So this past weekend I got the miniatures cracked out and did a bit of filing and cutting on them to make sure the pieces and parts fit together relatively well, trimmed off the sprue fragments and venting spikes, and so forth. Didn’t do much in the way of sanding, and I was planning on cleaning the mini’s AFTER assembly, not before. Further reading indicates that was probably backwards - since now I have a little bit of talc paste mixed in with my super glue.
Last night was the crack at assembly. I got both Argus' put together - they came in five pieces - two body halves, two heads, and the tail. Tail was easy, body will take some work (need to fill in the more obvious cracks with green stuff) and the heads, well, they were just smooth metal on metal. As an experiment I let one set up for a few minutes and then tried to snap it back off - it came off pretty easily, and I was afraid I’d be learning pinning faster than I had originally intended. However, I let another head set for over an hour . . and I couldn’t break it off. It was stuck hard enough I would have had to really risk breaking off two heads at once or actually bring in some tools/floor drops to get it to budge, so this was of some comfort, obviously.
The Warpwolf comes in five pieces also (two arms, torso, legs, tail), PLUS no less than 12 tiny spikes, six of which go along the spine and 3 on each shoulder. I didn’t get around to the spikes last night - most of the challenge was that torso to pelvis join that, in the long run, I should probably pin, but last night I just held it together for a good five minutes to get the glue to set. Seemed pretty stable this morning, we’ll see how it holds up once I start playing with it.
Kaya on the other hand - egads, what a bitch. Only three pieces - but her left arm requires a join at that tiny elbow - was a little tiny nub and a little tiny dent for it to fit into. Absolutely zero structural integrity at all, and I could not get just the right amount of glue nor hold it just perfectly still enough to ever set firm. Similarly for her right arm - even though I was able to get it into place the glue wasn’t cooperating. I suspect I had just gotten too much there - when the nozzle of the glue bottle is BIGGER than the small area of metal you want to join, well. One huge mess after another. Fortunately, I was wearing gloves. This particular joint is so small, I’m not even sure it could be pinned. The diameter of the arm is, at MOST, 1/16“. That means a 1/32” drill bit. Ooof.
So I ended up trying the green stuff out as a pure adhesive. I’m not sure if I mixed it right or not, but we’ll see how it goes. It was still pliable this morning, so I may still yet have some work on those joints to do.
Green stuff is pretty neat shit, actually. Works like play-doh. I figured out all on my own it’s much easier to work if you keep it wet - doesn’t stick so much to my gloved fingers. I read today it’s overall stickiness is gone in about 5 minutes or so, making it much easier to work with after.
Assuming I can get the assembly wrapped up I will be giving these guys a nice bath with a bit of water and a toothbrush. I learned today that talcum powder is used to get the metal out of the molds, and I wouldn’t expect that stuff to do a real good job of keeping the primer attached to the model. I just hope the glue holds relatively well :)
Since this is my first time out I fully expect to have things break and come apart and so forth as I go - that’s the whole point really. Need to have some experience in this.
In the bad news front - ALL of my fucking paints dried out. Granted, they’d been left in a box in the garage for going on 3 years - but damn, what a thing to discover. Some $60 worth of paint now in little cubes in the garbage can. So that will be a bit of a bear to replace. I will probably do what my friend Roy did, and just snag the starter box of 6 colors used by the Circle and perhaps augment with a bottle or two of metals. Before I paint any of the game pieces I’ll probably do one or two “practice” models from the vast supply of miniatures I bought but never painted. Might as well get some new brushes while I’m at it as well. However, I’m hopeful I’ll have at least an assembled force to field this Wednesday. I’ve made my first pass through the rules, now I need to write up my own summary to increase my understanding :) There are definitely some subtleties in them, though nothing too bad. Just little niggling details that are nonetheless important.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Hordes!
