Regular visitors may have noticed that my site hasn’t been the most stable thing on the net in the past week. It seems like we were the victim of an exploit attack that brought down the site and effected the server hosting it. Things appear to be cleared up now, and I hope never to have the site down like that again. I took the hint, though, and will be more responsible backing up the database that is the core of the site.

Recently I had to revamp my workspace. I’ve mentioned before that I live in a small apartment. I’ve been lucky in having a room to myself for my hobby. Unfortunately, space has become even more of a premium and my office has been shrunk from three desks to one. We’re a tech-savvy household and run three computers, my wife’s notebook, my old desktop and my new XPS notebook. I need the desk for computers, giving me no real home for painting miniatures.

I’d already moved all my tools into a drawer on wheels. The six shallow drawers holds everything from modeling tools, to paints, tape, rulers, containers of flock, etc, etc. At the time, the idea was that I would roll the unit over to my wife’s desk where my cutting mat is located, unpack just what I need, paint, then pack up and roll everything away. Those who have had a transient painting station know that it can really cut down on the desire to paint. The problem is that, although fairly quick, setup and tear-down can form a physical and psychological bearer to starting work. Since I am already an infrequent painter, this put my output to zero.

The desk, in computer configuration. Note the notebook connected via KVM, currently in extended desktop mode, normally closed with the larger monitor as the single display. Hit the KVM switch and in a few seconds I am using the desktop with the same keyboard, video and mouse.

It was my wife who came up with a solution to my problem. First step, purchase a larger monitor. It’s size will allow it to sit at the very back of my desk yet still be legible at high resolutions. Then, all I would need to do is push my keyboard and mouse to the back whenever I wanted to paint. This was great, if nothing else, I was getting a very nice monitor. However, the addition of a Games Workshop painting station. Expensive – if you have the tools to make one yourself you are better off doing so – but very useful.

With the painting station the problem of pulling out my works in progress is much easier. I don’t have to hunt down my palette, paper towel, brush-washing water, specific paint colours, mister, thinning medium, and miniatures to get to work. I just pick up the whole thing in one go and plunk it on the table. This lets me keep the painting station “setup” even when it’s hiding in the closet on top of my set of drawers.

By pushing back the keyboard and mouse I have room to slide a GW painting station onto the desk. The monitor is perfectly positioned for watching DVDs while I paint. The only problem is I need something to cover the monitor when I prime. I brush-prime, which gets a little messy when I’m rushing.

Another advantage of the painting station is that I can bring it into the living room. While I am sure that many hobbyists retire to their offices as a break from their spouse, I know that there are many that don’t like to sequester themselves from the family. Having my wife keeping me company while I paint has lead to some very productive painting stations. I don’t feel as if I am ignoring her as I do within the other room, and the TV doesn’t distract me as much, since I can simply look up from my work if I have to see a specific scene.

I would heartily endorse some sort of work-tray like the GW paint station for anyone. In the future, when I am blessed with more space for my hobby, I will probably still use it to hold whatever I am working on. It is roomy enough for painting, while allowing me to clear off a work-station quickly and easily for larger projects. The same with the drawers. If I had the space I would purchase a few more for holding terrain and armies, perhaps tucked up under the gaming table. The deepest drawers are a bit over three inches deep, meaning most hills, modular terrain boards, fences, 10mm terrain and whatnot would fit within.

I have to say that, despite the loss of two tables, I am very happy with the workspace I have now. I am making better use of space, am more organized, and know that I’ll get more out of a bigger area when I get it. While there is room for having an excess of room, sometimes learning to live in lean locations builds wargamer character.

Tyler

Well, no painting or modeling done this week. However, I did finish those Northern Guard Infantry a while ago, so I figure now is as good a time as any to post them up.

The platoon, all together.

I like how the infantry give a sense of scale for the Gear. If I was in the mood to dig it out, I would have preferred using a Hunter in the picture, as the average-joe Gear. However, I’d pulled the Grizzly out to try to match the basing during that stage of the painting and never put it back, so he was handy. I like the Grizzlies though, so it works.

