Watching the deniers, and the twitchers bathe in the Lake of Hali
18/05/2014
Something that irritates me is False Balance in the media on AGW and climate change:
So, with numerous studies showing 97% of those actively studying the climate expressing their personal opinion, AND, 97%+ of the papers publishedconfirming AGW, why do we get a false balance on TV, and other media outlets ?
You get the idea.
15/05/2014
I started painting the First Corps buildings and some more tree stumps, using Foundry as the base colour and soon realised that I was going to run out of Bay Brown paint. As I had also used up all my general purpose adhesive, and was low on stupid glue, I decided to pop into town and visit B&Q (big UK DIY chain for loyal overseas readers, and rebel colonists).
My local B&Q store has had a makeover in the last couple of weeks, and their paint section has been extensively been revamped. As well as more paints, the paint mixing desk has been expanded and a new supplier with a much larger range brought in. After a quick mooch round I chose a paint mix that was closest to Bay Brown.
As you can see the tester pot (only about £3), makes the paint look more reddish than Bay brown. Both the B&Q staff member, and a random customer assurred me that when it dried it would be closer to the colour of the tester card. As I have used these services before both at B&Q and Travis Perkins (a UK builders merchant) I wasn’t unduely worried.
Here’s the results.
There is a slight difference that the trained eye can spot. On a wargames table, you won’t notice the subtle shade difference.
As this is Emulsion paint, not Acrylic paint, I was concerned about the Emuslsion clogging the fine detail of the scenery. As you can see I’ve tried it on both the building and the tree stumps. For scenery, this paint is ok. I have not yet tried it on figures and would be a bit wary to do so. But for scenery purposes, even stepping up from my previous use on flat surfaces, it seems this paint is ok when used carefuly. I didn’t use the paint in the same way as I have been using the emulsion paint on my walls – so be careful.
15/05/2014 1 Comment
As well as the Rabbit that BlackJack brought in, both of my cats have unfortunately been bringing in birds and in particular fledglings in various states of dismemberment and distress.
This one did not survive.
This one did. A Thrush fledgling.
Something I was taught some time ago was to (after removing cat from scene), was to toss a towel or blanket over the bird/rodent. They normally freeze on the spot, so you can then gather up the towel with bird/wildlife within and take them to a safe place outside.
In my case I have some hanging baskets, so for most birds they’re ideal. For rodents, close the doors and release them close to a hedge.
Unfortunately, leaving the Cat Door (aka my kitchen bay window) open allowed Timmy our village’s resident feline nuisance (is there another type of cat ?) to visit to consume my cats’ food. However, I am well versed in the relative kerr thump of my cats coming in through the window, so I trapped Timmy in my kitchen for 10 minutes during which his howls grew louder and louder. Cruel but necessary to remind him I really don’t want him in my house – I’ve found him upstairs before now !
Wargamers have also found cats interfere in their games, and my cats certainly have featured in many postings and pictures before now.
I may have to get a table such as this. Follow the link for an example of a cat using this table.
Naughty cats indeed !
14/05/2014 1 Comment
Now I’ve made a big thing of my CD scenery bases being great to add scatter scenery to the games table(s). The drawback of them are that support weapons such as HMGs and Artillery don’t fit well with them.
That doesn’t look good does it ?
Seeing as I have been given 150+ CDs, my brain cell had an idea (it didn’t set off the smoke alarm so its hardly radical).
As I use standard size bases for my support weapons (HMGs, Mortars etc) and standard sized bases for my field guns/artillery, I checked that a CD base would enclose them in cover – Yes they do.
Even for artillery, and I also have started labelling the dozens of CD bases of scenery so my players can pack them away properly (hint)
So I set about putting together some bases for the forthcoming BoB game. As I have 8+ players I needed to check the concept and then do 8 or so of each as most of the factions/players would require one of each at some stage. the off cuts of the mats were used as tufts of long grass. They were glued straight to the CD bases because of the thick rubber backing. The sand and flock covers this up. The rest of the bushes and static grass was added on top as normal.
There’s the finished example for a support weapon.
And for an artillery piece.
Players will be able to put the weapons in cover, and have an aesthetically pleasing item, not something balanced on top of other scenery etc.
16 CD bases later I’m posting this…hence the hiatus for a bit because I really don’t think photographing 16 inDUHvidual bases is worth the bandwidth. 🙂
I’ll be doing similar bases for AVBCW stuff as well.
Yes JP, I’ll do some for you too. 😉
14/05/2014
No postings for best part of a week. That isn’t because I’ve been sitting back. I said I wouldn’t use this blog as a day by day account of gaming life.
Some miniatures are being built and painted, but yes lots more scenery is being done and I don’t propose to clog the blog up with endless piccies of scenery. Amongst other things I am planning for the BoB Big Game on the 31st May. So here’s a few things you might see soon and stuff I’ve been working on:
All quiet on what front ?
08/05/2014
Twelve minutes of information on global climate models (GCMs) and how they are created, used and verified.
All models are wrong, some are useful, as many have said. its just whether they are useful.
And they are useful, or as Gavin says they are skillful.
03/05/2014 4 Comments
In many AVBCW scenarios and games tables is a church. Unlike reality they are rarely circled with a graveyard.
So I have determined to resolve that. I bought a pack of the Renedra gravestones.
The set should do four of these bases (7×6″) to give a good amount of open space that is not plain green grass, provides some cover and makes the scenery, ahem, come alive. It will also make the Church much more of an objective, with plusses and minusses for the various factions to use and abuse.
I’ll add some flowers to the next couple of pieces.
Of course this meant I wondered what a Russian graveyard looks like for my RCW/BOB games….
03/05/2014 3 Comments
Yes, I reblogged someone else’s posting yesterday.
Two reasons:
I’d seen this done elsewhere but until now had never been motivated to do the same myself as it is fairly lazy, so a quick lesson in the technology and I did it easily enough. I did the reblogging because:-
I’d painted Eric, highlighted him etc, and it just looked boring. Really boring. So my return to figure painting died like a damp squib in a rainstorm.
It didn’t help that a late night on Wednesday, where my Parish Clerk embarrassed himself again (virtually passing out in front of representatives from 8 other councils), had improved my mood.
So when I read Christian’s posting I became more energised and determined to break the painter’s block.
So I did another load of painting on Eric, it looks a lot better in real life – and the model came to life much more to my satisfaction. I haven’t done the base as yet as the Beastmasters (now ruleswise an irrelevance) are still being painted. I used granite and bleached wood for the claws and jaws because I wanted to avoid the somewhat cliched bleached bone colour. Similarly, the rocks the model stands on were painted green, then highlighted with stone, before a brown wash applied. They now look great – a set of rocks emerging from the sea drenched in brine and algae. the tongue has been washed with purple just to add to the otherworldliness.
As in the reblogged article, you can copy other people for so long before you suddenly break out and make your own mark. As there are few examples of a Kharibdryss (SP) I had little to follow so decided this was my time.
Having been painting figures for some 30 years, my point is, we are all still learning, and all still carving our niche. We shouldn’t be afraid of taking some risks and making something unique to ourselves, whether it is Christian’s written work or Agata’s paintings. Wargamers should acknowledge they are doing art as well.
02/05/2014
The Lost City of Carcosa 