Now for a real update :)
I’ve made the call - and went with Hordes as my chosen side on the WarMachine vs. Hordes discussion trail. My first starter box is the Circle Orobos, which features Kaya as the Warlock, two Argus’s (two headed wolves), and a Warpwolf. Should be a hoot :) going to be some new challenges for me in the way of assembly - particularly since most of the assembly points will not stand on their own, so I need to figure out some way to hold little pieces of metal together while glue dries. Thus far to support this part of the hobby I’ve snagged a set of small hobby files and a set of clay shaping tools to handle the green stuff manipulation. I’m hoping to find some time this week to try my hand at some hard core assembly action. Otherwise I’m slowly working my way through the rule book. I had Tony and Ross out to try the game - Ross is unsure, I think, but Tony wasn’t too keen on the prospect of painting little bits of metal and then moving them around a fake playscape :)
Father’s day was a great success - in addition to a great steak dinner my wife bought me BOTH Metroid Prime 3 AND Endless Ocean. I’m holding off on starting on Metroid just now (as I’m wrapping up the first installment of the Halo series - sorry, while I may play them I refuse to link to Micro$oft’s products because I’m an opinionated bastard), I did have some downtime this weekend (due to a sprained ankle) to get in some serious Ocean time. And that game is just blasted awesome - if swimming around doing literally nothing but looking at stuff is awesome to you :) I like it, anyway. There is zero rush or pressure to do shit, and you basically have this vast aquarium to amble around in. There are just two things to worry about: not swimming too far from the boat (which leads to you forcibly returning to it), and running out of air (which, also, leads to you forcibly returning to it). That’s it. I’ve interacted with some 6-8 different sharks, one of which is known to attack humans - with no issues. I swam around a humpback whale without getting clobbered by his tail flukes. I’ve handled puffer fish without getting poked. Etc :) Even cave diving is übersafe: If you get lost, just hit the “return to boat” option and try again. The game is pure genius, and a collector’s wet dream. Each creature (and there are hundreds) have 3 pages of information to unlock (all trivial stuff that can be found on wikipedia, of course), plus there are small salvage items to find (sparklies on the ocean floor) and pseudo-minigames (take a picture of this, lead this other diver to that) to do - but all optional. The entire measure of “progress” really is just how many different fish you find, some new clothing options, and getting all the necessary special diving equipment to go night diving and deep diving. To top it off you can connect with a buddy and go on partner dives. The controls are butt-simple, requiring only the wiimote. I file this under the “must have” category if for no other reason than how well they did the game.
One likely-to-be-acquired title for the PS3 - Burnout: Paradise City. This is just a fun little game that I’ve played the demo of and then recently watched a bit over at a friend’s place. Basically the concept is you are a car (well, “in” a car perhaps, but there are no pedestrians and no visible drivers - so you are basically just a car) living in a city. Nearly every intersection has some kind of “event” - a pure race, or a “marked man” event where you have to outrun folks trying to wreck you, or another event type in which you are trying to wreck as many other cars as possible, etc, supports online multiplayer racing, and generally just kicks ass in the fun department. As both I and my daughter find this sort of thing fun, it’s a likely contender for the “to buy after Rockband” portion of the gaming budget.
