I was in the thick of things on Lokaris last weekend and didn’t have enough to show off, but I’m back with another update on this ambitious and long-running project. I tackled one of the most important parts of the miniature to me, which is his wolf shoulder plate. Its really draws the eye and of course, its cool-looking so I want to get it right. It is tricky because its metal and it has pretty fine details with non-traditional shapes. If you look closely at people who have painted this miniature, everybody’s done it a slightly different way, which I usually take to mean that its hard to get it right.
While I can spot a place or two where I can smooth the paint job out further, all-in-all, I think I did pretty well on it. One of the reasons why I’m determined to do well with this part of the miniature is the last 75mm miniature I painted didn’t do as well at MMSI as I expected/hoped and I know I need to do better to earn another gold there. if you’re curious which miniature I’m talking about, its this one right here.
There’s a lot more to go but I’m hoping that in the end, Lokaris ends up being an even better paint job and shows that I’ve improved since 2023 or 2024 when I worked on Minerva. With that in mind, I think now is a good time for me to take a short break on him. There’s been a lot going on outside of the hobby, which I’ll get into soon, and I want to try to do my best and its hard to do that when other distractions are going on.
As a follow-up from my last post, I have made a couple of recent hobby related purchases. The first is that I bought one of the Fallout Wasteland Warfare First Edition rule supplements that I don’t own which is long overdue. This supplement provides rules for miniatures I own and a couple I’ve even painted so its well past time to be able to use them in future games! I think having this supplement will get me a bit more excited about painting those other minis too as I keep pushing them off in favor of other things even though I really like the sculpts and they look fun to work on. At some point in the future, I’ll do a review of the Commonwealth supplement as well which should be fun to write.
I also picked up another Monsterpocalypse skyscraper which I’ll need to get prepped and primed in the near future. Lokaris has taken my attention away from Monsterpocalypse for a bit but I will come back to it sooner or later and I will keep picking up things I need for it as well since the supply of miniatures and terrain for the game will only diminish with time.
I’m a little amazed that I’ve gotten as much done on Lokaris in the last two weeks as I managed. Real life continues to suck. There are a few things I will likely never discuss here. Family issues and work stuff. One of the big reasons is because that is not why you are here and I don’t want anybody I know to potentially find me rambling online about them. While there have been issues related to both of those things going on off and on this year, more recently, I’ve had weirder and worse issues that I can discuss a bit.
I live in a condo building and our garage is accessible to the alley behind the property. In Chicago, most people put trash and recycling in the alley to be picked up. This is one of the reasons why the city has historically had huge rat problems. Its like a buffet line for them in every alley. They chew right through the trash cans and have a feast every night essentially. The alley splits condos/residential buildings and a private school/church. Long story short, some guy, who is certifiably crazy has convinced himself that he’s going to do a service for the church by moving all of the trash and recycling cans in front of people’s garages because when they’re in the alley anywhere else, they’re on church property. This is not legally how it works but the guy is pushy and creepy and my wife and I have both had unwelcome interactions with him. We tried to talk to the church about him, hoping they would help, and essentially were told to call 911 (the police) on him. The woman we spoke to claimed that he is dangerous because he blew up when they wouldn’t let him get involved in something at the church but her evidence that he’s actually dangerous was not very persuasive. While he is creepy and pushy, he’s not doing anything illegal per say so it seems crazy to call an emergency line on some crazy guy who isn’t doing anything especially dangerous. In Chicago, there is very real crime, some of which is a bit disturbing and scary truthfully. The police aren’t going to come out because some guy keeps moving the trash cans against our will. After we talked to the church, the crazy guy seemed to disappear for a while and I thought maybe somebody from the church had finally spoken to him. He came back today, moved the trash cans in front of the garage again, and so this problem will go on for a while. I have come across some weird people in my lifetime but this guy is unsettling to have to talk to and so nobody in our building really wants to deal with him which makes it hard to get him to stop doing what he’s doing. We keep in touch with the church and politely pressure them to do something about him because he’s doing all this in their name and tries to make it seem like he’s with the church. Hopefully they will step up to the plate soon so we can put this ridiculous situation to bed.
