probably won't be doing much work on that until March, as the game isn't starting until May.

Welcome Home

And that's pretty much it for now. Thanks for reading, please check back in here from time to time and see where things are going!

Until next time, may the dice be with you!

World Building and Costume Conundrums

Wow, it's been a while since I posted.  I could come up with lame excuses why, but you've heard it all before.  Sadly, they're still reasons I've been kept away from this blog for too long.

At least I've got a modern browser on my work computer now, so I can start updating while I'm at work during breaks.

So what has DarthGM been up to in September?  Well, I've ordered a new costume.  Not for me, for my father.  He tried on my Biker Scout at the Dover Mini-Maker faire this past August and really liked it.  So we talked with a few folks and he has a suit of un-assembled Scout trooper armor on a UPS truck en route to his home.  Ideally we should have it set up for St. Pats day (if we troop it)

We also need to make some upgrades to his Old Ben Kenobi outfit.  The outer robe shrunk and the inner robe stretched out during one of the rainy parades he trooped in.  We got new material for his inner robes, but the wool army blankets I ordered to make his outer robe from never shipped.  Never even heard back from the eStore owner I bought them from.  That transaction is now in dispute with Paypal and I'm waiting for resolution.

Preliminary work is being done on a Cade Skywalker outfit for my stepson.  He'll be 18 by the time we go to Anaheim for Celebration VII, which means we can get him into the Rebel Legion group photo if we do a good enough job on it.  It's simple, yet difficult to make.  Gotta make it look right.

I wonder if we can submit him for a BH or SL designation in the 501st.  He was a Bounty Hunting, drug using scum who collected a bounty on a Jedi, and he did go dark-side for a while there.  If Mara Jade could do it and get SL designation, why not Cade?

I promised my stepson that if he got the costume all ready by his birthday, I'd get him Cade's lightsaber.  I thought I was going to have to build it from scratch, but Ultrasabers actually has a really good saber that looks right.

(Looks like Ultrasabers won't let me link their photos, but this is what I see as "close enough!")

Even my wife is starting to look into costumes.  She expressed interest in a couple; we'll see when we can move forward with one of them.

And me?  Cripes, I don't know.  I've been meaning to kick my EVA Jedi Knight/Sith Acolyte into high gear for a while now.  It's all about finding the time to work on it, which means I have to start neglecting something else.  Probably Mechwarrior Online is the next thing I really have to ramp back on.  Too bad, because in December they're releasing the King Crab, and it looks bad-ass.

Oh look; something else to fit into my already tight schedule!

I'm reminded that I was going to release my GenCon Module "The Big Leagues" for public consumption this month, or at least to those who backed the Order 66 Podcast/GamerNationCon 2015 Kickstarter.  I really need to get on that.  Building these characters using the Force and Destiny careers and specializations should prove a fun exercise.

I've made some changes to my "Another Longshot" campaign.  Previously I was running my Tuesday night game (dubbed the "Wild Cards")  as a prelude campaign to "Another Longshot".  I've had some inspiration with what I want to do with the overall Longshot campaign and right now the Wild Cards don't really fit into that.  I've split the Wild Cards off as their own campaign on Obsidian Portal and made a new Another Longshot website.

I've put some time and effort into mapping out a sector of space where the Longshot game will predominantly occur in; the Hagen Sector.  Thanks to Pro Fantasy and their Campaign Cartographer, I was able to slap together a pretty cool map of the area.  I then went and applied my "Eons System Generation" method I talked about a year ago and came up with some pretty fun locations.  I haven't fleshed out every system, but I've got some neat ideas.

And with that, I think I'll call it for another blogpost.  Gotta get back to work.

May the dice be with you.

GenCon 2014: Pre-Game

Here I am, in New Hampshire.  In 24 hours I hope to be in the middle of the D20 Radio GenCon Meet N Greet, rubbing elbows with those of you out there in the Gamer Nation that could make it to the con, and with some industry friends of the show.  After that, it's likely going to be 4 days of poor sleep, late nights, and geek overload.

Gods, I hope I can survive it.

When going away on any trip, it's important to make sure you don't forget anything.  This trip is no different.  It's even more important not to forget anything because I've got probably a dozen or more folks in Indianapolis who are looking forward to sitting down at my module, "The Big Leagues".  So I did what anyone would do (yes, at the suggestion and urging of my wife); I made a list.

So here's what I'm bringing...

The Big Leagues

• Huttball Map
• Final Encounter Map
• Dice Rolling Tray (Thanks Ann Marie and Erich!)
• Dice (...for the tray)
• Initiative Tracker (8.x11 dry erase board, thanks Chris!)
• The Module (printed)
• Character Sheets (24 of them, 3 pages each.  Quickest use of a printer cartridge ever...)
• GM Screen
• Character Tokens
• Assorted Alea Tools Magnets (Status conditions, height modifiers, etc)
• Cargo Tiles
• Age of Rebellion core rulebook (rules and autographs)
• Edge of the Empire core rulebook (rules and autographs)

Jedi Outfit

• Jacket
• Tabards (2)
• Obi
• Pants
• Boots (with insoles)
• Belt
• Pouches (2)
• Lightsaber
• 32" blade (bought my current suitcase specifically because it fit inside)
• Charger
•  Hex Key

Vaultdweller

• "101" Jumpsuit
• Belt
• 10mm Autopistol (Made from a NERF Maverick)
• Mentats
• Combat Boots
• Vault 13 flask
• Pipboy 3000 (gotta remember to get 9v and AAA batteries)
• Micro Mp3 player (45+ minutes of music & 3-Dog clips pre-loaded)

Electronics

• Phone
• Tablet
• Charge Cords
• Back-up Battery 
• Power Strip (I'm rooming with 3 other guys with just as many electronics as I...we'll need the plug-space)

Mundane items

• 4 days of clothes
• Toothbrush & Toothpaste
• Deodorant (I will not be "That guy")
• Drugs (Wife would be upset if I died in Indy...so would I)
• Airborne chewable capsules (Wife will kill me if I bring home the ConCrud)
• 2 travel-size bottles of Purell (see above)
• Electric Razor (gotta remember to shave the head tonight)
• Moleskin (for when I wear the Jedi boots)
• Scissors (for the moleskin)
• Box of Pop-Tarts
• Box of Granola Bars
• Water Bottle w/ built-in purifier (This item alone will probably save me $10-$20 per day...)

