Wednesday Weekly # 13 – Purple Nurple

Happy Hump day all! 2 more days till the weekend!

Hope everyone is having a good, relaxing week! Hope everyone has gotten some hobby time in this week!

This has been a fairly productive week... my biggest hobby related project has been the base coat of the 25 miniatures for my Emperor's Children army. Loads of purple to be seen... I was tired of looking at primed grey. So I did some work on the models themselves, and am well on the way to making them tabletop ready!

I was also lucky enough to be able to get another game of Warhammer 40k in... resounding defeat. Ok, looks like the Imperial Fists are a bit overpowered against a foot-slogging Emperor's Children Army. Guess I will be looking at some next tier stuff, see if I can find something to balance the scales. It was nice to be on the receiving of a strong army... all the things that I have not seen work well for my fists worked great for my opponent, so I guess that is a silver lining, for sure.

Lastly, in a bit of a hobby update, water is still really getting into the garage... so it is time to start moving stuff. I will be taking all the non-essentials up to my parents house for... well... a while. It will be nice to work only on the stuff I have easy access to for a while. I do have quite a backlog, and need to start powering through that.

Have a great rest of the week!

Thanks for checking it out!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 13 – Imperial Fist Tactical Support Squad

Happy Sunday all! Hope the weekend was great and relaxing!

Today I am going to show you the first of the Imperial Fist Project from the Betrayal at Calth set... My imperial Fist Tactical Support Squad, with Plasma guns! I really like these models, they came together really easily, and the painting was actually a breeze. I will go over my finished Yellow recipe in a tutorial later. I wanted to go with a very gritty, dirty look, so it looks like these guys have been in the field for a long time.

I am very pleased with the helm of the sergeant, as well as the eye lenses for all the marines. I really feel like I am growing as a painter, and just need more practice. You know what they say about practice and making perfect.

Thanks for checking them out!

Let me know what you think!

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 12 – WAR THUNDER!

Happy Friday all!

Today, I think I am going to talk about something fairly near and dear to my heart... War Thunder.

Some background... I am a History Major, History is my real love, and the 1930s-1950s are my main area of interest... The build up to World War 2, the war itself, and the rebuilding after the war. I have loved this era for years, and love building, learning, and finding new things about it. So when I found a game where you play through World War 2 era planes and tanks... I had to play it. This was the game for me. Sure, for the most part, I hate online play, MMOs.... but I thought I would give it a try for the sake of the game. Oh boy am I glad I did! I was immediately addicted.

War Thunder is a Free to play game from Gaijin, a Russian company. War Thunder is not a pay to win game. You can spend money, buy planes and tanks that are pretty good, but the real bonus they give you is increased research points, which in turn allow you to unlock stronger and stronger vehicles. The only reason I say it is not pay to win is because those premium tanks you can get are tiered equivalent to the other types of tanks they would face. Meaning, with exceptions, there is no huge in game performance boost.

I started out with planes, and worked my way up through the tiers. There are 5 different tiers to play from, with a multitude of planes in each. When you are in matchmaking, the system matches you to planes/tanks that are of a similar Battle Rating, which is usually in an equivalent tier. Tier one planes are biplanes and first generation monoplanes, whereas tier 5 is jet propelled aircraft.

There are a ton of complaints regarding the Battle Rating system, planes that are unusable because they get into matches that are too high consistently, or have a low battle rating and destroy all in their path. There are issues getting into matches of appropriate levels, and it can be really frustrating at times... but after the anger and irritation subsides, you learn from mistakes. Learn how to combat tanks and planes that are ranked higher. You learn how to exploit weaknesses.

Interested in trying out war thunder? Like I said, free to play! Tons of tanks, planes, and explosions!.

Get in it!

See ya in the sky!

-Rob-

Wednesday Weekly # 12 – Bring on the Paint

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hope the week is going well for all of you!

This has been a fairly productive week! I was at a stoppage point for painting because I was having issues with the airbrush... but I finally sat down and set to work cleaning all the gunk out of it. Once I finished that, I was feeling inspired... so I pulled some paint out, and get some models done! Am I going to show them to you? Not till Sunday, but yes. The biggest thing was that it showed me how quickly I can get paint on some models... so I think I will do some more. Next up on the paint table, I have a contemptor, my librarian, and my apothecary. The airbrush work for them all is done, just time to take a brush to them. Paint on!