The left side.

Unfortunately, with the small size of the infantry it is hard to get a good depth of focus, even at f11. I guess I could have cranked up the flash (laying on the sink with an incandescent filter) but I wanted the balance from the bathroom lights. Yes, these pictures were taken in my bathroom. It’s a pre-made light-tent. I will go into the details in a later article. With pre-modern miniatures everything is very linear, so getting everything in focus is a lot easier.

The right side.

The miniatures are not the best I’ve ever painted. To be honest, I rushed through them. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned a few times, the detail was indistinct, so trying for some sort of colour-scheme would have been problematic even if I had been in the mood for it. What you cannot see is, on the back of each base is a three digit number. Each squad of 3 bases has its own number to make it easier to track them during the game. I chose a three-digit number to make it look less like I was just numbering the miniatures, and more that it was a designation used within the entire military.

Other Painting

I’m not sure why I’ve had such trouble sitting down at my painting table. I have plenty of motivation: I would like to finally get the sculpting finished and painted to see what it looks like. I have Wargames Factory 28mm Hard Plastic Romans coming in the end of May that I will really, really want to start in on straight away. Hopefully, I’ll be able to scrape together the cash for a box of Warlord Games Romans as well. Comparison review? Oh yes, I do hope so.

Except mine’s Midnight Blue!

On the Magic front, my Shadowmoor box arrives today. It’s a bit lucky that I put in the order before I got my slip, as I don’t think I could have rationalized buying a Booster Box whilst on the breadline. Tonight, I hope there are enough sane, rational people getting their box that we can get a quick sealed tourney. I think if even 4 people want in, we can do it. Although I’d change the format from single elimination to some sort of round robin points thing. 4 people means three rounds to play everyone, with the winner determined on points. Hmmm, excuse to bring my notebook? Oh yes, I think so. BTW, anybody seen my baby? Again, purchased right before the shoe dropped.

Tyler

Man, what a cool program this is. I discovered it when a customer of mine asked me about it. I did some research and realized that it was a program I’ve been wanting for a long time. It is essentially a computerized notebook. Not a word processor with it’s endless progression of text, but a flexible piece of paper I could add clippings and images to, organize, scribble in, just like a real notebook. The biggest difference between OneNote and a real notebook is that OneNote weighs more to lug around, and I can read my writing in it.

Office 2007 Home and Student contains OneNote.

I’ve started writing my blog posts in it. It’s really easy to grab pictures for inclusion, add to and edit. I have a page for separate topics, and can choose which to throw into a post on the blog. I don’t need to worry about uploading the pictures to my site while I compose, I can just throw them into OneNote and pull them out later. Same things for websites I want to mention, just Windows Key + S, drag a box over something on my screen, and boom, it’s in OneNote. If I want the whole page, copy and paste will work well. If you use IE, it’ll even note what the website you borrowed the information from, in case you need to return. No more reading some interesting fact, but forgetting where you saw it.

Unfortunately, despite it’s awesomeness, not many people will get access to this program. Not only is it part of the expensive MS Office Suite, but it’s only available in… Wait, scratch that. It’s available in the cheapest version of Office 2007. I was running Professional Plus 2007, which doesn’t have it. I assumed that it was only available in a higher version, so installed Ultimate (MSDN subscriptions rock). Well, that makes this post a lot more useful for people. If you already have Office 2007 on a home computer, you probably already have OneNote.

Research

Although I’ll definitely be using OneNote in place of Word for composition, I see the real strength of OneNote for me, and other wargamers, is as a research tool. It is very easy to write down quick notes in a central, searchable location. You can even search the text of images, assuming the text is legible to the built in OCR, very cool.

Composing Blog Posts in OneNote is easy

Since the program breaks your notes into Notebooks, then Sections, then Pages, it’s very easy to keep things organized and accessible , especially compared with having multiple word documents within a folder. It’s going to make tracking research notes so easy I’m actually looking for projects that require me to take notes. This is also encouraging me to paint some more miniatures and get my numerous projects moving again.

