Gary Hoey 'Monster Surf'

I had the pleasure of spending some time with my nephews Colton and Preston today. Colton was sick and Preston claimed that he didn’t get any sleep last night, so they conned my sister into letting them lay out of school.

They brought over their Pokemon books and I had to lay into them about that.

Personally, I don’t care for Pokemon and I have never been impressed by the games or cartoons.

When the afternoon rolled around, Preston went online to play something online called Adventure Quest. I checked it out and told them that if they liked that… They would surely dig some D&D.

They were intrigued.

I also whet their appetite on Battle Tech.

It looks as if they’re going to play sometime with my buddy Sean overseeing everything. Sean loves playing the game and he’s a walking rule book of information. I like it, but to be quite honest, I’m not that much into it. I’m not the fan boy like Sean. I don’t have a good handle on all the rules that could easily fill a California State phone directory. The television is way more interesting to stare at than any of the Tech manuals.

I don’t know why I feel compelled to wipe Pokemon out of their tiny heads… Could it be a waste of time and money? Could it be because it’s stupid?

I just feel like it’s better that they play something that has some staying power the older you get. Something that I don’t feel like they’ll ever outgrow.

I’ve been playing Battle Tech for close to 20 years now. Sure, it’s a little on the geeky side… But it sure is fun as hell!

Battle Tech is like 2 hobbies in one.

First of all, you have to assemble the mechs on hexes, prime them, and then paint them.

We have one steadfast rule: You can’t play an unpainted mech or one without a hex base.

I’ve been fairly artistic with my Mechs… I’ve got one painted like Gene Simmons during the Music From The Elder period.



I’ve got a pink panther. And there’s the various patterns of camouflage represented. I’ve used dry-brushing techniques and ink washes to make them look battle worn. The only thing that I haven’t done is incorporate sand and faux grasses on the hex bases.

Jonathan and Sean have a few good looking lances with those types of hex bases.

Just talking about it with my nephews has me wanting to break out the 20 or some Mechs in storage and get to painting them. Since I’m out of work… Why the hell not?

--Since I haven’t said so in a very long time… The title of each blog is my musical choice of the day. And this Gary Hoey CD is rockin’!