Have paint, will travel

Just wanted to share with you all my latest mobile painting station and something I acquired as a Christmas gift.

You may remember these Sterlite containers from my mobile painting last year.

One for figures and one for paints and brushes.

 Following the debacle of the figure container last year, I tried a new plan. I had bought a few foam cushion inserts from the craft store. Initially I was going to carve voids out of a 2" section, but could not find the long snap blade razor I had, nor could I find one to buy. I had also bought a 1" cushion, so I put two chunks of that inside.

22 goblins and 1 half orc

 I was able to fit 23 figures in there and they are held completely immobile when the lid is latched.

For the paints, I put most of them in ziploc bags but also a few in a smaller container that I had purchased for the wet palette mark 2.

Paints, Brushes and magnifier light.

In this last picture you can see the contents of the last plastic container. You can also see that I transferred several of my craft paints into the 15mL squeeze bottles.

Contents of the brush box.

 The pictured brushes were utter crap. I used them to base coat goblin flesh, but they were a royal pain.

I asked for some Reaper Learn to Paint kits for Christmas and received the Intermediate Flesh Tones. I was also given Basic Armor ad Fur, but it didn't make it due to the holiday shipping delays.

 I'll do an unboxing when I get it back at home. We shipped it with the kids presents to not have so much to bring on the plane.

And finally, my son's birthday is coming up and he wanted to build his own plane model. He will be turning 8 and I thought a snap tite model was just the ticket. We initially were going to buy an F-15 Eagle, but the boxes were dented so a quick rummage on the shelf found this A-10 hidden away. I'll be sure to post the lad's progress.

Also pictured are some more crap hobby brushes. These are marginally more useful than the others.

I hope to have a year end review tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Hi All,

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, or whatever year end holidays you observe.

I will be gorging myself on too much food as we celebrate with my family and my wife's family together down in Stockton, CA. I hope you get most of what you wished for and are able to enjoy this time with family. I know I will.

And now for some thematically appropriate scantily clad women.

Analogue Painting Challenge, First Blood

Hi All,

I finally got something finished and entered into the Painting Challenge over at Analogue Hobbies.

Here is what I wrote for my entry:

"For my entry into this weeks themed challenge I give you the Ordine Posta Reiciendis. Brothers Postumus, Raimundus, Ricardus, Franciscus, Leopoldus Maximus, Sergius, Ioannes and Johannes. (Apologies to Dave and Smiffy, I only had 8 figures). The Bishop has been after them as they spend more time transcribing the Atque Ius Belli rather than the churches teachings.

These 8 1/72 (20mm) monks are from the Pegasus set 7051, California Mission Indians. I thought they would be useful for everything from Dark Ages, Fantasy to the Old West.

I chose to do them up as Franciscans because, to me, they are the most monkish looking. My main deviation from reality was the gold crosses. I just wanted to add a little more contrast to the figures.

The techniques used were very simple color blocking with highlights added to the robe folds, then washes applied. Time was my main enemy on these as I was simultaneously working on another unit, which I failed to finish. Strong language and a hair dryer were utilized as I worked down to the last minute before leaving for the airport. Had I more time I would have done a tad more highlighting and dry brushing. While I'm not totally happy, I am glad that I have another 8 figures to call done."

I'm sorry about the depth of field on these. As I mentioned I was perilously close to being left behind for our holiday trip and snapped these pictures just before putting on my coat. I had used the portrait setting on my camera, but realize now I should have used landscape. If I was doing atmospherics I would go with the macro (flower) setting. Someday I'll learn how to do it all manually.

The main wash I used was my homemade Burnt Umber on the robes. I think it worked pretty well but I see my coverage wasn't perfect. I used the Citadel Flesh wash on the skin and that caused the most salty language. I seem to have real difficulty applying that brand with a consistency that I like.

Hopefully Posties rejects will like what I've done. I figure it could earn me either a pint or a kick in the crackers should we ever meet face to face. I had some ideas about who was who but they got a tad randomized in my rush to photograph them.