The only downside for me now is that I’m still waiting to get a notebook, so all my research with Onenote will be tied to my desktop. However, OneNote will be one of the first things I install on the notebook once I receive it. Maybe next pay…

Tyler

For Christmas my generous brother bought me a Lorwyn Booster Box. I’ve been opened a couple of boosters a night, but still have 14 left. I’m not sure if I should hold 12 back for drafting. My playing circle has been talking about drafting for a long time, but I’m not sure if it’s going to happen. Most likely we won’t do a draft until Morningtide is released in February. Plus, I could buy more if I need them.

Chandra Nalaar = Hot stuff.

Real Magic fans will probably crucify me, but I just don’t get a thrill out of opening a tonne of boosters. I haven’t been to one of my circle’s FNM in a while, but those I’ve mentioned the Booster Box to at work all had a scary hungry look in their eyes. Of course, they open a booster, flip to the rare, and move to the next. I, on the other hand, look at each card in the booster, separating them out into colours and reading the ones I don’t know by heart. Once I reach the Uncommons, I really slow down until I finally reach the Rare. If I were to open a whole Booster Box at once, I’d become overloaded with cards and not enjoy the process as much.

For example, I may not have enjoyed the following booster quite as much: Rare – Chandra Nalaar; Foil – Garruk Wildspeaker. That’s two rares in the same booster, plus one of them is the second most expensive foil in the set. It is tempting me to run a green/red planeswalker deck. Imagine hitting Chandra’s Ultimate, followed by Garruk, then a rush by all my creatures.

The holidays have been tough for making it out to Magic nights, but now that I have more deck protectors, I plan to start creating a few more decks and hitting the 8 player Chaos games with a vengeance.

Wargaming!

I’d like to take a moment to talk about something I don’t mention on my blog very often: Miniature Wargaming. Yes, it’s been a while, but I can feel the yearning to paint some miniatures growing. It’s a feeling I haven’t had in a while, and as we all know, forcing yourself to paint, while necessary at points in everyone’s wargaming life, is no fun at all.

It is here indeed!

One of the main reasons that the itch has returned is the arrival of Battlegames Issue 10. Although Mr. Hyde still hasn’t published my article, it’s still a good read and one guaranteed to get a wargamer’s blood flowing. Specifically of interest is an article by Stuart Asquith about creating a small force, terrain and scenario that can all be stored and played out of a box.

Much like a wargaming version of a board game, the idea is not to commit to a huge workload of hundreds of figures, allowing you to play an unspecified number of scenarios in a chosen period, with all the unhappy compromises for flexibility that requires. Instead, by choosing a scenario with limited and finite forces, much like those featured in the Tabletop Teasers articles which appear in Battlegames, you can experience a new period quickly and cheaply. Savvy gamers can even create multiple scenarios which slowly increase their forces to something of the Old School behemoths we all wish we had.

I really like this idea, and once I finish up my current batch of Heavy Gear Blitz! miniatures I will look into a scenario to put Mr. Asquith’s suggestions into practice. I’m think this will either be 1812 or WWII. I’ve already got a bunch of WWII Canadians painted, with some Germans waiting for a paint job. All I would need is to pick a ruleset and create a scenario. Maybe a trench-raiding game. For 1812, I could find some way to use my already painted 49th Foot regiment and paint up some opposing Americans. Perhaps a fictional American raid across the Niagara by some eager, yet inexperienced Americans. Definitely something to think about.

New House

Hopefully, by the time one of these scenarios are ready to go, I’ll be moved into a house and out of my tiny apartment. Right now I’m not allowed any terrain due to storage restrictions. We’re hoping to put our apartment on the market later this winter, with the hope of buying a house and moving in early spring. It’ll be nice to have more space, though I cannot count on having an embarrassment of storage and play space.

