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Craig

Drone – FPV

Posted on August 24, 2016

I haven’t written about the drone recently, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been flying. I’ve been learning how to fly “line of sight” all summer, and it’s fun but it’s very difficult. You have to get it in your head that if your front lights are facing you, that your controls are entirely reversed. That could be possible, but what hasn’t been possible is all of the combinations in between!

Russ picked up some FPV goggles and I gave them a whirl and was instantly sold that this was the thing to do.

First, a cat in a box.

As with all drone things, we had to pull it all apart again. Added to the list of gubbins that had been in there before was a PWM->PPM converter (I don’t truly understand why), a camera and a video transmitter. The last two allow the drone to transmit video signals, to be picked up by my goggles.

A photo of the whole mess put together. We didn’t get to fly that day because it took too long to assemble. Thankfully, assembly is fun too!

The goggles.

A photo of the goggle screen displaying something from the camera.

A couple days later we went to a nearby Burnaby park and flew around a bit. Here’s a side photo of my drone. The yellow thing on the left (at the bottom) is a camera mount that Russ 3D printed for me. It allows me to change the angle of my camera (and also holds the camera in the frame).

The yellow thing at the top is my GoPro mount, which is likely not going to see too much use. My new FPV camera can take SD cards to record to, so I’ll likely do that. Not to mention I busted the GoPro and the GoPro mount. >.>

On the far left in blue is my video transmitter antenna. I now know more about antennas than I ever thought I would. 5.8ghz, circularly polarized cloverleaf antenna with a simple plastic cover to prevent it from getting mangled from the (repeated) falls.

This is a photo of Russ’ drone in a tree. 😀

This hobby just got so much more amazing. It has all of the fun of playing a cool little video game/flight simulator, but with the immediacy of real life. To nerd out a little, it’s like the difference between Diablo and Diablo on Hardcore mode. The latter makes you really sit up and pay attention, and flying this thing is very much the same!

I’ll try to get some video recording, but unfortunately I left all my SD cards at home for the flying this time. But there will be more!

CAKE!!!

Posted on August 21, 2016

Not a new hobby of mine, but a relatively new hobby of my wife’s that I helped her out with. The daughter of a couple of friends of ours turned 2 this weekend, and my wife has been amping up her cake making skills for a few years. (Note: my birthday cakes are amazing!)

She was making a Minion cake, and I got drafted into a very small part of it – making the goggles.

We started with fondant. I’ve never experienced fondant before my wife, but it seems like everyone else who hears the word has experienced it before. It’s vaguely reminiscent of our green stuff, but edible. I’m told “barely edible”, but I actually don’t mind the taste of it. I mashed together some black and white until we got a grey colour, then rolled it out about 3/4″ thickness and then used a cookie cutter to make a circle. A smaller cookie cutter went into the center of that and I carefully pulled the remainder away. I rolled up a cylinder and made 8 rivets, and 2 more smaller cylinders to make hinges.

This next photo should look familiar to us all — just replace the fondant lumps with 6 paint pots each, and it’s pretty much the same desk. 😛

While I did this, my wife continued with her hobby. It took her 3 nights to make this cake, and these photos are from night 2! She’d made 5 small cakes and layered them with butter cream icing between each layer. Then she smoothed a yellow sheet of fondant down, and started adding pieces to make it look like a Minion! There’s a lot of detail in this, from little “stitching” in the coveralls, to spaces left open to make it look more layered, to the incredible specular reflection in the eye!

The final result!

And a couple photos from the reveal!

(funny story: the reveal for the young one was actually about a half hour earlier when she opened the fridge door. Apparently her parents have repeatedly asked her not to open the fridge door, but this time my friend walked into the kitchen to see his daughter standing shocked and gaping into the fridge, staring at this Minion that was staring back at her. She was sad to have it all ripped away so quickly, but my friend distracted her with presents :D)

My friend is a good teacher, the young one learns well. 😀

Work-in-progress

Antares, Blood Bowl, Friday Night

Posted on August 20, 2016

Unlike the rest of my Antares, I’m hoping to take this Nuhu Mandarin a little slower. So just a very careful recessed layer of Nightshade, and some Sepia in the rocks.

