2007 Roll-Foreward

I don't have much to say as things have been real quiet and busy at the same time. So here's what loyal readers get to look forward to in the next couple of weeks.

A few photo-essays of my last Warhammer games of 2007 - mixing and matching Cities of Death and Apocalypse.

Thoughts on the Logitech G15 (yes, I found one open-box at the local Futurecrap store here, so it was even cheaper than I anticipated).

My order from RightStuf should arrive any day so I'll need to post a bit about the anime classic Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

My order from Toy-Wave should also arrive any moment with my newest additions to my Revoltech collection. Expect more photos.

I grabbed some more WH40k models for my army so I'll be blogging the build as usual.

I found a nice super-fine-tipped marker in a local artist store so I'll be putting the finishing touches that Zaku from before.

And just maybe I will start on that Imperial Baneblade model because holy crap, thats been gathering dust for months.

Crisis Commander 3

Finally going to put the lid on the Tau Crisis Battlesuit I've been blogging for the last week or so.

The last thing to do really is paint (and decals but I'm not a big fan of them). So here's a look at a common trick that's an offshoot of dry-brushing. I have slathered paint in large blobs - large enough that it will run into the crevices on the model. But I wipe off the excess leaving the paint filling in the indentations. Afterward, I will lightly "dry-brush" a darker colour to hid the mess so that the indents will be "glowing" with the brighter colour.

Anyway, here's a quick photo of all my "battle suits." They're all in various states of completion. You can see that some of the "eye" lenses still have the slathering technique described above and incomplete. Some have their bases decorated with "rubble." And you will never see this particular configuration in an actual army. The blue guys are my older paint scheme when I first started playing (I've always meant to redo those). The red suit is my rendition of Commander Farsight while the white one is my version of Commander Shadowsun - they don't really get along.

Reaction: Michael Clayton

Did not know what I was walking into - except that this was one of those lawyer movies. George Clooney takes a turn at the legal-drama field playing (as usual) the role he's so good at: a variant of himself.

What surprised me was how well, the character of Michael Clayton fit the events in the film. He's a smart and somewhat desperate man trying to keep everything from unraveling around him.

Secondly, I was surprised at how well the movie kept my attention. Sure I couldn't help glancing at the time (because I was curious where this movie was headed as it meandered around). But when a movie starts with a climax and then tells you, "4 days ago..." Well, very few other than Quentin Tarantino can do non-linear story-telling.

Basically the movie revolves around what Clayton, a law-firm's unofficial trouble-shooter, as he attempts to regain control of a partner who's gone nuts for lack of medication. The case was a class-action suit against a large pharmaceutical company (or something; ultimately it's not important). But well, the situation quickly disolves into chaos as the company becomes desperate to salvage their defense by any means necessary. What's a lone operative to do?

This is one of those films that I would highly recommend, but also neatly falls into the category: "I'm not likely to ever bother watching it a second time." I'm just being brutally honest there.

Monster PC700

Blurring the thin line between geek-ness and nerd-dom, I bought a Monster PC700 power bar today. Not because my POS computer requires such lavish hyperbolic protection... But rather for reasons simpler than that: the price was right.

Simply put, I found it on the shelf at The Source (aka: Circuit City) at a ridiculous half-price. Yes, twenty-five bucks IS HALF-PRICE. If you're not in the know, that's because aside from setting the industry standard for mid-range home-theatre cabling, Monster is also dabbles in over-priced solutions for power protection. They have a whole line of this sort of stuff. Just walk into your local Futurecrap store and you'll find a really gimmicky demo station with what looks like an oscilloscope read-out that shows the stability of the electric current with and without a Monster product in it...

But aside from the questionable legitimacy of Monster's claims or the rationale a sales guy will try to give you for paying out the nose for a freaking power-bar, I will give Monster credit for some of their design choices. Besides making good solid cables, they do produce a pretty cool power-bar.