Tyler

If you just read this blog to see the next stage in my painting projects, skip this week. All I’ve done this week is eat, sleep and play Magic: The Gathering. I’m been thinking about decks, designing Excel spreadsheets to track mana curves to refine my decks, re-read the rules to make sure I understand the nuances. I haven’t been this enthused about anything since, well, the last time I got really enthused about something. Last time it was photography, with my new camera, and before that it was Heavy Gear Blitz!.

Too many hobbies, not enough time.
Red Clover by the Tracks by Tyler Provick.

A big difference this time is the return on investment. What started out as a game I could occasionally play with my wife, requiring very little planning, setup or tear-down time compared to the other games I play has become something I’m playing every Friday with 7-8 co-workers. This makes Magic very close to the top of my “Most Played” list.

It should come as no surprise, then, that I’ve gotten no painting done this week. Anyone who has been following my blog will probably notice that I jump from interest to interest all the time. It is my regular pattern and I know I will never settle on one hobby. When I was first painting miniatures this meant that I rarely finished painting everything. In the year that I met my wife I painted more miniatures than I’d painting in the preceding six.

You must know yourself, you must accept yourself and work with yourself to do what you want to do. Over time I’ve accepted that I can never settle and work with it instead of fighting it. When my interest wanes, it wanes. I don’t kick myself for being distracted, I just try to get as much enjoyment out of my new interest until it too wanes. When it does, maybe I’ll return to the first. I have five or six interests: miniatures wargaming, videogames, writing, photography and board/card games. I say five or six because sometimes my interest in wargaming is actually an interest in painting miniatures, sometimes an interest in playing with miniatures and sometimes both.

To prevent myself from completely abandoning an interest, I try to incorporate them. For example, my interest in writing lead to the creation of this blog, my interest in photography provides the pictures of the miniatures. I do write fiction, and I do take photographs of stuff other than miniatures.

So, don’t worry, I do plan on getting some painting done next week. My new shift will make it easier. I can also be persuaded by feedback. Drop me a comment.

Tyler

X = Heavy Gear Blitz! Northern Infantry

After a couple of posts promising posts soon, I think it’s time to actually make a real post. This is also the start of a new style to my posts. I think things had gotten a bit dry with post after post of WIPs or Gallery entries. There wasn’t enough meat to actually make this site something more than a place to pay a quick visit from time to time. Part of the problem was that I had stopped making my big monthly update. I only missed a few, but when they only come once a month, a few means months of posts about priming miniatures.

Not that I’ll stop making “I just primed X” posts. Otherwise I wouldn’t have anything to post today. However, I hope to put a little more into each post. Even if it isn’t strictly hobby related, I’ll make sure there’s something to read after looking at the picture which proves I did actual prime X.

WWIIOL

I’ve decided to return to computer gaming after a long absence. I had decided to stop playing computer games in order to focus more on painting miniatures. While it is true that I was painting a lot of miniatures, I missed gaming. Especially online gaming, since I am working a shift where my free time runs from 9pm to 1am. Not much social life, not much on TV, and I’m often too fatigued to think about painting. It came to me that playing some games online, perhaps with some co-workers on the same shift as me, would ease some of the loneliness and boredom which sets in when my wife goes to bed. For five years I played a MMOG called WWIIOL. It is the first, and only, MMOG that is also a first person shooter/flight sim/naval sim/tank sim. Think of it as Battlefield 1942 with a 10000 player persistent map.

WWII Online Blitzkrieg is now World War II Online: Battleground Europe.

For those five years I played with the same squad, The Virtual Black Watch of Canada, now called The Royals. As I started thinking of computer games as a solution the makers of the game decided to offer a promotion where players with lapsed subscriptions could try the game out and see how it had advanced. Serious changes have been made to the game in its history and some game quirk which drove a subscriber away may have been resolved in one of the many patches. It seemed like a good time to try the game again. While the game is still clunky and laggy, the camaraderie of playing with my squad-mates was really what I wanted.