Also included are various gifts and attire I need for the weekend, including my 501st Legion Challenge Coin and Name Badges.

Supposedly most of that will fit into my suitcase and two carry-on bags.  I don't think I'll be over 50 lbs in the suitcase, I've actually got a bit of dead-space in there.

I should be running The Big Leagues at least twice, but I brought enough material to run it all four times (once for each PC Set).  We'll see how many times and who I get to play with.

I have no clue how often I'll be updating this blog this week.  I'm more likely to post little blurbs on Twitter.  Follow me @DarthGM on twitter and you'll get my various updates.

May the dice be with me...

Bonus Content: Boston Comic Con

This past weekend was Boston Comic Con, and I wanted to give a shout out to my base CO, Mike Brunco, for getting his idea for our convention booth from concept to finished product.  Another local legionnaire Kevin made the bulk of our new Trash Compactor, and many of us went to Mike's house to paint it up.  The dianoga head was made by Brian Anderson, and the tentacle was made by Bob Gouveia.  By the images on the NEG website, you can see that it was something of a big hit.

Oh, and I bumped into GM Sam at the con.  Chatted with him for a bit about upcoming conventions. 

And didn't have to pay BCC $40 to do so...

A Funny Thing Happend at My Brother's Wedding

Going to be a bit of a quick post this week.  I've been having some good luck with my GenCon Module, and the playtesting of the highlight encounter.  I've actually got another test run Wednesday night with the Smuggler Companions.  Should be a hoot.

I didn't quite realize how much of a monster I made Bowdarr.  Meh, that's okay.  Risha's actually pretty obscene too with her tricked out Blaster Sniper Rifle, with mods and Jury-Rigging and Tinkering.  High damage, high accuracy, Pierce, low Crit Rating; not too shabby for an Outlaw Tech.

Armored Groom

But the big thing I wanted to talk about is another secret project I've been working on for most of the year, but couldn't talk about it because my brother reads this blog.  He got married this past weekend, and me and a few others got together and picked up a suit of Imperial Knight armor for him to finish off and get approved for the Rebel Legion.

I had some trouble working on it until the weather got decent in New Hampshire...which was sometime around the first weekend in May.  Prior to that it was either too cold or too rainy to spray paint.

It trimmed out pretty well.  I was still having problems coating the suit in three layers of Red Valspar for Plastic.  It was either so windy the paint went sideways, or a Goddamned bug would fly in front of the spray and plaster itself into the wet paint on the armor.  I had to sand and re-spray three pieces because of that, including the back-plate.  Damned bugs...

So anyway, three coats of red, and eventually will put on a coat of clear protective glossy to preserve the finish and give it a nice shine.  I ran out of time so I sort of put the armor together haphazardly and mounted it on my duct-tape dummy that I have.

It still needs the undersuit and belt.  And the cape is just the material draped over it, not really sewn into it's proper shape yet.  Still, it's progress towards getting my brother into the Rebel Legion with an Imperial Knight. 

Actually, the 501st Legion also recently approved this outfit for membership.  It's a good guy, but it's an Imperial Knight.  Got the cogs and everything.  It falls under the "TR" designation for the Flagship Eclipse Detachment (basically the place for all the Expanded Universe costumes).

Let's see how long it takes my brother to get this finished.  I'd love to see him as a Rebel Legionnaire by the end of the year.

We'll see!

Interludes in Costuming and Game Writing

It's been a crazy week in the world of DarthGM.  My brother is getting married this coming weekend, and I'm the Best Man.  The week has been filled with travel seemingly all over New England, preparations, machinations, and execution of several surprises. 

Hopefully, all well received.

#GenConMod

In the meantime, I've made progress on the pivotal encounter in my GenCon Module.  Two playtest sessions under my belt has led to some good data-mining and feedback on mechanics and character stats.  I'm debating going into more detail about the encounter, although I suppose it's kinda out there now as to what it is.  Still, I'll keep it "officially" under wraps for a later date.

#PepakuraSWTORJedi

The costuming bug has bit me again, and I've started work on utilizing those foam mats that I have taking up space in my house, purchased so many years ago for a Darth Malgus build.  Inspired by a construction thread over at the RPF, I'm starting work on my own SWTOR Jedi Knight outfit utilizing EVA Foam and Pepakura files.  With the right files, the foam, and a few layers of Plasti-dip, you can make some really impressive costumes.  A bevy of Iron Men have cropped up over the past few years, and a whole host of Specters from Mass Effect, all thanks to the skillful manipulation of those rigid-foam mats folks use to protect their floors from machining equipment and exercise contraptions.  The work is AMAZING, a lot faster than other costume making methods, and a lot cheaper too.  The amount of mileage and wear and tear they can take is much less than hard-plastic counterparts, as expected, but it's also a lot easier to make replacement parts.

I've printed out and assembled the files for the bracers for the Jedi Knight.  I'd like to make the foam bracer sometime next week, and if that works print out and assemble additional parts for construction at an upcoming Build Day.

Ideally, I'll be making the Jedi Knight to get practice with Pepakura and EVA foam construction, and repeat the process to make the Sith Acolyte.  They use almost the exact same armor templates, just that the Sith Acolyte will require the acquisition of an appropriate mask.  If I do it right, I might be able to submit the Acolyte for 501st Legion approval.

#WelcomeToThe21stCenturyPhil

You may have noticed a theme with my sub-headers today.  I'm on Twitter now.  It's weird, and not really conducive to my usually-long-winded approach when it comes to writing out my thoughts and arguments, but it is handy to keep in touch with things.  We'll see how it affects my blog, using #FragmentsfromtheRim and #FFTR as hash-tags for this column.  Feel free to follow me over there, I'm @DarthGM.