With the theme bonus I earned a whopping 82 points towards my goal of 1000. It feels good to have the first entry in.

Dice Games

Hi All,

  Had a nice visit with my cousin and her family and got in some rousing games of Zombie Dice and Cthulhu dice. Both of these games come from Steve Jackson Games and I have mentioned them before.

We have played Zombie Dice before at home and this time it was with a fairly large group. I think it was 8 people. To me this is a little too large as it slows down the game a tad. Still fun, just not as quick.

From zombiedice.sjgames.com

Cthulhu Dice, however, really shined. My son and I had tried to play just the two of us and it was meh. With a group of people at a party it is a ton of fun. My son also rigorously enforced the house rule of flipping your lip with your finger and gibbering when you lose your sanity. Good wholesome family fun with the Elder gods. We had several games where only Cthulhu won, and I suspect my brother's girlfriend may be an actual cultist.

From cthulhudice.sjgames.com

Watch out for my Analogue Hobbies painting challenge entry tomorrow.

Holidays have begun.

Hi All,

Well I successfully finished my first entry into the challenge before boarding the plane and am now enjoying the holidays with my family. I sent my email to Curt today for the themed challenge tomorrow, so it will be a couple of days before I can post it here. I'll save my commentary until then.

As an aside, I noticed that I've been getting a few hits for people looking for "tits" or "big boobs". All I can say is welcome to the blog and I hope you aren't too disappointed.

And as for pictures of my figures. Please be patient, they're coming. For now I'll leave you with a picture of my 1000 point Ninja Army at night.

:p

Followers, Challenge progress and Holiday Games

Hi All,

I have forgotten to welcome some new followers to the blog, so today I'll start with that.

Welcome to:

1/72 Figures collect & paint from the blog Collect & Paint Figures 1:72 has some very nice Zvezda Russian Knights on the top post right now.

Millsy, I know I know you from somewhere but you don't have a link in your friend connect. So please let me know what your blog is and I'll post a link. Is from the blog Cannister & Grape and a fellow challenge member.

Legion games, ditto. I've seen your avatar around but can't recall your blog.

Challenge Progress:

It's all a blur. What is this day 4? I've been slogging through my feed reader, but can't seem to get closer than a day behind on reading. I am going ahead and reading Analogue Hobbies to try and stay up to date on the entries, but it's a bit of a distraction.

So what have I done? Well on Saturday, my last day to prep, I spent most of the day working on the holiday calendar I mentioned.

Some interesting travel plans in March.

It came out fine and I've already gotten it back form the printers but it killed my chances of prepping all my models for the challenge. I did, however, earn enough brownie points that I was allowed to paint most of the day Sunday. Since I was banned from San Soo by SWMBO I tried to put my time to good use. So 18 figures based, 8 also base coated.

Monday flesh om the 8 and metal on the 10 blocked in. Tuesday, fiddly bits on the 8 blocked in, I did something on the 10 but I can't remember. Also started cleaning up the Post Apocalypse themed minis. Had the usual inner dialog. "Is that flash or a weapon?" "Grow a pair and cut it!" (snip) "Aww crap it's a weapon!" (look at reference photos online) "Phew, it's not a weapon." "Cut off the other one you wuss!"

Wednesday (today), blocking in flesh on the 10 figures and finished clean up of the Post Apoc figures. I am realizing that I have to get it in gear to have these ready before I leave for Holiday on Friday night.

You may have noticed that  I did not give you pictures of my work in progress. I am trying to let Curt be the first to unveil these, so I don't want to spoil it. For these ones I also haven't been taking progress photos. (Maybe I should.)

We have also been allowed to open Eldritch Horror as an early Christmas present. So far it has been difficult. As usual a giant board and a ton of cards and pieces make it a little unwieldy. We are close to either being devoured by Azathoth or winning the game.

I've also got my brother tapped for our annual game play extraveganza. I'm going to bring Death Angel and ATZ-FFO and play with the City deck and Zombies game pieces. I'm also try to decide if I want to throw in Swordplay and some paper figures. I also have to pack figures and paints etc so I can keep up with the challenge. Man am I behind.