Not to say that there haven’t been many improvements in the year or so since I last played. The basic concept is that there are units called brigades on the game map. Each brigade has a set list of what they can spawn. From tanks to infantry, there is only so much equipment a brigade can have in the field at one time. If you despawn at your brigade’s HQ, the equipment you were using becomes available again. If you die, that unit is lost. Players can join and leave brigades as they wish, but the brigade’s spawn list stays the same. Over time, the brigade is resupplied to replace lost units.

This adds a new dimension of strategy to the game, one that had been missing before. If a brigade is cut off from supply it doesn’t get new equipment to replenish what is lost. If the brigade loses its HQ, it loses all of its equipment. This means that it pays to pull out of situations where you are obviously about to lose a town or get cut off. In the last round the Allies worked hard to encircle a number of Axis brigades. Once the pocket was closed, those brigades could not move to a safe location without re-capturing a town to bring them back into supply, plus they were stuck with which-ever was in their spawn list. I don’t know the exact timing, but somewhere around 1-3 hours after a piece of equipment is lost it is re-supplied. Whole brigades were lost, which destabilized the Axis line and lead to the Allies sweeping the map and winning the round.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, around 9pm is when my squad plays. If you want to join us for a night or more, join the 4th Brigade and ask for the Royals. Tell them Coyote sent you.

Heavy Gear Blitz! Northern Infantry

It’s funny, getting into video games again has reduced the pressure to make painting my sole hobby. Pressure and hobbies rarely work together for me. Some people do well by putting themselves under pressure. It worked for me when I painting my Heavy Gear Blitz! army in time for Cangames. However, once I was finished I was ready to never touch Heavy Gear Blitz! again. Fortunately, I had such a great time at Cangames with Dream Pod 9 staffers and fans alike, that it kept my love alive. This is good, because I walked out of there with a lot of Heavy Gear Blitz! miniatures to paint.

Some new bare metal on my workbench.

I really made an effort to pull some miniatures out of storage and start painting after re-organizing my office space. I’ll have the details next week. Suffice it to say for now that I was tempting to forget painting until I moved into a larger space, something not likely to happen in the next year at this point. The longer I waited before painting again, the more likely such a horrible thought would come true, so I pulled out the Heavy Gear Blitz! Northern Infantry I had started painting before the re-org. I say started loosely, they had been cleaned and hot-glued in preparation for painting, but no actual paint had touched their bare-metal frames. During the re-org I had to pop them off their painting stands as well, making it necessary to repeat that step as well.

Hot-glued to a popsicle stick and primed.

I primed as normal with Liquitex Black Acrylic Gesso and water. It’s a good thing I discovered some empty glass paint jars I’d bought years ago during the re-org. For some reason, I gave my bottle of Gesso a big, enthusiastic squeeze and ended up creating squirting enough Gesso to last me through my next few priming sessions. I remembered the empty jars and was able to retain the left-over Gesso for next time. Next week I need to figure out what colours I’ll be painting these little guys.

That’s it for this week, please leave me some feedback in comments. Do you like the new chatty version or do you prefer to-the-point posts strickly about miniature painting and gaming.

Tyler

Notebook 56

An Open Letter to Mike Siggins,

Mike’s been a great friend of mine for a few years now. We get together from time to time to chat about the hobby and catch up. I’m just a young buck compared to him, having dabbled in science fiction and fantasy games for many years and only recently moving over to historical. We’ll sit, Mike with a tea and I with a strong coffee that’s gone cold, and just enjoy being with someone who you can agree with or argue with, depending on the topic. It’s a nice feeling, to have a friend like that.

That’s really the only way I can describe reading one of Mike’s notebooks. It’s like a conversation with an old friend, for all that Mike is across the Atlantic Ocean and at most marginally aware of my existence. Today was a real treat because after a long wait three notebooks appeared at once on Mike’s website, www.czapska.com. I’ve even been good and only read one, saving the other two for later. I’ve also been inspired to complete the loop, to respond to Mike’s thoughts. At first I thought I’d just e-mail Mike. Then I reconsidered and decided to reply in kind, by posting my own version of a notebook as a reply to his.

