I know it's been more than a week since Gary Gygax's passing, but I was on a Caribbean beach at the time, drinking Pina Colatas. I made up for it by crafting this Beholder out of felt at the
MCA's family day this past Saturday (and yes I know I probably shouldn't have put tentacles on the bottom).
Anyway, I think I'd be remiss to not say something about such an important person (I mean NPR ran a story about it for crying out loud!).
I first played D&D way back in 1987. It was that red box edition that came with the dice set and a crayon for coloring in the numbers. I convinced my friend Art to play and fun time were had by all. My D&D interest pretty much died after I discovered 40K (Oddly enough, from an ad in the back of Dungeon Magazine).
I didn't play again until damn near 10 years later when I was invited to join my friend
Chris's Forgotten Realms AD&D campaign. I played a monk who's true name has been lost to time. Since his chosen weapon was a Jo Staff (somehow different from bo staff?), he became known simply as "Joe".
I played consistently for about 9 months. I gained enough levels to be able to talk to animals (like druids). Unfortunately, animals never knew jack. Still, I felt a sense of accomplishment.
The party was a strange mix of chaotic/neutral/unlawful (sorry, I'm super rusty on my alignment types), so most games involved a lot of hack, slash and ask questions later. Chris was a great DM and threw a lot of puzzles at us to keep us on our toes.
The most memorable part of those games (besides the post-session craps games) was an NPC called "Larry the Drunk". Our party picked him up at some tavern brawl and he became our mascot/ pack animal. Unfortunately, he also became human bate. If we suspected a trap or an ambush, Larry went first and flushed out the perpetrator. Larry was our faithful companion for at least 8 sessions.
I can still remember how sad we all were when Larry met his end beneath the foot of a (frost?) giant. His body was crushed beyond any hope of resurrection. Chris beratted us for using Larry that way and made us all feel very ashamed of ourselves.
Aaahh, good times!
Anyway, I posted my felt finger puppet creation, so I'd also like to share my wife's and son's puppets.
On the left is Max's snowman with ice-axe (rules for which can be found in White Dwarf). Clare made a "fire hippie" with bonfire. There pictured here with the stage we made for them.
To tie them into my D&D theme, simply consider Max's a Ice Elemental and Clare's a fire elemental.
Here's the whole squad. I have to put a layer of highlights on the gold and yellow, then pick out the details and I'm done.
Here's the front of my sorcerer. You may notice from the last time I posted a picture of this miniature, that some of the highlights on the tip of his cowl have warn off. This is because while I've been painting his mini, I've been using it in games. When I realized that routine game usage was wearing the paint off, I decided to stop using it in games until it was finished.
Here's the rear of the sorcerer. The robe came out a lot darker than I wanted, but oh well. It was the first time I used Foundation paints (Charadon Granite, specifically) and I didn't realize how dark it would come out. 
This was a stab at taking a better picture of that Tzeentch Horror I featured recently. I think this picture may be worse. Also featured here is a work-in-progress Tzeentch flamer. Yes, I'm very, very excited about the demon codex.
For you Chicagoans out there, this piece is inspired by the asphalt factory at Pulaski and the Stevenson (I-55).
Yeah, it's basically two coffee cans, some tuna cans, and a couple of yogurt cups.
The chapel is attached to a base of fiberboard with some felt glued on the bottom. The felt keeps the piece from sliding around during games.
Above you can see some vile Tau desecrating the chapel during a recent game.
You've probably seen this picture before. I like it, so I'm posting it again.