Maybe next week, after the craziness of this week, I can finish off the Jedi Consular's team and post up their stats, and come back with revisions for the previous posts.

May the Dice be with you.

March Madness

It's been a heck of a winter.  Cold, long, bleak, seemingly endless.  Massachusetts had a blizzard on Wednesday, assuming you lived out on Cape Cod, but it still reminds me that I live in New England and the phrase "snow in May" is not as alien as one may believe up here.


This weekend was the Manchester, NH St. Patrick's Day parade.  It would have been a nice, short parade that mirrors the route of the Christmas parade.  Only during the day.  In March.  Instead of December.  At night.

Vast improvements, that.

Sadly, it was cold, rainy, and we (the Legion) didn't want to potentially ruin hundreds of dollars worth of costumes.  So we cancelled.

I planned to wear my green Jedi outfit, and my dad was to be returning to (kinda) active duty by borrowing my Scout Trooper.  We had a bit of a dress-up day this past weekend to see how it fit; it fit him better than it did me, that's for sure.  So much so that I'm going to have to pin a few things in place to make sure they stay where they need to; like the belt.  It also sparked a discussion of "I could see getting one of these".  So now we add Scout Trooper to the growing list of costumes my dad would like to do, joining the ranks of Royal Guardsman, Imperial Grand Admiral, and Tusken Raider.

I've created a monster.

GM Sam 

A notice just posted that Sam Witwer will be coming to the Boston Comic Con in August.  I'm excited, but apprehensive.  Because of my peripheral contact with him on the Order 66 podcast, and meeting him once at DragonCon, there are times where my ego thinks I've got more of a relationship with him than I actually do.  "I really feel like he's a buddy!  We're both gamers, and Star Wars Nerds, and we've been in the same guilds together online!"  Pffffft!  Means exactly as much as the value of the webpage this is posting to.  Still, it will be cool to say "hi".  Maybe Erich and I can get him to do an interview for AWRI, assuming that's still alive by then.

I also don't want to come across as a complete psycho stalker (a.k.a. "A nutter").  There's a fine line there, and I'm very cautious about not crossing it. 

Eh, I over-think things too much.  He'll show up, we'll chat or we won't. BCC will be fun regardless.

Order 65

My Order 65 campaign had another session this past weekend.  Here the PCs were able to manipulate the senate into hearing charges against Chancellor Kenobi, charges that implicated him in the murder of Chancellor Amidala twenty years previous.  Kenobi was arrested, and his former padawans attempted to rescue him.  It was a vicious fight where the PCs faced off against an Enhanced Nemesis (Kenobi), and two regular Nemesis NPCs (Master Ahsoka Tano and Satine Naberrie/Leia).  I got to see just how painful Enhanced Nemesis characters are, and what someone can do with a Force Rating of 6.  I also saw how painful lightsabers can be; the only reason Kimber's Jedi Knight lived was because she went "Old Republic" and picked up some Heavy Battle Armor and Lucas rolled well enough on a Streetwise check to locate a Cortosis weave attachment.

Good times, good times.

Just a quick update for now.  This Thursday I hope to have the first of many PC stats for my GenCon Module.

And maybe March can finally be over.

Updating Every...uh...Month?

It’s been a frustrating few weeks.  I’ve been trying to get something up on the blog, but I feel like I’ve been conspired against by forces unknown.  Everything in my life has felt so busy, so time consuming.  But it really hasn’t.  What’s actually been going on is my usual track record of throwing all my effort and free time into the latest shinny thing to cross my path.  It’ll eat up all my free time as I want to advance and make progress.  When that shinny thing is a video game, everything else that doesn’t carry a tangible consequence tends to fall off the radar.

My Star Wars games get attention because every other Tuesday night five of my buddies are online waiting for me to start the Google

Hangout and run a game for a few hours.  Same thing every six weeks with my Order 65 game.

Every two-to-three weeks  GM Chris and Dave (along with a good portion of the listener base, apparently) wait my Fragments from the Rim segment and the font of wisdom that is Ji’em Fil.

There’s the Mechwarrior Online tournament I’m in, and the team I’m on that has practice Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  With a recent turn-over, I’ve bumped up to something of a veteran’s position and have become one of the Liaisons for the big tournament we’re in.

Then there’s the family and household obligations.  If it’s a tangible thing, like dishes, snow-covered driveways, or laundry it tends to get resolved more often than the intangibles, like spending time with the wife (which definitely carries consequences).

Work is work.  I suppose it should really be at the top of the list, since my paycheck theoretically allows for everything else to happen.

But beyond that, I’ve not been too great about management of my other interests.  I’m the new Executive Officer for the New England Garrison of the 501st Legion.  I’ve got the All Wings Report In podcast that needs to get a show out in March, because it took until February to get the January episode out (damn tech snafus).

AWRI is a big problem for me, because my erstwhile co-host remains erstwhile until April.  If he’s able to do the show again, I think it’ll get better.  Until then, it’s a waiting game.

CLONE WARS and REBELS

I’m pretty excited about the coming of two Star Wars offerings; the “final season/lost episodes” of The Clone Wars, and the news coming out about Star Wars Rebels.  The Clone Wars episodes are coming via Netflix on March 7.  I’m sure they’ll be available elsewhere, but I’ve got to try and get some Netflix access on the 8th (the 7th is my anniversary, see above for obligations to the wife).

Rebels looks to be a rompus good time with a bunch of new heroes that scream “We’re a PC party in an Edge of the Empire campaign”.  Hot twi’lek pilots, Jedi Cowboys, Street Urchin Force Sensitives, scrappy Mando punk-chicks, alien hired muscle, and a droid with a foul mouth bigger than Artoo’s.  All this and a return to the threat of the Empire and it’s faceless horde of Stormtroopers.

I’m hooked.  The summer premiere can’t happen soon enough.  Sadly, I don’t see a lot for new outfits for me from this show.  Not yet anyway,
I’m sure something will come along.

