Reality... Unfortunately

Summer is always without question the busiest time of year for the farm. Horse shows 2 to 3 times a month, the daily maintenance of 56 acres and 6 horses - I'm normally at around 50 hours worked per week. But add in everything that this year has brought - the monthly 2 day clinics with our Olympic team members Boyd Martin and Richard Picken, two area rider fund raisers at the farm in the next two weeks, Jakob's graduation two weeks ago, Jakob's 18th birthday tomorrow, Jakob's graduation party now apparently scheduled for July 9th, my sister-in-law will be back in the states from Chile in less than 10 days, the farm next door (who has 42 horses) lost their farm manager so I've been going over there each morning and making almost 100 buckets of grain which takes over 2 hours to do, and freshman orientation at University of Cincinnati is July 7th and 8th, my feed business that has increased quite a bit in the last year which takes me all around the area making deliveries, that's probably another 15 to 20 hours a week.... for my own sanity I'll not continue with more!!

I just don't see how I can finish the second board for the Agent Carter game. Weekends were going to be when I got the bulk of the work done and that has pretty much been taken away from me over the last month or so, and definitely in the next 3 weeks.

I'm extremely frustrated, and honestly pretty mad - if I had the slightest idea that the months before Historicon would snowball into this kind of chaos I absolutely wouldn't have committed to run a game. I knew there was a lot going on in May, June, and early July but nothing like what has happened. Especially because this years Historicon was really important in regards to attendance and the number and quality of games being run. I didn't want to ultimately impact that in a negative way which I now feel I will.

And a big part of it is my own fault - for not knowing 100% what I wanted to do initially, that really cost me February through March which is when I had nothing going on at the farm. At this point it should really be nothing but playtesting, all terrain should have been completed.

Lots of hard lessons learned over the last few days. The thing I absolutely don't want to do is bring a game that is not 100% ready or 100% complete. I've played in games like that at Historicon and it was nothing short of a disaster. I know a few of you who read this signed up for the games and I owe you all a huge apology.

Enough of my complaining - I have been working despite no time and just being exhausted everyday. I've been working through my computer terminals from Crooked Dice, painting and adding styrene strips to cover up the MDF connections.

Here are the styrene strips with a coat of silver paint on them. I should have painted them after cutting (and have since) because I had to do touch ups around the edges after I glued them onto the models.

You can see what an improvement it makes.

I also went back and added another part to Sousa's crutch as I missed the brace around the wrist.

Watching the series again while I have been working I really can't believe I missed that detail the first time around.

I was also able to use one of the figures from last years The Chicago Way game that didn't make it down to Fredericksburg. This figure came from the Prohibition Agents set from Great Escape Games.

This is an absolute perfect representation of Dr. Jason Wilkes from season 2 of Agent Carter. Even has the suspenders, though they are probably pretty hard to see in the photo. I used a cut out for his tie to make it a bit more interesting.

I went through and got all the minion good guys and bad guys based onto their clear bases.

Here are some of the more "important" minions because they are wearing different colored uniforms :)

Female scientist working for the evil Isodyne Energy.

This guy has the secret formula for Zima in his briefcase, someone needs to shoot him :)

The color of the uniform on the bad guys is something I really like a lot. The off yellow suits them perfectly I think.

This is my favorite figure of all the bad guys - reminds me of the character from the movie "Von Ryan's Express", it's the eye patch.

The complete bad guys minions group.

And some of the good guys in a more military type of uniform. These guys are pretty cool and hopefully I'll be able to use them in several scenarios in the future.

They are much more heavily armed though then their counterparts. For game balance that will be something that I'll have to be aware of.

And a group shot. Several female figures too, which is a nice addition.

I got all the casts together, with their bases outlined so you won't lose your figures on the table. The first good guys cast with Peggy Carter, Jack Thompson, Jason Wilkes, and then two generic agents.

The second good guys cast lead by Daniel Sousa, Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark, generic agent, and Dr. Samberly.

The first bad guys cast with Whitney Frost, Dr. Armin Zola, Joseph Manfredi, Calvin Chadwick, and generic thug.

The second bad guys cast with Vernon Masters, Dottie Underwood, Rufus, Hugh Jones, and generic thug.

I completed cards for the entire good guys cast but still need to get photos of the figures to help with identifying them on the table.

Close up of the Carter and Thompson cards. I just copied everything from the original cards, the special effects, star qualities, ratings, I just changed the names to make it simple because the explanations of all the qualities and effects are on the reverse of the cards.

Stark and Jarvis. I like how Jarvis has the "Screamer" special effect :)

And finally just for fun Dr. Emmett Brown got put onto a clear base.

Complete with radiation sign.

And to complete the effect, the Hot Wheels Back To The Future Delorean!

Well, not much more I can say. Pretty bummed honestly. I will continue to try to do as much as I can when I can. Again, apologies to those reading this who have signed up for the game :(

As always, thanks for looking!
Ivor