However... I may have a problem.... War Thunder. I have been recaptured by the game. The gameplay is so addicting, yet so frustrating. There are times when I want to punch my computer screen in the face, and others when I am beyond ecstatic at a particular series of events. The biggest problem is that it is taking up hobby time... I am a busy guy, with a busy schedule. So the trick is juggling an awesome wife, and beautiful little boy, and work with hobby time, which of course is a pretty far step down the line. I need to prioritize. So I am working on how to divvy up my hobby time. Do I want to spend two hours painting, or shooting tanks and airplanes with my buddies.

Maybe that is the trick. If I don’t have people to play with on War Thunder, I pick up the brush instead.

Things to think about... What do you guys think?

Have a great rest of the week!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 12 – Corporate Security Unit

Happy Sunday Everyone! Today... we are going to show something a little different.

This is my Corporate Security Unit, that came in the Operation Icestorm box, from Corvus Belli. That, of course, means Infinity.

The Infinity models are so much smaller than the warhammer models, more realistic. Not only that, but the details are so much clearer. The flip side to that is that the models are all metal, which means they can be a bit tough to work with. But the result speaks for itself.

This is the first of hopefully quite a few Infinity models. Time will tell!

Thanks for looking!

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 11 – The Dream Gaming Table

Happy Friday All!

Hope everyone had a great week, and is looking forward to an awesome weekend.

Today, I thought I would talk about something that is a dream of mine....having a multi-functional gaming table. What gamer can honestly say they don’t want such a thing? I thought I would take some time today to talk about what I am looking for in a game table, and perhaps even provide a few options to make the ideas feasible.

But first…. Some dreams… I want a table that can seat 6 people comfortably, 8 if needed. A means to project a map on the board. A place to store die and magic decks. Cup holders, so there is no spill danger. Slide out desks, so Player sheets can be kept off the table and tidy. Felt, for ease of card sliding. A cover, so the depths can be covered, even if mid game. Nothing like leaving a game of risk up so you don’t have to put it away.

Anyway… enough dreaming…. Here is what I need.

Perhaps the most important thing I am looking for in a game table is the size. For me, that means the gaming space itself has to be at least 4' x 6', because that is usually the greatest most games play on. (Screw you, Apocalypse.) So I want to have a 4' by 6' space that is set down into the board, so that when I roll the dice in there they do not go flying off the table.

 

The next thing I am looking for in a table is utility... I want to be able to use this table for more than war gaming. I want to use it for Magic the Gathering, I want to use it for Rpging, I want to use it for board games. I want it to be the type of table that is easy to sit around, and at the right level to be comfortable.

The last thing I want from a gaming table is... well... I want it to look nice. I want it to have a smooth finish, and a dark look to the wood.

This kind of brings me to my last few points.... If I want this, where do I get this? Do I build it? Do I buy it? Well, I am no carpenter. My quality of workmanship would be exponentially worse than if someone made it for me. On the flip side.... The type of table I would want would cost between 4 and 13 thousand dollars. And would take between 3 and 12 months to complete. The tables are beautiful, and have tons of cool features, but that is a ton of money. Several examples are shown. 

What features would you like to see in a gaming table?

Have a great weekend!

-Rob-

Wednesday Weekly # 11 – Slow Week!

Happy Wednesday All!

It has been a fairly slow week, hobby wise, so I will just talk a bit about what I was about to do in my free time!

This weekend, my Wife and I traveled to Montana to see family and to go for a "fun" run for St. Patty's Day. There was some drinking, some running, some horseshoes, and even some swimming.

Needless to say, it was a great, fairly relaxing weekend. And I actually love driving on these long trips because it enables me to listen to my books. I am currently on book 11 of the Wheel of Time series, so I got to put a decent dent in that.

For those interested, I did 3 miles in 22:10, which would put me well on pace to do a 3.1 in 22:30. Puts me at just under a 7:30 mile pace... for 3 miles. Happy about that, that’s for sure. And it was my fastest time since I was a junior in high school. I would love to keep training, and get into the sub-20 3.1 mark, but that will definitely take some time.

 

On Monday, I got rolling in some War Thunder for the first time in several months... Man, I miss that game. I will make a post about that game in the near future, but needless to say, I love that game. A buddy and I were rolling out the new British Tanks, and I have some tactics I need to learn to be effective.

Also, yesterday was the weekly Game night with my buddies, so we did get to rock out the last of a pathfinder campaign I started last week.

Thank you!

Have a great rest of your week!

-Rob-