I almost forgot. My prize from Stefan of Monty's Caravan arrived on Monday. Woohoo, an early Christmas!

1000 points! (What have I done?)

Hi All,

  Well I'm going to commit to 1000 points for the painting challenge. I made a chart, printed out a four month calendar and started looking at what I had to paint. What's sad is that I am nowhere near painting all of my old stuff, let alone tapping into as much of the new stuff as I fantasized about.

I have put up a new page with a chart detailing my painting list and the points I project to receive for each completed unit. You will note that some of the figures are annotated as started. Before you cry foul, bear with me. I am including these figures in the tally because they are part of how I originally envisioned said units when I created them all those years ago. I had asked Curt a series of questions and shown him a picture of some semi completed figures as an example of ones I would not consider for the challenge. He said that the main point of the challenge was to have fun and get things done and that he would consider started figures at a penalty. So with that in mind I decided to include these two at a possible 1 point a piece. Perhaps they are too painted for even that, but no matter they are what they are. My intention is to take a start picture of each unit and send it along with my entry photos, as well as post it on my blog when I amaze you with my painting skill ;). I hope that fellow challenge members will trust me and Curt's final judgement on the matter.

Here is a sneak peak:

Themed figures

Entry figures

Old lead (and plastic) for Oldhammer

I also did receive one good piece of news from the doctor. My bi-annual chest x-ray showed no more stuff in my lung. So almost one year from learning of my contracting Valley Fever I appear to be in the clear. I count myself fortunate in that regard.

And while it may technically be safe for work, I suspect you would have to go through some sensitivity training were you caught looking at this video of the lovely Ashley Salazar.

Long time, no update

My last post was over a week ago, but it feels like ages. I wish I could say I've been productive, but I find myself flailing about more than usual as I try to wrap up various time sensitive year end projects.

These include:

• Making a calendar with pictures of the kids to give to family members
• Printing out mailing labels for the annual Holiday cards
• Going through the thousands of pictures from the Flag football season to get a few good ones
• Putting up the Christmas decorations

The calendar I've been making since not long after my daughter was born. Initially it was meant to be something mainly for my wife's grandmother and to satisfy my nerdy impulse to make a calendar that had all the Chinese lunar dates and holidays on it. I began to lose interest in doing it several years ago, but apparently no one in the family buys calendars any more. I've since pared it down a bit by only including the major holidays and luni-solar events, and I send it out for printing instead of doing it myself. The rest is fairly mundane and self explanatory.

I quickly lost my painting mojo with what felt like a whirlwind of activity. Really it was only a resumption of normal activity. School and extra curricular. So I have nothing to show for prep on the challenge or for the game I must play before going on holidays.

One thing I did do, however, was re-install vassal on my new Surface Pro 2. The Surface is Microsoft's latest tablet PC running Windows 8.1 and so far I have been enjoying it. Thus far I have used it for just about everything that I was using my 15.6" ASUS laptop annd my Kindle Fire for. I have GIMP installed and Netflix and Kindle for PC. I think I would agree with reviews that it is a tad unwieldy as a tablet, but it is an extremely convenient laptop.

But I digress. I put Vassal on there to see about playing games on it over the holidays. I may have mentioned before that I want to play out a sort of faux Great Patriotic War campaign using Blitzkrieg for strategic movement and play out the combats using Memoir '44, or rather M'44 stuff with Bob Corderey's latest rules. But I need to add stuff onto the modules so we shall see how that works.

Time to think about projects and how to achieve them. You also may have noticed, should you look at such things, that I've updated the games played to show a few games of Zombie Dice (very fun) and that last Rally Round the King (RRtK) battle I played back in October(?).

***

I started writing this over the weekend and it felt a bit rambling. I was going to rewrite it and try to make it coherent but in the meantime I've had a bit of bad news. I've somehow given myself hematuria. It's not painful but I wouldn't look it up if you are squeamish. I went for a run and when I got home experienced the symptoms, which quite frankly freaked me out. Apparently this can happen to long distance runners, which I don't consider myself. There is some evidence of kidney damage and perhaps muscle involvement, so it's not of the garden variety. So once again no exercise and a bunch of tests. The one bright side is I saw a new doctor at the practice and she is quite young and attractive.