For their power bars, the plug is a handy round affair that is angled so it won't interfere with other plug you may want to have in the same 2-outlet wall-jack. The main toggle is positioned safely on top where an errant toe won't kick it accidentally (if you happen to be me at a certain LAN party). Plus, on the off chance you have a few plugs for devices which have their transformers built into the plugs making them fat, Monster also provides a few outlets with extra space around them too. Do you have one of those all-in-one FAX printers? Well, that's now protected too as there's a pass-thru for the phone line on this baby as well.

Monster products don't go on sale too often. In fact, they pretty much NEVER go on sale directly from Monster and usually it's the retailer taking a hit (I've been told in the past that Monster has very strict pricing policies on their products). So if you're in need of a power-bar to replace that crappy one you bought in the 80's, welcome to the 21th century.

Eldar Howling Banshees

Another photo sent over from my brother as he continues to revamp the paint job and add more special-character exarchs to his Eldar army. This time it's those babelicious Howling Banshees... Okay, really, I have no idea what I'm talking about - as usual my knowledge of these ladies is limited to what little I derive from Dawn of War: they're close combat units.

Anyway, on a side note, here's the assembled Crisis Suit I've had hanging over my head for the last week or so. The stand is finally more or less secured to the base.
I have already brought it down to my "base-coating station" (a big empty cardboard box in the basement) with a slip of scrap paper folded around the transparent base to keep it clear. The AI controlled Drones are not glued to their bases so they came right off for the spraying. Overall I'm quite happy with the way this whole thing has turned out.

Crisis Commander 2

Update: I have not been in the mood to do any work on this guy since Friday when i did some putty work. But one thing I played with a bit every day, was deciding how to mount the character onto his base (because his feet won't been enough surface to glue to the base).

Here's my ultimate solution:
I used a transparent "flight base" - this is a common stick that usually got onto a matching transparent base for models that are meant to appear to be flying or hovering. For my application, I had to cut the size right (becuase I still want the guy to appear standing on solid ground when I'm done). The standard flight heights didn't match the size of a Crisis Battle suit.

So cutting the shaft to the right height, I also had to carve down the edges to make it fit into the whole I drilled into the base. All this sounds like a commercial for my favourite tool, the Dremel, I know. But really, it's the secret weapon for any hobby enthusiast. I will mount using more putty to perfect the fit and then add glue to the feet once I confirm the position of the feet.

Game Night December 2007

This is a 2-for-1 post. First, last night we (my buddies and I) held a LAN party - and considering the nature of PC gaming (installing games, version compatibility, hardware setups), I'm amazed we had as few troubles as we did. Of course, it helped that we tried to stick with a game we all knew we could run: Unreal Tournament 2004... old enough that I acutally found a used copy at a local Value Village (aka: "Savers" in the USA).

Hi-lists and lo-lites:
- While figuring out how to plug in the various PCs that everyone bought, I accidentally kicked a power bar's toggle switch, killing the juice to both my PC and to Weirdguy's PC. We don't know if it's related, but for some reason we couldn't get his machine to stabilize afterwards - it would reboot itself for no apparent reason from time to time. And then after a while, it went back to normal.

- Once all 8 players were in place and all the PC's plugged in, the power went out. We didn't throw the main breaker because the hall light could be turned on. Heh.

- Only 1 out of 8 PC would refuse to connect to the others. We spent all night taking turns at the problematic machine trying to debug it while the other 7 would play. We never did figure it out.

- Took a break for a pizza supper. As anyone can guess, there was bound to be a round butting heads over toppings. I drank two cans of "energy drink" during the party... one Tab Energie and one Sobe Arush. I wouldn't fall asleep until about 4:30am!

- broke out the old SNES to play Super Bomber Man 2 by 2AM. It was also awesome. I complained that the game wasn't particularly realistic.

Now for PART 2...
I was just reading in Running Room Magazine an article about caffeine. For the longest time I've been wondering just how "extreme" are these so-called energy drinks. Well, Toronto nutritionist Tara Postnikoff reports that Health Canada recommend no more than 400mg of caffeine daily for an adult. And that an 8oz cup of coffee has about 150mg... so... wait, that would mean a typical 250ml can of Red Bull with 80mg of caffeine is about half a cup of coffee. Of course, that doesn't take into account all the sugars and other stimulants in an energy drink.