I’ve made the call - and went with Hordes as my chosen side on the WarMachine vs. Hordes discussion trail. My first starter box is the Circle Orobos, which features Kaya as the Warlock, two Argus’s (two headed wolves), and a Warpwolf. Should be a hoot :) going to be some new challenges for me in the way of assembly - particularly since most of the assembly points will not stand on their own, so I need to figure out some way to hold little pieces of metal together while glue dries. Thus far to support this part of the hobby I’ve snagged a set of small hobby files and a set of clay shaping tools to handle the green stuff manipulation. I’m hoping to find some time this week to try my hand at some hard core assembly action. Otherwise I’m slowly working my way through the rule book. I had Tony and Ross out to try the game - Ross is unsure, I think, but Tony wasn’t too keen on the prospect of painting little bits of metal and then moving them around a fake playscape :)
Father’s day was a great success - in addition to a great steak dinner my wife bought me BOTH Metroid Prime 3 AND Endless Ocean. I’m holding off on starting on Metroid just now (as I’m wrapping up the first installment of the Halo series - sorry, while I may play them I refuse to link to Micro$oft’s products because I’m an opinionated bastard), I did have some downtime this weekend (due to a sprained ankle) to get in some serious Ocean time. And that game is just blasted awesome - if swimming around doing literally nothing but looking at stuff is awesome to you :) I like it, anyway. There is zero rush or pressure to do shit, and you basically have this vast aquarium to amble around in. There are just two things to worry about: not swimming too far from the boat (which leads to you forcibly returning to it), and running out of air (which, also, leads to you forcibly returning to it). That’s it. I’ve interacted with some 6-8 different sharks, one of which is known to attack humans - with no issues. I swam around a humpback whale without getting clobbered by his tail flukes. I’ve handled puffer fish without getting poked. Etc :) Even cave diving is übersafe: If you get lost, just hit the “return to boat” option and try again. The game is pure genius, and a collector’s wet dream. Each creature (and there are hundreds) have 3 pages of information to unlock (all trivial stuff that can be found on wikipedia, of course), plus there are small salvage items to find (sparklies on the ocean floor) and pseudo-minigames (take a picture of this, lead this other diver to that) to do - but all optional. The entire measure of “progress” really is just how many different fish you find, some new clothing options, and getting all the necessary special diving equipment to go night diving and deep diving. To top it off you can connect with a buddy and go on partner dives. The controls are butt-simple, requiring only the wiimote. I file this under the “must have” category if for no other reason than how well they did the game.
One likely-to-be-acquired title for the PS3 - Burnout: Paradise City. This is just a fun little game that I’ve played the demo of and then recently watched a bit over at a friend’s place. Basically the concept is you are a car (well, “in” a car perhaps, but there are no pedestrians and no visible drivers - so you are basically just a car) living in a city. Nearly every intersection has some kind of “event” - a pure race, or a “marked man” event where you have to outrun folks trying to wreck you, or another event type in which you are trying to wreck as many other cars as possible, etc, supports online multiplayer racing, and generally just kicks ass in the fun department. As both I and my daughter find this sort of thing fun, it’s a likely contender for the “to buy after Rockband” portion of the gaming budget.
MacJournal Test
Today I’m attempting to see if I can use a new tool, MacJournal 5, to upload blogs to blogger. Required a bit of manual setup, and I have no clue if I did it right or not :)
And now to see if I can re-enable adult settings . . . .
And now to see if I can re-enable adult settings . . . .
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Hordes/Warmachine HO
So last night I managed to rope two buddies into another trip to Dragon's Lair to check out WarMachines. I played Hordes last time I was there, time to try the other side :) Tony was not terribly interested in the game, Ross is a little higher on the maybe scale but didn't say much one way or the other. Tony and I played a nearly full game under the able tutelage of Will, the fellow who played me last time I was there. We ran a Cryx vs. Menoth starter box game. I had a good time :) The first move is always the scariest - plus WarMachine features something called an "arcnode", whereby most of your 'jacks can actually serve as the origin point for spells from the warcaster. All that verbiage basically means most of your models can function to dramatically extend the range of your caster.
I had a moment of minor success when I used a spell on my warcaster to put myself safely behind a wall on the turn right before Will was going to coach Tony to charge her. She was just looking too vulnerable to me so I hit upon the idea of sticking her in a cave, basically. Great success!
The flavor of Hordes and Warmachines are different - at my first glance, there is a lot more pre-planning and a lot less seat of the pants action in Warmachines than Hordes. As I rather like a bit of seat of the pants stress, I've opted to begin this hobby in earnest as a Hordes player. I chose The Circle of Orobos as my first faction to explore - they are headed up by druids, and have a very nature-based theme, with most of their warbeasts being some flavor of wolf, or a wood and stone construct.
