Lego Advent Calendar Haiku 2023 Day 2

Silent sign points to
Chocolate frogs, jellybeans
Jets roar in to buy
 

Lego Advent Calendar Haiku 2023 Day 1

Harry Potter sighs
Tony Stark has melted all
Omega's snow path
 

Visitor Night Patrol

Your friends, the Visitors, are in your neighbourhoods nightly to protect you from the so-called "resistance." Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from your Visitor allies! 

Here's the second Visitor jeep I've painted. The first I painted white to match the TV show, but this time around I decided to go with basic black for variety--and because black pigment is easier to work with. The results may be non-canonical, but I'm really quite pleased by the vibe of fascistic menace that's resulted. I even hand-painted the creepy Visitor logo onto the hood. It's not perfect, but to the naked eye it looks pretty good. 

Starting tomorrow, it's the 2024 edition of Lego Advent Calendar Haiku! Get ready for your daily dose of holiday spirit, Lego, and bad poetry. 
 

Control Room World Map

Every would-be world conqueror needs a giant map of the world for their headquarters, so I painted one, seen here with one of my cowled cultists for scale. 
 

Another Rifleman

Not much to say here except I think this fellow has good definition in the face, a reasonable skin tone, and a fairly authentic rifle. I probably should have added a wash to his outfit, though. 
 

Cowled Cult Member

I have painted a set of five of these, and I quite like the look of all of them. Rather than paint their robes a uniform red, I painted the cowls black to break them up visually, and I took extra time to carefully paint in the domino masks and bits of hair that show under the cowl. I didn't dare to try painting eyes through the eyeholes of the masks, though; that's too much for my skills  at this stage. 
 

Mike "Boomer" Michaelson

Needs a bit of a touchup to the face and hair, but I really like the textures of Mike's clothing. And with this, my 7TV production crew is complete! 

Repainted Barbarian Warrior

During the early phase of my painting journey, I painted a set of miniatures that came with the special edition of Civilization V. Some turned out better than others, but the worst was this barbarian warrior. When I looked at the figure more closely, I realized that my choices back then made no sense--I'd painted a fur green, I mistook some exposed musculature for clothing, and so on. I fixed those mistakes and added some drybrushing to give the figure more definition. 

I'm most pleased by the beard and mustache. With agonizing patience, I used my tiniest brush to paint in those details by hand, rather than attempting to drybrush them on. This way, you can actually see his lips between the mustache and beard, an effect I've never accomplished before this. Now that I know I can do it if I'm patient and careful enough, I'm going to attempt this technique more often. 
 

Elias Taylor

"Resistance" hooligan Elias Taylor has been spotted in Anaheim. Your friends, the Visitors, will reward anyone who offers tips leading to the capture of this dangerous terrorist! 
 

Mike Donovan

Visitors and our law-abiding human friends should be on the lookout for renegade Mike Donovan, once a journalist, now a member of the so-called "resistance." 

 

Avery

Here's Avery, one of a trio of fierce Raiders you might encounter in Fallout 4. Very small figures like this continue to challenge me, but, even though this one looks pretty rough, it represents improvement for me for this sort of figure. I managed to mostly apply paints in the right places, despite the incredibly tiny details, and I like the pool of radioactive liquid at her feet. 
 

The Rifleman

Here's a rifleman from the early 20th century. I think his outfit is okay, and I'm pleased with the rifle. His skin is a little mottled, but on the other hand, his fingers and facial features are reasonably well-defined. I've learned that I have to use extra patience with the smaller humanoid models. 
 

7TV Remote Cinematographer

Here's another 7TV miniature, this time one who works for the metafictional 7TV station itself. I'm particularly happy with the 7TV logos that are barely visible on his hat and jacket (sorry, I forgot to take a photo from the rear). The clothing looks reasonably authentic, too. 
 

Enclave Heavy Weapons

A few days ago I painted a couple more Enclave minis for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. I'm inching ever closer to actually playing the game one of these days! 
 

Brotherhood of Steel Patrol

On Friday night I finished painting some Brotherhood of Steel miniatures in power armor. The sculpts are all the same, so to differentiate them, I added some bits and bobs to the bases. In this case. I added a bit of silver plastic and then painted with with various shades of rust to create a weathered pipe. 

This soldier's armor is rusty, and I added an ancient handbag and a discarded stuffed rabbit to the base. 

The final member of the trio walks past an abandoned sleeping back and a disembodied steering wheel. 