So that is one annoyance and the other has bigger implications for me. Chicago also has budget/money problems as a city. They’ve had them the entire time we’ve lived here and going back years before that from what I understand. Since the pandemic, downtown has not really recovered. A lot of people work from home now and so they don’t frequent downtown as much which means businesses and restaurants aren’t making as much money. There are a lot of empty storefronts in places that were thriving pre-pandemic. This doesn’t impact me directly or so I thought. To offset the lack of taxes revenue from business real estate downtown, residents have been hit with crazy high property tax increases recently. I knew that people were starting to get hit with them but I figured until I saw how it affected my wife and I, it would be alright. Our property taxes have been stable for nearly five years now but not any longer. I found out this week that the increase is to the tune of $8,000! It is insane for anybody to be able to absorb that kind of increase but its especially challenging in my household.
My wife and I have been living off my income while she dealt with some personal challenges for about two years now and its been hard, of course. I do okay but not enough to easily support a wife and dog. There’s been a lot of financial cuts made and we don’t eat out a lot (which sucks because Chicago has amazing food), for example. My wife just started working at a local grocery store as a cashier because we could use the extra income and jobs are hard to come by these days and it felt like we were finally going to have a little more financial wiggle room but that is clearly not the case. It has been hard for her for the first two months because people are horribly behaved and having stand with very few breaks for 5-7 hours is not easy. I have a much greater appreciation for what people in retail have to go through. Its not an easy job at all and while I always try to be polite and easy to deal with, I feel like I have an even greater awareness of that now. I mention this because based on my initial financial calculations, she needs to stay at this job until she can find something better and even then we’ll just barely be breaking even.
It feels pretty bad because multiple things have broken in the house and I had just told my wife that this year we’re going to get a bunch of them fixed. A week or two ago, we had bad storms and a window started leaking water. So obviously that has to be repaired but there’s a lot of other stuff that needs to get done so we can eventually sell this place and move elsewhere. With the property taxes, its hard to say if we’ll stay here in the long run or be forced to move some place cheaper which would really, really suck. If there’s one thing I’m proud of besides being an award winning painter, it is that I left my hometown and moved to some place that many people would be jealous of. To have to potentially move away to a cheaper and less exciting place would be a bit of a crushing disappointment to say the least. That is a long-term problem though because the mortgage rates are so bad, there’s no way we’re moving in the next year or so anyway. Being an adult is hard and I’ve had a lot of challenges in the last couple of years going on “behind the scenes”. All you can do is keep trying, even when you want to give up, because you don’t have many other good choices, I reckon.
I should also note that I’ve realized that I need to stop buying cards (Dune and Batman both) specifically until our financial situation changes. What modest spending money I do have will go towards miniatures, comic books, and video games here and there, most likely instead. Its crazy timing because I just finished up my DC Comics subscription and was ready to write an article about Two-Face in modern comics. Of course, I can still write it but it feels like a hollow endeavor now that I won’t be continuing to collect Batman cards. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we expect them to and this is my attempt to be responsible and try to do everything I can to ease stress on my wife and I as I’m sure you can understand.
And finally, to get back to something hobby related (and more positive). I saw some Middle Earth minis were teased at Adepticon this week and color me impressed! New plastic cavalry is a fantastic new release for the game. I’ve heard the old Rohan cavalry miniatures would break really easily and they’re also 20+ years old at this point. The new Rohan cavalry have a really nice cinematic look to them as well. It would be easy to take this guy and turn him into a little diorama/vignette battle scene I’d say.
Even the Dunlendings look pretty darn nice and like they’d be fun to paint which is saying something because they barely show up in the movies!
I have no idea how MESBG does sales wise for Games Workshop but I’m glad they still support the game and are releasing new stuff. Its been a long time since I painted anything from MESBG but there are miniatures that tempt me, including these! Perhaps one day I’ll get back to it and see what I can do with some of the more recent GW sculpts.
Kuribo's Painting 
Lokaris is looking great, really like the shoulder pad!
Sorry to hear about the additional financial pressure you’re under, that really sucks. I have no idea what the base rate was but an 8k increase seems crazy. Best of luck through this.
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Thanks, Nic! I’m glad to hear it. I was talking to a display painting friend and got some good feedback on the shoulder pad so there may be some more work yet to do on it. I’m glad that it already looks good though. That means I can’t go too far wrong, hopefully!
Thanks for the kind words as well. Property taxes here are kind of confusing to me because they roll your mortgage, property insurance, and property taxes into one monthly payment. The mortgage company “auto-balances” that payment a couple times a year so it makes understanding how it all works a bit complicated. In the state I grew up in, you pay property taxes separately to the government which is easier to understand. That’s more than you need to know about US property taxes, I’d imagine though! I will keep doing what I can to improve the situation and try to enjoy hobbying as an escape when needed too.