COSTUMES

If I can disconnect from Star Trek Online (easier now that the Anniversary event is over) I may finally be able to make some progress on costumes.  I think the wife finally figured out the issues with my Jedi robe; it was twice as wide as it should be.  Maybe a simple miscalculation when we cut it, or maybe it was given a generous amount of extra material for “gathering” at the neck and hood.  Either way, if I can get that done, maybe we can start working on getting my dad’s Obi Wan back into play (he lost a lot of weight lately and suddenly, the wrong way.  He’s doing well, now) or the Jedi Shadow.

If I can make it out of EVA foam, I want to get my Sith Acolyte started.  I’ve got a few sabers that are begging for some use and love, and would go well with the closest thing to a “generic Sith” the 501st Legion has.  I could make a unique one for Dark Empire but…eh, I don’t know.   Dark Empire is a good organization, to be sure, but right now my interests lie more in replicating existing costumes than making something new.

If I were making a sith costume for a LARP or something, that’d be different.

ORDER UP!

Six months; that’s the maximum amount of time I am giving myself to bring Order 65 to a close.  The PCs have discovered that there is a new Sith Empire, that they have Star Dreadnaughts and a Death Star, the help of the Mandalorian Death Watch, and that Chancellor Kenobi may or may not be a willing pawn in their schemes.  They also found that they now have help from Senator Organa’s secret alliance, access to the Katana Fleet, and to 16 million Clone Troopers looking for something to do after being discharged as a part of Kenobi’s military reforms.  The PCs now have to confront Kenobi, destroy a Death Star, and face the leaders of this Sith Empire.  That feels like at least three solid sessions.  Maybe four.

Either way, when Order 65 ends, Another Longshot truly begins.

REPLAYS FROM THE RIM

At the request of a few, I’m trying to figure out a way to get my Fragments episodes up on the web.  Either as an RSS feed or maybe just as a link to an audio file on Archive.org.  Might just be a limitation of Blogger, because I know Fiddleback is doing it with Skill Monkey.  I think he’s on wordpress, as is AWRI. I just dislike Wordpress’s interface.  Anyway, it’s something I’m working on and hope to have soon, so folks can just listen to the snippets of Fragments from the Order 66 Podcast, and not have to try to find it in a 3 hour episode if they want to listen to it for some reason.

TOPIC CRUNCH

I need to come up with something to write about here.  A costume project.  A supplement.  Campaign work.  Something.  If I have a reason to write and update here, then I’ll be more likely to stick with it and actually give you folks a reason to come back here every week or so.  I know I get pissed off when someone doesn’t update their blog or comic when they said they would, and I’m sure some of you are pretty disappointed with me too.  I’m open to suggestions.

Projection of Projects

I wonder at what point I should just change my release schedule to “Fridays”.  Probably never, as I like having Friday as a catch-up day.  Any later and I’m into the weekend and then WHO KNOWS where my schedule goes.

I suppose another reason why I haven’t been as hardcore to posting anything lately is that I simply haven’t been working on much of anything of late.  The holidays, while a lot of fun, really take up a lot of time.  It’s a natural pause for a breath of fresh air in the middle of the worst of the seasons.  It’s also a time to set your signs on where the coming year is going, and what you have to look forward to.

Hey, that’s what I could do; a 2014 Projection!

Q1: January – March, 2014

Much of this month will be split between wealth accumulation (annual bonus from work and tax returns) and spending of said funds for some fantastic adventures later in the year.  It will also be spent on a frelling boat. 

Right now, I’m setting up a party for Sterling Hershey’s Beyond the Rim adventure for Edge of the Empire.  My stepson bought it for me with the ulterior motive that I run a game for him to play in.  Four other players have been located, and characters are set.  It’s looking like it should be a good time.  We just have to figure out when it starts, as my stepson might be running in track-meets for the next several weeks (alternate on the relay team).

In February, I’m on vacation.  Folks are taking us on a cruise with them, hopefully.  Dad had an operation recently and there’s a question on whether or not he’ll be recovered in time to join us.  I’m hoping he will be, because it wouldn’t be the same without him on the boat. 

February marks the annual anniversary for Star Trek Online.  I’ve been playing that a lot recently, enough features and new content were added to make things interesting again.  Not sure how long I’ll be playing it, but I hope it will be entertaining while I’m there.

I'm also getting a  little bit of a bug to finally dive into STO's community created content generator; the Foundry.  Much like you could in City of Heroes, players can create their own Star Trek adventures and post them up for folks to experience.  A lot of it is reportedly crap.  Some of it is genius.  I'll be happy if I can write something that falls in the middle.  I need to play at least ten different Foundry missions (my own limit, not the game's) before I get an idea of what works, and what doesn't.  Then it's on to poking at the interface.  We'll see if that pans out while I have all this other crap I want to get done this year.

March is GamerNation Con in the DFW area of Texas!  …and I will not be going.  Because that weekend is also about the time for my 1^st anniversary of being married to the hottest chick I know.  I’m not missing my first anniversary for a gaming convection.  Third or seventh, maybe.  But not the first.  I wish the guys at D20 Radio nothing but success for their convention, and look forward to hopefully attending in the future (assuming they hold another one). 

I'm not sure if I'm marching in the South Boston St. Pats parade this year.  That weekend is the same weekend I was likely to be celebrating my anniversary with my wife (and the same weekend as GamerNationCon).  We'll have to see.

Sometime in this quarter is the start of the Marik Civil War (Season 3).   It's a fun Mechwarrior Online combat league where your unit's performance in best-of-five combats determines how the Civil War is going on a large map.  With the current absence of Community Warfare in MWO, this is a nice indicator of what it could feel like if the Devs get their acts in gear and get us Community Warfare sometime before 2015.  I'm the Tournament Liaison for the 1st Skye Jaegers of the Skye Rangers Brigade.  Basically I'm there to handle communication between us and our opponent for that round of combat, arranging when we are to meet up, and trying to help synch the drop (no private matchmaker yet, have to time it and hope the game matches the two teams up).