Before I start talking about the points that Mike has made I’d like just to cover my own hobby life.

I am looking forward to this August. My club, Ottawa Miniatures Gamers, is running a Back of Beyond campaign and I plan to participate. Already I’ve painted up a couple of units, with another left before my work is done. As much as I love this hobby I don’t often get to play. Only recently have I completed any real projects that would allow me to play. Normally I would sit out the campaign, watching from the sidelines and wishing I could participate. The thought of painting 36 28mm figures on a deadline was unthinkable a few years back. Now I’ve nearly finished; 22 complete, 10 half-way and 4 waiting for primer.

My other large project, the contents of the Battle of Five Armies box is coming along as well. I have 12 of 20 units completed, counting Command stands as 1 unit. The end, I feel, is nearly in sight.

I’ve also become keen on a new technique for making a playing surface that I think may be a winner. I’ll post details later, hopefully once I’ve tested it. Basically, it merges the smooth look of a ground cloth with the ability to have large hills and fairly rugged terrain.

Finally, I’m very excited about the new Warmaster Ancients and am currently waiting on samples for a planned Carthaginian and Republican army. I’m not sure if that’ll happen right after I finish the BOFA stuff, or if I will slip some WWII Germans in between as a break from 10mm.

That’s what’s new and exciting with me. Now for the main attraction: I’m going to do this like I’m responding to a forum post, something I do quite a lot of.

“We all know, deep down, the reasons we snub plastics. 1. Their size does not give the visual impact of 28mm, unless one looks closely to appreciate the fine detail. 2. Importantly, they have a poor heft factor – no plastics are ever going to match that ‘six metal figures on a plywood base’ feel. I think this is a bigger aesthetic issue than most of us admit – heft obviously suggests quality. 3. The fact that they always shed paint (though this is much reduced these days with PVA). And frankly, well, they are plastics. At this point the irrational snobbery, born of almost thirty years gaming, really kicks in. I can’t deny it is still there, if virtually eliminated now. Why is this? Part of it is stigma. Back in the early days we aspired to metal troops; it was almost a natural progression. Other club members looked down on us with our Airfix regiments, and rather than standing firm and proud, we simply adopted the same Minifigian values. I can’t see my hero Terry Wise doing that. It was downhill from there – a little assuredness might have seen a very different gaming career! Another reason is me. I have always made a point of buying ‘the best’ (a misguided approach to life, if ever there was one). It just seemed to be a case of why use the Zenith when I can afford a Nikon? Or Fairy Liquid vs Two Cheapies, if you prefer. I am realising that, for gaming, metals may not be ‘the best’ after all.”

Ahh, plastics. I understand what Mike is talking about here and have witnessed the snobbery. I’ve also witnessed the fact that I can buy 48 WWII figures in 20mm plastic for 1/3 of what I paid for 10 Indian Muslim Infantry.

I think that 20mm plastic has a nearly equal visual impact as an individual figure. In some ways the look is better, as weapons and bodies are in proportion and thus more appealing. Heft for me is not an important factor, although I think this has to do more with my age then anything else. It used to be heft was quality, and if something felt too light it was because it was cheaply made and prone to breaking. I’ve grown up in a world where lightness and small size were valued properties. I appreciate that a 20mm plastic figure mounted on a steel washer will never fall over. The base needs to be tipped to nearly 85 degrees before it falls, as opposed to a 28mm with will tip at 45 degrees or less. When it comes to slopped terrain, assuming no slipping, 20mm plastics is far superior.

Finally, flaking paint. I understand how that can be a concern. I’m personally terrified of it, however, I haven’t really used my 20mm plastics in a game – they’re still waiting for the opposing force – so I can’t comment there. I’ve used PVA, which I found to be a pain, and so far they’re fine after occasional handling. The next batch will be primed with thinned acrylic gesso. People have reported good results, it saves a step over PVA, and shouldn’t fill as much detail.