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That sounds like a plan! Yeah here it’s “rates” which we pay to the local council which is a set amount per year so no surprise (unless they go up!). They also allow you to split payment over the year which is nice if a lump sum is problematic.
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That is very similar to how it is done in Ohio, where I grew up. Getting to choose how you make those payments is nice. I pay monthly regardless of what I’d like and for whatever reason, its taken four months for the bank to actually adjust the monthly rate so that makes the increase feel a lot worse. At this point, fleeing the country for Oz or Europe sounds awfully good, as I’m sure you can imagine!
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Great progress on Lokaris Jeff, The gold work has nicer tones than Minerva, more like true gold, rather than gold plated.
Sorry to hear about the real life nightmares mate, it’s funny there seems to be that person that thinks they are more important than they are, and try’s to push everybody else around, we’ve got one close to us !
That increase is horrendous, it’s always the average person who suffers the final bill, which is not a fair system at all.
I’m here for you if you need to chat mate, just as you were for me last year.
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I once had a gold-plated necklace as a young man (which my wife can’t believe because I’d never wear something like that now) and so I know exactly what you mean and I really appreciate your compliment, Dave. When I look at Minerva now, I can see why I got a Silver and I see plenty of room for improvement on it, sadly. I tried my best but I’ve gotten quite a bit better since then, I reckon.
I have no idea who you could be referring to haha! In all seriousness, this guy does have a screw loose because what church would ever be worried about their nearby neighbors “taking advantage of them”. Not that I judge a book by its cover, but he looks like Dee Snider’s son but in Judas Priest type of apparel which I’m betting you can appreciate the image of. I hope he goes away soon because he’s scared my wife and upstairs neighbor who is also female with his antics.
You said it well on the taxes. The city’s financial issues often get passed on to the residents and that is the case here. Obviously, there’s a real risk that a large number of people will leave the city in the coming years, if this trend continues. I’m hoping that the state government will do something to address the tax increases but time will tell.
I will definitely drop you a line in the future if things start getting to me. They were earlier this week and in the past couple of weeks but I’m doing a bit better and trying to rise to the challenge which seems to be working. I appreciate your offer very much and you’re one of the good ones, in my book, Dave.
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Nice progress on the painting, Jeff! 🙂 Sorry to hear about the real life issues! Unfortunately family issues, work stuff and nasty people are always lurking somewhere! Hope you’re all OK!
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Thanks for the kind words, John! That is the truth. Adulthood is a constant juggling of all those things and sometimes you have more problems than you can solve at a time and that’s where I’m at. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it gets better soon!
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I sincerely hope that you and your wife’s most pressing life problems are resolved as soon as possible. Things in America are so darn weird right now, everyone seems to be suffering in one way or another. It’s difficult to enjoy your hobbies to the fullest when Life Craziness rears its ugly head. Hang in there.
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I really appreciate your kind words. While there are some personal reasons for our plight, if the economy and job market were doing better, that would make a big difference for us. Unfortunately, a turnaround for either of those seems unlikely right now so we’re stuck in the mire for a while yet, I imagine. You’re right that hobbying can’t cover up all the unpleasantness in any of our lives either but hopefully it will help make things a little more bearable anyway.
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Sorry to hear about your situation, that truly sucks. 😦 Annoying and crazy people are so hard to deal with.
Lokaris is looking really amazing, and it’s always worthwhile to feel like you’ve improved on a skill, especially if you were already very adept at it.
I hope you’ll catch some better luck in your personal life in the foreseeable future, sounds like it’s the time for it!
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Thank you, mate. I really appreciate it your kind words. Things have been better so far this week so that’s a bit of progress anyway.
Painting is funny in that you can do it for a long time and still keep improving, if you want and work at it. When I got back into the hobby nearly ten years ago, I didn’t think I’d be here still painting or be as good as I am at it now. So its funny how things work out sometimes.
