I don’t think I like the idea of my father getting older any more than he does. But I also don’t think anyone looking at him would peg him for 65. Every time I see him, he seems to have a complaint about how he can’t do the things he used to without a fair amount of soreness or regret the next day. That is to say that he still DOES all the things he used to. He just feels it the day after and he doesn’t seem to understand why. My brother and I sometimes are flabbergasted that he’s so unaware of his age.

My father, age 10, with his father in Hamburg. Circa 1954

He still climbs trees, carries three times his weight into his attic, builds and dismantles anything in or around the house, and gardens. It guess it just never occurs to him that at his age, he should probably cut some of these things out of his life, or at least be cognizant of that fact that he can’t accomplish them anymore with the ease of a 30 year old.

One of his biggest complaints is that his skin is thinning in certain places, specifically on the top of his hands. Even the tiniest of workshop mishaps can require him to fetch a band-aid. He’ll show me and make a face, disappointed seemingly that he can’t simply thicken his own skin out of sheer willpower.

His age has not robbed him of his love for Science Fiction (old and new), old westerns, Xena Warrior Princess, really bad jokes, crossword puzzles in both English and German, model HO scale trains, nor The World of Warcraft. We just bought him an iPhone and he’s handling it with the ease of a thirteen year old.

Which is all a long way of saying that at 65, my dad can still beat the shit out of your dad.

Happy Birthday, Papa!

Turns out that Reaper HQ is not that far from where I live now. It’s a stone’s toss from where I attended University and Kit was kind enough to invite me out for a tour of the shop.

Reaper does everything on site, from sculpting the minis, to casting them in pewter, to sorting, packaging, and shipping out internet orders. They make their own paints on-site (after working with Sherman Williams to make the best paint for pewter), as well as brushes and accessories. It’s an amazing operation that’s surprisingly run by fewer people than I thought. They run a tight ship.

In the front of the warehouse is the Asylum shop, a new operation they opened up. Every single mini and accessory that Reaper makes is on the shelves. We were able to not only pick out minis that matched our characters, but accessories like weapon, instrument and even a hat pack. A little snip, some zap-a-gap and you got a new weapon in your dwarf thief’s hand.

One of the Reaper employees went above and beyond to mod-up a couple minis for us, adding a hat to Angela’s gnome bard, and transforming an iron golem into Brian’s battle-axe wielding Warforged Fighter.

My brother is insanely good at this.

We walked out of there with a bunch of stuff that’s made for a wonderful fourth of July painting miniatures. Everyone gave it a shot, even Kris, Ashley, Regean and Angela. We all had a great time. Everyone needs to check out Reapermini.com if you’re interested in this stuff. And if you’re in the area, head over to Denton and check out the Asylum shop. They have painting club on Saturdays.

I will say now, after painting my 4th mini (my dwarf thief Fargrim Sootfoot), that I’ve learned a couple things since my first go at this:

1) The proper tools are ESSENTIAL. Get an assortment of brushes, ceramic palettes, clippers, exacto knives, zap-a-gap glue, sculpty, various base flocking stuff… it’s not as expensive as I thought it would be.

2) Invest in the Reaper paints. I love them. They made a huge difference.

3) Follow the steps and don’t skip ahead. Remove flashing, attach extra parts, prime it, then paint it. Dark first then highlight. Add wash, then when you’re done, flock.

4) Be patient and TAKE…YOUR…TIME. You can rush it and be disappointed or you can slow down and say “I put 30 hours into this.” Fargrim took about 9 hours. It was like time travel. I started to paint, then suddenly it was 9 hours later and my back and shoulders really hurt.

Yeah, I like Dwarves

Relic looks imposing even from behind. Hey-o!

Today’s comic strip was inspired by suggestions given during our live broadcast. Big thanks to all the PvP readers who participated in this group effort. It was fun guys, let’s do it again soon!