By the way, if anyone out there is looking for a tournament team for Mechwarrior Online, come look us up.  We're not the Steel Jaguar Regiment, but we don't do too bad either (good enough to be in the top-tier team bracket, but SJR and a couple other teams have a better Win/Loss ratio against us)

Quarter 2: April – June 2014

And so shall begin my last year as someone “in their thirties”.  I’d like to start it with some sort of party.  Not sure I’ll get the chance, but we’ll have to see.  I’m certainly planning on ending my last year in the thirties with a bang, hopefully drinking it up with my Rebel Legion and 501^st Legion cohorts out in Anaheim at next year’s Star Wars Celebration.

With any luck, I'll also get to start doing "All Wings Report In" podcasts with Erich again this month.  Filling both shoes is hard, and sucks.  I got burnt out doing ALL-STOP because of the work that was needed before and after each episode.

Somewhere in here, Age Of Rebellion should get released.  Not sure when yet, but assuming there are no weird production delays, it should be in April or May, instead of July like Edge of the Empire was.  I'm really looking forward to this book.  By far, my favorite era of Star Wars is the Rebellion Era.  It's the one I grew up in.  I just feel like all the stories in that era are told, even though I know that's not the case.  It'll be interesting to see if there's any more stories in there for me to find with this book, or if later this year FFG plans to have something tie in with the Star Wars REBELS cartoon.

In May, my brother gets married.  I'm the best man.  Not much to say here at this time, but it's of import so I'd better include it.

Quarter 3: July - September 2014

I'm looking forward to this quarter like no one's business.  This year I'm going to GenCon.  Funds have been set aside, plans for room and board have been made.  Super Secret Plans have been put into motion.  I have no clue what to expect.  I have no clue what I'm going to do, or play.  I know a couple events I need to hit, a few folks I want to meet, but beyond that GenCon 2014 is an open canvas of possibilities.  I will buy a damn copy of the Force and Destiny Beta if I have to ambush Sam Stewart and Andy Fisher with Legion back up.  I will game with GM Chris and GM Dave from the Order 66 podcast, and hopefully a lot more folks from Gamer Nation.  It had better be glorious, if only because I demand it.  I'm going to meet my goal of "GenCon before 40, or when I'm 40".  Celebration Anaheim kills me going when I'm 40, so this is it.

My big question will be "will I have enough money to really enjoy it".  We shall see.

In September, I will hopefully...HOPEFULLY...get my creative cohort back.  My good buddy Alex and his family are supposed to be coming back to New England this September, which will allow me to formally kick off my Another Longshot multi-group campaign.  Fingers crossed, buddy.

Quarter 4: October - December 2014

October brings the Woburn Halloween parade, and is the target goal for my father.  He wants to be ready to troop that parade, and in parade shape for it.  His Old Ben outfit needs to be in similar shape as well.  Good enough for the Legion, his current outfit is getting pretty worn out, and there was an unfortunate incident with his cloak that caused it to shrink from a great cloak to something slightly bigger than a hooded bathrobe.  We'll need to work on this throughout the year to get Ben ready for JoeBi-Wan to troop in.

This whole quarter has a lot of good events.  Woburn, Rhode Island Comic Con, Manchester Christmas Parade; gotta be ready.

And of course Thanksgiving, Christmas and we do it all again in a year.

So in all, it should be a good year.  Looking forward to a lot of it, and I hope to be able to bring you all along for the ride.

2013 Finale

Here we are, at the end of 2013 and the cusp of 2014.  We have a Government we dislike, a new Doctor Who, and a Hobbit movie that's about 80% new material.  This coming year we get the Age of Rebellion core-rulebook, several neat supplements that cover Corellia and Hired Guns, and an adventure that's "Ocean's 11 on Cloud City".  We also get the rough draft of official rules for Jedi Knights later this year with the Force and Destiny Beta. 

Will I be on-hand at GenCon for it's release?  Signs point to "no", but someone might kick the Magic-8 Ball and see if the prediction changes.

Until then, I've got some updates of my own to do on the Edge of the Jedi document.  I think I finally fixed the Twin Strike issue, thanks to some feedback from Dono.  I also decided to add in a couple house rules I'm using for Force Use and for "Kinetic Combat" with the Move power.  I also officially direct folks to Dono's Ways of the Force document for Healing and ideas for NPCs with his "Injure" power.

I also did some changes to Shien and Djem So.  I made mastery in them about to redirect damage back to the attacker for three Threats or one Despair, and had them both deal base weapon damage from the attacker's weapon instead of a flat out 10 damage.  I might bump it back up to 10 damage, since it has such a high requirement to activate, and it's not negating the damage the player takes, just sends a bunch of it back to the attacker.  And it's 25 XP into a secondary (or later) talent tree.  Actually, I think I will do that.

I love it when I game design mid-post.  Makes me look so erratic and unprofessional.  Oh wait...

I think my first post in 2014 will be the Version 1.03 rules for Edge of the Jedi.  Stay tuned.

Costuming

One of my presents from the Wife was a commitment to have the Jedi Shadow finished by the end of February.  The costume's been so close to done for so long, it's just fallen by the wayside with all the crap that's gone on in my home this past year (sadly that statement is more literal than I'd like).  That being said, I think we decided a whole revamp on the skirt is needed.  I'll want to save as much of the pain-in-the-ass work as much as possible, like the large-runed bottom skirt, but some of the upper layers will need re-doing.

I've noticed that the New England Garrison needs more red sabers.  More Darths.  We have Vader and Maul, and a very good Nihilus.  Occasionally we see a Revan.  But we have a ton of Jedi in Alderaan base, and our parades will include several of them.  Occasionally, Nihilus or Maul will wade into them during a parade and do a little scripted duel.  I think it would be awesome to have more of that, and that means more Darths.

I've been all about doing Darth Malgus for years now, even went so far as to pick up Ultrasaber's interpretation of his lightsaber.  There's a guy out there I'm following who's going to start doing pieces of his costume "soon".  Do I wait?  Do I start working on something else?  I'd love to do Darth Adraas, it's a sick look.  Something like "Renaissance Iron Man meets Munch's The Scream".  It's a solid look for a Sith, and it's even a solid masked outfit.  Additionally, if I am able to Malgus later, I can repaint Adaraas to be the generic "TOR Jedi Knight", since they use the same armor (only the handplates are different).