$108 later I'm the happy owner of some Green Stuff (epoxy putty), super glue equivalent, a rule book, and a starter box. Not too shabby :) next stop: assembly!
I had a moment of minor success when I used a spell on my warcaster to put myself safely behind a wall on the turn right before Will was going to coach Tony to charge her. She was just looking too vulnerable to me so I hit upon the idea of sticking her in a cave, basically. Great success!
The flavor of Hordes and Warmachines are different - at my first glance, there is a lot more pre-planning and a lot less seat of the pants action in Warmachines than Hordes. As I rather like a bit of seat of the pants stress, I've opted to begin this hobby in earnest as a Hordes player. I chose The Circle of Orobos as my first faction to explore - they are headed up by druids, and have a very nature-based theme, with most of their warbeasts being some flavor of wolf, or a wood and stone construct.
$108 later I'm the happy owner of some Green Stuff (epoxy putty), super glue equivalent, a rule book, and a starter box. Not too shabby :) next stop: assembly!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Email Test/Magic Online/PS3
Shooting this blog entry from an email address to see if that feature works.
A friend of mine made me a very generous offer recently: a huge pile of cards to start playing Magic: Online with. Sadly, last I checked Wizards of the Coast has not bothered to make a Macintosh-compatible client, thus, I've been SOL to even try to play this game. However, some new things have happened of late: I have come into possession of an Intel based Apple laptop that I might just test this out on.
Today I took another step into Consumer Whoredom™ and applied for the Sony Credit Card. A credit card branded to a specific COMPANY of all things. This is our future. In any event, I did this because there is a running special that will credit your card $100 if you make a $299+ purchase in the first 45 days. As it turns out, I am eagerly awaiting June 12, so that I can acquire a PS3 system that actually has some I/O on it (the old 40GB PS3's have no flash/memory card access ports, and only 2 USB ports - which makes it a real pain in the butt to get Rockband working). Plus this reprise of the 80GB model means, of course, a little more disk space. Sony does have a nice product line here, but they do seem to botch up pretty badly making things accessible.
I am looking forward to the creation of my PS3 gamer account as well - while the XBox360 has support for this kind of persistent on-line gamer persona as well, they charge you money to actually PLAY any games online so I've not even bothered to get the WiFi connector for the XBox.
I feel very excited these days, having gotten away from World of Warcraft - so much extra time means more games to try and more time to play them :)
A friend of mine made me a very generous offer recently: a huge pile of cards to start playing Magic: Online with. Sadly, last I checked Wizards of the Coast has not bothered to make a Macintosh-compatible client, thus, I've been SOL to even try to play this game. However, some new things have happened of late: I have come into possession of an Intel based Apple laptop that I might just test this out on.
Today I took another step into Consumer Whoredom™ and applied for the Sony Credit Card. A credit card branded to a specific COMPANY of all things. This is our future. In any event, I did this because there is a running special that will credit your card $100 if you make a $299+ purchase in the first 45 days. As it turns out, I am eagerly awaiting June 12, so that I can acquire a PS3 system that actually has some I/O on it (the old 40GB PS3's have no flash/memory card access ports, and only 2 USB ports - which makes it a real pain in the butt to get Rockband working). Plus this reprise of the 80GB model means, of course, a little more disk space. Sony does have a nice product line here, but they do seem to botch up pretty badly making things accessible.
I am looking forward to the creation of my PS3 gamer account as well - while the XBox360 has support for this kind of persistent on-line gamer persona as well, they charge you money to actually PLAY any games online so I've not even bothered to get the WiFi connector for the XBox.
I feel very excited these days, having gotten away from World of Warcraft - so much extra time means more games to try and more time to play them :)
All post counts start at 0.
And then become "1" once the first one is up :) Might as well get started, eh?