Willpower ... and lack thereof

Hi All,

Well I've managed to remain strong in one aspect, I have resisted the very strong temptation to buy more figures. I've made the conscious decision to get cracking on that old Citadel lead, much of which is even primed, instead of buying a whole bunch of stuff and painting that. The only things I plan on buying are the entry figure for the challenge and some bases for the Conquest Normans I won from Mike at Trouble at T'Mill. Why? Because I'm going to use them for Oldhammer, silly.

As for board games though, I have shown the exact opposite of willpower. In my defense I had a 30% off coupon to Barnes & Noble and they were having a buy one get one 50% sale on games this weekend. So I got Axis & Allies 1941, Munchkin Deluxe and Munchkin Unnatural Axe. In addition I got 10% off each game for being a member. I rationalize these as sort of also being presents for the kids who like to play games. Sort of like Homer buying Marge a bowling ball for their anniversary.

Then in the mail today I received a catalog from Fantasy Flight. So much for pretense. They are having a sale until December 9th on select titles here. Age of Conan, which I bought last year (and still haven't played), is $25 and Fortress America, which I played with a friend in the 80's, is also $25. But the game that really caught my eye is Eldritch Horror.

I also haven't done any painting in a couple of days, but I did wash up some plastic zombies and survivors that are ~45mm. Sorry Curt, I'm sure you'll figure out how to score that.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I've got a lot of distractions and in-laws looking over my shoulder.

Quick and Dirty post Thanksgiving Update

Hi All,

Hope you had a joyous Thanksgiving, if you celebrated, and have been as productive as you want to be hobby wise.

I have been somewhat busy for me, priming the figures for my next battle for the Talomir Tales campaign. Here are a few pictures.

The figures are a mix of Airfix, HaT, MiniArt, Strelets and Zvezda. I should be prepping figures for the Painting Challenge but I commited to playing the game first and I really want to play it out with painted figures. If anything it's helping me establish a rhythm and get back in the habit of painting daily.

You may have noticed that I added some more image links to the right. I added one each for Tabletop Gaming Central, Bloggers for Charity, and Analogue Hobbies. All sites that I have recently become associated with one way or another. I want to give special mention to Tabletop Gaming Central as I only recently submitted my blog to them for listing and they put me on quickly and then Gavin emailed me to welcome me and let me know I was on board. As you know, I am a fan of the personal touch and try my best to foster that type of connection through my blog.

I also want to share the news that Two Hour Wargames has extended their Black Friday sale to Sunday. Get 20% off your total order you can read about it here.

On a final note I am very thankful that my mother is okay. On Wednesday evening she went out for a walk with my kids and fell in the street. We were worried that she may have broken her hip. After a few hours in the E.R. we were released with a prescription for painkillers. Her Thanksgiving was bedridden, but I'm happy to say that today she is off the heavy painkillers and was able to walk up and down the stairs. I was pretty upset about it but everything seems to be okay now, just scrapes and bruises.

Pre-Holiday update

Up before 4AM as the weight of how much stuff I still have to do, hobby and otherwise, is keeping me from sleeping.

I have been remiss in welcoming Twin Cities Gamer aka Monty L from Google+ as a follower of the blog. His blog of the same name has some great looking Dark Age stuff on there right now as well as an interesting article about inventory management. I took it to heart.

I also wanted to promote a give away that Captain Arjun is having at Cor Blog Me here. He is giving away two bundles of rules, one Medieval and one Indian Mutiny. You have until the end of the month. His blog has a lot of good stuff on it, lately a solo dungeon crawl with some Dwarves battling Goblins through the mines.

As for me I'm still planning and cleaning house. Funny how you don't notice all the peeling plaster etc until you have company coming.

Finally I'll leave you with a teaser of an old Citadel figure that I intend to try my hand at stripping and re-painting for the painting challenge.

