The last photo to Shane

Good High Street Food Game

Earlier in the morning Shane: How’s the new house? How’s things? Me: Getting better. Street food here is good btw. Plenty of chicken. Shane: Good good. Me: Place I moved to has high street food game. Shane: Ooooh. If ya ever get down there take some photos for your boy   Later that evening… Shane: Awesome. Unknown to me at the time, this was to be the last photo I would ever send him. I wish I’d sent him more.

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Facebook image with Shane and Hisham at RARPGBIP page

Be Seeing You, Brother

Once upon a time, I decided to try my hand at illustration Star Wars RPG characters online. I had a GeoCities site names Template Facades. I advertised my free services on Webrings and such (remember Webrings?) and one of my earliest replies was this young Canadian from Nova Scotia barely out of his teens, named Shane. We bonded over all things gaming, and even more important, all thing geeky. From Star Wars and Star Trek to games, comics and toys, we talked about everything, even when we were both on opposite sides of the planet. And we talked and discussed and made dumb jokes. We talked about Wok With Yan. We talked about each others’ family. Our high notes and low notes. Shane passed away today due to complications from cancer. It hurts to type the previous sentence. He was a friend who’s always there. He was a brother in […]

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Stormtrooper is desperately holding it in

Shane Goes To Star Wars Identities

As mentioned in the Star Trek exhibition post downriver, my brother from another mother and hemisphere Shane went and visited Star Wars Identities exhibition at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton. Shane gave me permission to feature photos from his expedition into the world of Star Wars miniatures, maquettes, concept art and costumes. Which gives me a reason to post more Star Wars photos on this blog for the lulz. FOR THE LULZ! See this grin on Shane? I will match and exceed that if I ever visit an exhibition like this one. In the background, Boba Fett is unsettled by his number one fan. The entire set up sounds fantastic. As a visitor, you are able to use the interactive displays to choose which path you take as you traverse the entire exhibition. What you choose will create an original character attributed to you as you reach the […]

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Hishgraphics H

Classic Conversation

When Shane and I start chatting, we mostly chat geeky. But sometimes it goes way up to epic. It’s about time I blogged about my usual chats with Shane This didn’t really escalate to epic level, but it’s a taste of how our conversations usually go: Hisham: Hey… what would have happened if there were no clouds at night in Gotham City? And Gordon needed to shine the batsignal? Shane: Wouldn’t it hit the atmosphere anyways? Hisham: Still needs something flat for it to project onto. Shane: Good thing Gotham is a dark, fictional city Hisham: With a flat, fictional piece of plexiglass across the sky. Shane: POLLUTION! HA! There! Axis Chemicals has been pumpin shit into the atmosphere for decades Hisham: Well, never let it be said pollution was good for nothing. Shane: This is classic Shane/Hisham convo right here. That last line? Amen. Note: Edited for clarity.

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Rhen Sannin the Freighter Captain

SWAG Request: Rhen Sannin

Shane’s about to start a Star Wars RPG campaign and requested his major – NPC Rhen Sannin, the freighter captain – from the Star Wars Artists’ Guild. After giving some time for any other guild members to pick it up, I decided to claim the request earlier today… so I got to practice with the tablet and Painter Classic again, which is always good. After some hours, here’s Captain Rhen Sannin all made up and prettied, complete with blue milk on the side, cyborged limb and a datapad. Click here for its SWAG entry page. Hope this artwork gets some mileage in your campaign, buddy.

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Shane meets Tom Zarek

And On The 501st Post, Shane Meets Apollo

Yes, really. Awesome wikked. Take it away, Shane: Today was the Winnipeg Comic Con. Richard Hatch was the big reason I wanted to go. JUST to get a pic of him and I together and an autograph. I did that very early on in the day, think I was third in line. I knew later he had this acting/improv/rpg character creation session. I went, thinkin that there was gonna be a million people and I’d get stuck in the back and not even get to interact with him. The room turned out to be very small, and there were only about 50 people. Me, sitting up front. He starts asking why people are here. I raise my hand. Suddenly, I’m talking to Apollo. One on one….I’m mentioning about being a GM and wanting to crerate better stories. He then talks about how RPGing and being a GM is harder than […]

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Lookit grenades

My Debut as a G.I. Joe

Shane, who’s made some great dioramas at Joe Dios, has unveiled his latest custom G.I. Joe figure, a jungle trooper codenamed Monsoon. I’d like to add to Monsoon’s background: He’s carried a lot of emotional baggage on his shoulders, ever since May 1999 where he faked sick leave to catch the première of Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in the theatres. During the screening, his squad was called for a simple milk run, a reconnaissance mission to the jungles of Papua New Guinea to investigate the reports of a new Cobra bioweapons lab. There was an ambush and everyone was killed in action, except Monsoon who was watching Star Wars. Now a member of the Last Chance Squad (broken link) of the G.I. Joes, Monsoon has a strangely adverse psychological reaction whenever Star Wars is mentioned. Click on the link (broken link) to check out Monsoon at Joe […]

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I'm sure this has something to do with COBRA Commander's nasal twang

Shanes Spectacularly Shows Off His Joes

My pal Shane, seen here as a COBRA Crimson Guard commander, has the best collection of G.I. Joes I’ve ever seen. Now it’s not just the quantity, but his Joe figures is used thoroughly in the photos Shane took and posted at his JoesDios page where he goes by the monicker, LordRaven. There are quite a number of excellently composed photos in his gallery. Check it out here. (Update: Dead link) The photos range from the dramatic, such as this one of pinned down Alley Vipers… … to the hilarious.

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Hal Rogero

A Colonial Viper Pilot in d20

My friend Shane Welin is now in a d20 game with a difference. The rules might be powered by the run-of-the-mill d20 Modern / Future engine but I believe this is the first time I know of a campaign set in the world of Battlestar Galactica whose third season will be aired this next month. His player character stats is listed below, but I’ll see about getting stats for Colonial Vipers (Mark IIs and Mark VIIs), Raptors and Cylon Raiders up here as well. Anyway, here’s Shane’s Hal Rogero (still no callsign) in d20: Name: Hal Rogero Age: 18 Sex: Male Height: 5’10 Weight : 150 lbs Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Colony: Picon Classes: Smart/Fast/Viper Pilot Levels: 1/3/3 Str: 12 Dex: 16 Con: 14 Int: 16 Wis: 16 Cha: 10 HP: 51 Rep: +2 Wealth : +2 Defense 17 Fortitude Save:4 Reflex Save: 7 Willpower Save: 7 Initiative: 7 Base […]

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Shane as a Crimson Guard

COBRA’s Crimson Guard

Here is another painting and deviantArt upload I made in the last couple of days. COBRA’s elite Crimson Guard platoon with its leader unmasked, who is based on my pal Shane Welin, companion of Duckie, who’s in a G.I. Joe mood this month. Click on the link under the image below to view its deviantArt page.

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Duckie, on RPG Books

Duckie Approves of RPGs!

Duckie, the feline roommate of my good friend Shane Welin of Nova Scotia, likes RPG books very much. Eberron, a stack of D&D 3.5 books, Forgotten Realms, d20 Modern, and even some WOTC and WEG Star Wars books. Hisham: What does Duckie think of your RPG books? Shane: She likes em I guess, she sleeps on em all the time. Hisham: She ever join you gaming? Shane: We usually game elsewhere, but the few times we did game here she was all about watching and chasing after dice. Well, maybe she doesn’t read them, but she sure loves to sit on them. And everyone knows cats only sit on books that has high writing and production qualities. So, here’s to you Duckie! May all your d20 dice chases end up as Critical Hits.

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