Anyway, beyond this, I've also decided that Tab Energie sucks. I mean, it does what it's advertised to do but it also tastes terrible, if you ask me. Firstly, I hate diet drinks - artificial sweeteners have this chemical aftertaste that remind me of cough syrup. Well, Tab Energie suffers on two counts:

First, it has a really really strong "diet" taste. And secondly, it's a cherry flavour drink. Whereas Red Bull and Arush taste more like cherry cola, Tab actually tastes like a cherry drink - like those Crush or Minute Maid fruit-flavour soft-drinks. But of course, a being a chemical-tasting cherry drink, it tastes more like bad coough syrup. I'll take an Arush over this any day.

To close up, however, can somebody out there tell me if this is the same "Tab" drink Americans have and we don't?

Crisis Commander Battlesuit 1

Remember that Crisis Battlesuit kit that arrived last night?
It's a pretty simple build: 3 pieces make up the torso, and a "ball joint" connects the limbs. And this being the ninth Crisis torso I've put together, I've learned an important trick: you need to keep the "backpack" parts squeezed together while the crazy glue dries. Here I've used an elastic band to tie the handle of my cutter together. The rubber grip provides a soft surface that won't damage the model.So far, there's not much decision making to do. But from here on, it's coming up with a "mock-up" pose. No glue yet, just fitting pieces together to get a rough idea what it might look like when done. I am substituting in "bitz" from a Commander Suit box I have leftover from another model.And finally... glue. And also, seeing as metal bitz have a tendency to not fit onto plastic well, I've used some model putty to fit the head on securely instead of glue.
The only thing not fixed at this point is the exact position of the feet and missile-pod on the upper left (his right). I've also made a terrible discovery at this point: the feet are spread too far apart for him to stand on the standard base. The base is important because it plays a role in the actual game (it delineates when a model is considered in close-combat with another model or not).
In my next post I will talk about modifying the base to accept a "flight" base stand to provide additional support to this thing. It'll take the better part of a day or two for the putty to cure anyway.

More WH Backlog

I freely admit to people who don't play that Warhammer is a very involved and potentially expensive hobby. While you can sub in a few items like rulers, dice, props to serve as terrain, other cheaper brands of paints, etc... Heck, you could conceivably play and never own a rule-book (you just share a copy with someone else). There are a few things you can't really substitute: the models themselves. It would simply be too confusing to remember what miniature is proxy for what Warhammer unit.

Then there's the little upgrades which can signify two things... either you have gone hardcore... or you have money to burn. :p

So anyway, here's what I found in my mailbox today (here's a hint: if you hunt around a bit, you'll eventually find a lot of places who will sell below the "official MSRP" from Games Workshop:Yup another Crisis Battlesuit (I have plans for this box which I will explain later). What I'm really laughing at myself for buying is the two tins of official Warhammer dice. The box on the left is the WH40K edition dice that I can't seem to find in stores any more. I'm just sort of geeking over it because now I have my own set. What I'm REALLY amused about is the middle box: a tin of "Big Gun Dice" that goes with the recent Apocalypse "anything-goes" book.
Here's a pic of my collection of specialize Warhammer tins... none of which are absolutely necessary for playing...Far left: WH40K-themed dice set - 8 with "bullet holes" for the dots and the Imperial "hawk" emblem for the "1" face. Also includes the scatter die.
Middle left: the Big Guns Dice - oversized dice featuring the Mechanicus Adeptus logo (I think) for the "1" face. Also includes the scatter die.
Middle right: Vehicle Damage dice - each face has a corresponding icon representing the possible damage caused by weapons fire on a vehicle.
Far right: Cities of Death "stratagem" markers - plastic chips with a bunch of icons on them for use in marking buildings and locations on the play field.

And... really, you need NONE of these special dice to play. Often you can always find a way to randomize anything with normal dice with faces marked 1 through 6. And that includes the directional scatter dice (just say 1 thru 4 for the four directions of the table edges and 5 and 6 are "on-target"). But it makes me feel totally geeky to know I have all this crap at my disposal now. :)

Eldar Firedragons

So yeah, my brother sent over another photo of his latest...