Then onto painting the Chaos Dwarf I raised from the dead during my game against Chris. Similar to the orc, he’s just a zombie. But the opportunity to get models from my opponent and paint them in my scheme is delicious. (I got this unpainted dwarf from Chris, it’s not an actual member of his team…that I know of).

He’s following the shaded basecoat plan of the rest of the team. Sotek Green, Dheneb Stone, Fluoro Yellow, all mixed up with Dheneb Stone and White where appropriate. I painted his skill on his base because I had the Dheneb out. 🙂

I think this is the only time I’ve ever painted a dwarf.

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Display Tray

Posted on August 17, 2016

My goal is to win best army, away from Clayton, this Blood Bowl season. To that end, I’ve been putting a lot of effort into the models, making fluffy conversions and now building a display tray!

I have MDF lying around my house for just such occasions. I started by picking a piece of an appropriate size and lying out the items I want to put on it in a pleasing manner.

It didn’t start in this configuration. I took a photo at one point, and looking at the different view helped a lot in being able to figure out which pieces were too close to each other, and which pieces weren’t framed right. Part of this process is placing those taller pieces in a way such that they aren’t unbalanced visually.

I drew out the outlines of the pieces so I could keep the layout organized while I worked and then I took my trusty wireless Dremel, cut out the edges and then used two types of sanding bits to sand down the edges.

I have a couple thoughts about what to do from here, some of them easier than others.

I’ve previously used the Vallejo texture paint to paint in the non-model places. This is relatively easy.
My existing bases for these models were pressed with SculptIt and Basius pads. (which, it turns out, I didn’t specifically write about). I could try to do something similar, but I don’t know how I would do it. The pad isn’t entirely that one texture, so I’d have to do it in stages, letting it dry after each stage. Then I’d have to sculpt the edges of each stage, and there is a risk that it might look “copy pasted”. Which it kind of would be. 😛 I’d also have to very carefully prepare the places for the models, cutting then sculpting those edges as well.
I could do something a little easier (maybe) and use the Basius to press larger independent sections, then cutting and placing on the base. SculptIt is very hard to cut once it has dried, so while this would be easier to make the texture pieces, it would be harder to cut up. Then I just now thought maybe I could use Sculpy. It dries softer. But it would be more work keeping the texture in place while I peeled the Sculpy off since you have to bake the Sculpy. Maybe you can bake the Basius? Something to look into.

Featured Images Tournaments

CHOP! of Antares

Posted on August 14, 2016

Today one of our club members held a Beyond the Gates of Antares tournament. I got into this game because I had the itch for something a little more “massed battle” than Malifaux and Blood Bowl, but not a GW game. I looked briefly at Bolt Action, but to much Real Life in my Fantasy makes me a little uneasy.

If you read my blog regularly, you’ll know I’ve been busy working on an army. It was 750 points, roughly, which was how many points the event was. We had 6 people to start, and got to 7 (someone sat out) mid-day. The plan was to have 8, but the 8th got busy…something about his girlfriend needing to go shopping or something.

We played 3 games and they were relatively quick. We played scenarios 3, 5 and 6 out of the main rulebook. In short — “get to the other side”, “defend objectives” and “take a thing from the center”.

I took some photos after I got destroyed in my first game. I learned a lot about mortars in that first game, and about how they are supposed to be used. Followed by some bad luck with my own mortars — the first was destroyed in an unlucky 10, and the second spent the entire game trying to recover from a Down result that it just couldn’t shake.

The photo just above this line, at the bottom left, is the mortar that just wouldn’t “go”.

I learned some important things about the game, and my army in particular:

It’s nice to have portable shields (those blue template things), but it’s not as useful to need them to be portable and have them on your long-range artillery. There are other units that can take the shields, and I’m going to look into them as options. Perhaps a General Purpose Drone with a Batter Drone — 40 points for an extra dice (tempo) and a portable shield.
Having no units that can move any faster than 5″ and still be effective, is a real pain. You can see below, it’s a foot-slogging army. Scenario 3 needs you to literally run across the table. Scenario 6 needs you to run in and then out again. Scenario 5, which we all think we messed up on, requires the attacker to run across an open field towards the defenders. Faster can mean moves faster — like jump infantry or bikes — or it can mean has more actions per turn — like tanks. I don’t know which direction I’m going to initially go, but it’s nice to see the use of each.

