Thanks & Gribbly Things!

Above: an amazing shot of the Icelandic volcano erupting, while Mother Nature hurls around a few lightning bolts. Photo from the NASA site here.

THANKS!

Let me begin by thanking everyone who sent me some sort of message of support, be it a comment on this blog, an email, a phone call, or even bought me a cup of coffee (or stronger).

I must say I was blown away by the kind words and I might just have to re-evaluate my stance on the general state of the humanity. Thank you for that. It was very refreshing.

Last Friday I got a call from USAA insurance (my insurance) and found out how much I'd be getting back. It was more than the Kelly Blue Book site suggested I would be seeing, but still not enough to cover a completely new, or even almost-new car.

Fortunately, in my countless online searches for new, almost-new, and not-so-new cars, I was able to find the beauty you see above. That's right, I have another PT Cruiser (same year) that is basically identical to my old one. The big positive is that it has travelled 40,000 less miles than my old car, the big negative is that the "shortfall" was the hobby fund I've been building over the last 18 months. That'll mean lots of projects based on toy soldiers I already have (expect to see Imperial Guard and Space Marines).

So, continuing the "Thanks".

Thanks to USAA for their pleasant and helpful staff, and good rates. If you have the opportunity to be insured by them, I highly recommend it.

Thanks to the staff of the Enterprise car rental offices I dealt with, they were pleasant and helped me through the process with little fuss.

Thanks also to Derrick at BMW of Bel Air, who did me a bit of a deal on the "new" car and then drove it back the 25 miles to my place (while I drove the rental). Class act.

GRIBBLY THINGS!

This is the Jabberslythe I've been working on, slowly. I posted a teaser pic of it a while back and here are the latest pics. I've only really been working on him on Monday nights at the Glen Burnie Bunker, so progress is a couple of steps at a time.

The basis for the beast is the Tyranid Trygon/Mawlock kit, with the tail cut and twisted around. The wings are from the old plastic dragon (thanks Jake) and the bulk of the body is sculpted from Apoxie Sulpt (from Aves Studios). I think I have a bit more texturing to do on the body, as well as adding tiny, withered legs along the length of the body, and taking the scales up the back of the tail.

The base is simply a Warhammer tree on a chariot base. I'll be removing one of the limbs, replacing it with heavy duty brass rod, then re-sculpting the detail. That's where the Jabberslythe will eventually rest.

And finally the head! Obviously it's the head from the Mawlock, but the addition of the gribbly tongue (from a Chaos Spawn) and building a flesh head (rather than the Mawlock chitin) with far too many eyes. Terrifying indeed!