You know my methods, Watson.

Greetings and Happy New Year 2014!

I have returned from a fantastic Christmas trip to Costa Rica and celebrated my birthday to wrap up 2013 on a high note. It was not the greatest year for me personally, and that took a toll on my collecting and painting efforts. My painting output last year dismal, and I didn't even finish one of the two dragons I wanted to paint for the Here Be Dragons! paint challenge over on the Reaper forums. I managed to piss away an entire YEAR for that project. Sigh.

Anyhow, looking ahead to the new year, it has already started off with a bang in the form of a D&D session with my friends that saw us teeter on the edge of a TPK, and then the boys rallied and pulled us back from the brink of destruction. Well played, boys. I need to do a writeup on that one, and soon.

To celebrate my first post of 2014, we are doing it in style. Make that gold-plated style. I was the high bidder on one of the small handful of Grenadier Call of Cthulhu gold-plated minis from the David L. Arneson collection that included Kaspar Gutman, Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, and a Deep One.

I'm not a CoC collector by any stretch of the imagination, but I have always enjoyed the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, so it was an easy pick for me. That, and the fact that it presumably was part of Arneson's personal collection. So there you have it, my first Grenadier gold-plated mini.

I need to sit down, take stock of my unfinished painting projects, and see if I can get myself back into a painting groove. I would also like to get on a regular blogging schedule, and revive some dormant features like the Lead Market Report.

To those of you who have continued to stop by, thanks for sticking with me! I hope 2014 is a great year for everyone.