I lost game 2 horribly, and took no photos of it. Every single attacker felt it was a super lame scenario. The defenders got to place 3 pieces of terrain on their side of the table, along with 3 objectives, and then 3 pieces of terrain on the attackers side of the table. The 3 pieces on my side were all hills, which are True Line of Sight in this game. So I had nothing to hide behind while my gun-line opponent shot me to death. Maybe some trees?!

Game 3 was great. I played against another fellow who had lost both of his games. 😛 It was a “run in and out again” scenario, and we both had some great tactics and bluffs and it just really felt like there was a back-and-forth, the kind that makes for a great game. This photo is of my troops lined up behind a shield, looking for a good moment to grab the prize!

At the end, every one got a special edition Concord model (shown in metal below) and a Ghar battle suit sprue (which I don’t know what I’m going to do with). I won Best Painted, which in this case is also known as Only Painted. 😛 It’s such a small community and everyone is just starting out with it and I guess they all just don’t have the same “if you’re playing in a tournament, it’s gotta be painted” mentality I do.

Lastly, here’s a photo of us poking fun at the special edition model. The model looks very much like it’s on one knee taking a selfie, so we all mimicked it for this photo (not a selfie…)

Featured Images

Antares – X-Launcher, Batter Drones

Posted on August 10, 2016

This photo is suspiciously similar to this one. With the unpacking slowing down at home, we have more time to get back into our regular “wife watches TV while I paint” routine!

Nothing new, paint scheme-wise on these guys. Just the more I paint the same models, the more you get to know the ins-and-outs of common features. They all have these bits of leg armour that I’ve had a hell of a time getting shaded correctly, and the more I did it the more the shading just seemed to work out.

If you’re near Vancouver, Canada you should come to the CHOP! of Antares tournament this weekend. Here’s a Facebook event with some details. These guys are the last models in the 750 list I have planned.

My list is something like this:

3x Strike Squads with Plasma Lance, Spotter Drone 125 each = 375
Strike Command Squad with Medi-Drone, 2 extra troopers = 174
2x Support Team with X-Launcher, All munitions, Batter Drone, Spotter Drone 85 each = 170

Which is 719 points. I think I have another roster at work that finishes off the last 30 points, but if it doesn’t look awesome I’ll be heading into the Army Options section of the book to find something to use there!

This army is not at all optimized for the scenarios. We’re playing scenario 3, which needs fast moving models and I don’t have any and I know it, because I’ve played scenario 3 a bunch. But I didn’t want to buy more models until I’d played with what I had. 🙂

Featured Images

Antares – X-Launcher

Posted on August 9, 2016

These guys have been primed for a while, but I have a tournament next week and have to finish a few more models!

Nothing new in the paint scheme, just a repeat of previous work. Made even less precise by the moving anxiety and new surroundings and bleh.

I have a lot more space in our new home, so I’m hoping to get some of my photography stuff set up somewhere to maybe get back to taking the nicer photos I was doing a year ago before I got lazy!

The X-Launcher is excellent. 40 points base and it provides a lot of excellent support in the form of overhead fire. There will likely be two of them in my list, to provide back-up as they aren’t terribly accurate.

Also pictures are 3 spotter drones, mandatory in many squads because of their ability to re-roll to hit and their cheapness. A medi-drone which can be taken by my command squad, and allows me to re-roll armour saves (“Res”) within a distance (I think 6″?). Lastly on the left is a gun drone. No idea why I painted this guy, I think I picked up the wrong drone because my list doesn’t currently have any gun drones in it. 😛

Featured Images

Blood Bowl – Still zombie orc

Posted on August 6, 2016

I’ve moved my entire house contents from one location to another since I last wrote, so I’m quite happy to have had time to get some painting in!