I've got a lead on a suit of this TOR Jedi/Sith Armor, and several people out there are making the mask.  Tempting.  Very tempting.

We'll have to see.

Back on the Air

Thanks to some huge help from Mr. Dan Decker of Echo Base, the All Wings Report In podcast is back on the air.  It's crude, a little rough, and doesn't do the job well as nearly as it should thanks to the absence of my usual wingman, Erich, but at least it's an episode.

Not sure when the next one will be, but I hope Erich will be back sooner rather than later.  The show suffers without him.  I'm just going to do what I can to keep it going until he's able to get back into formation...

Closing Time

I think that's going to do it for this post, and for this year.  Thanks again for everyone who's subscribed, and who visits this page from my links.  Hopefully I'll have many more posts filled with useful (or at least interesting) tid-bits in 2014!

Reapercon 2013

For my birthday, I took a trip to Denton, Texas to visit the offices and gaming store for Reaper Miniatures.  Denton is the backyard for GM Dave and GM Chris, hosts of the Order 66 Podcast.  For the past few years, D20 Radio has flooded that convention running games and having a grand time with the folks from Reaper.  Many listeners as well as the folks from Chris's various Star Wars games have some to Reaper and made it a sort of unofficial "D20 Radio Con".

At Celebration VI this past year, I got to hang with Chris Bradshaw (a.k.a.GM Chance) from D20 Radio.  We got him and his Republic Commando spot-approvals so he could be in the big photo-shoot with the 501st Legion.  While talking about various other conventions, and he invited me out to Denton for Reapercon.  I'd wanted to go since I heard about it when I first started listening to the network, and figured it would be a cheaper con to see the D20 Radio folks at than going to GenCon, so the plan started.

Around about November another plan was put in motion too, but I'll go into that later.

At the Airport

I left on my birthday; Thursday, April 18.  Getting off the Logan express shuttle with my suitcase, computer backpack, and duffel bag.  The suitcase got checked, which contained clothing for 5 days and my Jedi Knight outfit.  Also crammed in there is my 24" short-blade for my lightsaber.  The lightsaber itself was in the duffel bag; I didn't trust it going through checked baggage screening and it not getting damaged by TSA agents.  This was 3 days after the Boston Marathon bombings; if I'm a TSA agent and I see a bag go by with a metal cylinder with wires in it, I'm going to search that bag.  Now I've got some TSA agent showing all his buddies the lightsaber he found in some nerd's suitcase, and blinding his buddies with the high-power blade-LED because they don't understand how bright Rebel Star LEDs can be.

So I've got it in my duffel and I get up to the first person at Security; the woman who checks boarding passes and licenses.  I let her know I'm a Star Wars costumer, on my way to a gaming convention in Texas, and I have a replica lightsaber in my bag and want to declare it.  Explaining that it's a 16" long metal tube, she gets an odd look of "that could be used as a weapon" across her face.  I suppose it could be, because that's exactly what I want to do with my custom and very expensive lightsaber prop; bludgeon some stewardess and try to take over an AirBus A320 with it.  Maybe I could blind the pilot when he looks through that peephole on the cockpit door.

She asks me to place it in the bin on the conveyor, and tell the next TSA agent about it.  They might want me to check it with my luggage. I shrug, and I get to the next guy, an older gentleman with a blue-collar look about him (a little rugged, a little surly, but mostly business).  I let him know about the lightsaber, and my travel plans.  He looks at it, ponders for a moment, and then says the Supervisor should probably take a look at it.  I head through the body-scan machine, and the supervisor comes over.

The supervisor looked about my age, and heads over to the x-ray viewer for the conveyor.  I can tell exactly when my tray passes by when his eyebrows pop up and he get's a small smirk on his face.  The tray comes out, and he asks me to get my other belongings and come over to him when I'm done.  "Take your time!" he says.  He heads to a test counter, and I get my stuff and go over to him.  By then three other TSA guys are standing there and a fourth is called over "Dude, you're gonna love this, get over here."  After a brief period of several exclamations of "DOOD!" and "Sweet!", the quick demonstration of the lights and sounds of my saber, and the cursory confirmation that there are no explosives in it, I'm allowed to move on with the saber in my carry-on.

Out of Service (i.e. "Broken Plane")

My flight was supposed to leave at 1:05.  The plan was to arrive at 4:30, get a quick bite, and head right to Reaper to play in a Star Wars game run by GM Chris.  At noon, we were informed our flight was delayed.  At 1pm, we were told that our original plane was taken "Out of Service" and a new plane was on it's way from Orlando.  It wasn't going to arrive until 2:45.  Figure at least a half hour for it to deplane, load up our luggage and passengers, and get moving.


Even the President is delaying my departure...


Oh...and we had the announcer come on, asking for someone to please claim a black backpack that was left at the counter.  THAT request got everyones attention.  Thankfully, a nice lady did.  Swiftly.

I got to Dallas at 7ish.  Went right to GM Chance's place and got settled in.  GM Chris, his wife Krista, and GM Dave showed up soon after and started pulling out Edge of the Empire books.  I ended my birthday hanging with the folks from D20 Radio, playing Star Wars.

Gotta admit, only one way the day could have ended better, but sadly the wife was at home...

At the Con



The non-Star Wars game I played: Warlords In Wonderland

I have to say if you're looking for a great little gaming convention to go to, Reapercon 2013 is it.  I've been to some of the bigger conventions, like Origins, many times.  Reapercon is a fun little con of a few hundred attendees, and has a real family feel to it.  It helps that a good number of D20 Radio folks are there so it feels like you're coming home to old friends.

I got to play GM Chris's new Convention Module Series, Enemy of my Enemy.  It's actually available for download on the D20 Radio website.  Any of my PCs who want to play it should probably stay away, but for folks who want to run it go and give it a read.  Maps used are available from Chris West's Maps of Mastery site, or you can use a white board to reproduce or your imagination.  I do like Chris West's maps, tho.  They're pretty.


GM Chris runs a mean game, and has a snazzy hat!