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Yes, one of the great joys in life I find is to see how much you can still improve in things, including painting. 🙂
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Lokaris is coming along beautifully mate. The wolf is perfect in my eyes. Unsettling or crazy people can be challenging to deal with. I work as a gardener in the care industry and deal with alllll levels of crazy hehe. One thing I’ve come to learn over the last nearly 9 years is that we are all the same though really. For instance I have one client who is the most racist, sexist and homophobic bloke I’ve ever met (all of the things I’m proudly not) and I really didn’t like him at first. He would rant and rave about his views and I’d just try not to engage. Over time I came to see that he was just struggling and was lashing out at the world because he was carrying so much pain. Doesn’t make what he was saying ok but it made me understand him more and bit by bit I saw another side of him too. A generous, loyal and hardworking side. I asked him once if he saw a car pulled over on the side of the road with smoke coming out of the engine and the people inside were Asian what would he do. He don’t hesitate in saying he would help. It showed me that despite his beliefs and”crazinessl he was actually a decent human being in a lot of ways. Anyway, my point is your crazy man is probably someone you should’ve careful with but he might be that way for a reason and he probably has nice things about him too. My suggestion is kill him with kindness. Get talking to him and bit by bit build a rapport. Talk about the rats and the bins and the problems etc. Then, bit by bit, you might be able to politely suggest he stop doing what he’s doing for your sake. If that fails I’ll fly over there and tell him to fuck off haha. In regards to the other issue I can empathise as I’ve been there with financial troubles before too. It can really feel like you’re just staying afloat and keeping your head above water after sometimes. My advice, lean into the good things going on in your life (eg your wife, dog and hobbies) and also tackle one thing at a time. Little wins can feel like big wins when times are tough. Make repairing the window a project for you to get done as a priority. My philosophy is that there’s always a way. Im not mechanically minded at all but I’ve taught myself how to do all sorts of things and a little while ago I repaired my carberettor on my mower hehe. I just can’t spell the bloody word haha. It sounds like a tough job your wife is doing but at least she’s got one and as you said you guys can keep looking for another better job for her. There’s always a way brother. Keep going, keep celebrating the little wins, keep leaning into positive things and each other and just keep telling yourself everything will be ok because you want it to be ok. Positivity attracts positivity but the opposite is also true. Anyway, sorry for the long ramble but I really can empathise and all of what I’ve said I’ve done and it’s helped. Good luck brother, we are all on your side.
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Thanks, mate. I appreciate your insight into all this. I commend you for being kind to someone who is outwardly prejudiced as well. It isn’t something I do very well. I tend to just stay away from people like that as I have no patience for it. I grew up with some people who valued intelligence and ambition in life like myself but the rest came from bad family situations and were happy to be ignorant and so it bothers me to see people choose that sort of path even if I recognize that they probably lacked role models and opportunities in life.
I think the problem with the crazy guy is that he’s trying to find a way to make money for the church (on his own as a freelancer, if you will) and so this scheme he’s engaging in has somewhat dishonest roots. The church doesn’t want him doing this and certainly not hustling and pressuring people to give him money to give to them. Truthfully, I would not pay him to pick up my dog’s poop, let alone walk the dog. He sounds like he’s in the mafia with the way he’s pressured my wife and I too. So there’s something really off with the whole thing and that’s why I won’t engage with him. It seems like he’s showing up less and less so that’s making the problem a little better.
The windows are repaired as of yesterday and now we can open and close all of them so that’s nice. It will make the home that much easier to sell in the future too. It was good to be able to afford the repairs too, in many ways. I’m not especially handy and some of the things that need to be repaired are well beyond my means. We’ve got a door that needs to be replaced, including the frame, for example. I’d rather pay someone who knows what they’re doing because the existing door seems to be too heavy and it drags the floor and has damaged some tile nearby too.
Hopefully things will get better slowly but surely. This week has been better overall and life seems less daunting so I’m thankful about that, if nothing else. It will take a while and a lot of effort for some of the issues to resolve themselves but hopefully this was the bottom and things are going to get better from here. Thanks again for your support, mate. I really appreciate it!
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Im glad the dude is turning up less and less. He might just get bored and move on. I wish I lived closer so I could help with your door. I like helping people, payment is often secondary for me. Helping people in need is more rewarding.
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I got in trouble for pointing this out to my wife but its been a week since he’s showed up. He came a couple times a week initially so it looks like he’s losing steam, thankfully. That is very kind of you. I’m happy to help people at work as well. If they have questions or anything I can help with, I always try to do what I can for them so we’ve got that in common.
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Goodness me, that sounds like a rough time indeed. Having an unwelcome and annoying addition to your neighbourhood is one thing but getting hit with a huge increase in your expenditure is tough to hang through. I hope it all works out for you.
On the bright side, Lokaris continues to look amazing.
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Thanks, mate! If things don’t get better, I might have to look to move to your country. Dundee has to be cheaper than here! 😀
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We’d love to have you my friend 🙂
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