Ballcrusher, as he is named, is officially my favourite member of Resurrection! I stole him from Dale, after killing an orc blitzer and now he’s a zombie. Strength 2, movement 4, armour 8, zombie. I loves him so much!

The above photo I think I took before I moved. I have no idea what I did to paint him, but I know I spent a lot of time on the fine fellow. He followed similar schemes as the rest of the team, but with some guts and destroyed armour and such. I’m SUPER happy with the orc flesh, it’s Dheneb Stone with a Waywatcher Green layer over it. It’s green and orcy, but super pale and undead.

This next photo I took tonight after I finished him. Some Blood for the Blood God on his wounds (head and gut) and on the ground behind and under him. A bit of silver weathering and some white highlighting on the skin.

Also pictured is the ghoul formerly known as Shayne. He had Block and Dodge and Tackle and…-1 Strength. It was recommended by several people that I fire his ass, and so despite my attachment I did and for the first time made use of the “easy erase” feature of the bases I made. Some black painted over the skills and I have an unskilled ghoul again.

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – ZOMBIE ORC!!

Posted on July 26, 2016

Oh man! I killed one of my opponents players on Wednesday and so I get a free zombie! Like any good hobbyist, pulled out my bitz box and opened a barely open box of Fantasy Black Orcs, which conveniently was exactly the model that died.

I sculpted/pressed another few bases, since I think I’m going to need 1-3 more of them as the team progresses. I built the orc and then, in usual ork fashion, took a knife to it!

Put a big gash in the front of the armour, on his pauldrons, “arrow” holes in the other one and a big slice through the helmet that pushed into the eyes and face YES. I had to cut it open a lot — zombies are armour 8, which isn’t great. Orcs are armour 9, which is quite good.

Some green stuff and I mucked some organ-matter coming out of the helmet and his belly. I’m not certain what is coming out of his head, maybe it’s probably going to be bright pink.

The above photo is of me thinking I need a new pot of something resembling Dark Flesh. I didn’t really want the base layer to be as thin as it is.

I decided to paint him in similar colours to the rest of the team. I’ll claim they repainted his armour after he died and changed sides. 😛

Featured Images Tournaments

Malifaux – Henchman Hardcore and Enforcer Brawl

Posted on July 22, 2016

I had a free Sunday so I went to Wet Coast GT for just the one day. They were running Henchman Hardcore, an alternative Malifaux format where you get 20ss, must take a Henchman as your Leader, no summoning and the only Strategy is Turf War and the only Scheme is Assassinate. The goal is to run at the center and hurt your opponent — a decidedly “unMalifauxy” goal, in my opinion.

It’s not my favourite format, but it was nice to play Malifaux again. I took Kang and 3 Rail Workers and got my ass handed to me.

After that, we played an Enforcer Brawl with….9 people? Maybe 8? You get 1 Enforcer and one upgrade. You get 1VP for wounding an unwounded model (2VP if it’s more SS than you), 3VP for killing something (4VP if it’s more SS than you) and -3VP for dying. I took my Ice Golem because I haven’t really played with it a lot, and wanted to show it off! He ended up being excellent, as whenever he died I tended to get 2VPs for doing damage to someone for his explosive, which means I lost fewer points than others who died.

I won this event, but only because Mark won and Mark was the TO. Mark also played an Ice Golem, he just died a lot less than I did. 🙂

The next day CHOP! chat got excited about Malifaux again. I think the confluence of WCGT and the GenCon order stuff going up caused folks to get excited about it again. I pulled Taelor out of my to-do pile and put some paint on her. A few hours later, this was the result:

I was tempted to leave her albino after I had shaded basecoated her boots, pants, shirt and hair. She had this crazy goth look to her that I really liked. So I ended up leaving her skin less coloured than I would have otherwise, adding white to the Dheneb Stone when I highlighted, which took a lot of the pink out of the colour.

Otherwise I was just trying to copy this drawing. The pants really are that shiny — I tried to tone them down but have been unsuccessful so far. Still, I really like the contrast here.

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