As a review, Enemy of my Enemy is a wonderful tale of mystery, adventure, and difficult moral choices.  Don't worry if your character doesn't have a skillset for combat (assuming you use the pre-gen characters).  Look at what you're good at, then look at the environment to see how you can contribute to the encounter.  You get XP for survival, not for opponents defeated.  I got to play Tyrix the Gand, who had disgraced himself in the eyes of his society so he only referred to himself as "Gand" (it's established Star Wars canon; look it up).  A tech and slicing god, I was searching for computer terminals and machines to play with in every situation.

Reapercon 2013 represents the first time I've been able to play in an Edge of the Empire game.  It's also the first time I've been able to play in a Star Wars game since my brother failed to finish his Dawn of Defiance* module series.  It's funny, I found myself willing to skip right into danger, and where I thought the Game Master expected the module to go.  Maybe I've spent too many years as one myself.  I got a sense of where we needed to go to continue the adventure.  I could see some players at the table really getting into the persona they perceived for their character to have, but I found myself looking at the game going "what actions move the plot along" and trying to figure out how to get there.  Maybe that hurt my character's role playing, but it kept the game moving.

* - totally taking shots at my brother for that; he earned it...

Friends of the Legions

Back at Celebration VI, I met Chris Bradshaw from the D20 Radio network and became fast friends.  We made idle plans for me to come out to Reapercon the next year (because GenCon was likely off the table).  Sometime around October I was on the D20 Radio forums, and saw Zrissa's post about Jon Stevens being inducted to the Rebel Legion as a Friend of the Legion.  Jon wrote material for two of the Saga Edition books.  Thinking things over, I looked at all the work GM Chris and GM Dave have done with the Order 66 podcast, and how the Gamer Nation really flourished under their banner.  Checking the Legion rosters, other podcasts have been inducted as Friends of the Legion (since Chris and Dave haven't worked directly on a Star Wars product, they would be eligible as "Friends of" not "Honorary Members"). 

A plan was put in motion.  A petition was sent to the Command Staff of the Rebel Legion, and to the 501st Legion founder Albin Johnson to approve the induction of Chris and Dave into the Legions.  The requests were approved, and the plans for the ceremony were put into motion.  While GenCon might be a large venue for an induction, I was going to be at Reapercon.  Bradshaw would be there, so there would at least be one other member of the Legion(s) in attendance.

There was a period of nail-biting after I booked my airfare and con ticket that Dave wasn't going to be at Reapercon this year.  Thankfully, the trip he was planning was delayed a month and he would be in attendance. 

After several days of hanging with the Boys and the other folks from D20 Radio, Bradshaw and
I surprised Chris and Dave mid-live-broadcast by excusing ourselves and returning a while later in full costume, presenting the induction awards to them live on the air.  Sadly, JustinTV has since dropped the visual recording (possibly to return in 14 months) and the audio from the episode was a little tough to listen to .  It's one of the many hazards of recording with a different computer, like a laptop; it likes to be "helpful" when you plug in cameras and records off the camera mic instead of the 4 good-quality microphones.

Transparent Plaque Fail

At any rate, mission accomplished, GMs humbled and giddy all at once, and forever supported by the 501st and Rebel Legions.

Aftermath

Given the time and opportunity (and funds), I will return to Reapercon sometime in the future.  Maybe not next year, maybe not the year after, but soon.  I'll bring a game to run, or run one of Chris's modules.  And it will be awesome, because I'll be hanging out with friends from D20 Radio and Gamer Nation.

Next week, I'm thinking of returning to the subject of gaming.  Star Wars Gaming.  I think I've got an interesting exercise ahead of me and need to get it going.

Until then, be safe everyone.

Chillin' at Reaper, 2013

Clones, Clovers, and Costumes

It's Thursday, so it must be time for another update to the "Fragments from the Rim" blog.  Much like last week, this week is going to be a varied discussion topic.  I'll be jumping from subject to subject, interest to interest; try to keep up.

One Sore Trooper

The Rebel Legion and 501st Legion prepare to take on Southie

I'd like to say that my sore back and legs are from the monumental troop that is the annual South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade, but I'm sure that digging out my driveway from another foot of snow on Tuesday is a large contributor as well. 

This year's St. Pats parade with the Rebel Legion and 501st was much different from last year.  In 2012 we had temperatures in the 60s, little police presence that I noticed, and large horse droppings to dodge for most of the route.  This year, we had temperatures in the 30s, a large police presence, and all the horse droppings were pretty well scooped (or at least given a good try).  We had more to fear from South Boston's lack of road maintenance than Boston's Finest Pony Patrol; seriously, some of those potholes could have eaten a jawa (and we had a few marching in the parade!)

The one part of the parade that I dislike the most are the drunks.  They're everywhere, and all ages.  They all want to see "Daath Vayda!" and ask "Wheah's Chewie!?".  They want us to pretty much stop the parade so they can get their drunken duck-face photos with a stormtrooper or a rebel pilot.  We try to tell our people to "stay in formation" and keep marching, and only tempt fate to walk the crowds when we've stopped, but some of our number just didn't care for that, and would constantly get left behind as we marched on without them.  I nearly ran over one of our members several times because she would stop short and pose.  This is the one time of the year that the TV "reality" show Southie Rules is accurate; it's the one time when many in South Boston actually do act like the moronic pricks that show portrays folks from Southie to be. 

Even so, the main reason we were there, the kids, loved us.  We got them jumping out of their chairs and off the curb to see us.  They lit up when we came into view, and went nuts for us as we passed.  I love that part of the parade, and as long as those kids are there and respond like that, I'll keep coming back year after year.

Rites of Passage

The St. Patrick's Day Parade holds another place in the hearts of the New England contingent of Star Wars Costumers.  For years, the mentality has been "you haven't trooped until you troop St. Pats".  It's four miles in weather that could be sunny and warm one year, to near blizzard conditions the next.  The only time we haven't trooped it was the year it rained.  A lot.  Vader doesn't react well to heavy rainfall, neither does any other costume.  You're in-costume from 11am to about 4pm.  That's a long time to be in armor, without many chances to even take off your helmet.  You come out of St. Pats appreciating the Library events, where you stand around in armor.  Stadium events where you can pose for 20 minutes and then take a break for another 20.  Heck, even other parades later in the year where you think "Hey, it's 45 degrees out, and only a mile and a half long.  With a slight drizzle.  This is nothing."