This blog is a "companion" blog of sorts to my normal personal blog, and will be dedicated SOLELY to gaming. I created the Moriarty personality some years ago, and the name origin stems from a character I'm a fan of from my days of reading Doyle's works about Sherlock Holmes. He was evil and calculating - and while I'm not all that evil in real life the thought of being some sort of mastermind villian appealed to me, particularly when it comes to gaming. After all, most games on the market are designed to be "won" or otherwise dealt with in a selfish manner, and I do like to think of myself as intelligent. Plus "Moriarty" just has a nice ring to it.
Unfortunately, there are a LOT of Moriarty's out there. As such, it became necessary to somehow "uniquify" this name so that I stood a high likelihood of being able to use it as a forum name, online character name, email address, now a blog name, etc. I chose to use the "leet" style of formatting, popularized I think sometime in the 90's by hackers and the like and involves number or symbol substitution for similar shaped letters. While I expect this to become rather trite in the near future (if it hasn't already), it still appeals to me from that whole cyberpunk perspective and sort of fits the persona of my gamer side.
So there's the origins posts, for what it's worth. This will also serve as a test of BlogSpot to see if this might become my new blogging home in general. Having a separate topical blog will also (hopefully) allow friends and others to have a bit of a filter - I have lots of interests but gaming in general is the sort of thing I spend a lot of time doing and thinking about, and can dwarf in my texts all other considerations depending on what else is going on. This way I can keep my musings and experiences of this major hobby of mine separate from all the randomness of my other blog, and will also support the on-going creation of my "internet gaming" persona of Moriarty.
Finally, I enabled the "mature content warning" because I tend to use words and concepts that might be offensive to some, and I have no real interest in making this blog "nice and flowery". I may say "fuck", sometimes. I might even say "fuck that shit", or, if I am particularly grumpy, something like "this game is a complete stoogefucking assrape ball of pigeon shit served with a curried cock surprise basted in the pussy juice from a dead marmot and toe fungus compote".
I mean you just never know.
This blog is a "companion" blog of sorts to my normal personal blog, and will be dedicated SOLELY to gaming. I created the Moriarty personality some years ago, and the name origin stems from a character I'm a fan of from my days of reading Doyle's works about Sherlock Holmes. He was evil and calculating - and while I'm not all that evil in real life the thought of being some sort of mastermind villian appealed to me, particularly when it comes to gaming. After all, most games on the market are designed to be "won" or otherwise dealt with in a selfish manner, and I do like to think of myself as intelligent. Plus "Moriarty" just has a nice ring to it.
Unfortunately, there are a LOT of Moriarty's out there. As such, it became necessary to somehow "uniquify" this name so that I stood a high likelihood of being able to use it as a forum name, online character name, email address, now a blog name, etc. I chose to use the "leet" style of formatting, popularized I think sometime in the 90's by hackers and the like and involves number or symbol substitution for similar shaped letters. While I expect this to become rather trite in the near future (if it hasn't already), it still appeals to me from that whole cyberpunk perspective and sort of fits the persona of my gamer side.
So there's the origins posts, for what it's worth. This will also serve as a test of BlogSpot to see if this might become my new blogging home in general. Having a separate topical blog will also (hopefully) allow friends and others to have a bit of a filter - I have lots of interests but gaming in general is the sort of thing I spend a lot of time doing and thinking about, and can dwarf in my texts all other considerations depending on what else is going on. This way I can keep my musings and experiences of this major hobby of mine separate from all the randomness of my other blog, and will also support the on-going creation of my "internet gaming" persona of Moriarty.
Finally, I enabled the "mature content warning" because I tend to use words and concepts that might be offensive to some, and I have no real interest in making this blog "nice and flowery". I may say "fuck", sometimes. I might even say "fuck that shit", or, if I am particularly grumpy, something like "this game is a complete stoogefucking assrape ball of pigeon shit served with a curried cock surprise basted in the pussy juice from a dead marmot and toe fungus compote".
I mean you just never know.
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