He was initially painted by my brother, and to be fair I don't think he ever read up on any painting techniques. I think he said he was trying to go for the armor being soaked in blood. I'm trying to decide if I  want to use the shield or not. It seems a little campy to me.

I'll be soaking this dude in simple green and see how it goes. I've never attempted to strip paint off a figure before.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and catch you on the flip side.

More challenge preparation

Hi All,

Today I finished the sorting of most of my plastic and lead. I still have some random loose figures I received from a member of the Old School Wargamers Yahoo group and my various 54mm stuff. I hope to have a reasonable point total to send off to Curt soon.

I hope to have a page detailing my challenge progress, much like Loki's here. Dux Homunculorum mentioned that he is being subjected to spreadsheet intimidation in his post here, which got me thinking about the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Spreadsheet Challenge.

But seriously, I will be posting my spreadsheet which you will be free to take ideas from should you desire. I hope that you will contribute your own ideas on what is helpful in organizing yourself for the task at hand. Of course I really should be prepping figures, rather than dawdling at the computer.

I also thought the view numbers of the last few days were interesting.

A priapatetic spike in page views.

A picture is worth 500 views I guess.

Analogue Hobbies 4th Annual Painting Challenge

A few days behind, but yeah, I went for it.

I watched from the side lines last year and was particularly impressed by Tamsin's herculean output. So much so that I started a grandiose project, which I of course didn't complete.

When I saw that the rules were changed to include fantasy and sci-fi this year, I couldn't sit idly by and let this opportunity to get into high gear pass me by. So let the hand wringing commence. I have sorted all my 28mm today and found that I have quite  bit of stuff that is already primed. I also have several that have been started to some degree but I'm wondering if white primed figures with metal bits painted black count as started or not. Technically speaking one could consider it two undercoats, one white one black. I'll ask for clarification.

Add to this that I'm in the middle of crash painting 50 some odd figures for a battle I need to play out this month and I'm getting myself wound up.

I really like what Loki did on his page here and I will attempt to emulate that. I also like his painting page, but am ashamed that many of my figures were purchased in 1990 and are only primed or even still in the blister.

Here's my running 28mm list:

