Many Thanks, Padre!

After a botched Appalachian Trail backpacking trip thanks to blisters (we did manage 2 days and only about 20 grueling miles with 16 on day 1), I found myself with a few days off and what better way to spend those than painting?

I have to admit my eyes were bigger than my stomach and  I thought I'd have much more time to get a few solo games in.  If I'm lucky I'll manage one but I would be remiss if I didn't get this guy into a blog post:

CADPAT long sleeve shirt with hood!

You're probably saying to yourself "boy that's a beautiful hoodie, Steve, wherever did you get something like that?  You don't live in Canada!"

Well I'll tell you!

My correspondence with the Mad Padre  started a couple months back, shortly before he was going on summer leave.  I mentioned in a "Gaming Plans" posting that I was wanting to start "I Aint Been Shot, Mum" (IABSM) and he sent me an email offline inquiring about my address.

He then sent me his original collection of homemade cards he used for games and correctly observed that what keeps many beginners away from the rules are the fact that you need the cards printed out.

Colonel Klink as the Hesitant Axis Commander card!  Perfect!

Look at the size of this stack of cards - next to 15mm troops for scale

During our back and forth emails and IMs on facebook, I mentioned that I really like the Canadian Army's Camouflage pattern "CADPAT" and he offered to send me a shirt.  As a trade, I had sent him some early war 15mm German vehicles and I definitely think I got the better end of the deal here!

 Today I opened the mail and what greeted me was this outstanding hoodie that looks absolutely perfect for running, hiking, or throwing some dice in anger (in the figurative sense.).  So a hearty thanks to the Mad Padre.  I will wear this with pride.

Since we'd begun our short correspondence online and as other bloggers have mentioned, back and forths like these are a great testament to our online blogging community.  The world wide web has done much to expand and enrich our hobby, but most importantly, gotten us out of musty basements (mine is somewhat musty) and comic book stores and enabled us to virtually cross continents (or at least trans-national borders) to correspond with and engage other gamers and hobbyists.  I know he'd probably dislike the praise, but Michael, you are a true "stand up guy" as they say around these parts.

Just like in the Army, it's the people that always keep you around and make everything else worthwhile.

As for me?  I have no excuse and figured this valuable time off would be a great time to get acquainted with the IABSM rules, and reacquainted with Blitzkrieg Commander, in between painting batches of Portuguese Napoleonic Infantry, WW2 Soviets, and many, many tanks!

So a few posts coming up regarding progress of painting, and maybe even a game or 2 somewhere in there.  Huzzah!