I'll be brutally honest. I know nothing about these dudes except that in Dawn of War they have really flashy weapons flare effects... and they're supposedly good at taking down vehicles and buildings.

Food meme

stolen from ...well, the blogosphere, of course.

1. How do you like your eggs?
Fried and over-easy. Poached is an option.

2. How do you take your coffee/tea?
Very little sugar and a touch of cream in my western beverages. If eastern, obviously it'll be black.

3. Favorite breakfast food?
The Sausage Egg McMuffin from MacDonalds (I know it ain't healthy, but it tastes so good).

4. Peanut butter - smooth or crunchy?
Smooth.

5. What kind of dressing on your salad?
right now it's raspberry vinigrette ...this answer is likely to change by tomorrow.

6. Coke or Pepsi?
Coca-Cola.

7. You’re feeling lazy, what do you make?
Instant ramen (any variation)

8. You’re feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order?
Whatever they offer as "fully loaded" - I figure if I'm not going to do the work, somebody else should.

9. You feel like cooking. What do you make?
A casserole of some kind.

10. Do any foods bring back good memories?
Canned pasta. I ate a lot of that when I was little.

11. Do any foods bring back bad memories?
Poutine when served in a small bowl - high-school cafeteria. I hated high school, btw.

12. Do any foods remind you of someone?
Chocolate milkshake - I never had one until college... and a special someone there introduced me to it.

13. Is there a food you refuse to eat?
Anything that still resembles its living animal state. I once had Chinese roast duck and the butcher included the head (duck is traditionally roasted whole) in my take-out container... I totally freaked out. That said, I still eat roast duck today, I'm just more careful about what's on my fork before taking a bite out of it.

14. What was your favorite food as a child?
Lasanga... it was an unusual treat to have non-Asian meals in my household.

15. Is there a food that you hated as a child but now like?
Steak... took me years (decades?) to discover that if cooked properly, beef could be juicy and tender. All this time my folks were over-cooking steak!

16. Is there a food that you liked as a child but now hate?
KFC ...don't know if its just me, or if the chicken's actually gotten smaller, greasier, and more overpriced over the years. But I distinctly recall it didn't suck as much as it does today.

17. Favorite fruit and vegetable:
Fruit: orange - because that's where OJ comes from. Vegetable: brocolli.

18. Favorite junk food:
Milk chocolate.

19. Favorite between meal snack:
Tall glass of milk. Kills my appetite for an hour or so.

20. Do you have any weird food habits?
I have a running list of food establishments I refuse to enter. If they do something wrong, they go "on probation" and I won't return for at least a year. Does this qualify as "weird?"

21. You’re on a diet. What food(s) do you fill up on?
I have no idea.

22. You’re off your diet. Now what would you like?
MacDonald's food. Despite how inherently disgusting it can be (especially after watching "Supersize Me", they also make really tasty food.

23. How spicy do you order Indian/Thai?
I'm not big on "hot." I like to actually taste my food and "hot" is not a taste - just a "sensation."

24. Can I get you a drink?
OJ if you have any. Or make me a cup of tea (any style).

25. Red wine or white?
Depends what I'm eating.

26. Favorite dessert?
Chinese egg tart - but it has to be warm and fresh, otherwise these things are gross.

my apparent age

I don't know how obvious it is from my tone or the occasional photo that pops up, but I'm in my early 30s.

Last Friday a door-to-door survey lady rang my doorbell. When I answered, she asked if my "mommy or daddy" was home. She apparently thought I was in my teens. We laughed with each other over it once I told her I was indeed the "man of the house." But I then thought, I'll take that as a compliment because I do intend to outlive each and every one of you. And I'll be damn good looking until the end too.

Eldar Guardians

My bro just sent this image over. Looks like his Guardian squad is ready for action. They are joined by Warlocks and Support platforms...
I didn't used to take Guardians seriously but when they're in numbers like that. They're as good a meat-shield as Tau FireWarriors. ^_^;;