Figure	Scale	Material	#	Notes
Orc Sword	28mm	plastic	10	primed on base
Gob wolf rider	28mm	metal	19	8 mostly unprimed, 11 started
Gob foot	28mm	metal	9	9 on base, 6 primed
Black Orc Foot	28mm	metal	12	All primed and on base
Orc Shaman	28mm	metal	2	On base, started
Gob foot	28mm	metal	40	21 started, 18 bare, 1 primed
Gob bows	28mm	metal	29	15 started, 14 primed, on base
Gob bows	28mm	plastic	10	6 primed, 4 started, on base
War Wolf	28mm	metal	1	bare, no base
orc foot	28mm	metal	10	finished, rebase?
half orcs	28mm	metal	2	color blocked, on base
orc bows	28mm	metal	16	color blocked, on base
orc foot	28mm	metal	24	finished, rebase?
orc foot	28mm	metal	4	bare, on base
orc bows	28mm	metal	3	color blocked, on base
human bows	28mm	metal	5	started, on base
human foot	28mm	metal	5	started, on base
human wizards	28mm	metal	4	started, on base
gob fanatics	28mm	metal	2	1 started, 1 primed on base
elf bows	28mm	plastic	5	started, on base
trolls	28mm	metal	2	finished, rebase?
Gob wolf rider	28mm	metal	1	started, on base
orc foot sb	28mm	metal	2	finished, need basing, broken.
orc chukkas	28mm	metal	3	full sets, in box
skull crusher	28mm	metal	2	full sets, in box
Man mangler	28mm	metal	1	full sets, in box
Orc Boar riders	28mm	metal	2	in box
Orc Archers	28mm	metal	4	in box
Orc bosses	28mm	metal	2	in box
Gob chariot	28mm	metal	2	in box
Bret mtd lord	28mm	metal	1	in box, plastic horse
Dwf Cannon	28mm	metal	2	in box
Chaos Centaur	28mm	metal	5	in box
Chaos Cav	28mm	metal	6	in box
chaos steeds	28mm	metal	2	loose
chaos knights	28mm	metal	2.5	loose
bret knights	28mm	metal	4	loose
Gob chariot	28mm	metal	1	loose
orc Archers	28mm	metal	3	loose
human cas	28mm	metal	1	loose
human bows	28mm	plastic	2	loose
chaos warrior	28mm	metal	1	loose, broken, repaint
skaven foot	28mm	plastic	10	loose,no head
dk elf xbow	28mm	plastic	10	loose, no head
dk elf head	28mm	plastic	18	9 helmet, 9 bare
dwarf head	28mm	plastic	9	4 horned, 5 plain helm
gob head	28mm	plastic	10	4 helmet, 6 bare
orc head	28mm	plastic	10	5 helmet, 5 bare
xbow	28mm	plastic	18	10 white, 8 black
cleaver	28mm	plastic	6
hammer heads	28mm	plastic	10
wagon wheel	28mm	plastic	8
evil shield	28mm	plastic	51	tab slot
elf shield	28mm	plastic	5
fighter shield	28mm	plastic	10	tab slot
generic shield	28mm	plastic	27	hole slot
moon shield	28mm	plastic	20	flat back
cap horse	28mm	plastic	4	one miscast
horse	28mm	plastic	4	missing one tail
human halberd	28mm	plastic	20	color blocked, on base
elf spear	28mm	plastic	5	color blocked, on base
dawrf axe	28mm	plastic	10	color blocked, on base
orc art crew	28mm	metal	10	bare, no base
human xbow	28mm	metal	4	bare, no base
orc Archers	28mm	metal	1	color blocked, on base
chaos ft knights	28mm	metal	2.5	bare, no base
evil gen shield	28mm	plastic	2	hole slot
slotta base	20 x 20	plastic	23
slotta base	25 x 25	plastic	27
slotta base	25 x 50	plastic	8
orc champ	28mm	plastic	1	color blocked, on base
rat man	28mm	metal	1	bare, no base
celtic warriors	28mm	plastic	10
norman foot	28mm	plastic	44

Wow, pasting that in was kind of a pain. I think I changed my terminology part way through so some of the ones early on that say started might be either color blocked or have the black accents.

Anyhow, I'm trying to resist just saying 500 points and then dealing with it later. I want to try and prep everything to start with.

I'm also having trouble looking for figures for the entry. I haven't seen The Wild Bunch or Cross of Iron in ages. Anyone have a line on a figure that looks like Kris Kristofferson?

And on a blog note, my views have gone through the roof over the last couple of days. Over 400. My usual is about 150 per day.

Apparently you all like tits.

Or maybe there are just a lot of Zardoz fans out there.

Salve for recovering from the last post.

Since so many have complained about lasting damage from the last post, I thought it might be necessary to give the masses what the clamor for. Interestingly enough Speedos for women are quite Victorian by comparison to the male version. Perhaps that is what it is that bothers people so much. Granted I didn't give you David Beckham types, I gave guys that should probably not been wearing said style. Although c'mon, Rod Stewart was a sex symbol back in the day.

Well anyhow I hope that the following images stir feelings in you that you are completely comfortable with.

I'm feeling patriotic.

Just remember the Budgie is watching you!

photoshopcontest.com

And so is Zardoz!

Of Budgie Smugglers and Banana Hammocks.

After reading about Ray and Fran's weekend getaway to Nottingham I was introduced to the term "Budgie Smugglers". Now I could guess at what Fran was talking about but those of us in the Americas, although familiar with the concept, were unaware of this particular slang. Although I think Fran was just referring to form fitting undergarments the term refers to something we all know and love, the Speedo bathing suit.

Now someone had mentioned that in 'Merica we just call it a Speedo (I think it was Yank in Australia), but the actual slang is "Banana Hammock" (there's even a website). So, much like Coke or Xerox, the brand name has become a descriptor for the thing itself.

Hmm I wonder if Posties Rejects will come up with some other garment to help identify them at shows?

