Dragonclaw Cook

Here's the Dragonclaw's cook. What can I say . . . faces are hard, especially at this scale. 
 

Nefertiti

Her skin turned out so dark! But maybe it really was this dark. 
 

Tim Chan, Torch in Hand

Here's patriotic teen Tim Chan from Pulp Figures' Student Investigators line. 
 

Splinter Me Timbers

Here's the dwarf lookout I painted for the Dragonclaw. He must get splinters running about on the deck in bare feet. Or perhaps he has very thick calluses? 
 

Captain Boone

Here's the master of the RSS Dragonclaw. He looks more like an admiral than a captain to me, but then I suppose you can be both, depending on circumstance. 
 

Lancebegot

Here's another crewmember of the RSS Dragonclaw. I wanted this guy to have a knightly personality but to be somewhat unloved by his captain, so I named him Lancebegot. Now that I look at him close up, I feel like I should have drybrushed a little bit of paler brown on his face and hands to give those features some dimension. 
 

Loudmouth of the Jungle

Ohhhhh eeee ohhhh eeee ohhhhh, eeeee ohhhh eeeee ohhhhhh!
 

Mini Lenin

 

Remembrances of Friends Past

Earlier today, I met with four old friends to honour the passing of a fifth. 

Behind me are Jeff Pitts, Kevin Kelly, Vern Ryan, and Ray Brown, old schoolmates and friends. In the 1980s, we regularly met with our other friend, Paul Ravensdale, to play Dungeons & Dragons, Supremacy, Villains & Vigilantes, console or computer games on various Atari machines--and we even raced around outside too, back in those days before cell phones and the Internet. 

Paul was a tall, strong guy, the kind of person that would have made a terrifying bully for smaller kids. But while Paul had a temper that could be set off under certain circumstances, he was absolutely not a bully, but a stalwart friend with a sadistic sense of humour that really resonated with me. Paul took sinister delight in making things very difficult for our characters when we played roleplaying games in modern settings such as Recon or Top Secret. If we made stupid decisions in Paul's games, we paid dearly. Harsh, but fair, and we always had a blast. 

As often happens, I fell out of touch with Paul (and everyone else in this photo but Jeff), though I did have coffee a couple of times with Paul in the early 2000s. Paul joined the Canadian Armed Forced before his wedding back in 1989 (an event those above attended), and served most of his time in Manitoba. But he worked in Edmonton for a short interim, and that's when we briefly reconnected. 

Paul retained his friendly demeanor, but his experiences overseas had affected him deeply. He didn't speak in specifics, but it was clear he was traumatized by his experiences in the former Yugoslavia during its breakup in the 1990s. 

One of those lunches with Paul in 2002 or 2003 was the last time I saw him. It's a truism that any time we see someone could be the last time, but realizing the reality of it still hits hard. I learned later that Paul experienced further trauma during his military career, and I regret not reaching out again immediately. You never know when it will be too late. 

Ray and Vern were able to travel to Brandon, Manitoba, for Paul's funeral, and organized today's gathering for us to celebrate what would have been Paul's 55th (I believe) birthday. We caught up with each other's lives, shared some laughs, and exchanged some thoughts and memories about Paul. We all remember him fondly; he was a big (literally) part of our lives during some of our most important formative years. 

Miss you, pal. I hope you're at peace. 

 

Catch of the Day

 

Loaded Chest

A carelessly stored firearm is never a good thing. 
 

The 2030 NHL Expansion

Sean (and many others) were quite happy about the latest Edmonton Oilers win in the current NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. During a text discussion, the Florida Panthers were misnamed the Florida Planters. I jumped on the typo, saying that Atlanta should have a team called the Georgia Planters. Sean responded with some AI-generated art, including an adorable mascot (above) and a couple of jersey designs: 

Inspired, I turned to Bing Image Generator and asked it to create some jerseys for hypothetical future teams. Sports fans, please welcome

The Saskatchewan Saskatoons! 

The Halifax Schooners!

The Tijuana Fiesta! 

And the Reykjavík Vikings! 

Normie Kwong Gets a Heritage Minute

 

I was fortunate enough to meet Norman Kwong when he took over from Lois Hole as Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and I wrote speeches for him for a couple of years. He was a very congenial fellow, and he certainly deserves this accolade! 

The Gargoyle Has Two Faces

 

Booze Weave

What sort of booze would go in a container such as this? 
 

Jungle Fighter

Here's my very hesitant attempt to paint a figure in something resembling camouflage. In this case, I imagined this soldier in a jungle or forest environment and painted them in shades of brown and green. 
 

Orc Dentist

 

Pork Roast

This spit-roasted pig isn't the most macabre miniature I've painted, but it's certainly the most macabre miniature I've painted based on real-life possibilities. 

"Turn me over, I'm done on this side." 
 

Outnumbered

 

Cult Fanatic

 

Cult Scholar

 

Cult Murderer

 

Precious Cargo

This oversized miniature is intended to represent an expensive metallic sculpture being transported as cargo on the RSS Dragonclaw. 
 

The Leaning Streetlight of Edmonton

It was a windy day in Edmonton today, and while out on errands I spotted this precariously positioned streetlight right on our street. I called 311 and a fellow named Steve assured me a crew would head out right away to fix the problem. I'm sure the situation has been straightened out. 
 

Five Views of a Yellow House

I have painted the last of the four houses Jeff 3D printed for me. As you can see, it's very yellow. 


 

Violent Greens Use Violent Means

Violent greens 
Producing pepper pod people
Perfectly pseudopeople
Impenetrable cell walls a mystery for the chlorophyll-philes
Crooked rows seeding chaos
Dissent and dysentery 

 

Pinwheel

Round and round and round it spins
Crimson pinwheel, dancing winds
Harbinger of naught and null
Hydrocarbon sunflower shaped by spacetime
Hypnotic eye predicting the fall
Of a garden in Orion, thought hidden away
A pathway to tomorrow eroding by the day
Threads fraying beneath our feet
Invisible inevitable irrevocable doom
Lurking in an iris unseen
 

Phase II Shuttle Concept

Way back in the late 1970s, Matt Jeffries designed a new two-person shuttlecraft for the ultimately unrealized Star Trek sequel series Star Trek II, also known as Star Trek Phase II. It's too bad we never saw this design onscreen; I think it's very sleek and retro all at the same time, and would have made a nice partner for the classic shuttle. 
 

Three Sisters

My aunts Jean and Marjorie (far left), came to Edmonton on Friday for a wedding, and on Sunday Sean, Sylvia and I came out to Leduc to see them. Mom served a very delicious lunch, and my cousins Darwin (seen here to my right), Bruce (not in this photo for some reason--where did he go?) and Darwin's son Brandon (who shot the photo) popped by, too. It was great seeing my aunts again! 
 

Gaming and Guinness XVIII Logo II

Here's the G&G logo I wound up using after some back-and-forth consultation with Jeff Pitts, my partner in organizing this year's swag.