Your armor can take a lot of abuse during St. Pats.  Aside from the drunks who try to take home souvenir shoulder bells and thermal detonators, marching four miles can put stress on seams and edges of armor.  My Commander Fil suit got some extensive repirs after Celebration VI last year, but looking at the armor after the parade has me worried.  I'm missing chips from the shin-guards.  My thigh plates are missing pieces too.  The cod and butt plates are trying to stay together along their seam, but storing them the way I have been has not worked well.  I need to permanently afix the two together, since that's how they're stored.

They're made of HIPS (High-Impact Polystyrene), as opposed to ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene).  What's the difference?  To my understanding; detail.  HIPS holds detail a lot easier and better when used in a vaccuform machine.  ABS is a bit stronger, but shows less detail off the mold.  Having made a clone with each type, I can say I was more pleased with the look of the HIPS over the ABS.  It was easier to work with too.  The issue is that the HIPS is starting to wear out, and break down.  Fil is two years old now, and may need replacement parts soon.  Thankfully, the molds are still being used to make suits, so matching replacements might be available.  It's just that it means more money into the suit.

A Softer Choice

I really need to make a Jedi.

I know, I have a SWOTOR Jedi Shadow in the works, but the writing on the wall tells me that costume is likely to sit in it's current state for a while.  In the meantime, I have several items that work for a generic Jedi:

"Preacher" Boots
Jedi often preach, right?

• A pair of boots that Rebel Legion costume judges think will be fine for a more traditional Jedi
• A pair of khaki pants that I bought specifically to use for a generic Jedi
• Jedi-style undertunic from a LARP costume
• Jedi belt that has been stripped of weatherproofing and is ready for dye to match the shade of the boots more closely (was a more natural-leather color)
• A rack of lightsabers begging to be used for more than just wall art.

The only parts I'm missing for generic Jedi approval in the Rebel Legion is the outer tunic, tabards, obi, and belt accessories (pouches, food capsules, and/or Jedi Communicator).  Theoretically the costume parts of that could be done in a weekend; I'd just have to find the cloth to do it.  The trick is finding it in the color I want.  I'm thinking of a forest green-to-olive shade for the outer tunic, and tan tabards and obi.  I just need to find the fabric. 

Oh, and room in my house to work on it.  That would be spiffy too. 

All Wings Report In

So Erich Shafer and I have been chugging right along with the official Rebel Legion Podcast, All Wings Report In. Seriously, if you're into the Rebel Legion or Star Wars costuming at all, I highly recommend giving it a listen.  You not only get to hear about the Rebel Legion and what we're doing, but we've also started getting more "tips and tricks" segments into the show.  Also, we occasionally get to do interviews with folks in the Star Wars family, like the one we just had with Dee Bradley Baker.  Dee is the voice of the Clones for the entire run of The Clone Wars, and it was a privilege to talk to him the other day.  We split it off from the main episode run, so you can grab the 13 minute interview on it's own if you just want to listen to that.

Otherwise, the show seems to be going well, has a good following, and is continuing to evolve and grow.  Now if only some other folks from the Clone Wars would respond to our interview requests...

Flashy Build: Phase Six - Payoff

It's been an interesting few weeks around the DarthGM homestead when it comes to Flashy.

After three rounds of priming and sanding, Flashy was ready to mold.  You all saw what state he was in last week.  This week, the plan was to use some mold-release on the first half and pour the second half of the mold.  So Sunday night I sprayed it, mixed 3 starter kits of Moldstar 16, and let it "bake" for a half hour.

It seemed to be ready...

 The intention was to pull off the sides of the mold and be able to just pull the mold into it's two sections.  Instead, I got this.

 

...a nice brick of blue rubber, with my master encased within.  The coating of Mold Release failed.  Completely.  Maybe it was too warm, maybe I didn't use enough.  Who knows.  Who cares!  After going to town on it with my box-cutter, I was able to sever the mold in half and remove Flashy.

Sadly, all my guide keys were gone.  The mold was in rough shape.  The master broke off one of it's details.  I was disappointed, and thought that I'd just blown a couple hundred bucks worth of chemicals with nothing to show for it.

So tonight I invited over Erich, one of my colleagues in the 501st/Rebel Legion, and we tried to save the mold.  After three attempts, the cutting of a few more channels in the rubber to let air out, and the construction of a wooden shell to go around the gun to keep it from being squished in key points, we ended up with this.

She may not look like much, but after a few passes with an x-acto knife, we got something else.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Flashy-Version 1.0"

 I had to trim away a lot of flash (ba-dum dum), and sliced my pinky open pretty well while doing it, but I think it looks pretty good, and pretty workable.

This build has been a real learning experience, and I'm not just saying that to sound wise, or to sound like an after school special (do they even have those anymore?)

I got really discouraged yesterday after all the failures with the mold.  I want to be good at it, and I want to be good at it now.  I need to accept that things aren't always going to work out how I want them too, no matter how badly I want them to.  Some things takes time, and practice, and you're going to fail along the way, or stumble, and it's important to learn from failure and pick yourself up when you trip, because you may still make it to where you were going.

This is the first time I'd ever done something like this, and I can tell you it won't be the last.  I'll probably do a Flashy 2.0 at some point, incorporating the knowledge of what I've done on this build into the next, and improving it.

My second suit of armor was better than my first, and my third was better than my second.  Practice, experience, and patience are hallmarks of this hobby.  I need to remember that, and enjoy the process as much as the product.

But man, when the product works, even partially, it's really neat.

I likely need a night with her and a dremmel before working on her apperance, but all and all I'm happy with my first pull. Now it's on to cleaning up the pull, detailing, and painting.  And that's something I have experience with.

Big thanks to Erich Schafer for the hands on help, and Brian "stormtrooperguy" Anderson for the inspiration and words of advice.