In the end Mike admits that 20mm plastic may be superior and I agree with that. If you don’t mind the slight size difference it’s a very cost efficient and visually attractive alternative. For me, time will tell when it comes to durability.

“Another emerging pattern is the presence of Games Workshop. It is clear now that Warhammer Ancient Battles (with all the peripheral issues these rules raise) not only has a decent grip on the hobby, but may also be moving in for the stranglehold. Just make sure that you know where we are, and that you are happy with the situation. Why? Because even compared to my assessment of a couple of years back, the penetration is now considerably more widespread. Don’t come running when all you can buy are Warhammer based rules for all periods, and figure prices have eased up by another 50%, because I will just smugly point you to this column and hand you a box of plastics!”

Personally, my game is Warmaster Ancients. I intensly dislike DBx and avoid 28mm for anything but pure skirmish gaming. I will not likely play Warhammer Ancient Battles. If I do, it’ll be with 20mm plastics, as Mike suggests. However, I think Mike isn’t grasping the significance of this invasion.

Ancients has been a hard period to crack. No-one wants to make their DBA armies useless by changing their basing. No other period seems to have this same obsession with standard basing. People will refuse to try something new because of the amount of work to use difference basing, meanwhile they will rave about how they paint a new DBA army every week, making them even more bound to DBA basing.

For Warhammer Ancient Battles to spread so far is a significant breakthrough for ancients. As people abandon DBA basing they will also abandon their strict adherence to standard basing. This opens the door for more games with different basing, games that have failed in the past. WAB will remain popular, but by breaking down the barrier have allowed enough competition to mean they’ll never completely take over.

The future of the hobby is bright for me. Where old gamers have seen the decline of independently published rules I’ve seen the rise of free rules published on the internet. Where they fear the graying of the hobby I am a 25 year old wargamer that entered the hobby through Games Workshop but am moving further and further towards historicals.

I think Mike and I agree. The hobby is good, growing and proving that it can adapt to change.

I’ve finally updated the Battle of Five Armies diary. Enjoy.

Well, as I said, I finished my Back of Beyond British. They are not viewable in the historical gallery. Sorry Travis, no direct link. Figure it out yerselves ya brainless monkeys.

edit: Due to the griping of all my readers (namely my brother) I will include a link: http://tyler.provick.ca/hisgal.html

edit: Hehe, NOW viewable. I’ll leave the original mistake in so you can laugh at me. I am, join in.

My in-laws have just returned from Florida, bringing with them my copy of Battle of Five Armies. After an awkward moment of trying not to flip my lid when I’m told that they were crushed under a cooler I was able to open them up at take a look.

First off, the box is big, and flimsy. I haven’t bought a box from GW since Mordheim, so I don’t know how they are now, but this is definately a thinner cardboard then previous. Which is too bad, because combined with the size the box is fairly unstable. Oh well, at least there isn’t a thousand counters and such I’ll need to keep in the box, like with Epic 40K or Battlefleet Gothic.

The miniatures look good, the bases look good. Except Beorn, who looks like a massive rodent instead of a bear. I’m considering cutting off the existing buck teeth and modeling some smaller, more bear-like teeth. Well, I’ll let you know how I get on painting once I start.

On another front, my Back of Beyond British were completed a few days ago, meaning that it took me less then my expected two weeks. It would have been better, however, if I hadn’t been placed on a 12pm-8:30pm shift, which left me with little energy to paint in the evening, but no real time to paint in the morning. In the end they are finished, mostly, sorta. I’m not sure if I want to add some static grass to the base. I would need some brown static grass to do it, which I don’t have. I’m going to think about it, and probably do it once all the forces are finished. Otherwise the base is painted and they have been sealed with my new best friend, Krylon Matte Finish. I wouldn’t be suprised if it was just a re-branded version of Testors matte, as it works so well.