Can I put those points into shooting please?

As most of you know, I've spent my weekends being a terrible tourist here in California. However, rather than spend my weekday evenings like a terrible business traveller getting drunk in my hotel room/at the hotel bar, I've been pootling down to the local Games Workshop at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton. By pure coincidence, this is a five minute walk from my hotel. The staff there are a great bunch of guys, with manager Greg, and Eric, Kev and Chase. Basically, all GW's around the world are pretty much the same, same layout, same stock, same kind of people frequenting them, same quotes being bandied about. The only difference is the accents. Or as Eric put it (referring to the staff's love of Monty Python and Eddie Izzard), "It's either British accents or bad British accents".

Anyway, as it turns out, staff member Kev, who I got on really well with, is a former US Marine. Also, one of his roles was as rifle and pistol instructor. On hearing that I'd never fired a hand gun, he offered to take me to the local range and "Teach me how to shoot like a marine". How could I pass that up?


So we went to 'TargetMasters' (wow, the Transformers references are coming almost one a post) shooting range in Milpitas and Kev picked a .357 Magnum (yes, the Dirty Harry one) and off we went. Apparently I did pretty good for a beginner.



It was all very GURPS - how can I up my gun skill? You mean I can't live in a skip filled with guns? Ooh, tenuous method that's allowed! Now I know what it's like being Bob's character in an RPG.

Boys vs. Robot

My latest purchase from GW - a Space Marine Scout squad, led by Sergeant Telion, equipped with Camo Cloaks and Bolt Guns. I've modified the original sniper rifles to look like Bolter/Assault Rifles with Suppressors. These chaps are going to be Imperial Fists, but with a reversed colour scheme of Carbon Black body armour with very small amounts of yellow trim. Sergeant Telephone has had all his Ultramarines markings removed and will be painted as a Fist also. Might take these to the Doubles Tournament, but they come to a lot of points. But hey, the alternative was a single clanky robot with a giant death hammer. Hang on, what am I thinking?

SOCAL

So it's a bit delayed; I meant to post this over the weekend, but I was lazy. Anyway, what with some celebration or something in the States called Thanksgiving, I had four days to play with. Now, I could have just done nothing, or spent each day at the local Games Workshop, but I decided it would be much cooler to go to Los Angeles instead. It's an... interesting place. I'm glad I went, but I don't think I'd want to live there! Bit too crazy, bit too driven and a slightly warped sense of priorites. And the closer you get to the epicentre of all the weirdness, Hollywood, the stranger it all gets. This is a place where building a five story mall modelled on an Assyrian temple makes sense. As a tourist I just gawked a shook my head; much like everyone else there that wasn't local. Yes, as usual, I was a terrible tourist, but with a slightly geeky flavour - I made a point of visiting the scenes of movies I like.

Proper terrible tourism. It kinda had to be done.

This is me at Griffith Observatory, a prominent location in Rebel Without a Cause, but more importantly, it's the building Timothy Dalton's Giant Nazi Zeppelin emerges from behind in The Rocketeer.

I hunt for Replicants at the Bradbury building in Downtown LA. This was J.F. Sebastians's apartment in Blade Runner, where Roy Batty and pris hid out.

Does this need any introduction? I stand in front of Nakatomi Plaza, otherwise known as 20th Century Fox HQ.

I took I-5 down from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. This is the most direct route at five and a half hours drive, but very dull. On the way back, however, I took the scenic route up Highways 1 and 101, following the coast. The scenery from here was beautiful, and the roads were a bit more interesting than straight freeway. A little too interesting at times...

I nearly write off the Pontiac by missing the corner and putting it sideways into a ditch. I'm sure Ben would argue that would be an improvement.

And finally, I saw this in a car park in Hollywood and had to photograph it. If it doesn't immediately make sense to you, it probably never will.

Hopefully my next post will be sooner, and include more toy soldiers. Yay!