Validating Our Worst Selves

As sometimes happens, I had a pretty lousy week (by the standards of my particular forms of privilege). I missed a day of work, the news was getting me down, I'd accidentally inconvenienced a couple of people, I wasn't getting much sleep, I had no drive to accomplish household tasks--the sorts of problems that really should be taken in stride. Instead, by Thursday I'd worked myself into a state of fierce self-loathing. 

Today I felt much better, thanks almost entirely to simply cuddling with Sylvia through Thursday night. As we drove to pick up groceries today, I made light of my maudlin mood of the days prior, mocking myself by saying things like "Oh, I've been so mean to people over the years" and "I've been a complete idiot so much of my life" and "I've accomplished nothing." I said it in a tone that tried to suggest I knew such feelings were silly, but Sylvia saw through me, as usual. She admitted that she sometimes felt that way too, but then she said something that hit me like a bombshell: 

"Why do our negative thoughts get all our internal attention and validation?" 

Yes! Why? All my life I've validated my worst feelings about myself while at the same time dismissing or devaluing the positive assessments of other people. I'm not alone in this. 

I wonder what percentage of human beings validate their bad feelings about themselves, and what percentage enjoy a healthier, more balanced view--not narcissistic, but a view that accepts their good and bad qualities without feeling undue self-loathing or overweening pride. Furthermore, I wonder that genetic traits or environmental conditions make the difference between mental health and depression and other disorders. 

I've written a few times about how much I loathed my first job after graduating from the University of Alberta: driving a truck full of automotive parts to different garages on the south and west sides of Edmonton. I had that job for three years, applying for other jobs all the while, and the longer I was there the more I began to believe that I'd never do better. (To give myself some credit, I recognized, even as an ignorant twentysomething, the inherent value of any job that in some way helped the community; I didn't feel as though I was "above" the job, just that it didn't suit my interests or skills.) 

For several months of this three-year period, I was living with my parents and commuting to Edmonton with Dad. After one particularly rough day, I confessed to Dad that I thought there must be something wrong with me because even after years of trying, nobody wanted to hire me. (I'd gotten the truck driving job thanks to Dad.) 

"Earl, that's bullshit," Dad said forcefully, startling me a little. "You're a very smart kid, but these are tough conditions. It won't be long before you find something much better suited to all the things you can do." 

Dad's no-nonsense clarity helped quite a bit that day, and he was right; it wasn't long before I moved on to better things, though not without some amusing misadventures. 

Sylvia's question today has helped me realize that I need to investigate why I've given so much weight to the ways I've failed other people, the ways I've failed to live up to my expectations of myself, the ways I've hurt others--almost always unintentionally--and yet, NOT always unintentionally, and when you hurt someone, what do your intentions matter anyway? 

This is turning into a screed, so I'll conclude with this: If you've ever had feelings like mine, I hope you'll give yourself a break. Believe people when they say nice things about you; don't devalue their judgement or support. I'm going to do my best to take my own advice. 

Not-so-Pristine Protectron

This protectron has been wandering the wasteland for a while, so he's picked up some rust. 
 

Pristine Protectron

Here's a protectron without any fuel leaks or rust. I figure this guy was sealed in his charging pod for hundreds of years before emerging fresh and new into the wasteland. 
 

Purple Vaze

Purple vaze, it's full of violet
Purple vaze, I think I'm gonna try it
Purple vaze, it's a very strange tea
'Scuse me, how did this get dyed? 


 

Shotgun Shuriken

. . . the ULTIMATE C.H.A.O.S. agent! 

No. Her dress is too filthy. 
 

Uzi Blonde

She's blonde, she has an Uzi, therefore, Uzi Blonde. Once again I've messed up the skin tones, though. 
 

Bluejeans Lantern

Happy with the lantern, jacket, jeans, hair, and skin, not so happy with the undershirt. 
 

Midnight Malcolm

Midnight Malcolm draws at sunrise.

The Man in Black was the gunslinger, and none followed him. Here's a cowboy I painted in start black and white, with some brown bits and copper for the bullets and belt buckle. 

The Villain's Desk

I created a workstation from a Crooked Dice desk and several assorted leftover bits I had lying around. 

 

Shadowy Character

 

Shadowy in that I hid his rocket launcher in the shadows, but otherwise I like the way the light highlights my paint job, which is above average for me. The pants and shirt look good, skin tone is close to what I wanted, hair looks okay.