Mr. Gibson's (elfstones) blog

I stained the metal plate and then drilled holes.  the stain was much darker and more red than I anticipated.  I drilled holes in the top of the box and then threaded the plate on the front of the box.  Now I just need to seal the surface.

Paige designed a dragon head that we both liked on her computer.  She saved it and we transferred the image to the main computer.  We then printed the image to a size small to put on the metal plate.



Estimating the center of the metal plate, I firmly taped the paper around the plate.










With a wood block underneath, I slowly punch down along the printed outline of the dragon head.  I tried to make each punch as close as possible.















The metal plate is now ready to drill holes in and stain.















I have painted the inside of the box with black spray paint.
















I also purchased clear paint to seal the exterior upon completion.  This was about $3.50 a can.














Lastly tonight, I glued the corner plates on with gorilla glue.

In my previous blog posts I had not show the base color that I was using for the base paint.  I described it as a dark charcoal, but here is the exact palette.

Since my last post, I have acquired my $5 dollars in supplies to continue my project.  In the center of the box, I plan on having a metal plate with a dragon punched into it.  The plate will also be bronzed.  Here I have a ruler near it to show it's actual size.  This is a old steel plate that came with some magnets I purchased some seven years ago.
Paige made me some possible rough dragon sketches to uses on the plate on my box.  I doubt that any of these will be used though.  I will know the right one when I see it.














The plate will be held on with some braided cord.  I picked this up for a couple bucks.  It should look good with brown and bronze.














I marked where I will drill the holes to put the braided cord through.













For a couple dollars, I also purchased some bronzed decorative corner pieces to put on the box.















They will p…

After I let the glue and napkin dry, I painted the napkin with a coat of dark charcoal latex.   This will be the under color that the browns and golds will be layered on (showing the dark in the cracks).














After that dried over night, this is what the top looks like.  So I'm in a holding pattern till I get to the store to purchase the remainder of the items to complete this project.

I have started the process of making my new dice box.  I found a nice plastic craft/screw-nail container that work well for storing my dice.

The box holds up to 20 sets of dice in a nice organized way.
Because the box is smooth plastic, I doubt that I can adhere material to the surface well.















To solve this problem I have decided to cover the top with duct tape.














Now that the box is covered with duct tape. I'm applying glue to the surface of the tape.















I shredded several napkins into small randomly torn pieces that will be applied to the glue.
















Now that I have the napkins applied to the glue, I'll let it dry before continuing.

The newest Thor movie, Thor: Ragnarok, had everyone pretty excited.  The movie appeared to be something new for Marvel with the particular paring of super heroes.  I must say I enjoyed the movie.  But the movie was not a completely original Marvel work of art. In reality, back in 1973, Marvel had Valkrie, Thor, Hulk, Dr Strange, and Loki all together then.  Yes, the story scenario is much different, but there are similarities. Starting Feb 1973, The Defenders vol 1 issue 4 - the super hero group, The Defenders consisted of Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, Hulk, and Valkyrie (This was her first appearance with Defenders, issue she joins the team.)




I didn't read these early Defenders growing up.  I did not start reading The Defenders 'till issue 105.
By then, these comics had become much more soap-opera like.


Valkyrie of the old comics is not the same as the Valkyrie of the movies, The spirit of the Asgardian has possessed the body of an earth woman in the early Marvel world.



In the …

Most people that know me know that I have many thousands of baseball cards.  I of course started collecting them as a child when I was in grade school.  My most significant collection is of the Cubs, followed by Cardinals, White Sox, and Red Sox.  What many people don't know about me is that I have hundreds of comic books.  I don't really consider myself a comic book collector.  I just have stuff that I like ;)

My biggest collection is of the Defenders by Marvel comics.  I purchased 4 a kid on a whim and loved them.  I later just made sure I acquired the rest so I could have the whole story from beginning to end.  I also loved Thor, Hulk, and Captain Marvel.  I don't think most 'comic people' really know how big a part of the Marvel Universe had through the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  Also how intertwined they were with the Avengers.  Or even that the Hulk and Dr Strange were Defenders way before they ever were part of the Avengers.  Some characters would even go back and …

I'm a little slow on the draw, but happy to learn that Linux Journal is NOT dead!

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/happy-new-year-linux-journal-alive

as the article says, they have been purchased.  So useful information can still be shared through this resource. So we can still have cute, helpful little articles like this one:

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/slow-system-iotop-your-friend

Another great gaming site for those great DOS games you have not touched in years - - XTDOS.com
Unlike the two sites I posted about yesterday, XTDOS specializes in DOS based games.  And there were some great ones.

Today I played some more old favorites like

Doom II
http://www.xtdos.com/game.php?id=295

They even have my old classic favorites like Commander Keen

http://www.xtdos.com/?s=commander+Keen


And man I was a little rusty at WarCraft II

http://www.xtdos.com/game.php?id=1619

I'm someone who literally owned all the Kings Quest games.  Unfortunately, all are not represented on the site.  The site only has I, II, and II:

http://www.xtdos.com/?s=Kings+Quest

Even has the DOS version of Golden Axe.  This was actually the first version I owned before I had it on cartridge for the Sega Genesis, 3 Sega Geneses retro consoles, and the Xbox 360. :)

http://www.xtdos.com/golden-axe. 

But just like the original, you need a copy of the manual to play.