No missing someone at Salute in these bad boys.

And now some gratuitous pictures of said garment in action. Those of you with weak constitutions may wish to look away.

Make fun of my swim trunks, I F#$%ing dare you!

I won't say I look like Daniel Craig, but I wear a similar style of trunks to the pool/ beach. I used to wear what we call board shorts, but I'm not a surfer and the super long baggy fabric just holds water and is generally uncomfortable when out of the water.

An artists rendition of Fran and Ray's trip to Nottingham.

Getting ready to play Call of Duty?

And a message for you from Samuel L. Jackson if you are still using Captcha.

A to Z Blogger Book Survey

This went around about a week ago and I wanted to do it but just didn't have time so here is mine.

Author you've read the most books from:
That is a tough one as I tend to flit around a lot. But with the anthologies I've read lately it's a toss up between H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard I'm guessing.

Best sequel ever:
I can't remember who set the precedent, but I'll go with Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. Still my favorite of the Franchise.

Currently reading:
Operation Barbarossa by David M. Glantz. I have to say it's pretty dry and I find myself avoiding it.

Drink of choice whilst reading:
Water or Beer. I don't think I drink all that much while I read.

E-reader or physical book:
I love physical books and find it hard to resist buying them, but I do like the kindle very much I don't get as many reproving looks from SWMBO because it doesn't turn into a pile of books.

Fictional character you would probably have dated in high school:
Lisbeth Salander from the Girl etc series.

Glad you gave this book a chance:
Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh

Hidden book gem:
The Eden series by Harry Harrison. An interesting alternate Earth where lizards are the dominant life form.

Important moment in your book life:
Picking up a copy of the The Two Towers in an airport bookshop in 1979. Started me down the road of D&D and gaming and my penchant for reading the second book in a trilogy first.

Just finished:
The last thing I actually finished was the H.P. Lovecraft Anthology on my Kindle.

Kind of book you won't read:
Not interested at all in Romance novels.

Longest book you've read:
I read several big books between dropping out of High School and attending college.  I'm not sure where the editions are right now so couldn't say how long they are. I am not counting things that were in multiple volumes like LotR or Shelby Foote's Civil War treatise. In no particular order: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer, and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.

Major book hangover because of  disappointing endings:
I can't think of one right now. My biggest recent disappointment was discovering what a racist Lovecraft was. It bummed me out.

Number of bookcases you own:
Full wall of the Den. One in the bedroom, one unused but needed in the garage and several folding ones in storage that need to come out.

One book you've read multiple times:
Lord of the Rings.

Preferred place to read:
In bed. Probably why I don't read enough. I usually fall asleep.

Quote that inspires you/gives you all the feels from a book you've read:
"I believe that, in a stupid society, intelligence is useless." - Shen Congwen (from a story in a collection called Imperfect Paradise that I read 10 years ago and can't find the page reference for)

"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." - Robert E. Howard The Tower of the Elephant

Reading regret:
So many books, so little time.

Series you started and need to finish:
The Song of Fire and Ice. Waiting on you Mr. Martin.

Three of your all-time favourite books:
This is a real tough one. Do I pick books that I read as a boy that hold a place in my heart? Is it something I've read more recently? If I exclude Tintin, my favorites would be The X-Factor by Andre Norton, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and ... perhaps I Claudius by Robert Graves.

Unapologetic fanboy for:
I was going to say George R.R. Martin, but the delay in getting on with the game of thrones, in both book and video, is damping my enthusiasm. Maybe Bernard again.

Very excited for this release:
Bernard Cornwell, The Pagan Lord.

Worst bookish habit:
Buying or borrowing books and then not reading them.

X marks the spot - Start at the top left of your bookshelf and pick the 27th book:
Attack and Defense by Ishida and Davies

Your latest book purchase:
Pre-ordered Bernard Cornwell's The Pagan Lord on my Kindle.

Zzz snatcher book (the last book that kept you up waaay too late:)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I was going to try and link to the ones that I have seen but I'm tired and can't seem to find them all. Off to dream of Budgie Smugglers. ;)